Looks like Sloane-Kettering on August 31st is the place to be. My Aunt B has been scheduled and will be having her high-risk surgery the same time and place as Amyth's brother.

It's going to be a long day.

So we have results back, and Drew is being admitted. His liver and pancreas levels are "sky high" and his CT scan shows blood in the gall bladder area (but no bowel obstruction). He has acute pancretitus, and even though last weekend's MRI showed no stones, they are almost positive that there must be a rogue stone somewhere in there that is causing all these problems. They are going to wait 24 hours and watch his numbers, but if they don't go down they are going to do a risky but important procedure to scope out the area and remove any stones that have been hiding; if that is the problem, it should take care of everything else. I'm not even going to think about it being something else, because that will open a nasty can of worms that will make me go back into panic mode. I'm feeling pretty positive about the prognosis right now, and since Drew is going to be purely on IV fluids, bedrest, and painkillers for the indefinite future, he feels okay too. We are both glad that there is finally some progress towards an answer.

Drew will be in the hospital at least until Tuesday and quite likely until Thursday, but the doctors are playing that by ear right now. He isn't up for phone calls, but emails would be great. He will have his iPad by this evening. Thanks, everyone, for your love and support. It means the world to us both.

A couple of people have asked for this info, so I'll post it here. Drew is in room 672W in Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, CA.

Can anyone rec a good neurologist in greater Richmond Area? My Brother is suffering from neuropathy, lost feeling in feet and creeping upwords and current neurologist can't figure out what is going on. Profile addy good.,

It never rains but it pours -- Max has an ulcer on his eye. We're treating with ointment, and he sees an ophth-- an eye doctor this afternoon.

The tumor is out!

Someone wiser than I once said something along the lines of, "When bad things happen people say, "God, what did I do to deserve this?" but they don't when good things happen."

So I will ask now, "What did we do to deserve this?" The answer is the same -- nothing. It's an act of grace. Maybe its the random workings of the universe. It's a mystery but we know for sure it is a reprieve. She has a long road ahead of her and she's by no means out of the woods but a month ago Aunt B wasn't going to live to 63 and now she really just might. And much longer.

Looking for a little job ma~~~ for my DH. A situation has been brewing --and a resolution would be nice. Most of the resolutions would be ok , one would be really good, and one would be negative ( but hopefully only in the short run )

ND Update: He's still in the hospital with no clear sign of a release date, but he's feeling a bit better. We're hopeful that he may eventually be able to have such daring foods as clear liquids and jello. For now it's the big yellow bag o'nutrition through a central line. My coworkers have been sending me home with dinner every night, which is amazing, and my mom is coming out next Thursday to stay a couple of weeks and help out, so those are two very bright spots right now. Darker spots are his continued pain and swollen innards and an elevated white blood cell count that may or may not indicate an infection. We are still at the wait-and-see stage.

I'm tired from running between work and hospital, but otherwise doing okay. We both appreciate your kind words, and cards would be awesome. If you want to send ND one, you can mail directly to the hospital or mail to our house (email me for snail mail) and I will bring them in to him. He still doesn't have much energy for phone calls, but emails are appreciated (even though you may not get a response). Thanks for your support, everyone.

ETA: I've been sending out email updates to family and friends, but I started omitting Buffistas since I tend to update (at least in general terms) here. If you would like to be on that list, just drop me an email at my profile addy and I will add you.