Update: Saturday, June 25th

It took over 9 hours to get home last night when normally it takes a little over 6 hours. We have Friday night Chicago traffic (2 hours to go 35 miles) and I-80 being closed to thank for that.

As I mentioned before, the Cancer in her lungs will require her to use oxygen via a portable machine or oxygen tank. The hospital sent us home with 2 tanks that would get us 9 hours of oxygen for our trip home.  She used up one tank and when we went to hook up the 2nd tank there was an issue and we were unable to use it.  Beth can breath without the oxygen tank but it is hard for her to get a good deep breath - it feels like she can't catch her breath.  So not having a 2nd tank was a good enough excuse to speed the rest of the way home.  Even with me speeding it still took over 9 hours.  When we got home, Beth was able to hook into an oxygen machine that they delivered.  I’ll write more about this equipment in a later post but let me just say it is extremely obnoxious. It is large and loud.  All night, even though it was in the other room, I kept waking up thinking someone was cutting the grass outside and I kept thinking, “Who is doing yard work in the middle of the night”.  So loud.

While Beth is still very nauseous, she has not physically vomited since Wednesday.  She has been able to keep her oral chemo pills down.  We will find out in a few weeks if it's working.

Beth's doctor, Dr Tlemcani (Dr. T) called me on Thursday and left me a voicemail asking to speak to me privately.  When I listened to the voicemail, I thought to myself, "that doesn't sound very good".   When I talked to her she mentioned how it is very hard for her to talk to Beth right now.  I was confused; is it because Beth is being difficult?  Is it because she was drugged up and not making sense?  I was ready to help her through either scenario as I have had many years of dealing with both of these circumstances.  What she said though was very surprising.   She said it was hard for her to talk to Beth because she (Dr T) is very emotional right now because of Beth’s current state.  She has grown very close to Beth and has been trying with everything she has to treat Beth and bide her time.  She knows new cancer treatments are being discovered everyday and all she needed to do was keep trying to outsmart the cancer and buy Beth time.  She was shocked at how quickly things got out of control over the last 3-4 weeks.  She felt like she has failed in someway.  By no means is she giving up.  She has new demeanor to her.  She has a sense of urgency and determination that I haven't seen before.  She even used a phrase our family has adopted over the last couple of months, "Battle Together".   We are so blessed that she is our doctor.  She is human.  She is not used to losing, especially when her patient is young (and good looking, funny, talented, kind, I could keep going....).

Beth slept most of the day today.  She has not been eating very much at all.  Her entire food intake consisted of 10 oz of a protein shake and a few berries.  She is very tired.

Shout out to Heidi Snyder for having a package waiting for Beth when we got home.  Beth LOVES getting mail (and she goes insane for packages).  She loved getting some stylish new water bottles from S’well.  Heidi is our go to person for all things current and cool and she was “back at it again (damn Daniel voice) with these cool water bottles.   Thank you Heidi.