8/1/18 Midweek update

     Sometimes I wish I lived in Lake Wobegon, the town in Minnesota made famous by Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion.  You see, it's always fairly calm in Lake Wobegon, as every week on his broadcast, Mr. Keillor would begin with "well, it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon".  He would then proceed to talk about the goings on of the little hamlet featuring people like Pastor Ingqvist of the local Lutheran church.  Sadly, Lake Wobegon is about as real as Shangri La, Brigadoon or Camelot.  But I would love to be able to say, "well, it's been a quiet week in Shoreline".  
     Anyhow, after last week's chemo, Gabrielle has been having ups and downs.  Her fatigue continues, and she sleeps 80% of the day, as well as all night.  She has brief periods of lucidity, but at other times, she just can't find the words to say and is confused.  She gets frustrated and grimaces, as she knows she isn't as lucid as she would like.  A couple times a day, tears of frustration roll down her cheeks.  It is very sad to see.  
     On top of that, the chemo itself has taken its toll, with a return of bone pain along with a new "friend": thrush, a yeast infection in her mouth.  She had been complaining of mouth pain for a couple of days, and yesterday, I took a look, and she had sores and white film on her cheeks and her tongue.  No wonder, she hasn't wanted to eat or drink!  Because of that, yesterday we took her back to the UW for some IV fluids.  Fortunately, she was able to get them at the infusion bay where she gets her chemo, so she didn't have to wait in the ER for hours on end.  It only took three hours start to finish, and boy was she eager to get out of there when she was done!  They pumped in some magnesium as well as getting a chest X-ray which apparently was OK, as we haven't hear anything (no news is good news...we hope).
     The nice thing about the fluids is that she perked up a lot and even mentioned to the neighbors when they came with dinner that it "was a surreal experience" being so confused at times.  She then said that she wanted to go on a walk, but not in a wheelchair, a "real walk".  She made it about a hundred yards and then agreed to the wheelchair for a nice outing in the sunshine.
     As for today, lots of resting, her appetite is OK, but her mouth is still sore.  She is eating a little, but we hope she will have an even bigger appetite for dinner.  We had another outing today.  This time down to Richmond Beach Park.  We pushed her in the wheelchair to the end of the pavement and then she walked down onto the beach where we were treated to about six dolphins lolling a couple hundred yards offshore, along with a harbor seal and a blue heron.  It was a nice outing.
     And now, we are back home, with Gabrielle resting peacefully on the couch.  She is not in pain and is quite comfortable.  Tomorrow will be pretty low key.  But then on Friday, she has another round of chemo.  We are hoping that all they are going to do is the chemo, which should take an hour.  However, I suspect that they may tack on a bag of IV fluids for good measure.
     I cannot finish this post without mentioning how humbled and grateful we all are by the showing of support from so many people.  I know I have said it before, but it bears repeating.  When you are in crisis mode, when you don't know what is going to happen from one day to the next, it is nice to know that there are so many people out there who love Gabrielle (and us) who have come alongside us in this cancer journey.  It really strengthens our faith in ways that you will never know.
     Garrison Keillor would always end his Lake Wobegon stories with "and that's the news from Lake Wobegon, where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average".  My take on that is, "and that's the news from Shoreline where Gabrielle is strong, Gabrielle is good looking, and she is so far above average that she makes the children  at Lake Wobegon look like chumps".  

Riley, Daniel, Gabrielle and Renee at Richmond Beach this week. Short trips to the beach are a joyful moment for us all.

Here is a link to a video of our trip to Hawaii Daniel edited earlier this year when everyone was feeling better: Hawaii Dudley Video