Bronchitis

That's what the doctor says Dan has. Lungs sounding gunky+fever+clear chest x-ray=bronchitis. Hopefully, antibiotics and stronger cough syrup will do the trick.

A chest CT will be added to the abdominal CT in February just for good measure.

We thought a few people might want an update. Thanks for the prayers.

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

2010 has come to a close. What a crazy year.

Dan and I haven't blogged since his last ablation, so I suppose we should start there.

We went back for the second round of ablation in November. We were a little hesitant about whether or not it would happen since Dan had developed fevers for a couple weeks. None of the doctors could really figure out why he was running fevers, but decided to at least look at the CT.

We spent Thanksgiving with the families and then drove to Stanford.

Dan went into the procedure room and the moms and I wa

ited in the waiting room. In about a quarter of the time the procedure was supposed to take, the doctor came out to the waiting room. At first, I dreaded what he was going to say, but he was smiling. He said that the last ablation had covered more area than he had anticipated. So, good news: 3 tumors look to have been cooked instead of 2. Bad news: the last ablation had cooked one of Dan's liver blood vessels and part of his liver had lost blood supply. Accordingly, doing the second ablation would mean inserting a needle through sick liver tissue and opening Dan up for infection and problems. So, the doctor opted to wait on the ablation. He told us to take a couple months, get a CT in February and then make more decisions. If the tumors had grown, ablation in March. If no tumor growth, ablation after Dan's graduation.

So, we got away with some IV antibiotics and a CT

and no hospital stay!

The holidays came and went quickly, as Dan was preparing to go back to UCI and I was working a lot. I ended up working almost every major holiday, but that was not a shocker for a new grad nurse. Both of our families made the drive down here after Christmas to celebrate with us and Lisa (who also worked the holidays). It was a wonderful time with everybody...and I think Toulouse loved all the company the best.

New Year's Eve was nice and quiet with just Lisa and Andrew and the cat.

Finally, 2010 ended. Dan had surgery. Dan recovered. Dan had more surgery. Dan recovered more. Dan came home. I graduated from nursing school, passed the boards, got a job and started it. We moved into a new apartment. Dan's second liver surgery got cancelled. We got a cat. Dan had an ablation. The second ablation got postponed. We celebrated out 3rd married Christmas.

Now 2011 is here, bringing changes already. Dan started back at UCI to finish his teaching credential and will begin student teaching soon. I started a posi

tion at the hospital, working oncology on day shift. We're both trying to get used to to waking up early again, but it is certainly nice to be able to sleep at the same time!

Now we are gearing up for a busy semester. Dan is a little under the weather again, so we're checking in with doctor today. A month's worth of coughing is a little much, but add some fevers and off to the doctor we go. Please pray with us that this is just a little bug and some antibiotics kick it away. Also, he'll be having his CT a little earlier than expected, though we're waiting on authorization still. Prayers that nothing surprising shows up would be appreciated.

There's our lengthy update for the end of the year. Thank you for your prayers and support!