Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Pain dr. says

The pain doctor says he can do a temporary pain block on Andrea's facial trigeminal nerves on Thursday, Feb. 5. It's categorized as another "minor surgery", which we know are never minor and is supposed to last about a month, so that is long enough for her to get through the hyperbaric treatments which have caused the nerves in the face to be so painful. Her blood pressure has been really high the last few days, so we are to see her regular MDA doctor tomorrow. This is in addition to daily hyperbaric treatments, and M-W-F physical therapy so if feels like we are just running from hospital to hospital all day. We have faith in God for her healing.
Please keep praying all this works for Andrea. She's in quite a bit of pain.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Hopeful

After 16 hyperbaric treatments down at Memorial Hermann, we can see movement in the Andrea's right hand again. We are still going every day Monday through Friday. MDA physical and occupational therapists will be working with her motor skills on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It is unbelievable how quickly the nerves deteriorated and how hard she has to work to bring them back. The nerves in her face are still painful especially on her right chin and jaw, so it hurts even more when she eats. We will see the MDA pain dr. on Wednesday, so we will finally get his view on everything that has been going on.
We really appreciate your prayers as we remember all of you too.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Physical Therapy

MD Anderson Physical Therapy will try to help Andrea next week with the facial trigeminal pain which she experiences several times a day, and some days almost all day. They have a lot of good exercises and equipment to help her. Our schedule there is Monday, Wednesday, Fridays.
Andrea will continue going to Hyperbaric at Memorial Hermann Monday through Friday from 12:30- 3:30. She's doing all that she can to plow through this downturn.
Thank you for praying for Andrea as we also remember you and yours.

Monday, January 19, 2009

2 weeks down, 4 weeks to go

Please pray that Andrea can finish the hyperbaric treatments. Her headaches have turned into migraines and there is limited pain medicine because her kidney function is not good. The pain medicine she can take increases her dizziness. We realize each of us have daily struggles and we pray for you all, too.
2 weeks down and 4 weeks to go

Monday, January 05, 2009

Hyperbaric Chamber

Andrea will go into the hyperbaric chamber every day Monday thru Friday, about 2 hours a day for 30 sessions, then they will assess her situation.
The Hyperbaric and Wound Care Center's doctors, nurses and technicians are super nice and understanding. It took all morning to check in and to be seen by the doctor, but at 1 p.m. Andrea took her first dive in the chamber. To me it looks like a small submarine with seats lining each wall. It lasted about 1 hour and 40 minutes. She said the stabbing pain in her cheek hurt a lot and more often in the chamber, so tomorrow they will try a mask instead of the helmet. The doctor at Memorial Hermann believes the cheek pain is trigeminal neuralgia, so we will return to MDA at the end of the month to see if the pain doctor agrees with her. The Hyperbaric Doctor said that in the past 19 years she has seen only about 12 patients with close to the same case study as Andrea's. Some cases improved and some didn't get worse. We appreciate your prayers for the best outcome possible, as we pray for the total healing from God.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Need Powerful Prayers

Since the last posting Andrea and J have become Aunt Andrea and Uncle J.! It was wonderful to welcome Levi into this world Dec. 22. Andrea's sister, Kristin, (who has been Andrea's stem cell donor twice), is doing well and I got to spend the first week with Kristin, James and Levi when they came home from the hospital. Levi is such a sweet baby boy.
Over the past two weeks Andrea has experienced progressive nerve damage on her right side. The doctors have run blood tests, spinal taps, and MRIs. Thank goodness some doctors work during the holidays.
Thank you God that all tests are CLEAR.
The diagnosis is nerve damage from the combination of radiation/chemo.
Even though Andrea hasn't had chemo since October, it is the long term affects of the treatment that is causing headaches, shooting pains on her right cheek, occasional nausea, and even additional balance problems that started this past week. Her kidneys are still having a hard time, too.
Tomorrow, Monday, we go to Memorial Hermann to see the Wound Care Unit where, hopefully, Andrea will be put in a hyperbaric chamber that will increase the oxygen flow in her blood stream that promotes healing. The MDA doctor said there were two cases in Israel that matched Andrea's case study that had marked improvement from the hyperbaric chamber. He thinks it is possible to stop this progressive nerve damage.
We know that with God it is possible (Matt. 19:26, Mark 9:23, 10:27), and we are so, so thankful for each and every prayer you lift up for Andrea.
Again she needs powerful prayers.