Thanks Kids

I just have to say thanks to the kids for making this easier.

Cat's done a great job of helping out around the house while I've been back at work. Everything from entertaining the boys, especially Jake, preparing lunch, and putting the boys to bed allows us to take care of other things in the short amount of time we have in the evenings.

The kids in general have helped clean the house, even though they tend to mess it back up within an hour or two of "being let loose.". :-). As it's always been.

Cat is even working, I believe in conjunction with her friends, on a new story. I'm plugging it here....www.wattpad.com. Search for "the mythology games.". It's a work in progress. It's influenced by several well known stories, including The Hunger Games and Percy Jackson.

On to Jennifer.

We have appointments with the therapists on Thursday (speech and physical). Jennifer's been sore and has a limited range of motion in her neck and arm. Hopefully we'll get some additional pointers on exercises and techniques to improve her motion with minimal side effects (i.e. pain).

I will say that she is trying hard to improve her movement. She is also trying to work around the house where she can because she gets bored being home-bound. Again, thanks to the kids for helping when she's "on a mission."

Other than the soreness, the skin graft is looking good...I think. Heck. Never really saw one in the healing process before so I can honestly say its the best I've seen. It really does appear to be healing nicely and she's able to "air it out" all day long. However she has some pain in the wrist and the general area. It could be due to the natural atrophy of the skin graft. We'll confirm this week. I told her to quit using that arm to spank the kids and give it a chance to heal.

The trach hole had finally stopped wheezing about a week ago, so we think it's closed up. That's good. It's worse than me snoring......geez. Lighten up. I'm kidding. Nothing's worse than me snoring.

The neck: We are worried about lymphedema, a condition where the lymphatic system is unable to drain fluid from tissues, usually due to an obstruction. She still has some swelling in the neck region, which we know will go down in due time. The therapist will show us some massage techniques. She also has limited motion on the side-to-side and up-and-down motion of her head. Part of that is due to the trauma of the surgery, the other is for fear of undoing the healing progress so far. Again the therapist will identify her limits so she can push but not undo.

If you recall from earlier posts, there are three sets of nerves that are impacted by a neck dissection. One affects arm movement, the other affects feeling on that side of the face and the ear, the third affects that side of the mouth/lip.

Well, I mentioned the limited range of motion -- the arm is still restricted as she can't lift it beyond a certain point or, as we found out, she can't extend it beyond a certain point if it's in a certain position. Wow...just really observed that today.

The ear. Oh the ear...for those that knew me growing up, I can tell you some ear stories. Unfortunately, Jennifer has to experience the wrath of the ear at a different level. Her ear is still numb. Yet, it hurts to touch. (hypersensitive?). Just the slightest brush is painful. I think it's good that she has some feeling, per se. However, we have a new set of questions to ask the doc.

Now the mouth. The left side of the lower lip and cheek kind of drags when she smiles. I personally believe its getting better. At what rate, I don't know.

We live in a world of instant gratification. This is a true test of patience and endurance. We had two great weeks of progress post surgery. The last week and a half seems, on the surface, to have stalled. We keep having to remind ourselves that we are encountering minor victories each day....and that is progress. Ben and Jake's karate instructor is always pointing out the minor victories of her Tiny Tigers class. I'll do the same for my surgical Tiny Tiger, Jennifer.

On the brighter side: a few weeks ago, we had gone back to the plastic surgeon. He indicated jennifer should stay on liquids for a few days, then escalate up to soft foods gradually. Jennifer was successful eating a diced peach in front of the speech pathologist at the time. Let's recount what she ate these past few days: pasta shells with Alfredo sauce (soft), Boost (liquid), waffle with peanut butter (gross and probably considered soft), a cookie, baked beans (still hard to eat because they turn to a paste), mashed potatoes, and, to top it off, chicken strips (Chik-fil-a, and Whataburger), and porcupine meatballs (meatballs with rice). For the record, I protested the chicken strips because I consider them hard (with the crust), but she did a great job. I am no longer the food Nazi. I'm more like the food Rent-a-cop...I can tell her to stop, but am unable to enforce it (STOP!!!! OR I'LL...I'LL...get on my walkie talkie.). Sigh.

Thanks to all for your prayers. We still ask that you continue as we are not out of this yet. We have ultrasounds scheduled for mid-September to ascertain what to do about the presence of the thyroid cancer cells. Although I've left him off the last several posts, I'm copying the prayer to Saint Perigrine below.


O Saint Peregrine, you who have been called "The Wonder-Worker" because of the numerous miracles which you have obtained from God for those who have had recourse to you, who for so many years bore in your own flesh this cancerous disease that destroys the very fiber of our being, and who had recourse to the source of all grace when the power of man could do no more: you who were favored with the vision of Jesus coming down from His Cross to heal your affliction, ask of God and Our Lady the cure of these sick persons whom we entrust to you Jennifer. Aided in this way by your powerful intercession, we shall sing praise to God for His great goodness and mercy. Amen.