Sept 30

Hello again. Mark seems to be just a little bit better today and I am happy to see that. He had a really rough night with a lot of pain and we were both up most of the night. He couldn't get control of the pain, so we started giving him 2 pain pills at a time which started giving him some better relief. I rubbed his back or belly half the night. By early morning, he was able to fall asleep and get some rest. This morning he was up and having a pretty normal conversation with his parents, my mom (who flew in yesterday) and me. It felt like the old Mark and was great. His pain is much worse now and the 2 pain pills aren't touching the pain. He has been pretty miserable. We have a call in to the doctor's office to see if we can get something stronger to help control Mark's pain. I think if we can get that under control, he will be able to get up and do more.

He has managed to gain a few pounds back and we are so excited about that. He is almost up to the 170 mark again. He has been drinking chocolate milk to give him extra calories and protein and ate a PB&J sandwich for breakfast.

Mark is a fighter and is trying his best to battle this awful beast. We really need to be able to restart that chemo as it is our only hope at this point. Please pray that Mark is able to get pain control and to regain his strength to endure more chemo.

There are not enough words to say Thank You to so many of you who have been so kind to us. Your words, phone calls, dropping in with food, coming to do yard work, and leaving kind words on the blog site or just praying for us means so much to us. Thanks to all of you who have been so kind. Please continue to pray for Mark. Also, Bennie Pierce is not doing well and is also battling cancer. Please remember him in your prayers also. God bless!!!!!

Sept 28

Hello. It's been a few days since I've posted. These seem to be harder to write. Mark isn't doing so good. He continues to struggle with the simple things. Getting up and down are chores for him. He has not been able to get enough calories in to maintain his weight. He is down another 5 lbs to 165 lbs now. Unfortunately he is experiencing quite a bit of pain as well which requires him to take pain medication. He sleeps a lot which makes us feel better-seeing him resting comfortably is better than watching him hurt. He starting vomiting some last night and this morning, so hopefully that is past us. He hasn't had any more of that since he woke this morning.

He did manage to make it to Calen's football game last Thursday night which was quite a chore. He missed Colton's baseball tournament Sunday as he simply didn't have the strength or stamina to go and will probably miss Colton's football game tonight as well. He really hates that, but at this point it isn't really an option.

Thanks again to everyone for all of the love and support during this difficult time. We really appreciate it all. Continue to pray for Mark. God bless!!!!

Sept 24

We met with Dr. Farmer this morning. It was nice to see everyone in the Cancer Center again. We got hugs from Nancy, Andrea and Alveda who have all taken care of Mark throughout his cancer battle. Dr. Farmer also greeted us with bug hugs. She was not excited to see Mark in the shape he is in. She is still concerned about the low grade fevers he seems to run. They are only about 99.0 degrees now. She is switching his antibiotics to stronger and broader spectrum ones and also ones to cover anaerobes in the gut. She also wants Mark to work on putting weight on. Starting back on chemo at this point would be way too dangerous, so we have to wait which isn't good either.

It was a tough visit to say the least. We have a very tough road ahead.

Mark wants to try and make the 8th grade football game tonight in Russell Co. We will see how that goes. I hope he can make it.

Thanks again for all of the continued support and prayers. God bless!!!!

Sept 23

Hello again. It's been good being home, but Mark is still struggling with his recovery. He has lost down to 170 lbs and cannot maintain or gain any weight back (in fact, he continues to lose). He is down 25 lbs so far. He doesn't have any appetite and when he eats, he feels very sick and boated, so it's no fun for him. He is weak and extremely tired. It is hard for me to see him like this. He is struggling to do the littlest of things.

I haven't gone back to work yet. I am an emotional wreck right now and don't think I'd be very therapeutic seeing patients right now. I don't really know how I'll do it next week, but I will have to figure it out somehow.

We see Dr. Farmer tomorrow in the morning. We will see what will happen next. Mark really needs to start on chemo quickly to see if we can start fighting this cancer, but he is so weak and malnourished right now, I'm afraid she won't want to start it yet for fear it will make Mark even worse. I am praying that I am wrong.

Continue to pray for healing as Mark needs this right now. Thanks to all of you for your continued support. God bless!!!

Sept 21

Yeah!!!!! We are finally home and it feels great. Things certainly didn't go as planned, but do they ever??? We arrived home around 10:45 pm central time long after our expected arrival home of, say 4pm.

We checked out of the Family House and made it to the airport without any difficulty. Mark required wheelchair service through the airport, so that was a little challenging. I had to leave him sitting in the chair with one bag while I carried all the others to the KIOSK to check in, then ask someone in line to watch my bags (which I don't think you're supposed to do) and walk over to get Mark and push him to the line. We got checked in and then came security. Wheelchair security has it's own line and they were pretty nice folks, but Mark got frisked from head to toe and he was a bit sore around the abdomen. We thought that was the hard part. WRONG!!!! Our flight got delayed 1 hour at first. We thought "no big deal". Of course, Mark's dad had already left Auburn for the airport by then. We finally got to board an hour late and then got told we were going to have another hour of delay while sitting on the plane. NOT FUN!!! Mark was quite uncomfortable trying to sit in those seats. Well, then comes the third announcement of yet a 3rd hour of delay while sitting on the plane. YIKES!!! It's looking pretty bad now. We remained calm. They passed out some snacks and water, lucky for Mark as he was getting a little sick. The next announcement was that our plane couldn't take off for 2 more hours because of the weather in Atlanta. They at least let us deplane at that time and get something to eat. All the while, Brent is sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting on us. 5 hours of flight delay, who would have thought. We finally made it to Atlanta and the flight wasn't bad. By then, Mark had taken some pain medicine and was resting a bit easier. After landing, there were too many planes and not enough gates, so we spent another hour on the tarmack waiting to deplane. We were never so happy as to get off of that plane and to find Brent and our luggage and get the heck out of there.

By this time, we'd missed both of the boys' football games. In fact, Colton and Emily were already sleeping when we arrived and we still haven't gotten to give them hugs and kisses. Calen greeted us at the door with big hugs. He was quite happy to see us. It was GREAT walking through the door. Mark's office sent a beautiful bouquet of flowers and dinner over. We heated up the food and it was very tasty and hit the spot. They also had made a welcome home poster with a picture of all of them at the last tailgate. Too cute!!! Thanks guys!!!! We loved it.

Ahhhhh. Our own bed tonight. It's so soft and comfy. Much better than the recliners, hospital beds and beds at the Family House. We are so glad to be home and now we can work on getting Mark better and restarting the chemo.

Dr. Farmer has been great through all of this. She has been keeping up with Mark through emailing and texting me throughout Mark's hospital stay. She even gave me her phone numbers while she was on vacation in case we needed her. She is so sweet and great to Mark. She wants to see Mark this week and hopefully formulate a new plan of action. I am telling you, we will definitely have to work on Mark's nutrition status and stamina, as he has had dramatic changes since the surgery and prolonged hospitalization. I know Mark is a fighter and can do this. I have faith in him.

Thanks for all the continuous prayers from all of you while we were in Pittsburgh and needed them so much. Continue to pray for God's blessing on Mark's health issues. God bless!!!!

Sept 20

Well, it's almost here. We fly home tomorrow and are quite excited about that. Today has been a slow day for us. Mark wished that we wouldn't have taken the Dr.'s advice and just flown home today. I think it was good that we were cautious. I have started packing some of our things and have started giving away items at the Family House that we won't be using anymore.

Mark wanted to take a cab to Chili's last night for dinner. We had a good meal and had planned to see a movie after dinner, but Mark didn't feel well and we ended up coming back to the Family House instead. I think he has high expectations for just having gotten out of the hospital. He doesn't have much stamina at all and is still quite thin. You can definitely appreciate the weight loss and loss of muscle mass on him.

We woke this morning and walked to Starbucks which is just next door. That was a nice outing for Mark and just the right distance. I picked up lunch and brought it in and then for dinner, we ordered Chinese. It was good. Mark's fortune was to start an exercise and nutrition program to enhance his health which I thought was very fitting. Mine was Live and let live.....Live and HELP live, which was also appropriate. Maybe they pick certain fortunes to send to the Family House??? I don't know.

We leave on the airport shuttle at 11am eastern and our flight leaves for Auburn at 1:30 eastern. YEAH!!! I can't wait to get home and walk through the door again. It has been soooooooo long!!!! Mark is anxious as well. He really cannot wait to get home. Both of the boys have football games tomorrow night. Colton has a rec league game and Calen's makeup game with Opelika Jr High is tomorrow as well. Mark wants to try and make it. I'm not sure he'll have the stamina, but if I know Mark, he'll try.

Thanks again to all of you who continually pray for Mark and our family and to everyone for the help and support during this time. We appreciate it more than you know. Now we have to get Mark strong enough to get back on a chemo regimen. Pray for that. God bless!!!

Sept 19

Hello. Well, Mark is officially a free man. He was discharged around 2:30 eastern today and didn't waste a minute getting out of there. He didn't even tell his nurse he was leaving. As soon as the IV team showed up to unhook his port, he was outta there. We walked to the family house (Mark still with his Fall Risk band around his arm). He was excited that the OU game was on TV and that he hadn't missed any of it yet.

He was discharged on Indocin which is an antiinflammatory which should prevent fevers caused by the tumor as well as antibiotics. Hopefully that combination will do the trick. Indocin is notorious for tearing up the gut, so we will see. (I use it a lot in Rheumatology, so I am quite familiar with this med). It is also hard on the kidneys, so we will have to really push the fluids and not let Mark get dehydrated.

Mark insisted that I go ahead and book our flight home, so we are officially flying home Monday afternoon. We are supposed to check in with Dr. Barlett's office as well, but Mark does not want to waste any time getting home. Pray that there are no set backs this time and we make it to Auburn safely.

God bless!!

Sept 18-evening

Well, Mark got his staples removed this evening. He now has steri strips in their place. The doc told him he is still at high risk for the wound opening up since he has tumor in there. The last time Mark had surgery, he did open up and had to heal from the inside out, so we hope that doesn't happen this time. We were glad to have one more step behind us.

Mark got his first dose of oral antibiotics at 9pm. The ID doc didn't feel like Mark needed antibiotics at all. That was what he recommended. When the surgery doc rounded, he disagreed and ordered the antibiotics himself. He thinks Mark will need 2 weeks of oral antibiotics when we leave the hospital. If Mark does well overnight and tomorrow morning, we will probably be discharged. YEAH!!!!! However, they want us to hang out in Pittsburgh until Monday to make sure Mark isn't going to have any more trouble as they wouldn't want us to get home and get into trouble and have to explain the entire case to new docs, etc. We will have to hang out at the Family House Saturday and Sunday. I can think of worse things. At lease I'll have a bed over there. YEAH!!!! (Still no cot for tonight-the hospital has some sort of cot shortage. Who knew?????) I will be glad to say goodbye to this recliner tomorrow for sure.

Mark took a short walk with me today. He didn't want to go outside or do a lot. His appetite seems to be getting a little better. He has lost A LOT of weight and muscle mass. He is very thin!!!

Thanks for all the prayers and support. God bless!!!!!

Sept 18

Mark continues to improve. He ran a couple of fevers last night, but no shaking chills. They stopped the routine Tylenol, so we saw the fevers again. He continues with the IV antibiotics. The surgery team has rounded twice today so far. They wanted to switch Mark to oral antibiotics to see how he would do, but wanted the infectious disease team to make the recommendations on the antibiotics. When the surgery team came back around lunch time, they were disappointed that ID hadn't been by yet to change things. It is now 4:30 eastern and still no ID and Mark is still getting the IV antibiotics. We are hoping the ID doc comes by soon. He is very dry and not much personality. Mark says he reminds him of the food critic in Ratatouille, and I would have to agree. He looks and acts just like him. It is hilarious and now hard to keep a straight face when he comes in to the room. (I guess we have been here too long when we are figuring out what characters our doctors look like). haha

Mark's favorite doc has been a Texas graduate. Can you believe it??? They sit and talk football a lot. There is another doc from Tampa that has been very good to us. The surgery team has been great!!! Dr. Bartlett went to Germany for some lectures and Dr. Pingpang is filling in. He is a very nice guy as well.

Mark is getting stir crazy and is ready to get out of here. We are hoping for tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed. I am really hoping they find a cot for me to sleep on tonight as well. So far, no luck. I went to the Family House to shower this morning and laid on the couch and fell asleep for 45 minutes. It felt sooooooooooo good to lay flat!!!! I've slept in the recliner for 3 nights in a row now (or a few hours in Mark's bed which had the head raised to 45 degrees).

We keep hearing about all the rain there in the South. We haven't gotten any. It is beautiful up here. Too bad we are stuck inside this hospital. We hope to be on a plane to Auburn in the very near future. Thanks to all of you for the support. We cannot say thank you enough. God bless!!!

Sept 17-evening post

Hello again. Mark had a pretty good day today. He went downstairs with me and we walked outside the hospital and sat on a bench and enjoyed some fresh air. It was nice. We haven't had any rain here in Pittsburgh. It is sunny and pretty nice, only a little chilly in the early mornings and evenings. Mark really enjoyed getting out. It made him really want to get out of here and get on a plane home.

They made evening rounds and decided to leave him on the IV antibiotics and antifungals through the night and will change him to pills in the morning. They also stopped his routine Tylenol. Well, Mark is now running a fever again. He may be running fever that is related to the tumor itself. If that is the case, he will have to constantly take Tylenol. However, they still believe Mark has a subclinical infection as he looked very toxic when he was readmitted. He was gray, his eyes were rolling back in his head, he had shaking chills and he looked bad. He doesn't look anything like that now, he is just running fever, but otherwise okay.

I still have not been able to snag a cot since we've been readmitted. These recliners are extremely uncomfortable to sleep on. I woke up so stiff, I couldn't walk. I got up last night in the middle of the night and told Mark to move over and I crawled in his hospital bed with him and fell asleep. The doctor walked in this morning with both of us fast asleep in the bed. I'm sure we looked pretty silly.

We are really missing the kids terribly. Calen sounds so down when I talk to him. Emily blows me kisses through the phone and Colton really seems to be handling it okay. I can't wait to hug them all. The Bertus' are doing a great job taking care of them and getting them everywhere plus dealing with all of the things that pop up here and there. We couldn't be here without them, so thanks!!!!

Continue to pray for Mark. We hope to be home soon. God bless!!!!

Sept 17

Hello again. Mark is having a good day again. They added an antifungal IV medication to the 2 antibiotics he was on just to cover all bases. He seems to be responding well. The nurse was just in to discontinue the continuous IV fluids, so now it is up to him to drink enough fluids to keep him from becoming dehydrated. The doctor rounded this morning and wanted to continue IV antibiotics for now. He will probably stop by for evening rounds again, so we will see if he makes any other changes.

The nurse was encouraging Mark to walk outside for some fresh air. He hasn't decided yet, but hopefully he will decide to get out of bed and walk around some today. Now that he is unhooked from the IV pole, he has no excuses.

His highest temperature last night was 99.0. They are giving him routine Tylenol which would mask fever, so I'm not sure when they will stop that.

Overall, Mark is better and I am quite pleased. I am hoping for a quick discharge as the last 2 nights sleeping in this uncomfortable recliner is really a pain. They say they are out of cots. I really hope one frees up soon. My entire body is sore.

We are missing the kids terribly. We haven't seen them since Sept 1st. Calen has been sick twice now. Brent and Kathy have had to take both Colton and Emily to the dentist for their cleanings and I think they are getting run ragged with all of the schedules. Colton lost a tooth. I would love to be able to give them all a big hug right now.

Continue to pray for healing. God bless!!!!

Sept 16

Hello again. Well, I am a little more sane this morning. Mark is doing better. His color has turned from gray to pink and he is at least 80% better. The IV fluids and antibiotics have made a tremendous difference. He really does look like a different person this morning. Eugenie and I were talking about that this morning and Mark's nurse chimed in from across the room and stated she thought he was "checking out" last night when she was admitting him as he looked so bad.

The resident came in today and was also impressed with how different Mark looked. They plan to continue the antibiotics IV for now and are sending an infectious diseases specialist around to see Mark today to see if these antibiotics are sufficient or if they think there should be any changes made. We are still waiting on the culture results which may take 48-72 hours. Nothing has grown yet. Mark's white count was elevated though. The CT scan showed fluid around the tumor.

Mark's roommate did turn the TV off last night, so we were able to get a little rest. The recliner I slept in was way uncomfortable, but I made due. I finally got to sleep sometime this morning and woke with Mark and Eugenie staring at me. Not a great feeling. haha.

Today is Eugenie's birthday. She is scheduled to fly home today. She tried to change her flight until tomorrow, but it was difficult as the airline was creating havoc and we told her to go on and get home to her husband and children. She has a vacation planned in a couple of days and needs to get back. I think I can handle this solo for a while. Hopefully we will only be here a few more days. Our flights were cancelled and we will rebook when we get a discharge date.

Mark's roommate was discharged this morning. Poor guy. His wife couldn't stay with him last night and he was here by himself without an interpreter. I think he ran into a few difficulties.

We plan to get Mark up in a little while and see what he can do. He was able to eat a little bit this morning which is an improvement. I keep praying for strength and guidance (and patience). Thanks for all the support. God bless!!!!

Sept 15-late update

This will be my last update of the day. I'm a little calmer now. Mark is resting and seems a little more comfortable. He spiked another fever since readmission to the hospital. It was greater than 103. Dr. Bartlett came to see him with his resident. They were questioning Mark. I interjected my personal take on things. When I mentioned the fever of more than 103 this morning and then the shaking chills to the point that Mark was shaking the hospital bed this afternoon, they seemed quite concerned and decided to give him broad spectrum antibiotics. Of course, it is 11:00pm eastern and we have not started them yet. (SIGH). I am working on being patient. They actually plan to start 2 antibiotics. They are quite puzzled as all of the previous cultures were negative, however, this fever is concerning.

Mark has a metal stent in his bile duct. Some of you may remember when he became very jaundiced when first diagnosed with cancer and was having liver failure. We went to UAB and had a metal stent placed in his bile duct. They pondered as to whether that could be the source of infection. That would be a real nightmare as there is really no way to remove it. Regardless, they have recultured him tonight.

He looked pretty pitiful for a while. His eyes were rolled back in his head and he was dehydrated as he just wouldn't drink and was sweating bullets when he broke his fevers. They made him a "Fall Risk" as he looks so weak they didn't think he could walk to the bathroom. Eugenie and I just looked at each other and laughed since he walked in here to be admitted.

Mark has lost about 10 pounds or so since admission. He hasn't been eating and his appetite is poor. He began vomiting after we got to the hospital today. As much as I hate to admit it, this is the best place for him and we may not be flying home tomorrow. We will wait and see what the new day brings. For now, we will pray and let God lead the way.

Thanks to all of you for the continued support. God bless!!!

(I forgot to tell you about the roommate. There were no more private rooms this time, so we have a deaf roommate. He is literally deaf, but listens to the TV with the volume full blast. UGHHHHH!!!). I'm trying to smile.

Sept 15

Hello again. Well, I'm writing this one from Mark's hospital room. Yes, he was readmitted to the hospital. We fought with Dr. Bartlett's office about it. We tried to get them to let us just come in for blood work to see how sick he was and let us fly home to let our Drs. there take over, but they were insistant that we come over here and get checked out. Mark was a little nervous that he might get sick in the plane and so here we are. Dr. Bartlett's office insisted that things would move fast, that orders would be here, etc, etc and that we might get out tomorrow in time for our flight. Well.........we sat here forever waiting to get vital signs done. Mark is still in his street clothes 3 hours later. They haven't drawn blood and just took him to XRay (they told us CT scan from Dr. Barlett's office). I think this is a different picture than we were painted. I know I sound impatient and mad. I think I've been here too long and am ready to get home.

Whew!!! That is my venting for the day. My feelings as a medical professional are that they should have given him broad spectrum antibiotics when he started spiking fevers after surgery and I think they would have not only shorted his last hospital stay, but prevented this one altogether.

I know I sound like I'm close to the edge, but trust me I'm not. I am hanging in there and taking it as it comes. We may have to cancel our flight home tomorrow. The most important part is taking care of Mark and that is what we are here to do.

Please keep Mark in your prayers, as he needs them now. Pray that this fever will go away and that we can safely get him home to Auburn. God bless!!!

Sept 15

Hello again. We spent the night in the Family House with Mark after discharge. He made a few trips downstairs for meals and seemed to be doing well. We booked our plane ticket home for tomorrow. However, this morning Mark was feeling very nauseated and spiked a temperature. I walked down to the grocery store to purchase a thermometer, Tylenol and some Pepcid. Mark's temperature was 103.2. We called Dr. Bartlett's office. The nurse feels we will be readmitted to the hospital. She is working on this and will call us back, so for now we are waiting. This was not the news we wanted to hear.

I want to ask if we can just get Mark home and treat him in the hospital there, but we will see. Dr. Farmer is out of town this week, but she did leave us her cell phone number and email to get in touch with her.

Continue to pray for Mark. We are so ready to come home, but we don't want to bring him home if he's not ready. God bless!!!

Sept 14

Good news today. Mark has been discharged from the hospital. He had the drain pulled from his abdomen and he was sent home. He decided he wanted to walk to the Family House instead of being pushed in a wheelchair, so we walked out of the hospital and across the street to the Family House. He made it just fine.

He is resting now and waching Top Gun on TV. He continues to have pain and his appetite is poor, but he's definitely made improvements.

We will fly out on Sept 16th and be back in Auburn that afternoon. YEAH!!! Home Sweet Home. I cannot wait. I am so excited to get home and see the kids.

Thanks to all of you who have continued to support us and pray for Mark. It has been a remakable recovery thanks to your help and a lot of help from above. We hope to get started back on chemo asap. We will talk with Dr. Farmer about that next week as she is out of town this week.

God bless!!!!

Sept 13

Hello to all. Mark has definitely turned the corner and is doing better. He has been fever free for more than 24 hours now and has been off antibiotics for more than that. He looks good. His pain is improving some, although he still requires pain medication. The drain in his abdomen has slowed substantially and they may be able to pull it tomorrow.

We should be talking discharge plans in the next day or so if things continue to go in this direction.

Lee and Andy will both leave for Auburn tomorrow and it will be Eugenie and I here with Mark once again.

For lunch today we went to Primanti Brothers which was featured on Man vs Food and is famous in Pittsburgh. It was good. We brought food back for Mark. He refuses to eat ANYTHING here in the hospital (he is just a bit spoiled). That's okay because the hospital food here is really bad.

Brent took Colton to his baseball tournament today while Kathy stayed home with Emily and Calen. Calen has been sick. I really hate being away from the kids for so long. I miss them terribly.

Thanks again for all of the support. God bless!!!

Sept 12

Hello again. Mark is doing better. I think having Andy and Lee here have helped. He has friends to discuss work, papers and football with. Not that Eugenie and I don't know our football, but I guess it's not the same as having guy friends around. Lee spent the night with Mark.

Mark had a good night. He is off antibiotics now and his highest temperature was 100.8. He seems to be feeling better. He still has pain in his abdomen, especially from the new drain they put in yesterday. The drainage has slowed down. They will try this afternoon to pull out the catheter and may stop his IV as well.

Mark's appetite is slowly returning. He ate a small sub sandwich last night and we are getting ready to eat Popeye's red beans and rice. Andy and Eugenie took a Cab to get this for him.

Mark is bummed that the Sooners aren't on TV tonight. We are watching football today in Mark's hospital room. He took one lap around the halls today and we hope to get him around for a few more laps later on.

Thanks again for all of the support. God bless!!!!

Sept 11

Hello to all. Mark spiked another temperature last night. Eugenie stayed the night with him. They finally decided it was time to stick a needle into his abdomen and get some fluid out to look for infection and drain the fluid. They took him down to radiology this morning and pulled out 125cc of fluid and put in a drain to pull out more fluid. So far, it has put out another 300+ cc and is still draining. Mark had some pain at the end of the procedure. We will have to wait and see what the culture shows and see whether this is the source of infection.

Lee and Andy just landed at the airport (two of Mark's colleagues from work) and are on their way to visit Mark. They were very brave to fly on Sept 11. He is looking forward to seeing them.

Mark will be on bedrest until 4:30 this afternoon, but we are hoping to get him up to walk or sit in the chair some this afternoon. He didn't get out of bed at all yesterday as he just felt too bad.

Happy Birthday Thad. We may not get the time to call you today, but we remember you and wish you a Happy Birthday. Love you.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support. God bless!!!

Sept 10

Hello again. Mark is doing better today. He finally had his CT scan done last night. They took him around 9:30 pm and he got back to the room around 10:30. I wasn't kidding when I said they were moving at a snail's pace. The CT showed some fluid in Mark's abdomen. The cancer itself causes that and it is hard to tell whether it is purely the cancer causing it or if an infection has set up there. The good news is that the contrast didn't leak out into the abdomen which tells us there aren't any holes in the bowels.

Mark is already on antibiotics, so this makes sorting out the fevers much more difficult. He spiked another fever last night and they pancultured him (cultured the blood from his port and 2 peripheral sites and cultured the urine). He had another fever this morning. He does seem to run the fevers after he takes in fluids orally which is a little concerning.

Today was the first time they let Mark try something other than clear liquids. (He's only been taking scant amounts of water anyway). He asked for a parfait from Panera, so I walked there and got him one. We scraped off all the granola and fruit and he basically ate yogurt. (Could have just bought him yogurt, but oh well...).

They took him off the PCA pump today and gave him oral pain medicines. He still has the catheter in. I am not sure when they will try taking that out.

Mark's brother Matt left this morning for the airport and Eugenie, Mark's sister, will be in this evening for backup.

Overall, we are making progress. Thanks so much to Lisa and Lynn for the help yesterday starting the prayer chain and everyone sending prayers our way. Mark really turned the corner yesterday. I can't tell you how miraculous the change was. I will never forget that day as long as I live. Thanks again and God bless!!!!

Sept 9

Hello again. Mark has improved a lot today. Thanks to all of you prayer warriors out there. He looks so much better. He is sitting up in the chair and talking and was even joking with the nurse this afternoon. He let me clean him up and he shaved. He is 100% better than this morning. I can't tell you how he just transformed in front of our eyes. Matt is my witness. Mark even said he felt a little hungry which he hasn't said since he came out of surgery. He still hasn't had much, but did manage a couple of sips of water this afternoon which is an improvement.

We are still waiting on CT scan. Things do move at a SNAILS pace around here. We are trying to be patient.

Thanks again to all of you prayer warriors. We can feel the love and support and saw a great transformation take place today. God bless!!!!

Sept 9

Hello to everyone. Today has not bee a good day here in Pittsburgh. Matt spent the night with Mark and said he had a rough night. He's been in a lot of pain with his abdomen. He doesn't use his pain pump much as he states it just doesn't control his pain like it should. He is getting a lot of pressure in his abdomen. The XRay that they did late last night was okay.

They ordered the CT of his abdomen this morning. That was the one I had a gut feeling about several days ago. I wish they'd give me temporary privledges here while Mark is a patient. It's hard being a medical professional and sitting here not being able to write orders. Matt is having the same problems I am. I don't know if they will find anything in the CT, but we at least need to look to rule out possibilities. It may be the cancer only, but we won't know unless we look. Now we have been waiting all day for them to take him to CT.

Mark still refuses to drink anything. He won't even drink water. It makes his abdomen bloat and gives him more pain. He is losing a lot of muscle mass and is getting very weak. It is hard for Matt and I to sit and watch. We both feel so helpless. I just sat and held Mark's hand today and cried as there was nothing else I could do.

He is sleeping a lot. He's just worn out. We may have to talk with Kathy and Brent about coming out and bringing the kids. We will see.

Keep praying that Mark turns the corner. God bless!!!!

Sept 8 evening

Hello everyone. It was a bit of a rough day here. Mark ran a low grade temperature again this evening. They are just now as I'm typing this taking him down for his abdominal XRay which they ordered early this morning. It's been a frustrating day for everyone, especially Mark.

Mark has been having a lot of abdominal discomfort. His abdomen is distended and gives him pain and occasionally makes it hard for him to breath. He cannot lay flat. They tried clamping his catheter twice today for 4 hour increments to see if they could pull it out. Neither time did he get the urge to urinate on his own, but he got very uncomfortable in his abdomen. I think they plan to send a urologist by to see Mark tomorrow.

His would is healing okay. He has staples from his lower sternum to his pelvis. He refuses to drink anything as it makes the abdominal distention worse, so without protein, he will probably have some delayed healing. The nutritionist was by today trying to encourage him to at least sip on some liquid protein drinks they send by, but Mark would hear none of it. He will take only a sip of two of water during the day.

He got up towards evening time finally and made a lap around the halls and sat up in the chair with his brother, Matt. He did this while I went to the Family House to do laundry, run on the treadmill and shower.

I talked with Mark's parents and the kids tonight. They sounded like they were making it okay. Calen sounded like he may be getting sick. I hope he's not coming down with the flu. We will see.

Continue to pray for Mark. He really needs to start feeling better and to get some relief from this abdominal pain. God bless!!!!

Sept 8

Hello to all. Mark is doing better today. He slept well. He was making fun of me saying I slept so well he had to keep waking me up all night. He told the nurse I "drugged myself" and couldn't wake up. He is so mean. I was just exhausted and he DID wake me up several times to tell me he was "almost" ready to get up in the chair, but not yet. So I'd say "wake me up when you're ready to get up". Of course he never got up. He just kept waking me up saying he was almost ready to get up. It was a mess!!!!!

They stopped Mark's nerve blocks today and are pulling them as I am writing this. He is just on IV pain medicine now. He hasn't gotten out of bed yet this morning to walk or to get in the chair. They clamped the Foley for 4 hours to see if he would get the urge to urinate on his own and he didn't. That was a big issue last time and he ended up coming home with a catheter in and it was left in for several months. Mark is terrified that it will happen again. We are praying that it won't be the case, but it's not looking positive this far. He still isn't eating or drinking anything except a few sips of water now and then. He is cleared to be on a clear liquid diet, but he chooses not to drink as it makes him feel distended. We are still waiting on the XRay of his abdomen. That hasn't been done yet.

No fever and he is still on his antibiotics. Things are moving at a snails pace here.

Angie will be leaving for the airport in just a little bit. Matt will be here a few more days and Eugenie will fly in for backup. We will definitely miss the support.

Thanks to all of you back home doing so much to help Mark's parents out. Frank Plan, Brad Meadows, The Hillyard family have done so much more than we could ever repay. Thanks from the bottoms of our hearts you guys. You have brought tears to our eyes with your kindness. We truly appreciate you guys. Thanks to everyone for the kindness, thoughts and prayers. God bless you all!!!

Sept 7 evening

Hello again. Just a quick update. Mark is doing a bit better today. He got up and did 2 long walks in the halls. He was a little quicker (not fast by any means) the second time around. He sat in the chair 3 times today as well. He is currently awake enough to be watching the FSU/Miami football game which says a lot.

He hasn't been running fever this afternoon, so we are hoping the antibiotics are doing their trick. (Of course, they are giving him Tylenol around the clock, so who knows). He still isn't eating or drinking anything to speak of. He had a couple of sips of gatorade today. His abdomen is still very distended.

We will see what the Dr. says on rounds tomorrow. We hope Dr. Holtzsmith is back on duty for Dr. Bartlett. The guy covering the last 2 days we weren't really happy with.

I went to the Family House this evening and ran on the treadmill. It felt great to just RUN!!!!!! It is hard to just sit for so long. Matt and Angie sat with Mark. I showered and gathered my things to stay the night with Mark and came back in time for pizza. Matt had gone to get a pizza for dinner. Mark isn't the least tempted. He has no appetite.

Angie will be leaving for Oklahoma tomorrow and we will miss her. Thanks Angie.

Continue to pray for Mark. God bless!!!!!!

Sept 7

Hello again. Mark had a little bit of a rough night. He didn't sleep well. Angie stayed the night with him. He tossed and turned a lot and ran fever. They continued the Cipro for his antibiotics. He had some anemia this morning and they redrew the blood to make sure it was true since his count fell so much. We're waiting to hear on that. He is getting potassium, magnesium and sodium infusions today along with his usual IV fluids since his electrolyes were abnormal. He isn't eating or drinking anything and his abdomen is really distended.

He is having some pain still. They have left in the spinal blocks (he has 2 of these) to control the pain and he also has the PCA pump.

He got up and took a pretty long walk in the hall with Matt and I this morning. He was very weak and slow, but steady and endured. He is psyching himself up for another walk now. It takes some doing.

We video conferenced with the kids yesteday. It was great for me. I was really missing the kids and I got my kid fill. I loved seeing all of them and wanted to hug them all so bad.

Thanks to the Finance Department for the HUGE basket of goodies both here and to our home in Auburn. That was so nice of you guys. It was very heavy. Angie carried it over to Mark's room. He was surprised to see it.

I will try to keep you updated. It seems to be slow progress here, but Mark is hanging in there. Keep up the prayers. God bless!!!

Sept 6 evening

Hello again. Mark had a bit of a rough day. It started out pretty smooth. He got up and took the walk in the hall and got spiffed up. He started running temperatures again this afternoon. His temp spiked to 102.8 once more. They cultured him again. He is already on an antibiotic, so we're not sure where this fever keeps coming from. His physician couldn't decide whether or not to give Tylenol since he really hasn't been taking much by mouth except a little bit of water and his abdomen is pretty distended. They finally gave him some and his fever broke. He is resting better now. They came and did a Chest XRay and the nurse reported that it was normal, so it doesn't look like pneumonia or anything.

We are waiting on the second dose of antibiotic tonight and some culture results. I think they may decide to do a CT of his abdomen tomorrow when they round (just my own gut feeling). We will see.

We video conferenced with the kids tonight and talked with Mark's parents on the internet. It was great seeing and talking with the kids. They got to look at Mark, although he wasn't too talkative. Emily sang me songs and was joking with her Uncle Matt and Aunt Angie. Colton went to get Leppy the guinea pig to show me. They are so funny sometimes.

Continue to remember Mark in your prayers as always. God bless!!!!

Sept 6

Good morning to all. Mark had a good night. We stayed and watched the OU game and were disappointed to see Bradford get hurt and the Sooners lose. Mark was able to stay awake for the entire game. He rested well after the game. Matt, Angie and I stayed in the room until midnight and Matt decided to stay the night with Mark. Angie and I headed back to the Family House for some rest.

The recliner in the room is not much to rest in, so it makes for a long night. I think Matt was ready to go get some real sleep this morning when I arrived. He stayed until the doctors rounded and then headed off for some sleep.

Mark has a urinary tract infection and they've started some antibiotics. They haven't tried to pull the catheter out yet. He still has the PCA pump for pain control as well as the spinal pumps on each side infusing pain medicines as nerve blocks to his abdomen. They are keeping him comfortable for the most part. The pain team rounded and sounded like they weren't ready to pull the spinal catheters yet, so they will be in all day today. They can't pull the PCA yet since Mark isn't eating yet, so that should remain today. They decided to feed Mark just a few liquids. He doesn't have an appetite yet at all. He has only drank a little bit of water. His abdomen is really distended and hurting.

He got out of bed this morning and we went for a SLOW walk. He did well. He was pretty weak and leaned a lot on me and the IV pole. I washed him up and gave him a shave and he smells like a rose now. He immediately fell asleep when I got him back in bed.

We pray for a good day and lots of healing and pain relief. They say it may be 6 weeks before he can start chemo again. We are really hoping he can start it sooner as we feel this is valuable time we are losing now. Mark seems strong and knows what he needs to do. Continue to pray that the Erbitux will kill this cancer and pray that new therapies continue to emerge. God bless!!!!

Sept 5

Good afternoon. Mark is holding his own today. His urine is looking infected. He still has the catheter in, but there is question whether or not they actually drew the sample to test for infection, we've gotten conflicting answers and can't seem to get any action as far as proceding forward. There haven't been anymore temperatures. Mark's saturations dropped into the 80s and they had to put him back on oxygen.

The attending physician came by and made rounds. They are going to give Mark some additional medicine to help with the abdominal cramping. They did a lot of tugging and pulling to fix the large ventral hernia that Mark had from his previous surgery and there was a lot of scar tissue that they had to dissect through to do this surgery, so a lot of reason to hurt. He is cut the entire length of his abdomen again.

Matt and Angie have sat with Mark and taken care of him from mid morning through this afternoon. I was totally beat and went to the Family House for food, rest and a shower. It was nice.

We are hanging out in Mark's room watching football. Mark was determined to watch the Oklahoma game, but I really think he'll be too much in and out of it to remember. His parents are taping the game for him, so we can watch it again later (provided they win).

Once again, thanks to all of you who have been so supportive. I can't tell you how much it helps us to get through this. Keep up the prayers. God bless!!!!

Sept 5

Good morning to all. Mark is doing well this morning. He had a pretty good night. He woke briefly as they were wheeling him in to his room yesterday and asked me why he wasn't in the ICU. I think the long pause told him what he needed to know. He actually didn't take the news too hard. He was pretty calm as we knew this might be a possibility. He is so strong. We talked about what they found and what the doctors told us.

Mark is having some pain and cramping in his belly and they had to increase the pain medicine through the PCA pump and through the spinal blocks last night and they finally got him pretty comfortable. He rested pretty well last night. He was in and out of it. He spiked 2 fevers last night and they had to draw cultures. His highest temp was 102.8, but he is afebrile now. One of the doctors has been around this morning and we are waiting on the other.

The doctor this morning was pretty positive about the Erbitux and said that he's seen some cancers respond so well that they've been able to surgically resect after treatment.

Dr. Farmer will be getting Mark back on chemo shortly after we return to Auburn and will start the new chemo agents. His chemo schedule will be different.

That is all I know for now. I am tired as the recliner I slept in last night was horrible and I will be heading back to the Family House soon for a shower and maybe a little nap.

Thanks for all the encouraging messages and prayers. God bless!!!!!

Sept 4

It is with a very heavy heart that I write this one. Mark is out of surgery. He has too much disease to resect. His surgeon thought it would be too dangerous to procede. They punctured several holes in the intestine just trying to navigate and the tumor just blanketed the abdomen and is around the liver, but not in the liver. There is a lot of disease in the pelvic region as well. There aren't surgical options at this point. We are just devestated.

Our only options at this point will be chemotherapy. Mark is still under the anesthesia and hasn't been told this yet. We are trying to collect ourselves so we can be supportive for him.

They think we will be here about 5 days for Mark to recover from the surgery they did. We will keep you updated as much as possible. Continue to pray for us.

God bless!!!!!

Sept 4

Mark is officially in surgery. We walked over from the Family House this morning at 5:30 am and got checked in. They took Mark to Pre-op. Matt, Angie and I have been doing a lot of sitting around and waititng. We got to go see Mark for a little bit and then got kicked out so they could put in Mark's spinal blocks. They gave him some pretty good pain meds for that because when we went back in to see him, he was feeling good and pretty funny. His eyes were rolling back in his head and he was feeling no pain and having no anxiety whatsoever.

We are in the waiting room and I will try to update as soon as we hear something. God bless!!!

Sept 3

All things are a go from Pittsburgh. We spent the morning in CT scan. Mark had to drink that nasty stuff and wait a long time, but got through it. We saw Dr. Bartlett this afternoon. Our visit this time wasn't quite as scary and the news seemed better. He says there is a lot of "thickening" around the liver. He's not sure exactly what he'll find when he gets in there. It may be all scar tissue from the previous surgery and chemo or new disease. We will have to wait and see. That seems to be the most diseased area. There is still the possibility of changing the ileostomy to a colostomy, but it won't be decided until they actually get in there and see what needs to be done. They did decide to use Oxaliplatin as the chemo agent this time. It was initially what Mark's cancer responded to. The last surgery was done with Mitomycin C. Mark had labs drawn to get units of blood ready for the surgery tomorrow and then we had to go to the hospital and meet with the ostomy nurse to get "the best placement" done in case they decide to do the colostomy.

Dr. Bartlett is so easy going and laid back and really puts you at ease. It's amazing to sit and talk with him knowing all the research and wonderous things he's done. He's really a humble guy.

We are back at the Family House now and waiting on Matt and Angie to arrive.

Mark is doing his bowel prep. He's so excited!!!! We have to be at the hospital at 5:30am eastern time. The surgery will start at 8:30 eastern.

Please remember that there is a prayer vigil for Mark tomorrow at St. Michael's from 8:30-11:30. There will be a card for everyone to sign who stops by. The chapel is located in the building behind the sanctuary. If you can't make the service, just pray where you are.

We heard great news out of Houston today. Carly's surgery went well. We will continue to follow her site, too.

God bless!!!!

Sept 2

We spent the day exploring Pittsburgh. Mark didn't have any appointments today, so it was a day of freedom. It was also Mark's last day to eat real food before the surgery since he will be on clear liquids tomorrow.

We ended up eating at a place called Harris' Grille for dinner last night. It was located near Carengie Mellon and Univ of Pitt, so it had a good college feel to it. We ate there on our last trip here and loved the food. It was good and just reading the menu is a hoot. We walked there and back (1/2 mile each way).

We found Deluca's. We realized it was a breakfast place, but it was the one featured on the show Mark saw. We took a cab since it was about 3 miles and located in an area of town called the strip. The place was a real dive, but crowded and evidently famous. The breakfast was great. We walked all through the strip and found some neat shops. We decided to walk back for exercise. Dinner was Italian, but now it will be gatorades for Mark.

Mark will have a CT scan in the morning at Hillman Cancer Center which is just down the street from us and Dr. Bartlett sees him at 1pm. We will get all the details about surgery Friday. Mark doesn't seem as nervous this time. I think he pretty much knows what to expect.

The kids all sounded fine. Calen has his first football game tomorrow night and we will miss it. He is taking all of this the hardest. Colton had football practice tonight and Emily talked for a few seconds on the phone and was off running around again. I think Brent and Kathy are holding up okay this far.

Please remember Carly Parker tomorrow morning as she has her surgery at MD Anderson. Her surgery starts at 7:30 am.
God bless!!!!!!!

Sept 1

We are here in Pittsburgh. The flight was smooth and we landed on time. Out trip has been uneventful. We got checked in to our room in the Family House. We were lucky and got the Family House across the street from Mark's hospital which will be great for us.

Many of you asked for the address at the Family House and here it is:

5245 Centre Avenue
Room 507
Pittsburgh, PA 15232

The phone number to the room here is 412-802-4877 and I can be reached by my cell phone which is 334-750-4431 if anyone needs to call in for an update. I will try to keep the blog updated as much as I can.

We are looking for the address of Deluca's now. It was featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. We may try it for dinner tonight.

God bless!!!