Another Week Gone By

So we have been up here at Huntsman for now over a week.  If all goes well we should be coming home today (Saturday).  The docs have been working on her pain medication and moving it over to oral form so she can manage it at home.  There has also been a mystery of her oxygen intake, and they still aren't able to determine what is causing her oxygen levels to drop.  They have been watching her one extra night as she takes oral meds and ensure that she is doing good on both pain and managing the oxygen.

It has been a week full of frustration and faith. On one hand, she continues to be a mystery she has been for the last four years.  And, as it always seems - if there is a slight possibility of her getting a rare side effect, it just so happens she will get it.  For example, she has an odd twitch, but according to the pain docs - they say it isn't something to be worried about - as soon as she comes off the drugs they will go away, but the doc also noted that it is rare that only 1-2% of people have that side effect.  Things don't always add up but the doctors are doing a wonderful job with her.  In talking with one of the nurses who works with Dr. Glenn, the good doctor constantly has Tiffany on her mind and has called to other facilities nationwide to ensure she is not missing some treatment options or clinical trials that may work, but any option we seem to try, the cancer continues to come blasting back.  We have on many occasions been excited about the progress during any one of the specific treatment regimens she has been going through, only to have the cancer come back aggressively.  We continue to hope and pray that the current treatment will work.  And the one that they are giving her now is so far showing signs of goodness.  It is not a chemo drug - rather a bio-drug, one that the drug goes into the blood stream, finds a specific protein present on a lymphocyte cell (cancer cell) and attaches itself.  Once attached, that cell is then targeted by the immune system to be destroyed.  (I find that rather fascinating and wonder if I should have become a researcher instead of diving into the world of finance).

Throughout this week we we have continued treatment - on Tuesday, Thursday, as well as this morning.  We have hope that it will work.  We are grateful for for modern medicine.  Her platelets and blood was down this morning, so before we head home, she was getting another couple of units of blood and platelets.  That alone, as I think I have written before, is a miracle in its own right.  We sometimes pass it off as simply part of the process, especially having done so many of them now.  But it truly is a life saving procedure.  Somebody gave their life to save Tiffany's and to that, we see our hope


And so you see, as we continue down this journey, we find we are truly blessed with the multitude of blessings, and indeed, there seems not to be room enough to receive them.

Cheers,

Nathan

Oh - and though we have been in the hospital for a week - the views out the window were fantastic.  We got to watch helicopters come and go all week long, which is always fun to watch, along with the Salt Lake Valley skyline.