Shana Bearden

On Wed. night Shana was allowed to return home with me. Essentially, no one seems to know why her innards locked up on her but she seems to be working again so she was allowed to come home while they continue tests. I obtained copies of the x-rays and CT Scans tonight and it appears that her primary tumor may have shrunk some more but the tumor in her lower abdomen seems to be spreading again. She has some more ascites fluid that causes her stomach to swell some but when I looked at the CT it wasn’t all that much. It does look like her main tumor has shrunk even more and the radiologist says that her current main tumor has shrunk since November. However, the tumor often spreads sort of like rust and a significant amount was seen on her abdominal floor. I am not a whiz at seeing what the Doctors see on these tests so we are meeting with Dr. Xiong tomorrow to see what he says. We have sent the most recent reports to Dr. Alexander in Baltimore to see if the problems that Shana is experiencing could impact his decision for surgery. We can only wait and see what he decides.
Shana does not feel all that good but she hasn’t eaten in over a week so we are starting her eating again and hopefully she willl be better in a couple of days. Please keep praying for her. Just this last week a scientific survey found that people who had others praying for them have a significantly longer survival rate and better ability to deal with the issues that the sick confront. Please pray for my Shana.
Jim

Shana has been in Harris Hospital now for 6 days and will be undergoing another procedure tomorrow. A part of her innards have inexplicitly shut down and they have had a bad time getting anything moving like it is supposed to. The doctors don’t think it is related directly to the tumor but they have run a number of tests and cannot quite figure out how to get her innards moving again. Shana is uncomfortable but is not really in pain but she is very anxious to get out of the hospital, particularly since we will be in the hospital again for almost the whole of the month of March. She has some bad cabin fever but she has some really swell nurses who have taken to her and have become friends. IF the procedure tomorrow doesn’t work then we may have to move up the March surgery to allow the surgeons to attempt to restart her innards. The doctors are consulting with one another and comparing CT scans that have been done lately. No one seems to see anything on X rays or CT scans that explains why portions of her digestive tract seems to be out of service but clearly portions of her insides have stopped working, at least temporarily. and we have to get them moving again. That has turned out to be a difficult task and everything that has been tried so far seems to have failed. The good news is that the tumor seems to not have grown any and the only thing that it is believed that the tumor may have affected is that there is a possibility that some nerves have been damaged. It is all uncertain right now.
Please say a prayer that the procedure tomorrow will be successful and that she can get out of the hospital and have some time before we go back to Baltimore for more surgery.
Please say a prayer when you can for Shana and pray that her problem will be solve without major complications.
April is havng a lot of false labor so she is probably very close to birthing little Maddie. A prayer for her would be good as well.
God Bless You.—-Jim