Shana Bearden

This week has been a really tough one but at the end it looks like we pulled it off. Shana has been in terrible pain this week and it was so bad they put her in the hospital for a couple of days so they could give her some intrevenious pain meds. Our regular doctor has been out of town on vacation and replacement doctors are always hesitant to come up with new protocals no matter how obvious they seem. Shana and I were up for several nights in a row because of her pain. It is getting intense now so she has to remain medicated heavily and I could not get anyone to allow me to give her strong stuff at home. It was frustrating. Finally I got the nurse practitioner to help me and she moved what had seemed to be mountains in our way. We were able to start some of the chemotherapy that Shana had been denied when I pointed out to them that there was no material indicating that this chemo affected her blood counts in anyway. I was able to get some really serious pain meds to take home to inject Shana when her pain gets out of control. I was able to get some meds for depression for Shana and to get her to feel a bit better. We checked Shana out of the hospital in time to get her CT done on Thursday and she actually got sleep Thursday night. I received some very very useful information on additional second line treatments from the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. Some of these treatments have been very successful in the short run. Some are still in clinical trials. The Doctor will make the final call on which one to use if he determines that the current treatment is not working any more. The CT will tell us if it is working and both Shana and I believe it is not working anylonger. The tumor is obviously growing and it is what is causing sharp pains in Shana’s abdomin.
Friday, one of our airconditioners went out so we had to stay in our TV room all night but that was actually kind of neat to be able to “camp out” somewhere new. I actually got kind of sick myself and had to go to the emergency room on Thursday but I am fine and was able to get home that evening. Thanks to Wes and Brad for their help in that regard. It was a heck of a week and clearly, Shana is getting effected by her constant pain. She is growing depressed and wants to sleep a lot. We still have to do some work on our pain meds to get them down just right and when we do, Shana feels good. She is taking enough pain meds to stun a horse right now so it is just an issue of timing and making sure I don’t do an accidental Michael Jackson overdose on her. It is almost a full time job just keeping up with her meds and needs. Please keep up those prayers, we need ‘em big time!
Wes and his family are enjoying a vacation in Destin Florida this weekend and Brad has party plans. Chrissy is coming up for a few days on Sunday so hopefully that will keep Shana occupied. I asked for visitors last week and then she went into the hospital and I know several people tried to come by but we wound up not being home. If you desire, this would be a good week for short visits.
Jim