First off let me start by apologizing for not writing on here sooner. 2008 has held many personal challenges for us and I have fallen behind.
To bring everyone up to date:
Tom had been having problems with his blood sugar. Some nights his sugar was over 500. The doctor tried different pills to bring it under control. One of the side effects of the blood sugar medicine was stomach pain. Tom was having pain so finally sent him to a G.I. doctor. Just before Thanksgiving they did a CT scan. At that time they found what they termed a shadow on his pancreas. Just after Thanksgiving they did a needle biopsy. The tissue was determined to be suspicious but no definite answer. The tissue slides were sent to Johns Hopkins for review. Instead of slides they wanted the frozen block so that had to be sent. They were still unable to make a definitive diagnosis so they have rescheduled a new biopsy procedure for Jan. 7th. One thing about the earlier biopsy was the lymph nodes are negative which is a wonderful sign.
During this time they also found Tom's gallbladder is shot. It is full of stones and sludgy. He is in extreme pain but they won't touch the gallbladder until they know what is up with the pancreas. Several different pain medications have been tried and now they are trying pain patches. Tom has lost about 60 pounds (pounds he couldn't afford to lose) during this time.
On Wed. Dec. 30th Tom went to the doctor and they have started him on insulin shots. Depending on what needs to be done concerning his pancreas, a lot of procedures are not done here locally.
I will try to keep everyone informed by updating the blog as I can.
Please keep praying.
Your "Neat" friends
