January 28th - Sadness.

Today, I am posting a picture of my 3 beautiful children when they were little - long ago! 12 years ago today, my lovely elder daughter, the one in the middle, died. She was 35 and left behind a 7 year old son. I will love her and miss her forever. Love you Julie xxxxx

Mr. Indi's brother showed up at 8:00 am on the dot yesterday and, between us, we got Mr. Indi into the car and set off on our trek to parts unknown in downtown Riverside. I wasn't really sure where this Dr. Clarke's office was but managed to find it without too much trouble. It's in one of those huge medical complexes with 8000 doctor's offices and parking for 25 people! Anyhow, we got his Lordship out of the car at the front door and then I went and found a parking spot. We soon found Dr. Clarke's office and didn't wait too long to see him and let me say - What a nice, kind and patient man.

He explained that Mr. Indi's problem is very complicated. The bone cancer that has invaded his spine would normally eat away at the bones of the spine but in 2 areas of Mr. Indi's spine, the cancer has actually invaded the spinal cord cells causing irreparable damage and leading to paralysis. There is a surgical procedure that could be performed but because of the way that the damage has been done, it would mean going in through Mr. Indi's chest, rib cage, and past his lungs to get to the front part of his spine; a very difficult and risky operation with no guarantee of the outcome. Something to think about.

Before making any decisions though, Dr. Clarke wants Mr. Indi to have another MRI and a series of spinal x-rays. I don't know how I am going to get him to the MRI place but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Our patient advocate is working on getting the insurance company to pay for ambulance transportation - fingers crossed.

After getting back home and saying our goodbyes to R, I set off to get prescriptions filled and find out if the missing blood had shown up - or if that nurse had turned out to be a vampire and drank the stuff! Well, the blood results report has been found and is on somebody's desk somewhere in Rancho Cucamonga. I don't know what Mr. Indi's numbers are and Dina was too busy with patients to bother her - I shall call and find out today. I got the prescriptions and also got a new one - this time for Ambien. Mr. Indi is not getting the sleep that he needs and I hope this will help him.

I got into a bit of a bind when it was time for Mr. Indi to go back to bed (he had been up and watched tele for an hour around 6:00 pm.) I got him back to the bedroom and he just couldn't stand up out of his chair and get into the bed. The legs were gone - kaput - shot! Grr. I went next door and got my dear Jesus and he came straight over and helped me push his Lordship into the bed. I'm beginning to feel that he will be staying in bed from here on out. I don't know how to move him. I am so frustrated, I could scream!

Jesus stayed around for a while and sat on the edge of the bed and shot the breeze with Mr. Indi for a while. We were so upset to learn that he has been laid off from his job of 16 years. He and his lovely wife, Lourdes, have 3 teenagers to feed and he doesn't know how his is going to make it. Damned recession is hurting hard working people. Anyway, when I go to the super market today, I will get them a gift card so that they can stock up on a few things. It's the least I can do as Jesus is always so good to us.

I'm late doing the blog today because I fell asleep on the couch at 4:30 am after having an awful night. But, am feeling a bit more refreshed now. Onward and upward.