Hello everyone.

I had a nice lengthy description of Melisa's day when my laptop decided to reboot. I hate Windows Vista!

Anyway, it's 11:45 and I'm tired so I'll do the update from the ICU waiting room tomorrow.

Love you guys

A Better Day-this was the one I didn't get to finish last night

Today was a little bit better day. Melisa is still getting stronger. Her skin looks good and the nurses keep telling her how pretty she is. She always smiles at that.





Yesterday I asked the nurse to see if they could change her pain med from morphine to dilaudid. She had been taking dilaudid several weeks at home, in pill form, and it had not effected her psyche like morphine and other opiods. One of the doctors approved it along with giving her some anti psychosis drug.

graphic addition

Whoody Tooty! Man what a game yesterday. Luckily most of the ICU waiting room was MSU fans. We all needed something lift our spirits and we made the most of it. The MSU football program looks like it's gonna see a resurgence like the nineties. Maybe even better. I am sorry I missed church at FUMC this morning just to tell Greg Ducker how sorry I am.

Well, Melisa hasn't had much change over the past couple of days. Her arms are getting stronger. So much so that she woke up this morning and pulled every tube she had out. Janet, the nurse, wasn't too upset. The woman must be a saint because she barely blinked an eye. Melisa also ripped off her bandages and wound packing and no one that dresses wounds works weekends so Janet had to change Melisa's bandage and blankets every couple hours most of the day. I helped her at the 11:00 visitation and it was a mess. Not sure what the fluid coming out of her incision is but it looks like honey mustard and there is a lot of it. Luckily it doesn't have any odor.

Her breathing is getting stronger every day as well. The heart and respiratory rate are staying consistant. Because of the ventilator tube being in her mouth almost two weeks all the skin in her mouth and lips peeled off as well as all the skin on her cheeks. She was so weak, until today, that she couldn't reach up to her face so the nurses and I spent most of our time Saturday scrubbing skin off her. That has mostly cleared up now and she is back to her beautiful self. She's been wanting to get a dermabrassion(sp) anyway.

All that being said, Melisa is still very very sick and if recovery is a posibility it is going to take a long time. Her paradox is that her body is too weak to heal the wounds, she can't get any food until the wounds heal enough to process the food and her wounds aren't going to heal unless she can get nutrients to make her stronger. All this while her cancer is growing rapidly. I can't write any more right now. I know God is with me every step though.

I love you all.

Saturday-Kinda quiet day

Hi all! I am going to post a quick update on Mel for those of you that may check this daily. There is not a whole lot to say about today-Melissa slept most (if not all) of the day. Yesterday after Boo's last post they got Mel out of bed and she sat in a padded recliner-type chair for 20 minutes! That is an amazingly long time considering she has been laying in a bed for weeks now!!! However, this adventure did take a lot out of her and so today she has been resting a lot more than she has been the past few days. Still no feeding tube or anything by mouth as far as I know. Boo and Aidan were able to make it to Starkville late this afternoon so that Aidan could make it to a friend's birthday party but are headed back to Jackson soon after. One of us will update again soon!

-Kenley
(p.s. GO DAWGS!!!!!!!!!!)

Friday afternoon

Thank you all for your prayer yesterday. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. We got together at Kenley and Tyler's appartment and all got stuffed. Melisa had a great day herself. She had her first full day breathing by herself and didn't have a tube ten inches down her throat. Today she is becoming more aware of her environment and her needs. She still isn't having pain from surgery or cancer pain but she is becoming more uncomfortable from being in bed for three week. Her back is bothering her and she wants to get out of bed. Good news for her is they are beginning to sit her up in bed and the foot of the bed drops down so it is almost as if she is sitting up in a chair. They are going to try to move her to a chair tomorrow, possibly. No word on when she gets her feeding tube back or when she may get something by mouth but we are hopeful soon. Dr. Young said she will probably be moved to a private room Monday.

Sorry if this is cut and paste but I am trying to get this typed before the next visitation, which has just been announced. so good bye for now and I'll get more later today.

Ove you all and keep praying.

Thanksgiving Eve

It's the night before Thanksgiving and we have so much to be thankful for. What a wonderfully beautiful day we had today. The sun was warm and bright with a cool fall breeze waving the falling brown leaves across the pale blue sky. Don't tell Melisa she missed it.

She had a glorious day without witness to our beautiful fall day. Getting that tube out of her mouth and throat was a good way to start her day and having Aidan come in her room and have open dialogue was the perfect way to end it. Both were beaming with joy as they stood holding each others hands while I read get well cards from Ms Cunetto's class(a lot of Picasso's in that class). That will do more to aid her healing exponentially more than any medicine.

Well, she should get a heck of a workout tomorrow with all the family coming in to visit.

I hope all of you have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Remember to pray for Melisa at noon.

She can speak!!

This morning when we arrived for the 11-12 visit the nurses told us that there was a "hold" on her bed (meaning we could not go back and see her until they called the front desk and gave the ok). I was praying they were taking her off of the ventilator but was thinking they were probably just changing the dressing on her wound.
SURPRISE to me! Melisa is now off of the ventilator and finally able to speak to us!!! Although her voice is weak and very soft, she is finally strong enough to breath unassisted and finally able to TELL us what she needs or wants. Needless to say she is very excited about this herself!
Everything else is pretty much the same but Boo is going back to the 5pm visit so I am sure one of us will update again later tonight.
Thank you all again for the thoughts and prayers!

-Kenley

Evening

Spoke to Dr. Voyles before the 5:00 visitation. He is the surgeon that did Melisa's liver resection and, although he didn't do the surgery this time, he is considered her primary surgeon. He said she is progressing very nicely and is one heck of a strong woman. He did say, however, that she has two fights here and getting over the sepsis will be the easy fight. We are up against an aggressively growing cancer that is going unchecked until she's well and we get to MD Anderson. Until that point we have to fight this thing with good nutrition and lots of prayer and faith.

Melisa was in very good spirits. She was joking about being in a horribly uncomfortable hospital bed for two weeks now. She isn't having pain but she is very uncomfortable. She is able to use her arms more to help me move her around in bed but her hands are still tied to the bed to keep her from pulling out the ventilator tube. We are all hoping she will get it pulled out tomorrow.

Melisa was feeling well enough tonight that we convinced the charge nurse to let Aidan go back for a visit. He has been wanting to go back again but Melisa didn't want him to see her when she wasn't feeling like interacting with him. Both smiled ear to ear when he walked in the room and grabbed her hand. The biggest problem having him go back to see her is dealing with the ICU nurses that break down crying whenever they see him. Several have children close to Aidan's age and they put themselves in Melisa's position. I'm glad Melisa can't see me consoling all these cute nurses.haha :0

We love you all
Good night

Tuesday afternoon

first of all, obviously there are two different people "blogging" on here about Melisa and her status (both of us using boo's log in info) I will start signing my name at the bottom of my posts so that it does not look like Boo is referring to himself in 3rd person when I write :)I am just trying to help boo out so that everyone can know about Melisa even when he does not get the time to write on here.

Today Melisa has been very sleepy all day... the nurse said she has not been given any extra pain meds today, she is just having a sleepy day. Her body has been going through so much it is amazing she has been awake as much as she has been the past few days anyways! Mel is improving daily...even though it is very slow progress it is indeed PROGRESS!! She is still on the ventilator but is doing most of the work on her own. The doctors just want to make reeeeeaaaaallllllll sure that they will not have to put the tube back in once they take it out and so they want her to keep getting a little stronger before they remove the tube-this is a good and a bad thing...it is good because they are doing their jobs and it would hurt SO bad if they had to put it back in after taking it out. But it is a bad thing because she wants to talk to everyone SO bad and we all want to hear her talk to us pretty dang bad as well!
Melisa is currently being fed through a feeding tube (since she is intubated) but only small amounts at a time. Yesterday when Boo asked if she was hungry her eyes got HUGE and she shook her head "yes" very big! This is GREAT considering Melisa was not wanting to eat anything at all for two weeks prior to being admitted into the hospital!
If anything else changes before tomorrow I will let you guys know!
thanks from all of Mel's family for everyone's thoughts and prayers!!!!

-Kenley (Boo and Melisa's niece)

November, 24

Good morning everyone. Aunt Paula has had another wonderful idea. She suggested that we set a time when all of our friends and family all kneel at one time and say a quick prayer for Melisa. So, I would like to ask all of you to take a couple seconds at noon Thursday, as you begin to sit for your Thanksgiving dinner, and ask for strength, healing and miracles for Melisa. Also, ask for guidance and give thanks for our doctors and nurses. I will be giving thanks for each and every one of you. Your love and generosity amaze me. You are all very special people.

Monday, November 23 evening

I didn't make the 8:00PM visit tonight but Mel's sister-in-law, Paula, was there and called me with a request from Melisa that she wanted to speak with me. As it turned out she really didn't want to speak to me, but instead just wanted me to speak to her. Paula said Melisa smiled and nodded the whole time and laughed when I said something funny to her. Mel later asked Paula to turn on the tv for her. This is a first and a very good sign as far as I'm concerned. Until now she has laid there looking at the wall across the room with no desire for sensory input.

Melisa has done so well today! She is steadily becoming more aware and staying awake and alert for much longer periods of time and even wanted to watch some TV tonight. Still on the ventilator but also still at 0!! Paula (Mel's sister-in-law) went to the 8o'clock visit and since Melisa was so awake and alert they called Boo on the phone and Mel nodded in response to what he was saying and smiled too! Aidan sent her a card with a recorded message on it today and she smiled at that as well :) so slowly but surely we are making progress and headed in the right direction. Maybe tomorrow we will be able to hear her voice again!

November 23, 2009

Melisa has been wide awake most of the day today and is still very much waiting to be off of the ventilator! Currently she is getting no help breathing from the machine (yay!) but the tube is still in...the doctor said she has to be at "0" (no help) for at least 24 hours before they will take out the tube and she has only been at 0 since this morning. But one more day is nothing we cannot handle! Mel hasn't been in much pain and is actually in a lot less pain than she was prior to surgery...the mass that was removed from her abdomen had been pressing on her sciatic nerve which is what has been causing her such great amounts of pain over the past few weeks and months.
Melisa has great nurses taking care of her and seems to be pretty comfortable (considering the situation) every time we visit. If there are any changes before tomorrow I will post them later today

November 22, 2009

Melisa has had a lot of visitors the past few days and is now starting to be awake to see them all! She has had a very busy weekend (with people in and out) and so today she was getting some much needed rest most of the day. She has had a slight fever at various points over the past few days but the nurses are keeping a close eye on her temp. at all times and keeping a cooling blanket on her when necessary to cool her down. Melisa really wants to be off of the ventilator and writes this to us often. Her regular Pulmonologist will be back in tomorrow so maybe we will hear an approximation of when she may be able to come off of the machine. We make sure and tell Mel all of the time how many people are thinking about her and praying for her and the cards people have sent (along with some of Aidan's art work) are decorating her room!

November 21, 2009

Today is Aidan's 6th birthday and we had his party at Pump It Up in Jackson and videotaped the whole thing to show Melisa. Melisa was wide awake this morning when we went to visit her and has begun writing to us on a dry erase board since she is still on the ventilator and is unable to talk. Mel's nurse was so sweet today and let Aidan go back to see Melisa for his birthday.
So far Melisa is improving as expected; her wound is healing nicely and her immune system has been working in high gear. The doctors have said they expect her to be in ICU for a few more days and then in a regular room for a good while after that.
Thank you all for your prayers!