Thursday, January 31, 2008

Waiting...

Bonnie went to see the surgeon today, we were hoping she would be getting out her stitches today. But He decided to keep them in until Monday. They set up an oncologist appointment for Wednesday, Feb 6th with Dr. Nibley who works for the Utah Cancer Specialists (UCS). We got advice from my relief society president, a hospital oncology nurse, that the UCS are the best around and are great with their patients.
It is still just a waiting game until the oncologist appointment on Wednesday.

Goodnight

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Thursday.. I mean Wednesday Night

Ever had one of those weeks when you can't remember what day it is? That is this week for me, I want it to be Friday so bad that I am trying to skip a day. I want to drive home and see my family, and help my mom. Anyways...

Less visitors came over today, Mom was able to get a nap in. She goes in to see the surgeon and hopefully to be able to get the staples out tomorrow. We are hoping they will have more information and give us a better idea about everything.
That is about it for today.
Thank you for all the comments, I know that we all look forward to reading the comments. The support to our family is amazing. We love you all!!

Goodnight,
Merissa

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Not much new

There is not much new information currently. Lots of vistors coming over. Even hard for me to get anyone on the phone to get a full update. Hopefully we will have more information soon.
Thanks
Merissa

333 W 1000 N
Centerville, Ut 84014

Monday, January 28, 2008

1st Day Home

Since Bonnie has been home they have had lots of visitors. She slept pretty well last night. But she wasn't able to get any naps in today. Grandma flew into town today, but was 3 hours delayed due to one of the craziest storm we have ever seen! Grandma will be in town for 2 weeks, to help run Bonnie to appointments, and help with things around the house while she recovers from surgery.
The food that members of the ward, friends, and family have been bringing over is so much appreciated. It would be near impossible for us to get a decent meal prepared with everything else going on right now.
We are having a special fast this Fast Sunday for Bonnie and the Family to have the hope, courage, and endurance to make it through this trying time. Please join us if you wish.

Love the Rawlings

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Sunday January 27, 2008

Another rough night for Bonnie with pain and little sleep. She asked for a bagel sandwich for breakfast since the hospital food was, well, hospital food. She then had a shower and got dressed to leave. It was about 10 am. So we packed up and hauled everthing to the cars and sit and waited. And waited, and waited.

They had to do the paper work and get the prescriptions to take home. So we waited and waited and finally got the paperwork done and the scripts and left at 12:30.

We got home and got Bonnie situated in her nice soft Intelligel bed and she had a couple hour nap. Once church ended at 4 then some people came by and my sisters, Karla and Laraine stopped on the way home from St George, she got up and visited and had something to eat. She is dealing with the pain with help from meds and getting her bowels moving again (enjoying that).

She goes to see the surgeon on Thursday to find out the next steps. Probably set up to see an Oncologist and start Chemo once she is recoverd from the surgery. We speculate that will be a couple weeks.

Thanks for all your concerns and support.
Love the Rawlings

Saturday, January 26, 2008

More information

Well we didn't sleep last night, she was having reactions to her medicine again. So today they started her on a different one and so far so good. They took out the IV, the epidural, and the catheter today. They also changed her diet back to a "normal" diet, so she wanted us to go get her Panda Express...haha
The surgeon came in around 10 and was going to leave after a minute but I stopped him so we could ask questions. The lymph nodes that were taken were from the 10 inch section of colon they took out, they didn't biopsy any other lymph nodes.
He said that she is a Stage 4 (from 0-4), and he thinks that she is either a grade 2 or 3 (from 1-3). He said that there was a possibility that it has gone to other organs but it is hard to know. He believes the chemo regiment will be once every other week. He told us to live life as normal as possible while this is all happening.
As a family we are trying to do research and figure out what needs to be done but it really comes down to what the oncologist says.
We are probably going to be checking out of the hospital tomorrow but we don't know when.
We had lots of visitors today including the Bishop and his wife, Bonnie's twin brothers wife and 4 of the children, and Bonnie's sister.

Hello...testing... is anybody out there?

We have only received one comment on this blog since it was started on Monday.
Please post something even just to say "Hello" and tell us who you are so we know who is reading the blog.
If you have questions, suggestions, or there is something that you would like to see me talk about please post it.

Thanks to Kim for being the first one to post.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Short Update... ok not so short...

We got back the pathology report today. The surgeon spent maybe 2 minutes in the room, and wasn't very helpful in explaining the results. We were told that 18 out of 25 nodes that were taken were malignant and that they would have to be aggressive with treatments which would include chemotherapy. But that was about all he had to say. Bonnie and Kevin were able to get copies of several reports and a lot of pamphlets of information from a "case manager" that came to the room today. We are still trying to figure out what it all means.
Grandpa and Grandma Rawlings came today along with Aunt Karla, they brought a beautiful arrangement of flowers from the Rawlings family. Later tonight we had a surprise visit from Jeff and Becky Hone who stayed for a while and chatted, it was really nice to get our mind off of things for a while. The Hone's brought a very nice planter of yellow tulips that will be enjoyed for a long time.
I am staying at the hospital for the next 2 days with Bonnie and will post more tommorrow.
Hopefully we will all be able to get some sleep tonight.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

A rough day

Today was quite a rough day for Bonnie. She has been really out of it, in pain, and moaning. She keeps rambling saying weird things and it is sometimes hard not to laugh. Tonight she started talking about us going to watch "Who Wants to be a Millionare". We have no idea where that came from.
She has been out walking 7 times in the past 24 hours, but every time she comes back from walking her blood pressure drops. She refuses to take her big epidural shot to relieve her pain (it automatically gives a little dose to her 8 times an hour). She doesn't like doing her breathing that she is suppose to do once an hour so she doesn't get pneumonia. She had 1 lady from the ward visit her today and received flowers from her twin brother and Kevin's office.
Thanks for the love and prayers.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Intermountain Medical Center room 1032

Well today was an interesting day. The doctor came in but didn't have very much to say. She was able to get up and walk around for about about 10 minutes the first time and 15 the second. She had 4 visitors come, 3 wonderful ladies from our ward and her twin brother. She received flowers from "Kevin and the girls".

She had a pretty good day until shortly after I got here at 6 she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open, was slurring her speech, and slightly twitching. we were a little concerned but all of her vitals were normal. A little later the pain management guy came in and said that it was probably due to her having to much of the epidural medicine. About 7:30 she seemed to snap back and was fine again. Bonnie is really tired tonight, and experiencing things that she hasn't before. She should sleep well tonight and be up for visitors tomorrow and through the next several days.
We would love to have any sort of show of support for her while we are in the hospital. JaNae is taking her 2 nights to stay in the hospital with Mom so she will be here if you need to get a hold of us before you visit.

Goodnight

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Surgery Results

The doctor came and saw Kevin at 10:50 after the surgery. Bonnie was in for about an hour and a half. It went very well. They made an incision that was about 6 inches long that starts from the belly button down, and then two probe holes on the each side. The cancer was contained to the colon, it hadn't spread. They took out about 10 inch section of the colon (which the doctor said was normal). The growth was about the size of an apple core and they are going to have the pathology report back on Thursday. Everything else they said looked good including her ovary's which they were concerned about. Bonnie will have to remain in the hospital for another 5 days. We are feeling much better with what the doctor said, especially since it was contained. We still have a long road ahead, and are still unsure about the course of treatment. We will continue posting as new information is given. Thank you so much for the fasting and prayers. We love you all.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Night Before Surgery

Today Bonnie and Kevin met with the surgeon, the surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 6:30. They had the results from the biopsies and it is malignant. The biopsy shows that it is invasive adenocarcinoma. After the surgery it takes 2 days to get pathology back to find out what kind of cancer it is for sure. It is normally a 2 hour surgery. The growth is 12 cm up (4.7 inches), the surgeon told them that the growths are usually about the size of an apple core and that is what they are hoping to find. They are hoping that they will be able to attach the colon back together without any problems. There are still a lot of unknowns at this point so tomorrow will hopefully shed light on exactly what we will be facing in the months ahead.
Thank you all for your support and prayers.
Merissa R.



Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Family News

Shock and surprise.
So we have big news in my family.

Bonnie has been bothered lately by having to vomit while having a bowel movement. (we had fun in Vegas, we were there for Christmas)

So it takes forever to get scheduled for a colonoscopy. She had one scheduled for today but they called Monday and canceled it. So she started calling Tuesday to see if she could get in anywhere and a Dr Batista just had a cancellation and they asked if she wanted to come in the next day (Wednesday). She did and the Dr. couldn’t get the tube past a 90% blockage that was there about 6-8 inches in. They go in a meter normally.
The Dr said that from all he has seen he is pretty certain it is malignant and the biopsies won't be back for 7-10 days.
We just scheduled with a surgeon to have the growth removed and the bowel re-sected(sp). We meet with him Monday and it will probably happen Tuesday. It needs to get out ASAP malignant or not.

So that is our shocking news. Please include her and us in your prayers and on temple rolls where you are and hopefully the surgery Tuesday is all she will need.

Thanks and love you all.

Kevin Rawlings