Hi everyone... this is Sandy. Just to bring you up to date on the progress of Cathy. She was asked to come to the Cross Cancer hospital last Wednesday to do an inhouse assessment. At this time she stayed in the hospital room and the many different doctors and nurses that needed to see her came to her to try and cut down on the amount of appoinments she was enduring. (To give you an idea Cathy goes to the Cross on Mondays for her pre chemo assessment and has an appointment with Dr. Sawyer. On Tuesdays she is back at the Cross hospital for Chemo on Wednesday she was at the Cross for the inhouse assessment. On Thursday Home Care was at her home and on Friday she was back at the Cross for an MRI) The trips to Edmotnon alone are wearing her out. Anyways on Wednesday during the inhouse they did a scan and found a very large bowels backup and ordered home care to start giving her enemas. Cathy was also losing the strength in her legs and her legs were starting to swell, so they ordered an MRI for Friday to see if there was something pressing on the nerves in her back to cause this as it is not normal for Cholangiocarcimona. Home care came to the house on Thursday morning, Thursday night, Friday morning and Saturday morning and administered enemas and Cathy was also drinking prune juice and stool softeners. There was not much progress. Fortunately through it all Cathy was not uncomfortable at all. Unfortunately on Sunday morning when Cathy woke up she could not stand on her own and could not get her left leg to move. Therefore she could not walk. Home Care came to the house and called for an ambulance to take her to the Stony Plain hospital. Then the games began.
She has been laying in the emergency in Stony Plain since Sunday morning. They got the results of the Friday MRI and it did not show anything that would cause the problem so they sent her to the Misacordia hospital Sunday night for an MRI of her head to see if maybe the calcium or the cancer had caused a pressure point in her head to cause the legs to not function. The MRI did not show anything. Cathy stayed in the emergency in Stony Plain Sunday night and then was transferred to the Cross Hospital today to see Dr Sawyer. They tried to do another MRI on her whole back and could not do it as Cathys back was in too much pain. They have transferred her back to Stony Plain hospital tonight and they are trying to get ahold of her family doctor so she can be admitted in Stony Plain Hospital. The family is going to contact Dr Baily (the doctor who diagnosed the cancer) tomorrow to try to get her admitted into the Royal Alex Hospital where she worked and then maybe the testing will get done faster and with less frustration for Cathy. I am going to Edmonton tomorrow to spend the day with Cathy just for moral support.

On a better note the first 2 1/2 days I had with Cathy were awesome. She was up all day, visiting and in good spirits. Cathy Brown,who quite often blogs for us to keep us up to date, has made Cathy the most awesome comforter. She took squares of fabric to the hospital and the nurses and doctors wrote their thoughts and prayers for Cathy and then she quilted them all together. It is quite something. It certainly says something for the way Cathy is admired by her co-workers.

John, Larry, Jeff (Bob's son) and Steve got busy on Saturday and built a ramp into the house to make it easier for Cathy to get it and out of the house with her legs playing out like they are. That took alot of stress off Cathy as we have dropped her a couple times in the last week when she would lose her footing. I will try to blog again tomorrow if I come back home, if not Wednesday night. Love you all! Sandy