The One Year Anniversary

As I have written a number of times, this time frame is my gauntlet.  While I was in China, two dates passed by. 

• Mar 22:  Mary's symptoms of Cholangiocarcinoma presented while we were in Denver (2009).
  Last week, I flew on March 19, arriving China on March 20.  And, frankly, was so busy on the trip I totally forgot about the two year anniversary of Mary's presentation of symptoms.  I am not feeling guilty, just noting that it passed without my notice. However, I did go to Denver a week before China partly in honor of that two year mark. 

• Mar 26:  Mary was admitted to Stanford for the last time (2010)
  This one I remembered.  When you take someone to the hospital, you take them with the hope of recovering from the ailment.  In Mary's case, the trip to Stanford on the 26th was the last trip to the hospital where she died on April 8. 
  You can read the entry from that date by clicking here.
  Also you can read all of the month of March 2010 by clicking here.   
  Finally, you can read the month of March 2009 by clicking here.

I talked to Reenie today.  We reminisced about the 26th. It was the day we needed to get Mary to Stanford at 11:30AM for her "sick call" in the Cancer Center.  It was a terrible moment with Mary as we did not understand her liver was in the process of failing.  And, a failing liver does not remove morphine at the normal rate, rather at a much reduced rate.  Thus, Mary was in drug overdose as her liver's functioning began to slip away.  It made the task of getting her ready to go to Stanford very difficult.  


But, we did get her ready and we did get her to Stanford.  And, unfortunately, the CA 19-9 test had skyrocketed back up to the 2,000 level from the approximately 300 level on Feb 22nd.  The doctors did not tell us of this test result until it was clear none of the known possible treatments would have an impact--that took until March 31.  More about that later.  


Ciao, 

p