Christmas at the ER

Merry Christmas Everyone!

These are pictures from Christmas Eve since we spent the majority of Christmas at the ER. We had a great Christmas Eve. We woke up to hot cranberry-orange muffins that Marjorie had baked. We went to church, watched 2 movies, one about the Star of Bethlehem and the other was the funny classic A Christmas Story. We continued to make ornaments using paint, pens and glitter glue. We even made a few shrinky dink ornaments. Then we followed the Stradley Christmas Eve cheating rule and we all got to open one present each. Marjorie had crocheted really cute beanie hats for everyone, so we opened those. Since Jason and I already had our beanies we opened other gifts. I opened a beautiful pair of earrings that my mom got from "A Greater Gift." This company helps fight poverty by allowing people from around the world to sell their crafts through fair trade. Here is the website if anyone is interested.

www.agreatergift.org

They have some wonderful gifts and its for a good cause! Jason opened Lance Armstrong's "It's Not About the Bike" in audio. Since he is having trouble with his eyesight, I thought the book on CDs was a good idea for him. Marjorie and I both read the book and really liked it so hopefully Jason will like it too.

On Christmas morning, Marjorie, Terry, Becky and I made two different quiches. One vegetarian and one for the meat eaters that even had apple in it. They tasted great. We also had a cocktail made up of champagne, orange juice and grenadine, and sliced oranges with cinnamon. We had just started our first round of present opening which included Jason and I passing out the flying monkeys that Kristy sent us. Flying monkeys were going everywhere...it was a blast. Unfortunately Jason made a sudden ducking movement to avoid an out of control flying monkey and all of a sudden everything went black in his left eye (the one with the tumor). Then he started to get such an intense pain...so bad that is caused a severe headache and continuous vomiting. All 8 of us rushed him to the ER. We suspected that his retina had detached.

We got to the ER and it was pretty empty so they took us right back. Its funny how no one has emergencies on Christmas. You know that the people who were there really needed to be there. We saw the ER doctor and he was honest with us and told us he didn't know much about examining the eye. He could see Jason's tumor and that's about it. He was kind enough to put Jason on IV fluids, pain, and nausea medication. But the pain was so bad, the pain medicine didn't even make a dent. Jason's face was drenched in sweat as well, either from the morphine or the pain, I'm not sure which. They called up the on-call Opthamologist and on-call Melanoma Medical Oncologist. Both showed up about 2 hours later...an excruciating 2 hour wait for poor Jason.

Both doctors were great. The Opthamologist checked Jason's eye and said it looked like the retina had detached. He said that while the tumor was growing, it was getting slowly detached and it had probably more completely detached and that was why Jason could no longer see any light in that eye. He said that a detached retina is not painful so he checked the interocular pressure (IOP) in both of Jason's eyes. Jason's right eye was 11, his left eye was 54. Normal is from 8 to 20. The Opthamologist said that Jason's tumor was causing glaucoma which was causing the intense pain. He thought the IOP could be easily brought down through medication and eye drops. He was wrong...

We started with 2 kinds of eye drops, put in Jason's eye every 5 minutes for 30 minutes. Then he checked the pressure and it had dropped down to 47. This was a promising start, so he added another 2 types of drops and continued to put 4 drops into Jason's eyes every 5 minutes for another 30 minutes. When he checked the IOP again, it was still at 47...not good. So then he gave Jason an IV diuretic. It had to be ordered from the central pharmacy and took 45 minutes to get to the ER. The Opthamologist waited for 45 minutes after the diuretic had been given, then checked Jason's IOP again, no change. So he then discussed with all the other doctors if a really really strong diuretic should be used. The risk was his blood pressure could drop significantly and his IOP in the other eye could drop too low and cause problems. Jason was is so much pain, we just said hurry up, we'll try anything. So we had to wait another 45 minutes for the medication to show up from the central pharmacy. This diuretic had to be infused for 1 and a half hours. Then the Opthamologist had to wait an additional half hour before he measured the IOP again. After all this, NO CHANGE. The Opthamologist told us he had never seen a patient not respond to this medication.

Meanwhile, the whole entire family is waiting in the ER waiting rooms. Only one person was allowed back with Jason. So I continuously ran out to give them updates. Finally, at 11 pm Christmas night, the Opthamologist said he gave up and to come back to his clinic in the morning. He didn't know what else to do outside of surgery or taking Jason's eye out. They handed me some diuretics for Jason to continue to take at home, 3 types of eye drops, and told me to ramp up his pain meds a lot. We finally made it home at 11:59 PM Christmas Evening. Oh Boy! Jason and I were very depressed about missing Christmas. He was in pain and we had both been looking forward to Christmas for weeks, we were heartbroken. Thank god the rest of the family was there to support us. I don't know what we would have done without them. It was definitely one of the most stressful and difficult days we have been through so far. I was starting to feel sick, the stress from seeing my husband in so much pain and being in the ER for 10 and a half hours was starting to take a toll. I asked if Terry and Marjorie could take Jason into the clinic in the morning. When we woke up, Jason's eye was extremely red, and very, very swollen. It looked like a severe allergic reaction. I got Jason dressed and Marjorie and Terry took him to the clinic along with my Dad.

You will have to read Marjorie's next blog to hear all the details from the clinic visit. It sounds like after much hassle, multiple Opthamologists looked at and discussed Jason and they were able to get in some radiologists that were on-call to come in and they all decided it was time for Jason to start radiation in his left eye to shrink the tumor and get him out of pain. My Dad called me and told me the plan, and the rest of us hurried to the hospital to be there for Jason. They did a CT scan on his eye so they knew exactly where to target the radiation. They made a mask to protect the rest of his face. Then they gave him his first radiation treatment. The radiation treatment itself only took about 15 minutes. There was quite a bit of prep time, but in the future everything will be already set up and should go much quicker.

When we finally got home, it was about 4:30 in the afternoon. It was finally time to open presents!!! Unfortunately, Jason was pretty doped up from the high amount of morphine and dilaudid we had to give him to try to keep him as comfortable as possible. He could barely stay awake. We decided to let him open all his gifts first so he could go back to sleep. We both made out! He got Rock Band 2 complete with a bass guitar and cymbal expansion pack. We both got a really nice Garmin GPS. We have been spoiled using Marjories the whole time we have been in Houston so now we will have our own. We both got a multitude of great giftcards, books, Jason got a video game (Gears of War 2) and computer game (Spore), and I got a pair of comfy boots, a pretty necklace, scarf and hat. We also got Wall-e and Dark Knight on Blu-Ray. Jason got me a beautiful set of pearl earrings I will forever cherish. I think everyone was pretty happy with their gifts. Santa was good to us!

Thank Yous

I have so many people to thank. I planned on calling a lot of people on Christmas day, but unfortunately that didn't work out. We got quite a few gifts in the mail right before Christmas and that was great because Christmas itself didn't go so well. I would love to send out thank you notes to everyone, but the upcoming week is going to be very busy. Jason is scheduled for radiation appointments every single day including over the weekend and I have to work really hard at getting him admitted into the TIL study as soon as possible. So for now, consider this my deepest and sincerest "Thank You!" You are all much loved and appreciated.

Jason and I wanted to thank Zack and family for the amazing box of presents. The fudge was delicious that I assume Lauren made. I can't believe it managed to stay cold! Jason and I had a lot of fun eating the types of candies we haven't had in years. The teas were great too. My mom and I are hooked on the ginger tea, and I just tried the sugar plum last night and loved it. I will have to buy more of those if I can find them. I am a little worried about the puzzles, but Jason is excited. Jason and Marjorie had to talk me into doing a 1000 piece puzzle last time, and now we have 2 different Van Gogh 2000 piece puzzles. I'm a little apprehensive, but the rest of the Jensen's are puzzle people and are up to the challenge. We will post pictures when (if?, hehe) we get each puzzle completed. Thanks again for everything!

Thank you Andy for the great Vegetarian cookbook from Sonoma. I've only had a chance to glance at it because of everything that has happened, but it looks like there are some delicious recipes. I particularly like some of the soup recipes and I think they will be very nutritious for Jason. We also really liked the kind message you wrote inside.

My Grandpa doesn't have Internet, but he sent a very generous card and I wanted to thank him and send him all my love and tell him I miss him.

Thanks to the Beals for the gifts from Hawaii. The pancake mix sounds like it will make delicious pancakes and the body spray smells like I'm on a tropical island.

Deven, Jason wanted to thank you for the gift card. It was very generous of you! I hope you and your family had a great Christmas and that Santa was good to Katie!

I also wanted to re-thank the Woods. My sister mentioned your gifts in her blog, but I wanted to thank you too. I will take a picture of the personalized puzzle of our house when we get it completed so you can see what it looks like. That was a great gift idea!

I was also hoping to call the Croaks and wish them a Merry Christmas, but since I wasn't able to, I will do it now. I hope you had a great one!

Also, Merry Christmas to the Domers and Culls! We missed you guys but heard you had a good time at Carols house.

Last but not least, I want to thank Marjorie, Terry, Mom, Dad, Becky, Cora and Lorren. I don't know what Jason and I would have done without you here for us on Christmas. Things did not go how we had planned...we never even got the chance to make the Christmas dinner we planned, but we managed to have a great week with you visiting and your support got us through a very difficult couple of days. Jason and I are very lucky to have Team Jensen!!! We also loved all the wonderful presents you showered us with!

Jason got through his second radiation appointment today just fine. He has been sleeping most of the day. He is still on a lot of pain medicines which is probably why he is so sleepy. He did say the pain went down from an 8 to a 5 so that is a great start! Unfortunately, he will lose his vision permanently in his left eye and there is a risk of losing his eye itself as a side effect from the treatment, or they might have to surgically remove his eye and the tumor if the radiation doesn't work. Since the pain has decreased, I am thinking that the radiation must be working so I am very hopeful he will get to keep his beautiful left eye. I also had the Opthamologist do a thorough examination of his right eye and it is perfect. No sign of any metastasis so that is good news! Sorry for the very long blog and Merry Christmas!