Kobacker House

Dad has been transferred to Kobacker House. It is a small inpatient hospice care center with an excellent reputation. We were very hopeful he would go here and are thankful the transfer was arranged so quickly and that they had a bed available for him.

Today was very bittersweet. Dad spent most of the day (and last night) sleeping peacefully. They stopped waking him to take vitals so he got his first full night's rest in, literally, nine weeks. But, there was a period this evening when he was wide awake and very lucid and had us all laughing hysterically. I hope everyone who cares for Dad has a moment like that with him.

Throughout the day and last night many nurses and PCAs stopped in to goodbye to dad and to say really nice things about him/ how much they enjoyed him. It was nice to see how they had grown to care for dad - nurses rearranged schedules to see him, they fought over who would care for him and even came in on their days off to say good bye. He really did receive great care at the James and we're grateful for all they did for him.

Here's the address for the Kobacker House, should you need it.

Kobacker House
3595 Olentangy River Road
Columbus, Ohio 43214

Thanks again for your continued love and support.

April 12 Update

Things can change in an instant. They sure did for all of us when we heard dad had AML. And, they did again today when we heard that the leukemia has again spread to dad's bloodstream. If you remember, his post-chemo bone marrow biopsy showed leukemia cells still in his marrow. Since then, the leukemia has done its dirty work and spread. Dad's blood counts had decreased over the last week, but yesterday was the first time they noticed an indication of leukemia in the blood.

If dad were well enough, the doctors would recommend the next course of treatment - chemo, bone marrow transplant - but he is not. He's still quite ill and they can't seem to fix him. It seems that perhaps parts of his body are done fighting before we expected.

The entire family (sans Jon) gathered in the hospital room with dad to hear the options from the doctor. After hearing the grim reality of the situation - that, given his type of AML a chance of achieving remission from chemo is around 20% and with a transplant is around 40% - and the fact that there is no possibility of such treatment any time in the near future because he's ill, Dad has decided to change the focus of his care to hospice care.

We support and completely understand the decision. Tomorrow they'll start the process of moving him to a hospice facility and in the mean time will change his care to focus on comfort and not treatment.

It's obviously a difficult time for all of us. I'll update when we know where he'll be staying.

April 8 Update

I apologize that it's been so long since the last update. In some ways things not much has changed so there hasn't been much to share. Dad remains at the James to tackle his intestinal issues related to Ogilvie Syndrome.

Ogilvie syndrome, or acute colonic pseudo-obstruction (ACPO), is a clinical disorder with the signs, symptoms, and radiographic appearance of an acute large bowel obstruction but with no evidence of distal colonic obstruction. The colon may become massively dilated and must be "decompressed."

So, the past week or so has been spent trying different methods to decompress Dad's colon and get it back into action again. A procedure on Thursday went well and will likely be repeated on Monday.

I asked a nurse what would cause such a serious case of Ogilvie Syndrome and if it was a side effect of the chemo or being so ill or what. She said many chemo patients have gut problems, though Dad's case is unusual, and that if he had been well enough to leave the hospital and walk around it would likely be a different scenario. But, it's not a direct result of the chemo, and more likely from being so ill and essentially bedridden.

Dad has returned to dialysis treatments, but not for blood cleansing and only to remove fluid. (Sorry, I forget the particular name of it!)

I promise that I will keep you updated when things change.