Work gets done in Door County

Last week Dad didn't have a chemotherapy treatment because his platelets were too low. He referred to the low platelets as his "get out of jail free card". They left for Door County on Thursday afternoon following Mom's PT for her elbow.

My parents were joined in Door County by my Aunt Mary and Uncle John. Also, Tom and Jan and the spouse of another Rexnord co-worker helped out on Saturday. Stairs were built to replace the extension ladder! (That's Tom coming down the new stairs.) Upper kitchen cabinets were installed.

On Monday, the hardwood floor installation began. My dad is helping out the contractor my parents hired to put in the floor. A portion of the wood was milled from trees cleared from the building site.


Back at home new flooring was installed in the entry hall and down the basement stairs. It looks great!

Help on the homefront

Following the second chemotherapy treatment, my parents had a houseful of help! My dad's brother-in-law put together a work crew of family and friends to help get some projects done at my parents' house. Some significant demolition work was done, so we'll keep you updated as that work progresses. Thanks to all who made time in their busy schedules to help out, especially to John for organizing everything.

On Sunday we received the sad news that a former Associate Paster of our parish died of a massive heart attack at age 41. On St. Valentine's Day my family along with my parents attended Fr. Dave's funeral. Fr. Dave's obituary on FOX6 can be seen here. The obituary from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about Fr. Dave can be read here.

Getting back to Door County

The first chemotherapy treatment left my dad tired Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday. In spite of that, my parents did manage to get up to Door County on Saturday. They installed a ceiling fan and did some painting!

Chemotherapy starts

Dad had his first chemotherapy treatment yesterday. My mom went with him. Today he was very tired.

My dad and mom also saw Dr. Ritch yesterday. Dad will be seeing him once a month. Dr. Ritch had a different pathologist look at the slides of the samples taken during my dad's surgery. Dr. Ritch's pathologist found the tumor in the gallbladder to be benign! Also, the samples of the studding in the peritineum were all negative for cancer, too! Because the lymph nodes have cancer in them, however, the prognosis hasn't changed. It is still metastatic terminal cancer.

(A dictionary of cancer terms is available at the National Cancer Institute Website.)

Also, my mom saw the surgeon about her elbow recently. The bad news is that her injury extended to both sides of the elbow. Only one side was repaired during the surgery. When Mom asked the doctor why he didn't fix both sides, he explained that both sides can't be repaired at the same time. That type of repair would lead to a stiff elbow. For now she is limited to lifting no more than 10 pounds, so she can still lift Tilly! Mom will begin physical therapy next week.