More Good News

Mom spoke with Dr. Ott today. He suggested she go without using the feeding tube this week. If she can go all week without losing weight, she can have it removed next Tuesday! This means she will have to be diligent in eating. She can't eat more than a cup of food at a time, and needs to wait an hour or so in between. For instance, yesterday she had a 1 chocolate covered strawberry. She then tried to eat a little bit of ice cream. It was just too much and she threw up the ice cream. She did mention to Dr Ott about having trouble keeping food down when she laughs. He said, "Perhaps from now on you'll just have to eat with really boring people". :)
It will be a challenge to get enough calories through the day and still get enough water. Water fills up her stomach fairly quickly so there's no room for food. We may use the feeding tube for the water at first to help her keep her calorie intake up.
She also had a visit with Dr. Whisenant (the oncologist) yesterday. He said her iron levels are back up to normal and everything looked good. She has a CT scan scheduled for mid July. Since this type of cancer is known to return, they want to keep on top of it. They don't expect to find anything this time but want to use this CT scan as a base line. She will have to have these scans fairly often over the next few years just to make sure everything stays normal.
Dad also got good news. He had an appointment with his cardiologist yesterday. All his tests came back with good results. The Doc said dad has a strong heart and doesn't see any signs of ever having a heart attack. Dad was told he had a heart attack during his bypass surgery several years ago but according to all the tests, he has either healed perfectly or he never really had a heart attack. He's starting dad back on his blood pressure medication just as a precautionary measure. It's not overly high, but it is borderline so he doesn't want to take any chances.
With all this good news, mom and dad are in really good moods. Not that they were in bad moods before, but it seems as if a weight has lifted and there is a light at the end of the tunnel.