Steve in hospital and latest information

We saw Dr. Ottenheimer/Roseburg Tuesday afternoon for blood test. Dr. Nichols was very concerned over Steve's hip pain and his trouble walking. So he confered with Dr. Nichols and we headed back to Portland Tuesday night vx. our supposed chemo treatment date on Thursday.

Steve's hip pain as advanced to the severity he had in December. And we haven't been able to control the pain with our pain meds. Plus he is having trouble walking and we are using the wheelchair more. He is dragging his foot as well. So added up, Dr wanted to see Steve asap.

He arrived Tuesday night late (midnight) and a battery of tests were scheduled. But only the CT-Scan was done, due to his hip pain and his inability to lie still on the bed for tests.

Thursday AM:2/28/08


Still no news on the CT-Scan-Dr. Nichols came in to see Steve, but he didn't address the results of the findings. He wants to do more testing.
In the meantime, Steve started having very bad pain about 9:30 p.m. last night and we've been up all night fighting the pain. He's hooked up
to a morphine drip machine, they give him oxycodone every hour, and they put shots of morphine into his IV every 3 hours. He's in such pain
that he can't lie in bed--due to the pain in his hip. So I figured out how to arrange pillows in one of his hospital room chairs. So for the past hour
he's sleeping in the chair, with his legs outstretched onto the bed. He's probably gotten around an hour of sleep the entire night and only 2-3 hours
in the past 48 hours. We are both so exhausted and that isn't a good thing!

So the nurses are calling the doctor on call for more pain meds and different ideas of how to control the pain, since it has come on so fast!
They may try accupunture and other alternative ways of pain management. They are calling in a pain management guy today.

I finally left the hospital at 5:15 a.m and he looked like he might be sleeping. So I am asking for continued prayer that the DR figure out
how to control the pain, what is the cause (other than cancer in the hip area) and how they are going to treat it.

Steve is in room 713 in the new Cancer Care unit at Providence, but I really don't want him to receive phone calls until he gets more
sleep and they get the pain managed.

God is on the Throne and I do not know what the future holds, but I do know who holds Our future!!

Thanks so much for your prayers and wonderful loving support. As I get more information I'll let all of you know.