Monday

Craig had a pretty good night last night.  Sleeping by virtue of another drug added to the regimen. When I spoke with him this morning, he had just had the doctors come in and ask him if he was going to do the octreotide shot or continue treatment. Craig said he didn't think so and they talked to him about the fact that he can't stay here unless he's undergoing treatment.  They talked about sending him home with the glucose bag on a pole and having a home health nurse stop by to check on him a few times a week.  He does not want to come home and put the burden on me to be the nurse.  It would be 24 hours a day, every 2 hour blood sugar checks and worries about eating and keeping levels ok.  We would be back to the same problem we had before; worrying about blood sugars, the picc line and possible infections and forced eating.  The meeting with the doctors and PAs and NPs was abrupt and unexpected.  We did not anticipate this happening today.  Huntsman really still doesn't have the blood sugars under control enough that we would feel comfortable being away from the hospital.  Today his blood sugars have dropped to 70s twice and he required a D50 shot each time.

Chase and I spent the day talking to Craig about options and what is the best thing for him right now. We talked about hospice and what that would entail.  He could go to an inpatient hospice and stay on the glucose drip until he was ready to turn it off.  We talked about continuing to the 2nd radioembolization in a few weeks.  This week Craig is worried about Mitch and Maddie and not wanting to create stress for them as Mitch takes his test.  We also talked about the octreotide shot which may be a good option right now.  It would be fairly easy to try and we would see pretty immediate results.  It affects the hormones secreted from the tumors and could possibly make a difference in the blood sugar levels.  It also could turn him into a diabetic, the opposite of his problem now.  All these things have consequences and effects which may be hard to take or unpleasant for his quality of life.  He is between a rock and a hard space and it's pretty scary for him to decide which option is best.  Hopefully, as he sleeps on it the answer will become clearer.  The stress is definitely higher when we don't have a plan.