Keeping up with the Kenningtons

Every morning when I go into work I have a song or two that goes through my mind. Lately it's been a song by Jim Reaves that's called, "Welcome to My World." It starts, "Welcome to my world, won't you come on in? Miracles I guess, still happen now and then."

We've had quite the month. We saw Dr. David Bull January 6th. He is a surgeon that was just appointed with the Huntsman Cancer Institute. He felt he could go in and remove the tumor in Lu's right lung without any problems. We thought she should have another scan first because they only saw the lump in her shoulder on one scan. He agreed and she had a scan the evening of the 8th. On the 10th Dr. Bull left a message saying everything was good to go. (That's about all the message said) On Monday the 13th his assistant James called and said surgery was scheduled for Wednesday. Needless to say, we didn't have much time to think about it.

Lu had the spot in her lung and the lump in her right shoulder removed on January 15th. She spent four days in the hospital. She came home with oxygen and still needs it. She is having a hard time with her breathing, but she was doing fine for a while.

Then, last Thursday night she was awakened with a sharp pain in her back and side. She made it through until I got up for work, then let me know what was happening. She was in so much pain she was crying. By the time I got ready for work she said she was feeling better but would call me if anything happened.

I called Loni and had her come over and be with Lu, but when I called home about 8:45 Loni said mom was still in a lot of pain.

I came home (my work has been so good to work with me. Thanks Progrexion!) and we went up to the Acute Care facility at Huntsman and had Lu checked out. They did more blood work and got some out of her port but had to draw some through a vein. That was very hard and painful because both hands blew out while she was in the hospital. It still took the nurse two times to get it, but she did. Then they took x-rays and did a scan. They were afraid she had a blood clot in her lung. (She doesn't)

Let me see if I can explain what is happening like this: Whenever something is taken from our body, our body naturally sends "stuff" to fill the hole. (The same thing happens when you sprang your ankle.) In this case, when they took out the section of Lu's lung the body sent a bunch of fluid to fill the space. The problem is; it is sending too much fluid. The only place the fluid can go is between the lining of her lungs and the other organs in her body. (It started around her liver) Because it doesn't have a particular place to go it floats around and moves to the lowest spot whenever Luann moves.

Maybe you remember the squeeze toys we used to have that were filled with some kind of liquid? You squeeze them and the fluid bulges out where ever it has the least resistance. You can make all sorts of bulges and shapes depending on where you put the resistance.

That's what's happening inside Luann, except she can't control where the resistance is. Any time she moves all that liquid shifts and forces something else to move. It's very painful.

There is a possibility they can drain it, but when we were up there Thursday they gave us the impression it would dissipate quickly. They also told us we should either go back up Friday or wait until Monday. It wouldn't do us much good to go up over the weekend. (We didn't even think about the Super Bowl)
For now, we make sure she has her pain med's every three hours and hope it gets better.  

We are very grateful for such wonderful friends and family. They take such good care of us. We are blessed in so many ways. It's easy to complain, and it's hard to tell everyone what's going on without sounding like we're complaining, but the truth is; we are blessed way beyond what we're going through. Every day something happens or someone does something that brings more blessings. What a wonderful life!

Thank you for all of your prayers, thoughts, and acts of kindness. We feel each of them. We are grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior that knows, loves and supports us. What a wonderful world.

Ken