Last Entry Barring Complications

Well, Tom's home now, and looking ok. He now weighs 138 pounds, same as when he was a sophomore in high school. That's just a little annoying. All that weight watchers and now he can eat whatever his little heart desires for the entire holiday season and be just fine and dandy. If he gains the average 5 pounds a year that most Americans gain he'll be able to go 3 years and still be a Weight Watchers Lifetime Member.

Home at Last

Today at about 2:30 Tom finally got discharged. He is tired but hanging in there.

Surprise visitors

So when Liia heard about the illness of her dad and her grandfather she was pretty distraught so we decided to bring her home for Thanksgiving after all, that she will have to forego the holiday with Julia, but on the bright side she will have my turkey (made with pop pop's recipe, foolproof, perfect and yummy every single time) and get to hang out with the relatives for a bit. She surprised her dad, he cried. She surprised her grandfather, he remembered her name (but decided she'd be a better Mary), and then surprised Onu Jaan and Granny and Vanaisa. Not bad for a few bucks.

Tentative Discharge.

Saw the good Dr. Silver this morning and he says Tom can go home tomorrow, he only has to accomplish one more rather critical thing. His pipes have been reconnected and the top part is working, he can drink without puking, he can chew and swallow, but he needs to make sure the whole system flows freely. So there's a very elegant way of letting the entire world know that Tom is eagerly awaiting his first intense potty experience. Nice. Kind of like having a newborn. Only now its on the Net.

Why the marching band, you may ask? It's not just because you can see half of the massive Strath Haven marching army (yes, that's Gusten on quints waving at us). Rather (or, additionally) It's because today, right now, as I typed this post I received the following text from Tom. "Good news! I had a bowl movement!!"

Nice. Typos and all. wonder where he put the bowl?

Food Glorious Food, but still no WiFi

I do believe it is possible that Tom will be returning home at some point in the near future (oh no!! I need to clean!!!!). Today they pulled his catheter, so he's down to just an IV, so he can still have good pain control and positive humor. The morphine also helps keep him at a semi-normal accelerated human pace, so its all good.

He can eat and drink, had a chicken breast and carrots for dinner, ate every bite, which is funny because heretofore Tom has hated carrots. As my grandfather used to say, if you are hungry enough anything will be satisfactory. He had a lovely time circling his menu for tomorrow breakfast, made a spread sheet to consider all his options and tray positions (complete with elaborate diagrams) to try to fit every single menu item on one tray.

He went upstairs on the elevator to see dad today and (I think) he was allowed to go with only a sibling chaperone!! Who knows how he'll handle this new independence.

Nurses

Now that he has moved to the third floor Tom is really appreciating the exceptional quality of the fifth floor nurses. One of them, Musawa (??) from Sierra Leone came down to visit him last night and took him for a walk on her break. Very nice. She is the same nurse who gave Tom's dad his IV when Dad was determined that his nurse Fred was a hypnotist. His other favorite was Kim who took him for his first walk, and now is his Dad's nurse. Both of them are pictured above. As well as the movie of his first walk if I can get it to load, then you can see Kim in action.

NEW CONTACT INFORMATION and FOOOOOOD (of a sort)

Tom called me this morning at about 9 to announce with great joy that he has had his first nutritional substance in his mouth since last Sunday night. I never knew anyone could be so excited about apple juice and jello. 

Tom is moving to a new room on the third floor. The census is down at the hospital so they are closing his side of the floor and moving the few remaining patients. This is supposed to be a cost saving endeavor, but it takes so much manpower to move patients around I think it's only a paper savings. They are not spending on nursing, but they are tripling up on the nonprofessional staff. I suspect this is a union issue. I know that there is a big conspiracy in hospitals (well in this hospital anyway) because Tom's dad has been filling me in on their inner workings. Clearly when you put an engineer in an illogical situation he or she must use all of their prodigious mental skills to make sense of a nonsensical world. Dad has been having some vivid dreams and he is using analysis and logic to sort all of the data and he has developed a highly elaborate understanding of the inner workings of the medical system, including how doctors live and collude with one another, how hospitals can be forced to close down, and how this all fits together. I got to spend 5 hours with him last night and the continuing force of his determination and will and drive are amazing. He is still terribly concerned with his children and looking out for their futures.

Tom's new room number is 366 bed 2 and his new phone number is 610-284-8819. But the really BIG mystery is......IS THERE INTERNET???? Just in case anyone isn't clear, he's in Delaware County Memorial Hospital

Tom, With and Without Morphine

As you can see from these photos, Tom has had a rough time of it today. The picture on the top is Tom without his epidural and prior to IV morphine drip. Doesn't he look agonized?? The photo on the bottom was taken about 5 minutes after his first serious morphine infusion. AAAHhhhhhhh. Much much better. Actually, the picture on the top is something of a lie. He didn't have any pain meds there, but the look on his face was induced by watching old DVDs of the Honeymooners, and this was during the episode called Sleepwalkers in which Norton sleepwalks and Ralph has to try to follow him, slipping on banana peels and hiding the apartment key. But the second photo really is of him on drugs. No fried egg reference necessary.

A Very Rough Day, Pain Threshold Tested, and Stretched!!!

Tom called this morning saying he was in tremendous pain. Turns out that 2 things happened. First in the night his bladder catheter became kinked and then flow ceased and things got full and pressed on his internal incision (Ouch) which made him restless in the night which made him wiggle which made him RIP OUT his epidural!!!!!!!! 

Problem is, the only person who can evaluate an epidural is the anesthesiologist, not a nurse and not a surgeon and not any of the other doctors, and apparently anesthesiologists don't work til 3 on Fridays. He had no pain medication of any kind until now (not even yet and its 6:30) and no one even evaluated his situation until 5, so he not only had no help, he had no sympathy either, and the regular staff was off and the new nurses weren't very kind to him (because they thought he was a drug-seeking whiner with an epidural) but instead her was really and truly suffering in a huge way. 

The fact that he's been 4 days without a shave or shower doesn't help either. 

Finally the anesthesiologist came and said, "oops, my bad," Well, actually, "oops, your bad." but too bad for tom, because now that its out, even one day early, they won't put it back in, and his pain free days are over.

Don't feel too sorry for him, however, well, feel very sorry for him for today, but don't feel too sorry for him for tonight, because he is about to get an IV morphine drip, so any time tonight or tomorrow will be a good time to call and ask him all those deeply probing questions you always wanted to ask, and to get him to sign all kinds of legal documents giving away his possessions and guaranteeing the hire of all your friends who wish to apply to the School District of Haverford Township.

They unkinked his pee tube earlier today, so no overflow. 

AND one piece of good news, he has belly sounds and they took out his nose tube! He looks pretty good, but there is a red spot on the tip of his schnoz where the tape was, so now her really is the the Red-Nosed Rudolph.

More to follow. Please keep those calls and visits coming, its getting hard for him to be here now, and you know, tomorrow is his 54th birthday. It'd be a great time to inundate him with phone calls, since he has no internet.

HE STANDS!!!!

This is Tom doing his Underdog impersonation. He was hoping to fly away, but had to stroll instead. There will be a video of him walking in a bit. He was a little tippy at first, but then he stabilized himself.

Tom Practices Sitting Still (does he look like he's conducting?)

The lesson for all of us, that I didn't post below...

Turns out that if Tom had delayed on his colonoscopy to the 5 years the insurance company had suggested or even until after his winter concerts and Australia trip he would have had a much larger and more serious situation to deal with. The lesson? Information is GOOD, and swift informed action saves lives.

Enough preaching, already, I know....

Even MORE Good News, with a lesson for the rest of us.

The oncology results are in!!!! Both spots in Tom's colon were cancerous, AND they were both completely contained within the intestinal walls!!!!! He is cured, by a knife. Dr. McCoy would say, "Jim, they were just savages back in the 21st century, slicing people open to take things out." But we are all darn grateful for this primitive technology and excellent sewing skills of the good Dr. Silver.

I am in the hospital now, he still has that numb leg thing going on, but he is sitting in a chair and reports that he is starving. Its really funny, today's nurse (not the lovely Vicky, but a similarly spunky Caroline) told Tom that of course she will have him up walking today, but by degrees. First he gets to practice sitting in a chair for an hour. I just love the thought of Tom sitting still in a chair for an hour. Actually, this will finish redistributing the epidural meds so he can have pain control and motor control simultaneously. He plans to walk over to see his dad this afternoon.

He still has his elephant tube, gets a new dressing today, so maybe I'll be here when they do it so I can see if he actually had surgery or if this is a sneaky new Weight Watchers Thanksgiving prep where he fasts for 4 days under doctors' care and then gets to eat everything he wants while maintaining his lifetime membership weight range.

More after the walk.

Info from Wednesday

There is wireless internet service in DCMH. There is wireless in the main tower. There is wireless on the fifth floor. There is wireless at the 5th floor nurses' station. There is wireless in Tom's dad's room, but there is NO wireless in Tom's room. Maybe God is sending him a message. Anyway, the lack of wireless is why this post is so delayed.

Saw Dr. Silver this morning. Tom is now allowed to eat ice chips and lozenges, but no liquids or foods yet. He still had his nose tube. Bob checked out, and someone moved in tonight, I think. Dr. Silver said he removed about 10 inches of Tom's colon. He got the entire tumor which was a couple of centimeters diameter, and also removed another thickening nearby. He removed the cyst on Tom's liver, and his liver looks completely clean. Tom's left leg has been completely numb since he came down because his epidural is dripping that way, so today Tom stopped pumping his pain meds to try to get his leg to thaw so he can walk. He is now almost 24 hours behind Brad Shoener's walking after 4 hours routine. He had a somewhat lame nurse today who wouldn't help him get up, said he has too many tubes, but his night nurse Vicky is amazing and she will help him tomorrow for sure. She looks like a black Jessica Rabbit. She is terrific.

He's very happy with everyone dropping by adn leaving posts. I go to the nurses' station when I'm there and open all the web pages to show the content and your wonderful comments. Thanks for your support. Keep those calls adn letters coming!!!

Tom Rudolph: Sick or Not? You be the judge

Joel commented in his post that maybe Tom is not sick. He may have a point. AFter all, we haven't seen an incision. Here is a picture taken last night. He is on the phone with Jerry Hogan (his mentor, friend, drum corps afficionado and child fav)chatting up a storm while the nurse gets her evening assessments. See him smiling? Does he look like a man who just had surgery? The nurse herself commented that he has WAYYYYY too much energy and she couldn't believe how well he was doing. She planned to give him sleeping medicine to turn him off. Of course, in his left hand he is also holding (and pressing) his epidural pain button. So maybe his brilliant first day is a testimony to modern pain management, Tom's exceptional conditioning (he just ran a half marathon), the triumph of prayer and the human spirit, or maybe this is all a fake so he can get his keynote written. WHAT DO YOU THINK???

the boys wait for tom

CONTACT INFORMATION!!!!

Tom is in room 565 bed 2 and his phone number is 610-284-8527. He'll be there for 5-7 days.

Thanks again for all your support.

Tom comes to his room in typical fashion

This has been a day of many adventures. After Dr. Silver came and told me the good news he said Tom was awake and talking up a storm and would be in a room within the hour. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. Finally they told me what room he would be in and i took the kids and Jaan and went THERE to wait. We met his lovely roomie Bob and waited some more. Finally at about 5:30 he came off the elevator, chatting up a storm with his nurse. Of course they knew 10 of the same people.

He is not groggy. He is not in pain. He has an epidural with a little pain killing button to push and he is doing great. His blood pressure is fine. His mouth is super dry, but maybe that is because he has been talking nonstop!! Well, it's also because of all the surgery stuff.

Interestingly enough, also waiting in the waiting room with me was Tom's other best friend from high school, Mike Hamilton, whose wife had her hip replaced today. She is 3 doors down from Tom, so Mike has already been in to see Tom and tell our sons about the time he, Tom McFadden and Tommy Rudolph took a suitcase of gin, tonic and ice to hitch-hike to the shore and made cocktails for themselves and the people who picked them up. And that was just the beginning!!

Tom's father is also on this floor, and they have called each other, which is pretty cool for both of them. Tom and he made a date to go for a walk tomorrow, so SJ Rudolph will be taking his son on his first steps for the second time in his life.

Here is the final really funny thing. Tom had a long time to wait in recovery because they had a Code 13 (psychiatric emergency) and all the transport people had to go and subdue the aggressive person(s) involved. To pass the time he asked for pencil and paper and made 2 full pages of notes. Sounds like our boy is bouncing back!! Contemplating clouds is not on the list, (a John Dunphy recommended recovery activity) but I thought you might enjoy reading a few of the items...

In no particular order:
Play poker with the kids
Get pictures of band kids from Rick or Tiiu so he can learn all their names before he comes back, esp. 7th grade.
Several books ideas, including how to start a garage band and what songs are easy to learn and play for new players.
Write a jazz blog for kids with Gusten
Find every way he can to get Brad Shaner money to support Brad's cancer battle. (Brad has had stage 4 cancer for 5 years, and is a trumpet player adn teacher in the UPper Darby School District. He is a certified hero and has been a great resource for Tom since he got the news).
Make a podcast
Go to Ann’s on spring break an help with the fish
Write his Winter Concert announcements

More good news

I just spoke with Dr. Silver. Surgery was a complete success. Nothing on the liver. Everything went well and he is in recovery, but we can't see him yet. They said he is alert and talking, in a rush as usual. More when I see him which should be in about an hour.... Also ahead of schedule. But then we expect nothing less from Tom.

The backstory!!

This is all the information that will fill in the gaps between, "hello we are happily living in Swatmo and raising our children" to "tom's sick!!!"

Tom's mom had colon cancer, it eventually took her life after a long hard brave struggle, so Tom's siblings have been pretty on top of general cancer screening. Tom has had 4 colonoscopies since he was 48 or something like that. 2 times ago they found and removed a small benign polyp.

In his routine screening on 11/11/08 (BTW he used the pills to prep for that instead of the nasty drink and recommends it highly for all of us similarly health conscious adults who will be getting these screenings regularly) much to both of our surprise, a tumor was found in his colon. They biopsied it immediately, but the results are still not back yet. We met with the surgeon that day and scheduled the surgery for today. Any tumor must be removed ASAP even if it is benign because they can morph. He has been asymptomatic and does not have a complete blockage. The doctor is confident that the tumor is located in such a way that he can easily maneuver, so the surgery will be less traumatic than some. If the tumor is benign or is completely contained, today will be the end of this adventure, well, except for the boring and tedious and painful recovery. It's as if he's having a C-section, except he gets no baby at the end. Given the price of college tuition these days that's probably a good thing (especially since a man already had a baby so we wouldn't get to sell the story to the Enquirer anyway).

He had a cat scan and bloodwork on the 12, and the rest is history.

Some Good News.

Today Tom met with his doctor (and cousin) Frank Capista to go over the initial results of his CAT scan that he had last Wednesday. Frank said the report was good, there don't seem to be any shadows indicating metastesies (spelling, anyone??).

He also saw the wonder-chiropractor (Dr. Amoia), turned in his keys, finished his sub plans, and has been just super busy like usual all day. I think he's also grading 10,000 assignments for Berklee as well, but maybe I'm overestimating the quantity.

Tom's email about his health and this blog (for those who didn't receive it)

I am trying to stay positive. I have been so busy getting my sub plans ready, gigs covered, and other stuff that I have not had too much time to worry, so that is good. I am a huge fan of Victor Frankel and his book “Man's Search for Meaning.” One of the three reasons he sights for people who survived the death camps included their reaction to inevitable suffering. Those who found a way to be positive, to find a will to live, a reason to live, were the ones who made it - basically 1 out of 30. Now I get a chance to practice my reaction to inevitable suffering. I am leaning to the positive, trying to see things as the glass is half full. I am feeling like I am going to lick this one.

One of my friends sent me a message. His tuba teacher in college had the same surgery I am going to have where they removed a section of his colon. He was a brass player, he stated: "They just removed several inches of my colon. So, I guess I will be farting sharp the rest of my life."
Thanks for the well wishes and prayers.

Tom's Health Quest

Hello all, although we are all hoping that this will be a short term problem, it occurred to me that we are all really busy people in many time zones and it might be nice for all of you to be able to check in on Tom's progress in real time, without waiting for a phone call at 2 in the morning, because I am not the most clock conscious.

So here it is. I'll put up all the updates as I get them, and Tom will post whatever he feels like, and you can all post whatever you want Tom to see or share with everyone else. Its maybe a little easier than emails and certainly easier on our thumbs than texting.

So here's the deal of the moment. Tomorrow 11/17 Tom will do his at home prep which involves drinking nasty salty stuff and eating a lot of jello and chicken broth. Then he goes in Tuesday morning at 8:00 for 11:30 surgery. The doctor says he should be conversant around dinnertime. Of course, I'm not sure if that means our usual dinnertime which is like around 8, or normal American time at 6, or smart civilized people time of 5:30, but somewhere between 5:30 and 8 he should be aware. I'll post his room and number as soon as he gets one. He may not remember calls on Tuesday night, but I'm sure he'll welcome them any time.

His doctor is Dr. Silver, who was also his mother's doctor.

He'll be in the hospital 5-7 days and should be bored out of his mind by Wednesday supper time I think. (or, as Kalev texts, "adored out of my mind") Please feel free to call and visit.

So I guess that's it for now.