A message from Dad (Bill)

Hi Melinda - This is a copy of a mail I dashed off to my sister regarding Cheryl. Nothing much new to report but she is resting much more comfortably today. Hope she does not come to blows with her new room mate as they seem to irritate one another which is a rarity with Cheryl. Will keep you informed of anything new. Regards - Bill
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Thank you very much Eileen for your kind thoughts regarding Cheryl. Erin, Pat and I went to visit her yesterday evening and had a fairly long visit though a somewhat disappointing one. She was in some considerable pain from, not only her affliction but also from the biopsy which involved snipping a chunk of her innards out for examination. She had been admitted to the hospital around 1:00 pm and had been gigged up with an intravenous feed but while we were there until 8:00 pm she was still waiting for the antibiotics and pain killers to arrive from the drug dispensary. It seemed to me to be an unreasonable delay as it should not take seven hours to move them up eight floors. The reason for having her admitted so quickly was in order to commence the antibiotic administration as quickly as possible in case they are to operate on her this weekend. Donald and I visited her today and she is now all hooked up and is receiving her pain killing drugs so is resting much more comfortably although is unhappy with her new room mate who snores almost without stop both day and night. They are not getting along too well as the snorer is not happy with the steady phone calls that Cheryl is receiving so now Cheryl is attempting to determine if there is any chance of being moved to a private room where she can display her wealth of flowers, Christmas trees and cards and receive phone calls to her hearts content.

As far as Cheryl can determine there is no definite answer to what they are investigating. She had another catscan today and this along with yesterday's biopsy may help the doctors decide on what they will run into when they open her up. During the biopsy the specialist did indicate that he was not very happy with what he could see and asked Cheryl's regular doctor, who happened to be watching the proceedings, for his opinion. Her doctor also appeared somewhat negative so they called in a third specialist who also professed that it did not look promising. All of this went on with Cheryl listening in which is not a great confidence builder for the patient. However, her doctor later told her not to jump to any conclusions as no one can tell from these tests, they are only a guide and until they actually operate they will not know just what they will find. In any case, even if it should prove to be cancerous it is in an area that carries a very high rate of success, a rate of close to 95% so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

I will certainly let you know of any new information as it becomes available and in the meantime will be having our Christmas breakfast here although it will be somewhat muted due to our missing Cheryl. I will be visiting with her on Christmas eve. Don't worry about things over here as it will all work out for the best I am sure.