#143 / 2010 Winter: San Destin: Sacred Heart Hospital

SACRED HEART HOSPITAL

#143

I leave the hospital and go back to Panama City to gather our things. I stopped to buy a phone card for more minutes before arriving and immediately locked my keys in the car. My mind is so scattered I can't rein in my thoughts.

When I faced our friend in Panama City again I fell back on old habits, going negative."Joe has just been given a death sentence," I gulped to Jimmy wZ. Again I am drowning in air, hardly able to breathe.

I took the time to go on line and send out a call for prayers. A hundred or so people receive travel reports from me as Joe and I travel around so I emailed everyone on that list:

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          The first report:

As most of you know Beatlick Joe and I have been travelling cross country visiting old haunts. He has been having some indistinct pains on his left side and when his leg swelled up alarmingly this morning I took h im to an emergency room in Panama City, or near there.

Joe has deep vein thrombosis, blood clots in his lungs and legs, and lesions on his liver. He also has a mass on his pancreas about half the size of my thumb. He was hospitallized and will be given blood thinners in the morning. We will see a cancer specialist on Monday.

Joe has insurance in New Mexico. We have to get back as quickly as possible but Joe will not be able to sit for long stretches at a time so it will take some time. I will be injecting him with blood thinners once a day.

He does have insurance in New Mexico, thank god.

In Las Cruces we have to find a cancer doctor to decide whether to cut out the growth on his pancreas or use radiation. I have asked his doctor in Las Cruces to recommend a cancer doctor, I think they are called oncologists.

In Las Cruces we will have to find a cancer doctor who will decide whether to treat the mass in his pancreas with radiation or surgery. We will have to find some kind of affordable housing in Las Cruces and hope he can get chemo treatments there.

If you know others who have gone through this, hopefully successfully, please let me know, suggest some websites for me.

Pray pray

Beatlick Pamela