Barbara Back in Hospital

There has been a development that we don't know at this point whether or not is related to Barbara's cancer fight.

Last night (Monday), Barb was experiencing severe stomach and abdominal pains. They went to the Emergency Room about 7:00 p.m. At first, they thought that it might be some kind of kidney infection, and took urine samples for that. It was then discovered there that she was having some sort of internal bleeding, as there was a good amount of blood in her stool. She also had very low blood pressure, they believe because of the amount of blood lost. They ended up admitting her to the hospital and she is currently in the ICU.

After consulting with several doctors, they have decided to do an exploratory procedure with a scope this afternoon to look for three possible causes for the bleeding. They will put a scope down her throat to look at her stomach. They are looking for three things: 1) a bleeding ulcer (that could be the result of stress), 2) blood vessels in the stomach that are bleeding, that they will then coturize to stop the bleeding, 3) the possibility of cancer in the stomach - although they are highly skeptical of this option, as her pathology reports showed very little cancer in her lymph nodes. They are leaning towards it being an ulcer, but this is the first episode of this type she has had.

I spoke with Pete about 2:00 p.m. today and they were just coming to get her for the procedure. He said that if surgery is necessary, the surgeon who did her mastecomy will be the surgeon to perform it, so they were glad about that. I believe that she will be in the hospital for at least a couple days, minimum, while they get to the bottom of this latest problem. We will post when we have any kind of results from the procedure, but I don't know when that will be.

On a separate but related note, Barb had her first round of chemotherapy last Thursday, Sept. 10. I talked to her on Friday and she was feeling very good about it. She said that everything went well, and the was amazed at how well she felt, as she had been warned about nausea, etc., following chemo. She was told, though, to expect this sickness on the 3rd day following the chemo, which would have been Sunday. I do believe that she was feeling some nausea on Sunday, but I don't know to what degree, and I don't know what portion of that might have been related to this other problem.

Please keep Barbara and Pete in your prayers during this difficult and stressful time for them.

Love to all,

Lori (Wallace) Wray
Barbara's niece