A hospital with good food?!?!

From Suzanne: I just got off the phone with Kim. She is having a "sucky day," primarily because she was up and about for four hours earlier today & overdid it. She has a lot of back pain and is hoping to see the pain clinic people later today to get a better pain management plan in place. Overall, however, she sounds great & is in love with MD Anderson. There is constantly someone coming in to check on her and offer her something. She went to the beauty salon there yesterday & loved that. The food is great & it's like hotel room service. They do not bring it at a specific time, but rather you call and order from a menu whenever you are hungry & they deliver it prompty wearing tuxedos! How cool is that?!?! As I spoke to her, she was enjoying a milkshake and a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich.

Her sister, Robin, left today. Kim was so glad she came. It was nice to be together and she was able to give Steve some breaks while he was there. Kim's brother, Jeff, will be there until Thursday. Tomorrow, he will be meeting with Dr. Jonasch, the kidney doctor that Kim has been seeing there. They are hoping that he may also be a candidate for the chemo drug that Kim is supposed to start in approximately six weeks. They are trying to see if it is something they could do at the same time so that they would travel there together, share a hotel room, etc...

Kim will also be meeting with the kidney doctor before she leaves the hospital to talk about her plan. Additionally, she has an appointment with an eye doctor, who she hopes will have some options to offer her. A hematologist will also meet with Kim in order to understand her blood problem further.

Kim spends at least three hours a day doing OT, PT & rehab classes. She will have a walker when she first comes home because she is still unsteady on her feet. She is experiencing alot of numbness throughout her body, but they doctor believes it is from swelling and expects it to go away.

They are talking about releasing Kim from the hospital on Friday or Saturday. Then, she will go to her Aunt Jan's home for the weekend. She'll return to MD Anderson on Monday for suture removal, another MRI and therapy. The doctor wants to make sure everything looks good before she gets on a plane to come home.

All-in-all, Kim is very thankful for her decision to have the surgery in Houston with Dr. McCutcheon. She is still blown away by the fact that he was able to remove all four tumors and two cysts. At least that is one part of her body she can forget about for awhile! She asks that you all keep praying for a speedy recovery!