recap of what our plans were on November 17, 2017: We were planning for the post-operative steroids to be completed and then to return to MD Anderson so that Lynette could begin the clinical trial. This would be “chemo, plus”-She’d take chemotherapy, plus the study drug. Our goal was for Lynette to live long enough to attend Sarah’s graduation from Millsaps on May 5, 2018. We weren’t naive about what a Stage IV diagnosis likely meant, but Lynette had said at the beginning of 2017: “We want to keep me here as long as possible.”

In that context, Lynette and I returned to the UMMC Cancer Institute on Friday, November 17 to try to address the new complication of VERY high blood sugars, apparently resulting from the steroids. We left Luke in Harrisville with his Aunt Eileen. We were hoping she would help him organize his clothes, identifying the ones that fit and setting those that did not aside for donation. This is the kind of task his “executive function” makes difficult to complete (or even begin) on his own. Lynette had not had the energy to do this with him since our move to Harrisville.

We arrived at UMMC to find that Lynette still had quite high blood sugar readings. They set her up with fluids and insulin (again). We also asked that someone knowledgeable about the type of pulmonary drain she had watch me while I did the draining.

I know we must have been at UMMC for several hours. I think Lynette got at least two full (bottles?) of fluid, plus insulin. None of it did much to bring her blood sugar down below 150. I think we were still over 200. Meanwhile, in Harrisville, Luke was getting truly sick.