Round 4

I have had a few people this week ask me if Layne has made a decision about chemo. I forgot I left it that he still hadn't made a decision. Well he did. He decided to go ahead with IV chemo and he actually started his 4th round yesterday. In the mean time. He has received his iron via IV. His hemoglobin levels are slowly creeping back up. Normal I believe is 130-150. He was at 112 as of Monday. A lot better than 89. Layne's steristrips have finally all fallen off his incision. He discovered a few days ago they forgot to remove one of his staples. One of the strips that they put on was hiding it. You could see Layne was starting to freak out a little but because it has been in there for 4 weeks. He called the floor we were on and they said we needed to have our DR remove it but it was a saturday so we couldn't do that. My dad quickly volunteered to remove it. He loves doing things like that. So we got some not-so-sterile pliers and he removed it. It came out nice and easy. It was nice to avoid another trip to the hospital.

Getting his IV iron

Dad removing his staple. Can you tell Layne has all the confidence in the world for my dad. 

He got it out!

Layne's brother was able to bring his family home over the weekend. He took a few days off from school. It was nice to have them here, to have a little fun while Layne was feeling well. I can understand why they don't want you to take too long of a break to start chemo again. He didn't want to start because he just wanted to feel good for a bit longer. I know studies also say that its the most effective the quicker you start it but I can also see you never wanting to go back and do it if you wait too long. We were able to go out for dinner with all of Layne's family for a pre-chemo party again. They even gave him a free dessert. Layne and I went to my brothers basketball game afterwards. I had to persuade him to go. He has got pretty used to staying indoors I felt like he was forgetting about his fun/social self. Thankfully he came and had a blast. He decided while he was feeling good he would go out again. We went out to my brothers basketball game the next night too and went out for pizza afterwards.

Dinner at CoccoPazzo

2 Guys and A Pizza Place after Spencers b-ball game

Layne's brother was able to go with him to his chemo appointment yesterday. It's nice to have other people go and see what goes on. It's probably a little more entertaining than me going every time. They have made the changes to his treatment. He takes pantaloc (a drug that reduces acid secretions) on all the days he takes the steroid. After the pharmacists met, they decided it would be in Layne's best interest to stay on the dexamethasone, just at a lower dose. Hopefully the lower dose along with the pantaloc will help things. He didn't get that bolus I was talking about. It makes the appointment a bit shorter. So far, so good. He goes back in tomorrow to get the bottle off and will get hydrated again. They have a standing order set up at the hospital closest to us incase he gets diarrhea again. Fingers crossed we won't need to use it but we are ready and can handle anything as long as he doesn't have to have surgery again.

Brotherly love!

Another highlight to Layne's week was Blake started learn to skate. He had one lesson and then I took him to public skate yesterday and he is already skating on his own. He can turn on his own and when he falls, he gets up on his own. Blake can get pretty frustrated really easily so we were nervous skating with just be a whole bunch of tantrums when he falls but it's just the opposite. He is wonderful, never complains and works hard. A few of Layne's family members have had a few very exciting things in the works for him. Both of them will happen over the next week and a half. I am going to leave you guys hanging and not say anything but let's say they have left Layne with something to look forward to and left a lot of people feeling very jealous. Let's hope his energy is back up and he is doing good for next wednesday. He will have a busy few days. Our next post should be very entertaining!

Ready to play hockey!

Decisions, Decisions

So we met with the oncologist yesterday. We had a full entourage that went in with Layne. There were 5 grown adults. All of us were very concerned and had lots of questions. Thankfully they were all very professional and answered all of our questions. We were impressed with how the oncologist handled things and explained things. We all came out feeling a lot better and were all on the same page. He, like the surgeon is kind of mystified as to why Layne had a small bowel obstruction. He had a few small adhesions but based on his symptoms they expected the block to be a lot worse. So they are hoping this is a one time thing and think that it was probably a mixture of the dexamethasone (steroid), Iron pills and chemo he was taking along with the adhesions, exacerbated what was happening. He went over all our options. 1) We could stop chemotherapy all together. There is a 50% chance that the surgery got all of the cancer and along with the 3 rounds of chemo he received, that would have helped. 2) We can switch to taking oral chemotherapy drugs, that are not as effective as IV chemo but if problems arise we can stop treatment. If you are on IV chemo you can't stop the treatment, you have to finish out the cycle because it's already in your system. 3) Continue with IV chemo but make some alterations. He would no longer take the steroid for his anti nausea meds (as this is the most likely cause of the inflammation in his bowel) he would most likely take Maxeran now. He is no longer taking iron pills and he starts IV iron next week to avoid any irritation of his GI tract. Lastly, there is a little 15 minute bolus of a certain drug they give him right before he gets sent home for the two days with his chemo bottle. They are not going to give that to him anymore as studies haven't shown it to be that effective and that bolus can cause a lot of his diarrhea problems.

Layne just spoke to the pharmacist at the cancer centre to get a few more questions answered. I guess all the pharmacists on staff are going to meet together and discuss all these drugs and others and figure out what the best plan would be for Layne. It's nice that they are taking this so serious. At this time Layne still hasn't made a set in stone decision but we are thinking we are going to continuing doing IV chemo with the alterations that they will make. We still have the option to switch to the oral chemo at any time if things seem to be going down the same road. Layne wants his best chance to live as long as he can. Doing this, there will be no regrets, we will never question that we didn't do all we could. It looks like he will be starting chemo 2 weeks from now if all goes well.

Layne has had a good week. It was nice to get him home. The boys were so excited to see him when we got home from Edmonton. They have enjoyed playing lego with him and watching movies. It's nice to get back into a routine, not feel like you have to be two places at once. His incision is healing nicely. It is still pretty tender but he is doing well. He plans on coming out trick-or-treating with us tonight for a bit and was able to go to the halloween parade at the school.

Thank you again for everyone who has dropped off meals or treats or flowers, sent cards or watched the boys. We are blessed to have all this support! We are very grateful for Rusty and Jackie opening up their house to us. There is no way we could have done this without all of your help. Have a Happy Halloween... I know we will!

Carving a pumpkin for the halloween parade

Making worms and dirt at Aunt Ciana's

Heading out to the halloween parade

Walking at the halloween parade. Blake was so proud to show off his batman costume. Ty wouldn't let me put him down. He was too scared of everyone else haha

Halloween Dinner. We got to drink orange pop and orange crusted pizza! We had a special guest with us at the table called Mr. Bones!

Coming Home

Well the last few days have been a few days of relief. Things seem to be going in our favour. He has been able to increase his diet to the point where he can eat cream of wheat, ice-cream, toast and broth. Pain is very mild but only where the incision is. This morning the surgeon came in and put in the order to get his staples and IV taken out. He also gave the go ahead that he could go home. It will be nice to have him home. I will be able to help him in the night, he still sometimes has a hard time making it to the bathroom in time. Last night was his first night alone and he was too nervous to ask his nurse for help because he hadn't been too kind to him earlier on in the night. I am again so thankful for Layne's parents and making sure he always had someone there for him. I truly believe that has helped him significantly this time around. We are experts now but lets hope we never have to do this again!

A few days ago the surgeon showed Layne the x-rays before and after surgery. You could see a huge difference and it showed us the surgery needed to be done. It made us feel better about our decision to do the surgery and showed us the pain he was experiencing then was not the same pain he was experiencing before the surgery, even though it looked like it felt the same. Poor guy!

So once he said we could go home, Layne had a nap, he ate lunch and had a shower and we were on our way. Even though this time around feels like its been 100 times worse then last time, I still think he is leaps and bounds ahead mobility wise from the last surgery. He had been very sick for a long time before the last surgery and when he went home he could still hardly walk. This time we walked to our car together. I tried to have him wait at the entrance while I pulled our van up but he insisted on walking. Thankfully it wasn't too far!

The drive home wore him out. He is now sleeping in his own bed and he says it feels great! The boys did go up to Edmonton this week and I will head up there on Thursday to spend a few days with my family. It is quite peaceful sitting here typing this up - Thanks Mom and Dad! I am glad he has a few days to recuperate without the boys here. We miss them dearly though!

We meet with the oncologist next Thursday to review everything and discuss our future options. Layne is very nervous to even consider doing chemotherapy at this point. I don't blame him. Hopefully his mind can be at ease after our appointment next week and we can feel good about our options for the future. We will have lots of questions and hope all of our concerns can be addressed. I am off to make beds and give the bathroom a good clean while Layne rests. Here's to no more eventful days and no blog posts in the near future! Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers!

Ready to go home. You don't realize how much weight he lost until he put's his own clothes back on. Let the fattening up begin! We will have to weigh him once he wakes up.

A Turning Point

I think today might be the turning around day. It might be too soon to say but I am going to make it official. Layne has been through hell these past 10 days but he is on his way back.

Two days ago he had to have his NG tube put back in because he started throwing up again. They clamped to off again yesterday for 6 hours to see how he tolerated it again and when everything was okay they took it out again. He was told though if they had to put it back in that it would need to stay in for 2 days this next time. Layne didn't want that to happen... and he didn't let it happen. He has been feeling nauseous but not throwing up. I think at this point it is the fact that he is taking pain medication orally with out any food in his tummy. But it is manageable. He won't take the Tramacet shots they were giving him for pain anymore because he said they don't make him feel well. So now he is only taking Tylenol and it seems to manage his pain fine. It's nice not to see him so loopy on drugs.

Getting NG tube back in

After getting his NG tube back out. So happy!

He didn't have a very nice night again. He slept better but his nausea was bothering him. Thankfully around 10 am is seemed to go away on it's own. Since yesterday he has been exhausted so every few hours we have him walk and then he is sleeping in-between. Completely wiped. Which is good, because walking and sleeping are what is going to make him feel better. I got there this morning at 11ish just in time to hear Layne have his first fart! Yes I called it a fart. In Layne's family the "f" word is not allowed but thats what Layne called it when it happened much to his mother's dismay. He was then able to have an extremely large bowel movement. Let's just say there was lot's of cheering and crying in his room. It's kinda sad how we can get so excited about bowel movements but trust me you can. He has had several since than and has been able to pass gas freely. He has been able to walk a lot today. I think his goal was to get to 20 laps by the end of today and he was at 17 when I left at 7:30pm. His sister is now with him and I know she has been having him walk, so I am sure his goal is beat.

Our family was able to all come in for Sunday dinner to break our fast. It was nice. The weather has been beautiful so we ate outside at a picnic table. Layne because he has been doing well and drinking fluids was able to come out. They were able to disconnect his IV so he had nothing attached to him for a bit. The boys came up to the room to bring him down. He was on the toilet and Ty ran right up to him to give him a big kiss and then said "oh yucky poopy daddy". It made Layne laugh. It was good to see him laugh. Blake was able to push him downstairs in his wheelchair with only running into the wall a few times. Layne was able to eat his jello and sip on his gatorade while we ate dinner. He is really craving food which is a good sign. I felt bad for him. It was good to have the whole family come for dinner and have him watch our crazy full of energy boys run around outside. He didn't last long but he said he loved it. His white blood cell count is good now so they lifted his reverse isolation protocol but we are still asking for no visitors. We are just trying to be super careful and let him get the rest he needs, so he can get out of the hospital as soon as possible. Thank you again for all your fasting and prayers. I believe they have helped him turn around today!

Coming outside for some dinner as a family

All together again

Jackie was able to take the boys home and spend some much needed time with them tonight making halloween crafts. That gave my mom the opportunity to visit with Layne. My mom tomorrow  will be taking the boys back to Edmonton with her for the week. She has been a lifesaver! Once Layne is out of the hospital I will go up for a few days to spend time with them and not have to worry about anything else but them. That will give Layne a few days at home to get a routine before they get back. 

Don't Quit Before The Miracle

One of Layne's friends reminded us of this quote by Layne's hero, Thereon Fleury. He said, "Don't quit before the miracle". We definitely have needed to remind ourselves of that over the past day or so.

Things were looking up my last post. By yesterday morning Layne's epidural was no longer working but surprisingly he wasn't in a ton of pain. He didn't require to take any pain medication until 1 pm. That made me feel really excited about his progress. They took out the epidural while I was there, which means the catheter was able to come out and before I got there they clamped his NG tube to see how he tolerated it. He did fine so 6 hours later they took it out and was able to start a liquid diet. Layne said having his first sip of water was the best feeling in the world. I was able to get him all washed up and even shaved his face. He was looking quite handsome after all of that and I snapped a picture of no tubes before having to put his oxygen back on. They keep trying to take him off oxygen but his O2 sats drop too low when they do. This happened the same thing after last surgery, so I am not too worried.

Looking Good!

First sip of water

Things were just fine when I left last night. Unfortunately things went down hill in the night again. His pain got out of control. He is no longer able to pass gas or have bowel movements again. So the surgeon this morning said he would have to go back on the NG tube if he wasn't able to do those things in the next few hours. We had a different Dr come in a few hours later telling us he didn't want him having an NG tube and ordered abdominal x-rays to see if gas was building up again. (Which we already knew, because his tummy was distended again) I should have been smarter and asked more questions. It is quite frustrating at the lack of communication on their end and I should have called Layne's mom to double check what the surgeon said in the morning. Long story short we should have put it in. Around 4pm Layne started throwing up again after having a good afternoon. It got really bad after he got back from his x-rays the feeling of nausea was constant. Thankfully the surgeon left an order to put the NG tube in and we were able to get that right away. On a positive note, through all of this his pain has been managed. It's sad though how loopy the meds make him. He doesn't like them but right now we need to keep the pain away. When I left tonight he was finally settled. Pain was good, nausea was gone and he was sleeping. I hope we have an uneventful night but thankfully his parents will be taking shifts again throughout the night to keep an eye on him. The surgeon seems to think this pain and distention are coming from inflamed bowels due to chemo and we just need to wait it out. I am hoping this is the case and we aren't missing anything. If he isn't able to tolerate fluids in the next few days they will start him on TPN. I am not quite sure what it is but he will receive nutrients that way.

This morning when he was having the really bad pain, Layne called a few friends from Lethbridge who were able to come and give him another blessing. It's nice people will come at a drop of a hat to help. I wasn't there but Jackie was and she was telling me what was said in the blessing. It's amazing how in all the blessings he had, the same things are said. It's a good reminder that these blessings come from god that he is promised the same things. It's very comforting and a good reminder to have faith and believe in what is said. After that they were able to get the pain under control and Layne was really wanting the boys to come in. I brought them in at noon. We have been very strict about having no visitors we don't want Layne to pick up anything from anyone. But we decided it would be okay to break the rules and make his day. It was nice to have them there even though it was a short visit. They get too distracted too easily. But it is nice to see how concerned they are. He had a few waves of pain and Blake held his hand while he was having those. Both of them love their dad. They are always asking about him and praying for him. They make us so happy! After they left I washed Layne down again and wiped down his room just to be safe.

Blake helping Layne through a wave of pain. 

Layne was smart and took off his oxygen for when the boys got there. Ty would have been too nervous to go near him if he had it on. 

My handsome boys!

Thank you again to anyone who has sent texts/emails/cards, anyone who has dropped off treats or meals to our house and a big thank you for all your prayers. We truly are blessed by all the support we are receiving!

Believe In Good Things To Come

Well things seem a little more manageable today. Maybe it is because I was able to get 11 hours of sleep last night, but I think things are looking up. While I was sleeping Layne’s parents were able to take shifts over night to help. I am glad they did. We have found Layne does better and recovers better if someone is here with him at all times. We learned the hard way last time.

Yesterday morning when I got here they were able to get the pain under control. Before that though it was bad. He told me he wanted to die. He was able to rest for the afternoon while I was here with only a few twinges of pain. Just before 6 pm his pain started to change. It became more frequent and even though it was not near as bad I started to worry. I called the nurse in and we were able to get him an Ativan. It helps him relax a little bit when the pain comes. That seemed to make it a bit better and we also put a call into the anesthesiologist to have him reassessed. His mom came in and I left at around 7:30ish. His pain continued to get worse and Layne asked to go for a walk when his dad got here to help to try to get things moving, so the pain would go away. I think that in it’s self is a miracle. Layne didn’t walk after his last surgery until almost the end of day 2. He wasn’t even out from surgery for 24 hours before walking and walking with only 1 person this time. Last surgery he needed a lot of help for his first walk. After his walk his mom left and his dad stayed for the rest of the night. His pain continued to get worse and got to the point of screaming again and finally the anesthesiologist came in. They gave him a bolus for his epidural and increased the rate or it from 6ml/hr to 9 ml/hr. After that, that seemed to nip the pain in the butt and we haven’t really had any problems since.

First walk post surgery!

All the drugs make him nice and itchy. You can tell by the red around his eyes!

Shortly after getting his pain under control Layne pooped the bed (I got his permission to post that haha) He couldn’t get up quick enough to get to the toilet. Last surgery we were on day six post operation before he was able to have a bowel movement. This time again it was less than 24 hours. The surgery had worked because he is now having bowel movements where he hadn’t for 2 days before surgery. What a relief! His dad helped him to the toilet where he proceeded to pass out, thankfully his dad caught him and they just sat there and talked while the nurse took his vitals and Layne got to do some karaoke. I guess he started singing I’m A Dreamer by John Lennon at the top of his lungs. I wish I had been here to see it because let’s just say he is not the best singer! He was able to sleep the rest of night but had many hallucinations. He tells me he gets to go to his special place. Which consists of a gym that is white and there is AstroTurf. Everyone is a ball and he gets to be a red ball and all the balls make formations and when he went to bed he slept in an egg bed. He said he had the same dreams after the last surgery.

His mom came back this morning at 6:30. He says he just kind of in and out slept. When I got here at 1pm they were just getting him up to walk around again. He was able to walk to the end of the hall and back. We were able to have some good conversation this afternoon. He seems to be doing well, hardly any pain. He got up to go to the bathroom and I cornered him into the tub where I washed him down. I had to be careful not to get his back wet because of the epidural. He felt really good after getting cleaned up. He walked all the way around the unit and at a really good pace. He even walked from his bed to the bathroom without any help at all. Now I am sitting here watching him watch the baseball game and play on him phone.

Getting ready to go on a walk

Making our way back down the hall

Today is a good day. Layne seems to be doing really well. He is leaps and bounds ahead of where he was with the last surgery. They think they will take the NG tube out tomorrow morning and start him on a liquid diet. Thank you everyone for your fasting and prayers. They are working! We still have a long way to go but this is the first time I haven’t been feeling uneasy about everything that is going on. Jackie said the same thing. Tonight she told me she felt like a 100 lb weight has been lifted off her chest. Yesterday I was sitting in the hall having supper. I heard a family discussing how (it must have been their grandma) was opened up and she had a tumour in her colon but it had spread all along her colon and into all surrounding tissues and lymph nodes and because it was too embedded they had to close her back up. We truly are blessed that we are only dealing with this. Hopefully tonight things will go as well as today and we continue to move forward without any hiccups.

You know you feel better when...

Here's a picture of the boys on a walk with my mom. It was windy and my mom couldn't find a hat for Ty so she pulled out one of the props for her shows from her van for him to wear. So glad she is here to help watch and love them!

Here is a video my sister-in-law sent me. I have seen it before but it's always a good reminder that there are good things to come!

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-05-12-good-things-to-come?lang=eng

Here We Go Again

I am going to quickly post this before I head back into the hospital. A lot of people are wondering what happened... this is what I was writing last night thinking I might get a decent sleep.

Not much has changed in the last 24 hours. They had to continue giving him morphine throughout the night every 3 hours and he continued to vomit. Because they were planning on doing the sigmoidoscopy today he wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight. That slowed the throwing up down but not the pain. His tummy continued to get distended. We finally were able to see a real surgeon this afternoon since we were admitted to the hospital on Thursday night... don't get me started. We also discovered his oncologist has not been informed of what is going on and is not in coordination with any of the other doctors...don't get me started. So a call was put into him this morning and I guess he has 24 hours to come and see us. So far no visit. Anyways... the surgeon came in this afternoon right when Layne's pain got bad. It was a huge blessing. Usually he can go 3 hours without too much pain but this time around, it only lasted 1 hour 20 minutes and was unbearable. It was horrible to watch but at the same time I was so happy it was happening while he was there. He decided to cancel all further testing and decided Layne must have a partial block somewhere (as he has been having a hard time passing gas or having a bowel movement since saturday afternoon). He ordered abdominal x-rays right away and then had the nurses put an NG tube down his nose into his stomach. This is supposed to relieve all the bile and gas build up in his stomach and help relieve the pain and take away his stomach distention. He said most likely the partial block is from a twist in his bowel due to either inflammation from the chemo or scar tissue from the surgery site.

This will be a waiting game too. He said once we get all the gas and fluids that have been backing up out of him his bowels will have time to heal and the inflammation should reduce. That should allow the block to heal on it's own. If not we would have to do surgery and they don't want to do that especially because he had a surgery so recent and he is currently doing chemo. So far this has made the most sense to us so far and brought us the most comfort.

It seemed like the NG tube was doing it's job. His pain seemed to subside and he felt less nauseous. At this point Layne was so livid. I have never seen him so mad. I have actually never really seen him mad. He was mad because it took them 4 days, 2 of them him being in extreme pain to have the surgeon come in and tell him something completely different than what the other Dr's were saying. I'm sure it was a mixture of lack of sleep and drugs and pain but he has every right to be. He has been through so much. I think most of us are at our breaking point today. It has been a tough one. It's hard to sit and watch this all, so I can't imagine how he feels. Please please keep praying for us and especially him.

I decided to go home at 5 tonight so I could actually put the boys to bed tonight and get some sleep. Jackie stayed with him. I was feeling pretty good about things when I left. I thought we had finally figured everything out... not so much. He was transferred to a different unit tonight. When he was admitted on Thursday from emerg, the only bed they had left was in the paediatric unit. So he has been in with all the children :) The nurses there were awesome, always on top of his pain meds and willing to help with anything. Because things are becoming more severe they decided to transfer him to the surgery unit, where he was after his surgery, because they deal with adults. Let's just say we had the worst experiences there last time and it doesn't seem to be much better this time around. Anyway's I guess since I have been gone his pain has come back again and got even more worse...(At this point I got a call from Jackie asking me to come back in)

She told me the pain was not getting better and it should have with the NG tube the surgeon came back and ordered more blood work and x-rays again. He said he was thinking surgery was our only option at this point. I got back in just shortly after 11:30pm. I made it there to have a few minutes alone with Layne. He was telling me about the first time he saw me and described exactly what I was wearing. He was a sweetheart. I can't believe he remembered and I can't believe I wore that outfit (green shirt, brown corduroy pants with white nike shoes) But I guess I was the most beautiful girl he had ever met despite the outfit. It was a nice moment to have with him. The surgeon came back said the x-rays were showing a blockage and the fact that it wasn't getting better would indicate he could get a perforated bowel and then we would be in trouble. He said we have the option to wait it out a bit longer (until morning) to see if it would miraculously heal on it's own or he would do it right then. It was a hard decision to make. I really didn't want to have to go through this whole surgery thing again. It's so hard on his poor body. But Jackie took charge and made some suggestions that made sense. He had been in pain for far to long. We couldn't keep going like this. He was relatively comfortable at that point but we knew it would come back and then be putting him at other risks. After Layne, his dad, his mom and I made the decision to go ahead with the surgery, it was the weirdest feeling. Everything was calm. We knew we had made the right choice without a doubt. It was so nice to have that confirmation and right now I believe we all needed that little tender mercy.

They took him back for surgery at 1:30am. The surgery would be a few hours. Jackie had not had anything to eat all day and me being pregnant and always hungry especially if i stay up late went to get a bite to eat. Let's just say Lethbridge is not a good place to find anything open for 24 hours. Even though tim hortons was open they were only serving cold or hot drinks at 2 in the morning. So thankfully McDonalds was open and we got to get something greasy. Yuck! After that we went back to the hospital and waited. The surgeon came out at 4 am. He said he went in there through the old surgery incision. They couldn't do it laproscopically because his belly was so distended. He was able to get a look at everything. There was a kink in the bowel which would cause a partial block and he was able to see a few ulcers and clean up a few small adhesion (scar tissue) but he didn't see anything that would indicate the type of pain he was in. So he said all those things plus the chemo may make for a very bad tummy ache. He was worried Layne might still experience the same pain as before the surgery but it least we were able to make sure everything was okay. He told us it was the right thing to do because we would have been going in for surgery no matter what with his symptoms. We also know there is for sure no cancer back as well, which will give Layne huge piece of mind. At this time we are having no visitors. He is isolation. Because he is chemo we are trying to take every precaution to avoid an infection. That is a major risk of doing surgery on someone going through chemo. So texts and emails would be appreciated. I can read them to Layne.

I was able to get home by 5am after seeing Layne in recovery. The anesthesiologist wasn't going to let us go in and see him for an hour after the surgery but when I saw her go into labour and delivery I walked up to the doors and knocked on them and when the nurse opened the door I made sure she saw my pregnant belly and asked kindly if i could see him before I went home. I needed to get some sleep. They were good and let me come in and also let Jackie come in after. Russ (Layne's dad) stayed with him for the rest of the morning until now. It was hard to see him again and know we have to start all over. I am so sorry he is going through this. I would't wish this on anyone. I wonder what I have to learn from this because Layne sure doesn't need to learn anything. He is the most kind, considerate, generous, compassionate and positive person I have ever met. I have always known he would be okay but I always knew it would be a long difficult road. I just didn't think this difficult. Hopefully things get better now. I just spoke with his dad and he is having the same pains as before and he has an epidural. He is numb from his toes to his armpits. I am about to head in and hope that by the time I get there the pain in under control. I really hope it just clears up on it's own and nothing else crazy happens. Time will tell. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, we are definitely needing them right now. I am not going to edit this post so sorry if something doesn't make sense or grammar is more bad than normal. 4 hours of sleep can do that. My mom cancelled her shows for the nest few days and drove down here at 3 in the morning. So he has the boys. I am so thankful for my family!

Got the NG tube in

Being transferred to the surgery floor

Visiting with Layne before he goes into surgery

Waiting for the surgery to be done.