Geez...

What a weekend! Nick was invited to attend the concert in Salt Lake City to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (affectionately referred to as the "Mo Tabs") perform with David Archuleta Friday night. He was a little concerned, not sure if he would appreciate the talent but as he strolled through the door later that night, he declared, "I gotta admit, the guy can sing." He thoroughly enjoyed the entire evening: the music, the singing, the Christmas decorations and the company. He was fairly uncomfortable with his tummy already filling with fluid, tho.

Saturday night Nick attended the Raitt family Christmas party and had a great time.

By Sunday morning, he asked if I would take him to ER to have his tummy drained (paracentesis), knowing he would be incredibly uncomfortable if he had to wait until Tuesday. We chose the U of U because they are connected to Huntsman, both logistically and shared files. We got there about noon; a fairly slow day. Nick was clear to state he had cancer in his abdomen and needed to have a paracentesis to drain the ascites. Took a couple of hours and 3 attempts to draw blood for ER to determine they would do the procedure. Around 3:30 they drained 3.5 liters. They originally brought in only two 1 liter bottles and Nick said "You are going to need more of those." When the doctor was done, she admitted she thought Nick had been exaggerating and complimented him on hiding all that fluid so well. However, they felt it was necessary to send off the specimen collected to make sure he didn't have a bacterial infection in his abdomen. 7:30 p.m. it was determined Nick has cancer in his abdomen and the fluid is called ascites. On the bright side, our doctor was extremely nice, we were able to watch every single NFL highlight on TV and Nick felt enormously better.

This morning, Carly joined Nick and I as we took off to be at the hospital by 9:00 a.m. Nick's port was acting up - neither side was working so the nurses had to draw blood the old fashioned way. By 11:00, they still couldn't get it to work so they gave him something in the lines that helps clear the port. By 12:30, both lines were working again but his urine labs came back with a problem so he had to have iv fluids for a couple of hours before chemo could start. By 3:30, his labs were still low but was given the go-ahead to get chemo anyway. We are thinking having his tummy drained yesterday messed up his counts. By 5:30 p.m., he had three different chemos infused and was sent home with mesna and hydrating fluids in a to-go bag. Another long day at the hospital but it didn't seem too bad - Fairy godmother Denise came to visit in the morning and Nick's dad came in the afternoon. Carly & Nick chit chatted and laughed most of the day with various visitors from other hospital friends.

His tummy is already filling up. We are hoping the chemo kicks in right away like last time but will plan on having another paracentesis later in the week. Back to the hospital tomorrow for his neulasta shot and to get his port de-accessed. Hopefully it will take less than an hour!

We are now getting ready for the rest of the week, one day at a time.

Blessings to all for a very Merry Christmas!

Lori