Meet Buster: My Big, Fat Tumor

Morgan is our gentle giant.  If you’ve met him, you know his stature is tall and broad and his hands are huge.  To know him is to love him.  He’s got a gentle, kind way about him. He’s got a heart for hurting people and puts the cares of others often before his own. What you may not know is he has a high tolerance for pain.  I believe that is one of the reasons “Buster” went undiagnosed for so long. He’s had BIG PAIN and made little noise for a long time.

Saturday night was an adventure.  Morgan loves pizza and we decided to get the “kids” together and go out to a hot Phoenix destination: Pizzeria Bianco. The lines start forming at 4:00 for an opening time of 5:00.  Nick and Mark arrived at 4:15 and were the 60th in line.  The doors opened at 5:00 and, when they put their names in, where told we would eat between 7 and 7:30.   I arrived about 6 and Morgan and Kasha were there about 6:30.

We sat out on the patio to the next-door bar and took in the quaint neighborhood sights.  The old houses that line the street and the way it is blocked off- you naturally start to slow down and just absorb all that surrounds you.

We were seated at 7:00 and had one of each pizza- THE BEST PIZZA EVER!!!    We will definitely have to go again.   We were all in good spirits and didn’t want the night to end so we headed for the world’s best Gelato.  We were enjoying our time together and taking it all in as we knew the week ahead would be another hard week and we would look back at these times for encouragement.  (That’s what I do, anyway.)

Morgan mentioned he wasn’t looking forward to chemo, but he had some new pain and that he knew there were some things they would need to do and he may be in there for a while this time.  I was sad, it scares me… but I know that he is in good hands and we really are dealing with great Doctors and specialists.

We walked back to the car to end the night.  Morgan and Kasha went their way and we went home.  I was in bed by 11:00.  Morgan and Kasha had it different…

Morgan started a fever and his pain level was 13 (scale 1-10).  He was beside himself in agony and Kasha took him to emergency.  There are a lot of details between midnight and when I got a call at 6:00 a.m.  Kasha said Morgan had been admitted to ICU at midnight and was running a 103 temp.  They thought it was pneumonia and were trying to manage pain along with administering antibiotics.  It turns out it was a urinary tract infection…???  Hello, um that’s way different, miscommunication somewhere.    I am sure I don’t give the story justice, maybe Morgan will give more details later.

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Last night, Sunday, Aug 23,  Mom says worst night at hospital.  Morgan was beside himself in pain, screaming and just in agony… excruciating…. so hard to witness.  Little to no sleep for both of them.

Today, Monday, Aug 24.  They were able to double his dose of pain meds and administer it every two hours rather than four.  There was discussion of having a “pain pump” put in..  and maybe Chemo Wednesday. Tuesday he is scheduled to have his kidney stents replaced @5 pm.  YUCK.  First, they take the others out, then go in again with new.  Yikes!  If the OR is available they will put the pain pump in then.  I’ll have to get more details later on that.  I think if all goes well the 2nd round of chemo starts on Wednesday.

This is the latest- as I know it and for now…

Please pray for Morgan.