August 19-23

Wednesday Rusty had his first dose of Daraxonrasib, and unfortunately, he began vomiting within about 40 minutes. The vomiting continued roughly every hour and a half throughout the night.

Thursday his oncologist instructed us to go to Mercy’s ER for fluids and IV medications. Thank you Laurie for bringing Greg and George to help uncle Rust down the stairs. We finally made it home around 5:00 p.m., but by 8:00 p.m., I had to drain a liter of fluid from his PleurX. Then, at 2:30 a.m., I had to drain another liter. We are normally not supposed to drain more than one liter in 24 hours, but Rusty was having trouble breathing and needed the relief.

Friday, The next morning, we had a virtual appointment with his oncology PA. After seeing how he was doing, she instructed us to go to OHSU’s ER. Because of his breathing, the doctor told me that if it worsened during the drive, I needed to pull over and call 911.

Instead, I called our resources, and without hesitation, an oxygen tank was ready for us. ❤️

Thank you to Aspen, Tayler and Laurie for immediately hurrying over. Laurie helped me pack, Aspen put together a snack bag, and Tayler got Dad down our stairs and safely into the car.

Thank you Aspen and Tayler for watching the house and critters and arranging care for the days that you can’t.

Thank you, Mark H., for always being just a phone call away.

Thank you to the Heubergers (all of you) for everything you do, especially taking care of our fur babies so that’s one less thing we have to worry about.

Thank you to the Caldwells for always being available whenever we need anything.

So here we are at OHSU again.

Saturday, there was a little plot twist I definitely wasn’t expecting. My herniated disc decided this was the perfect time to act up, and I eventually reached the point where I couldn’t walk. Rusty and his nurse finally made me go downstairs to the ER, and his nurse had to wheel me there.

Mom and John rushed up so John could stay with Rusty while Mom stayed with me. Rusty insisted they remain in our room in case either of us needed them. ❤️

Today Aspen is here taking a shift and brought up more of the things we needed. She even taught the nurse how to collect a sample from Rusty’s drain and drain his fluid. Everyone thinks I’m a pro at this, but the truth is, Aspen taught me, I just had a really good teacher. ❤️

Mom and Dad Young are trying to wait to come up until it’s just us and we need them most, so everyone can stagger helping us. I know how hard that is for Mom especially as last time, she came up three or four times. ❤️

God has sure blessed us with some incredible family and friends. We couldn’t do this without all of you.

Tomorrow, palliative care will hopefully adjust Rusty’s medications. We both feel that the new pain medication may be making his nausea worse, so we’re praying they can find something that controls his pain without making him so sick.

For now, we wait. They took a sample of the fluid from his drain and are testing and culturing it to make sure there isn’t an infection.

This certainly isn’t where we hoped we’d be after finally receiving the trial drug we prayed so hard for, but we aren’t giving up.

We prayed for the opportunity for Rusty to receive Daraxonrasib, and God opened that door. One very difficult first dose doesn’t erase the blessing of having that opportunity and we anticipate starting it up as soon as his body will allow it.

So we will keep trusting, keep praying, and keep fighting.

Please continue to pray for Rusty, for his breathing and the fluid buildup, for the vomiting and nausea to settle, for his pain to be controlled, and for the cultures to come back without infection.

And maybe throw in a little prayer for my back too, because apparently Rusty and I decided to make this a couples’ trip to the ER. 🤦‍♀️😂

God is still good. ❤️🙏

Keep posting the shirts as she does send them to us so that we can see and we love it.

Aspen will again be taking over ALL communication and updates.