Update...

Hey folks, I thought I would give a quick update. I know so many of you have been wondering how Cleve is doing, calling, and texting. Thank you all so much for your concern. The day we started radiation, a week ago, the wound began "leaking" in the shower pretty heavily. We let it run its course and went to visit Cleve's boss, David, at the office before heading off to radiation. The idea was to simply drain the sight as best we could using a small gauge needle. When it was inserted however, the skin broke apart a bit from being so necrotic and we had made quite a mess. Im pretty sure we owe David a new pair of shoes and pants. We got it all drained and then packed with gauze and bandages and headed over to Dubs cancer center for radiation. From that point on we have been dealing with it bleeding pretty constantly, changing bandages every three hours. So, in the previous pictures, the reddest part of the lump is now gone and remains an open wound. It was a very long weekend of keeping up with the bleeding, but early this week, Cleve went to visit his friend who is the director of the wound clinic. Our friend, Dr. Holderman has since fixed Cleve all up. Dr. Holderman's staff was able to deposit a gel at the bottom of the wound to keep it moist to try and achieve some healing, and then lightly packed it. Tuesday, Cleve also received two units of blood to replenish what he had lost. This benefits both the healing of the wound and the effectiveness of the radiation. At todays visit, Dr. Holderman (Jim), said it looks like we are starting to get some healing and also the amount of bleeding has decreased dramatically. We still change his dressings about every three hours, but the fluid that is collecting is a clear serous fluid rather than blood, which is great. Cleve also had some labs done today to check his blood count, if he is still anemic, he will receive more blood to boost his levels. Cleve is still being a good patient and taking his pain medication to stay ahead of it. And the love, help and support has been amazing. Thank you to all. Hopefully this helps to put your minds at ease. We are just chugging away here and doing well.