Our second Christmas without Karl. This year, Anika wrote Karl a Christmas song:

"Christmas I Wish"
Merry Christmas to you even though that you are a fairy tale away. I want to wish you one more thing, Merry Christmas to you.

(on the piano) D C B F EA DC F A GB C A E A B D E E D

It's been hard in other ways....like winter setting in and you know that there is no end to the cold, damp and gloomy days.

1 Year for Karl

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

A Loving Father and Husband At Peace

Karl passed away on October 1st, 2006. He fought to the end and is now at peace. We hope he spends lots of time drinking martinis, playing his guitar and snorkeling in Heaven.

Karl hanging in there

Karl's shingles are getting more attention and better. He's doing PT twice a day but still has limited use of his left side. Doctors are not sure if it will be perminent or just temporary. He's stay in room 683 and Presby Plano for this week and part of next but will be discharged and sent to either PT unit, short term unit or long term care or home care. We are pushing for the PT so he can work on getting his muscle coordination and strength back and get more attention.

I am putting out a call to local friends and local readers for some help, I really need visitors for Karl at the hospital so I can get a break and focus on some quality time with Anika. Even if you can come for an hour, that would be great. Just sit with him or watch tv/movie or hang out. If you can help him snack and drink water while you are there that would be great also.

I am continuing to coordinate with the Oncologist on clinical trials in the US and we hope to have something soon!

Karl getting more movement

Karl is getting more movement back in his left arm, leg, foot and hand. He's trying his best to move and do PT as much as possible. He really doesn't want to be in the hospital. His blood counts are good but his shingles have not gotten better and they are putting him on more antibiotics . We continue to search for a clinical trial that will help him beat this and I am hoping to get a list of more to our Oncologist so we can get the ball rolling and hopefully have something set up for when he gets out of the hospital. It looks like another week in there if not more depending on how much movement he can get back on the left side.

Birthday Blues

Well, Karl spent his birthday and party on Sat in the hospital. We all went over to deliver his Portillo's italian beef sandwich and Rosati's Chicago pizza. He was in high spirits even though he couldn't be home. No news on him coming home anytime soon, he can only move his fingers and toes on his left side- he's not able to move his arm or leg. The shingles are still bad and painful but his overall pain has become manageable. I am starting to look at clinical trials and a call is going into MD Anderson. Thanks to everyone who sent him birthday wishes and gifts! Pam, he got your Frangos and we a sneaking them to him as he's on a low sugar diet due to the steriods causing his blood sugar to go through the roof! he doesn't trust them in the house alone with Anika and I.

Bad week, Hopefully a better Birthday

Karl's birthday is tomorrow and we are trying to get him home to celebrate- He will be home for his bash on Saturday. Unfortunate news-Baylor Clinical Trials a no go and Karl is in the hospital.
Here's what happened- he had to be off the steroids in order to start the trial. Well, he was on a low dose and the latest brain scans showed no signs of major brain swelling so we got the green light to stop. That was last Friday. He seemed fine since then and even did some walking in the pool on Monday.
In the wee hours of Wed morning Karl was coming back from the bathroom to his study (he sleeps there because he gets up a lot and wakes me up) and fell- he couldn't get up and so just laid on the carpet and slept until I got up at 7 am and found him. I can't move all 212 pounds of him alone and he said he couldn't move his left leg at all- he said it "gave out on him". The day before it was no problem, he just complained of it being very heavy and rightly so as he has major edema in the leg making it hard to walk or wear shoes at all- Swollen like a balloon! Usually if I can get him sitting he can help lift himself up- not this time so I had to call 911 and take him in to the hospital.
His brain has swelled up again, blood is pooling in the spots where he had the cancer removed and on top of all that he has a superficial blood clot in his left leg. Oh did I mention his hemoglobin was down and he's anemic? He had a blood transfusion again yesterday. Scans have show growth and new cancer in his thigh lymph nodes on both legs. Yesterday he lost movement of his left arm and the left side of his mouth is not working (like when you have dental work). Doctors put him back on the steroids and are running tests but we've seen this before and a good 24 hrs on the steroids should have things working again! Blood clot is not a major threat and right now it's the least of our worries. His leg swelling is going down and he's not is as much pain as when they first brought him in.

Baylor was informed and we were turned down for their studies, Dr. Neumanitis said call him when Karl is off the steroids and assured me there would be a spot for him-they have around a dozen melanoma trials that should be open for a couple of months and new ones on the way. The problem is we don't know if he will ever be off the steroids. So we are back to searching for clinical trials that don't care if he's on steroids and trying to race the cancer clock- if he gets worse before we find something, it's going to get a lot harder.

Karl's in better spirits and can't wait to get home, turn 38- thank God for another year-celebrate with his dear friends-eat some cake and open his presents. Anika is bursting to tell him what she picked out!