Jon has been moved to room 456, a much nicer room in the new part of the hospital. He is in good spirits this morning and says he feels better than he's felt in a long time. He had asked me to bring our first back packing trip and his Alaska photo album to the hospital last night and was very chatty, showing it to the nurses on the floor.

I finally came home from the hospital and spent the night in my own bed. It is amazing how much eight hours of sleep in a normal bed can help! I feel almost human again and don't realize how exhausted I get when we go through the episodes until I finally get a chance to sleep.

I've been contemplating Jon's abdominal distension and have come to the conclusion that it is not the tumor but a condition called ascites that is a common sequala to pancreatic cancer. It can occur from a tumor rupturing (which is what we think caused the bleeding) or metastasis to the abdominal wall. The CT scan did not show any cancer in the abdominal wall so I am concluding that it is from a tumor rupture. The Hospitalist (Dr. Greenfield) also agreed that it appeared to be fluid. The treatment can be oral diuretics or using a needle to drain the abdomen. My concern with the oral diuretics is that they could potentially rob the rest of Jon's body of fluid when it needs to come from his abdomen. He has actually been extremely thirsty this week but rarely urinates, another sign that has led me to this diagnosis. In addition, when they give him too much IV his stomach swells to where it becomes very painful and they have to stop the IV. I'm not sure if they give him the diuretic how the body would know to take the fluid from the abdomen and not the rest of the cells in the body, however I'm hoping Dr. Greenfield can answer that question. I am going to call Dr. Chue, Chin and Reilly this afternoon to ask them if there is any risk at all to draining his abdominal cavity with a needle. I figure if we are going to take that approach we might as well do it while he's already in the hospital. I need to make sure there is no possibility that this procedure will disturb the cancer or have any other unforeseen risks.

I would encourage visitors today but be prepared for lots of hunting and backpacking stories, it seems Jon is getting back to his old self :)