StumpTown Blog

I stopped by the hospital on my way to work this morning. My Dad’s not a big TV guy and now that my Mom is back at work, I was imagining his days are pretty long, so I finally managed to get him to tell me something that might make that better and I delivered an FM radio so he could listen to NPR. It reminded me how many little blessings in life we take for granted. Anyway, I’m pleased to report that he is feeling much better today. They had drained more than 3 liters out of his stomach and related areas and it has made a dramatic difference both in his appearance and the way he feels. He is no longer distended and that has affected everything from his ability to breathe to his ability to move around. And by “affected” I mean improved. Maybe more importantly the food from the PICC line (our good friend Sue who is a nurse informed me that it is “PICC line” standing for peripherally inserted central catheter, so there you have it), has really made him feel much better. He said that ...

Before we get to the update on my Dad, I wanted to say an official welcome to all those who have started reading here to find out what is going on with my Dad. Welcome. A few of you have asked about the bit under that goofy picture of me that says, “The game's to 26 by 2s and 3s win by 4...winner's outs.” This comes from my days at Pepperdine, when we would play every pick up basketball game to 26. We counted both 2 and 3 point shots and, when playing half court, always played “winners outs” or “make it take it” as I’ve heard it called. It is the perfect score to play to for a half court game and yet, it is the only place in the country I have ever seen it used. If you play half court pick up basketball with a 3-point line, consider it my little gift to you. You can thank me later. Now on to more important matters,… Well, we’re not quite out of the woods yet. My Dad had a rough day and really needs your continued prayers. Today was filled with increased fatigue and loss o...

Sorry for taking a couple days off on the reports. The truth is, there hasn’t been too much to report which is both good and bad. The good news is there have been no set backs. The doctors did find some cancerous cells in the tissue they left in (i.e., they didn’t get everything), but no so much that a second surgery is required. It appears my Dad will have to take a drug called Glevak (sp?) which is type of chemotherapy with a very good track record with this type of cancer and minimal side effects (i.e., no hair loss, weakness, etc). That’s the good news. The bad news is that it is taking my Dad’s GI system longer to wake up than he had hoped. Basically, after anesthesia, your systems wake up one at a time and the GI is the last. Unfortunately, until it wakes up, you can not have anything by mouth, even water to drink and gas builds up in the abdomen causing pain and discomfort especially when you have just had abdominal surgery. That’s what my Dad has been dealing with since M...

I left out one of the important professions to know when embarking on a kitchen remodel project such as the one proposed in my last post - accountants. Why do you need accountants in this situation? Because they can tell you how to do things and still get the tax benefits. I am informed that if you are going to send a check to support the kitchen remodel, you should send it to the Church as instructed, but you should not designate on the check itself what it is to be used for. Apparently earmarked donations to the Church lose their status as a charitable donation. So, if you don't care about writing it off, designate however you would like. Otherwise, just put a note with the check (post-it?) that says "Stumps" so the Elders know the motivation of your gift. That will allow them to make an informed decision about funding this benevolent project. Or if you are more concerned about getting the money to the right place than writing it off your taxes, just make the chec...

Today was fairly uneventful on the health front and that’s a good thing. As if he wasn’t already dealing with enough, my Dad’s eye got scratched during surgery and he’s been wearing a bandage on his eye reminiscent of K-K-K-Ken from A Fish Called Wanda. That bandage came off tonight and the eye seems almost entirely healed and is no longer an issue, so at least that’s one thing. My Dad didn’t sleep much last night and was in pretty awful pain which actually got even worse this morning. Even with about 6 different kinds of pain meds, the pain is only barely manageable. Thankfully, the afternoon brought some relief. Sleep is still elusive, but the pain is getting better and my Dad’s spirits (which have never really been outwardly dampened) are getting correspondingly better too. All in all, the afternoon was positive. We also got a bit more info on the tumor today (though we’re still waiting on the pathology that will guide treatment) that I think is fairly amazing. After the CT scan, th...

Hello all. I’m posting from the surgery waiting area at the hospital. The surgeon just came out and the surgery is complete. It sounds like it was an absolute best case scenario, which of course, is exactly what we should have expected after all the time we have all spent in prayer. They were able to remove the entire tumor and believe they got everything. The tumor was attached primarily to the colon, but they did not have to remove any good tissue and were able to repair where the tumor was attached. The surgery took about 2 hours and the surgeon was very pleased and optimistic. My Dad is still in, but should be awake and able to see us in an hour or so. We don’t know exactly what follow up treatment will look like, but for now we are just enjoying the good news of the moment. If you have been praying for our family, please take a moment now and thank God for hearing and listening. More later. Thank you. God is good.

A good day today. I just left my Mom and Dad at the hospital. This was the last day my Dad can have solid food for probably the next 4 days. Those of you who know my Dad and the way he enjoys a good meal, will understand how hard that will be. If you don’t know my Dad, imagine someone who really enjoys a good meal, to the extent that those who know him know him for enjoying a good meal and you’ve got the idea. So, I brought steaks to replace the hospital food tonight and we all enjoyed a good meal together before he switches to water from a tube for the next few days. Tomorrow will be spent preparing for surgery which isn’t really a pleasant thing in itself. If there is a consolation for having to go through that and having to miss Church, at least my Dad will get to see the early football games for the first time probably since Church was snowed out in Canada 25 years ago. As far as my Dad’s symptoms, which are primarily extreme abdominal pain, they were better today than they h...

It’s late, so I will be brief. Mostly good news today. First, the CT came back and showed no cancer in the lungs. Then the doctors were able to check the bladder and found that the tumor had not invaded the bladder as feared, which is great news. Surgery is planned for Monday morning at 8:30. We won’t really know more until then. It looks like my Dad will stay at the hospital until then and then probably be there 4-6 days for recovery after the surgery. Keep praying. Also, if you would like to check out a “care page” that has been set up for my Dad, you can find it at www.carepages.com and look for the page for RonStump. More later

My parents met with their first choice surgeon this morning, Dr. Johnson. Several bits of news came out of the meeting. First, the good news is that the CT performed last night showed no indication that the tumor had spread into the lungs. That is wonderful news. Praise God. And more good news, Dr. Johnson is available and willing to perform the surgery which is a comfort to my Parents who really like him. The bad news is that Dr. Johnson wants more tests run which means the surgery may not take place until Tuesday or even as late as Thursday. What a way to spend Thanksgiving. Right now, the primary concern is that the tumor may have invaded the bladder which would likely mean the bladder would have to be removed. Of course, not only would that complicate the surgery itself, but would make recovery much more difficult. I haven’t had a chance to ask or read what it means to live life post bladder removal, but I can only imagine it is difficult. Please pray that this will not be ...

Today was another busy day in the life of the Stump family. I imagine this is only the beginning for at least a little while. First, thank you to the many people who have commented on this blog or sent me and my family emails with your words of encouragement and your prayers. It has been an enormous sense of comfort for my whole family. Thank you. I noticed in the last post there are comments from some good friends who are new to the blog and it made me think that this is actually a pretty good place to keep people informed about how things are going with my Dad. So, I will try to keep this site as current as possible, though your calls and emails are still welcome. Here’s the latest: We got the results of the biopsy and they confirmed that my Dad does indeed have cancer. We were told that was likely the case from the beginning, but having it confirmed was still another blow. There is something psychologically damaging about hearing a diagnosis of cancer. It is so mysterious, s...

In July, my Dad had some pain and discomfort in his abdomen. The doctors thought it was an infection (though tests indicated that it was not) and gave him some antibiotics. He took them and felt better and didn’t think much more of it. A couple weeks ago, the pain and discomfort came back. They ran more tests and again concluded it was an infection regardless of the fact that the tests indicated otherwise. Again he took antibiotics and again the symptoms were relieved. But this time they did not go away and after a week they became quite severe. My Dad went back to the doctor and got a CT scan. To the shock and fright and sadness of our family, they discovered a tumor in his abdomen roughly the size of a grapefruit. The tumor is very large and almost certainly cancerous. The worst case scenario was that the tumor was coming from his colon. That would have made it inoperable and treatment possibilities would have been very limited. Tests were done yesterday that determined that...

Ok, so I think I’m officially going with a weekly post for a little while. If I get time and inspiration, I will do more, but for now I have 2 trials coming up back to back in early December, and that is keeping me pretty buried. More than time, it is really about mental energy. I could probably make time to write something here, but it would probably be about proving fatigue in the rear axel of a pickup truck or determining whether a regulation is exempt from the waiver requirement of another statute because it restricts or prohibits activities to protect public health and safety. And I don’t even want to read that. So, here is this week’s update: 1. I posted a couple things to my sports blog if you are interested and want to check that out. It is basically my thoughts on the first week of the NBA season and then there is a second post about the new NBA ball. 2. I haven’t posted anything new on my entertainment site in a while which is too bad, but it’s sort of the lowes...

Hey. I’m back and I didn’t really go anywhere. Just had so much going on, I kept meaning to blog and then I would put it off a day and then another and now here we are. Maybe if I could get past the idea that every blog needs to be 5000 words, it would be easier. Sorry for the absence. Thanks for the patience and especially your prayers and comments from the last blog. It made a difference to me and I know it did to others as well. Thank you. I’m single parenting this week. My lovely and mactastic wife and youngest son Griffin are in CO visiting her sister who just had a baby. Gibson, now of school age, had to stay at home with dear old Dad. That meant I had Halloween duty. Fortunately, my wife keeps us well stocked in costumage and so even with the last minute costume waffling that seems to be necessary as breathing for a 6 year old, I was able to get through Halloween with only a couple semi-panicked “where is the ____” calls to my wife. Here are some things that are mostl...