Well, the results are in and the collective wisdom of the Palmer Clan has prevailed. As the survey confirms, Andrea is the expectant mommy! Karen, Alayna, and Sandy all had admirable showings, but nothing like 27%.
Unfortunately this was anonymous, so there is really no way to award doughnuts.
Kate and Kathy wrote some updates that I have put together here:
Kate writes the following update about and for her dad:
“My father has pancreatic cancer. The doctor was not able to remove all the cancer in surgery. My dad has an appointment in Boston in the beginning of June. At the appointment the doctor will discuss chemo and radiation with him.
Thank you from our whole family for all your prayers and well wishes.
Please continue with your prayers. We are keeping our heads high.”
and Kathy wrote a thoughtful comment which I’m elevating out of the comment track to put it into this news story:
“Larry has said many times that he wants his family to learn from him how to face adversity. In that vein, I went back to a book I frequently read to understand life’s adversities. It is named When Bad Things Happen to Good People.
Harold Kushner, the author, writes “You faced a situation that could easily have broken your spirit, a situation that could have left you a bitter, withdrawn woman, jealous of the intact families around you, incapable of responding to the promise of being alive. Somehow that did not happen. Somehow you found the strength not to let yourself be broken. You found the resiliency to go on living and caring about things. Like Jacob in the Bible, like every one of us at one time or another, you faced a scary situation, prayed for help, and found out that you were a lot stronger, and a lot better able to handle it, than your ever would have thought you were. In your desperation, you opened your heart in prayer, and what happened? You didn’t get a miracle to avert a tragedy. But you discovered people around you, and God beside you, and strength within you to help you survive tragedy. I offer that as an example of a prayer being answered”. I have found this inspiring and also helps to understand what Larry is asking of us all. Aunt Kathy
An anonymous woman filed
this audio report with the Palmer Clan Website.
Transcript:
One of the joys of being part of the Palmer Clan is being able to share life events with my family. In view of this pleasure, I have an important announcement to make. I am with child. That means I am pregnant. Can you guess which of the Palmer women I am? The winner shall receive a bushel of jelly doughnuts delivered by Don Patterson Junior prior to the road race this year.
A bit of happy news in the midst of the sad.
Uncle Larry files this report
“Hi this is Uncle Larry it’s 5:25[pm] on Thursday [I think he’s got the day wrong -Don] on the East Coast here in Boston.
We have not got the pathology report back on my mass that was taken out. We’re going to be discharged here in the next two hours and they are going to let me go home without the pathology report and we’ll talk to the doctor on the phone and do the follow-up work on it.
So I’m heading home and I’ll be home tonight within a few hours. That’s the report from here. Nothing on the pathology.
Thank you very much Don for posting this on the web page.”
Uncle Larry on Uncle Larry (Audio):
Transcription:
Hi. This is Uncle Harold it is 3 o’clock in the afternoon on Tuesday at Beth Israel Deaconess hospital in Boston. The pathology report has not come back. It’s not going to be available today. I’d just like that posted on the web page. We’re probably going to have it tomorrow or maybe on the day we go home. We go home on Thursday.
The biggest thing that happened today so far is that one of the doctors came in and they are going to take out the drain from the stitch, the stitching on my incision. We found out that the pathology report is not available yet. A little disappointment, but not a big set back. So we’ll be expecting it tomorrow or the next day. But we are going home on Thursday. Thank you very much. Thank you all for your prayers. Catch you later. Bye Bye.
Uncle Larry files this report on Uncle Larry. [ha! I’m so funny -don]
Transcript:
Hi, It’s 7 o’clock on Monday night, this is Uncle Larry speaking directly from Beth Israel Deaconess medical center room #618. This is an update to go on the web page.
I want to thank everybody for all their calls, cards and flowers. I received a basket today from the Boston Pilots. A basket of cookies on a stick. I can’t eat them, but the staff sure loves them here at the hospital.
Right now we’re approaching the end of day number 5 in the recovery. We finished the operation at 10 o’clock on Wednesday night so this is actually 3 hours before the end of day number five in recovery.
We expect to be here a total of eight days in recovery and then go home. Dr. Vollmeir [best guess at spelling -don] came in today to visit me around 11 o’clock and told me that he thought the pathology report will be back tomorrow.And that’ll be Tuesday he’ll be in to talk to me as soon as he gets it to tell whether we’re going to have to have chemotherapy or what the next step in my recovery is going to be
We expect to be out of here on day number eight.
And the recovery is going great.I was disconnected from the IV today and my pain medicine on the push button was stopped. So I’m all disconnected.
I’m walking around five times a day and using the “lung breather” to make sure my lungs are strong.
And doing a lot of walking.We’re hoping to start passing fluids easily now. [TMI -don]
Hoping to .. it’s funny to say this….Hoping to have a bowel movement before I say that I’m on my way to recovery and getting out of here. [way way TMI -don]Again I want to thank everybody for all their prayers, for all their calls. for all their cards and just say that I’m recovering at a quick rate of speed well ahead of the curve.
I’m well on schedule to get out of the hospital this week
Tomorrow will be a big day when we find out whether we actually have cancer or not. We expect that it will probably be cancer but we’re not sure till the pathology report comes back. So tomorrow we are going to get the word on that and see what the next treatment is going to be if there’s going to be any.Right now I want to thank everybody and hope Donnie can get this up on the web page so everybody can see it.
My love and prayers an thank-you to everybody that’s been praying for meFlora is here in the room and she has been here with me since Day 1. She’s my personal attendant as always for the last 36 years. and I just want to say that I couldn’t be in better hands by having her here with me.
I love you all. Bye-bye.
Our East Coast correspondent, Kate files this audio report.
Transcript:
“My father is doing very well. He was up walking twice today. They uncovered the bandage over his incision and it looked good. He is doing very well. Thank you! Bye..”
Dude I am soooo Rueter’s!
Kate files this audio report.
She repeats the address likes she’s the radio officer on a big ole Navy ship. I’ll condense the phonetic spellings 
“It’s 11:45 on Wednesday night [East Coast time]. My father is out of recovery and has just gotten into his room where my mother will be staying with him until he is discharged. His phone number at Beth Israel Hospital is 617-754-3618. The address here is 1 Deaconess Road, Clinical Center, 6th Floor, Room 618, Boston MA 02215. Thank you!”
Larry II files this audio report. I think he is in the car enroute to Boston. (That’s hot!)
“Uncle Larry is out of surgery. He finished at 8 o’clock. Doctor said he did extremely well – superb physical specimen in surgery. Handled it really well physiologically. The surgeon removed the offending tissue including some good tissue to make sure. No evidence of any other bad tissue anywhere the surgeon examined. Uncle Larry is in recovery now. Larry II and family will see him sometime tonight in recovery. He will be moving into his room sometime later tonight. His number and address in the hospital will be posted when its known.”
Kate writes:
Jack started his birthday last night when Nana and Grampa got home from Florida. They came over to visit my dad. We all had dinner, cake, and sang happy birthday to Jack. After Jack went to bed last night mommy and daddy turned his car seat around. Today he will find out what he has been missing as I’m sure Gabrielle will be pointing out all the big trucks and “cool” buses. Today Jack, Gabrielle, daddy, and mommy will all be celebrating together starting with Gabrielle’s tumbletime class, then a ride on the carousel, then who knows what the night will bring! We are very proud of our healthy and handsome 1 year old!
