Christmas Eve Day

Maria has had a setback. She is back in the hospital and is in a lot of pain. A CT scan was done to check the bili drain (?). She is hoping to come home today. I will post more once I visit today. We were looking forward to having Maria visit for a bit on Christmas Eve, now we are hoping she will be able to come home from the hosptial for Christmas Day.

Please keep both Maria and Nick in your prayers, but especially Nick - this is hardest on him.

Judy Cerqua

Maria came home on Wednesday, 12/3, after successfully beating the infection that set her back over the weekend. I am assuming she and Nick are getting along ok, I have not heard since she came home. If anyone has an update, please post Maria's progress. Tammy Mair has put together a schedule for meals, light cleaning, Christmas decorating etc. Contact Tammy if you want to contribute or want to confirm your slot on the schedule. Continue to pray for healing and rejuvenation!

Rounding the 300 mark to the home stretch

I talked to Maria tonight and she is sooo much better. They pulled one of her drainage tubes and removed the port. She has moved to pudding. Sounds like she may be coming home tomorrow - Wednesday. Maria is still on oxygen at night and gets a bit winded if she talks too long. She is still in need of much rest and sleep but her spirits are up and she is looking forward to spending some time in her own bed. The air bed finally arrived yesterday and the staff didn't know how to work it. The bed unded up deflating so Maria moved to her chair in the middle of the night! She was uncomfortable there so she got out the directions and figured out how to make the bed work all on her own - what was she thinking!!!

Tammy will be bringing her home from the hospital and getting her settled at home. Tammy has also worked out the dinner schedule etc etc. If you signed up to help then you will be hearing from someone very soon about your assignment and the assigned date. Maria is still in need of much rest so we should take to our task when we arrive, check in to see if Maria and Nick need anything and then leave. We'll let Maria tell us when she is feeling up to a more robust visit.

Please post comments if anyone else has additional information.

Friday evening update

As many of you know Maria's CT scan did in fact show an infection.  She has two abscesses around her liver and colon.  The doctors placed some drainage tubes today to get rid of the infection and that of course caused her some discomfort.  She is also having trouble breathing so they have put her on oxygen as well.  It has been requested that we limit our visits to her at this point.  It is really crucial for her to get as much rest as possible!  She has had so many of us visiting her and calling her, which I think has been wonderful, but with Maria being as popular as she is the trail of visitors is never ending.  If you do feel like you would like to go and see her they have asked that we just go and sit with her so that she can continue to take in the oxygen like she should and rest as well.  If the oxygen does not work they may have to intubate her and we DON'T want that to happen.  She is stable and as we all know she if a fighter and she will get through this as well.  It is just another small road block to her recovery.  Pray hard that she will have little pain and get good sleep so that her body can fight off this horrible infection.  God bless Maria!

A new prayer request

We stopped in with Nick last night to see Maria on Thanksgiving evening. Maria was tuckered out as she had an exhausting day. Her white blood cell count was elevated which indicated an infection. She had to undergo a CT Scan during the day and that was a lot of physical work on her part. When I talked to her late this morning, the test confirmed that she had infection around her liver. She now has two drainage tubes to clear out the infection. She also told me that all of the lymph nodes showed malignancy and the doctor said that only this surgery could uncover this fact. Without the surgery she wouldn't have had a chance.

Maria needs our continued prayers and rest. I am really happy to report that she is behaving herself. She understands how important this recuperation period is for her success. We talked a bit and she is thankful for all of her friends. And there are many of us! Maria is having discomfort with her bed. The nurses are trying to find her a different bed with better padding. I talked to Francie today and she said that the hospital has to order the bed from a provider but they can find just about anything. So pray for rest, comfort, and bye bye to that infection!!!

Finally, Nick Nader seems to be doing very well. He is appreciative of all of the love and seems to being managing with the separation. I can't imagine what I might be thinking if I were in his shoes. I think part of his adaptation is the fact that he knows many families so very well. Pray for Nick that he will be able to endure the burdens once his mother returns home.

Pray for the wisdom of the doctors, the dedication of the nursing staff, the curiosity of the research scientists and the continued strong will of Maria to beat this disease. She is a remarkable woman who will not let anything change her optimism - Go Maria!!!!

My son and I just got home from taking Nick to see his mom at the hospital. Maria seemed really good tonight. She was excited to see Nick, as was Nick to see her. She got the tube that was in her nose taken out. She was so excited to have it gone, she can breathe better and sleep better without it. She tried drinking some apple juice, but it immediately made her sick to her stomach, so she is back to ice chips. She has been watching the food Chanel and dreaming of eating a chocolate chip/pumpkin cookie. Nick seems to be hanging in there. Actually, I think he is doing great. Maria wants to let everyone know that she has felt the thoughts and prayers from all. Until next time, Amy Petersen

Pretty soon this girl will need new track shoes

Good evening! Maria is giving Beanie Wells a challenge on yardage today. Both have scored big wins. I called the hospital and talked with both Vivian and Maria. Maria told me that she walked 9 laps around the nurses' station this morning and walked another 10 laps this afternoon. She said that she is doing what she is told. Vivian told me that Maria had a lot of pain today. Please pray for Maria to have a restful, pain-free night. It sounds like she can really use the rest. She knows that everyone is praying for both her and Nick.

Maria is alive and kicking!

I went and saw Maria today and by the time many of you read this post you may have already talked to her or have gone to see her, but here is a small update for those of you who have not.  This is straight from Maria's mouth...the doctor removed the right side of her colon, he removed the entire left lobe of the liver and removed numerous tumors from the right side and ambulated the rest.  All in all he removed 40% of the liver.  He also removed the gall bladder because it had stones in it and he removed all of the lymph nodes in the abdominal region.  This was far less than he originally planned for.  From the scans he thought there were tumors on her lung which there was NOT and he thought he was going to have to remove at least 60% of the liver.  So this was great news!

When Maria came out of the anesthesia and realized that she was not in the ICU she was worried that they opened her up and that it was so bad and they could not do anything for her so they sewed her back up.  When she realized that this was in fact not the case she was amazed and relieved.  She did not have to go to ICU because she only lost "a coke can and a half" of blood.  Also, it was not as intense as originally planned.

As we all know Maria is a fighter and she is truly a walking miracle and speaking of walking she walked five laps around the nursing station and was able to sit the chair.  She will be out of the hospital before we know it!

If you want to be in contact with Maria she asked that you call her at the hospital instead of on her cell phone so that she does not use up her minutes.  Her phone number at the hospital is

293-5707 and she is in room #951 at the James Cancer Hospital. 

We love you Maria!

Maria' Number

Has anyone been able to track down a phone number for Maria's room?

Has anyone heard how Maria is doing?

As I write this blog. My prayers and thoughts are with Maria and Nick. Please feel free to share any updates you may have.

Christine