After Chemo

The last few days have been pretty yucky. Chemo on Monday didn't really affect me until later. The next morning I was still trying to digest last nights supper. My appetite has dropped off to nothing and it's about all I can do to get water or ginger ale down. Hiccups off and on for the first two days. Nothing really terrible but a bit irritating none the less. I've found that if I sleep on my left side they will go away quicker. The good news is that research shows that if you have hiccups you are less likely to have episodes of vomiting. I've had a couple of small episodes a few times, but so far nothing serious. Fatigue has been my biggest problem lately. We get up in the morning and go to radiation and then back to the chemo department for an infusion of saline to keep me hydrated. Then it's back to the temporary homestead and usually a nap for me. Then sometime around 3:30 or so I'll come around until about 11:00. Last night we tried putting some of what I refer to as my baby formula through my PEG tube. We got about 2/3 of a can in before I started to get the feeling of being just a little too full which was my signal to stop. Today I asked about an appetite stimulant and they said that it would probably take 6-8 weeks to take effect. Really ?? You can get ( the exact word escapes me here, scads, jillions, truckloads? ) of diet supplements to curb or reduce your appetite almost immediately, but you have nothing to make a person feel like they're hungry within 30 to 40 minutes or so?

.

Fri. aft.

Back home and kicking back watching TV. The most relaxed I've been since we left. But then that's not really saying a lot. This has truly been one of the most extreme weeks in so many ways. Setting up camp, radiation, chemo, daily blood tests. Chemo has to top the list of the worst. And I still hate, hate, hate not having teeth anymore. I know that sooner or later I would have been in worse shape if I hadn't had that done, yet it's really, really hard to adjust to not being able to eat something crunchy you see or even think of. Potato chips, Fritos, pecans, WHATEVER !!!

And just so that everyone knows I've lost about 10 more lbs. but I'm doing well. My appetite is returning slowly and everything else is as normal as can be expected.

Sat. morn.

I woke up quite late since I had been able to sleep in my own bed and was quite comfortable in it. I had a bad case of the blahs and was about to board the pity party train. My arm hurt, from what I don't know, my mouth tasted like nothing I could possibly describe, I was tired and generally thinking that quitting right now might not be the worst decision I had ever made. Teresa was up reading and made me a cup of coffee and while she was at it told me of a neighbor who had come by to tell us of her fathers passing. Benny had been a friend of mine. Not a great friend, but the type of guy that you could pass a lot of time with just shooting the bull and swapping lies. He was always an up kind of guy, laughing at the stupidity of man. He had a great heart and would do almost anything in his power to do. He had been in an accident many months before and was well on his way to a good recovery. He was back at work on light duty and probably didn't have much more before he would be back to full duty. And then, yesterday at work, his heart gave out. His family is large and he wanted to keep them around him, so he had been adding on and upgrading his home to accommodate as many as was possible. His house always had several cars around it which spoke to how many of his kids he could keep close. His back yard was a construction zone with one project or another in the design or build stage. Just a couple of months ago they had renovated a part of the house to make it livable for a daughter and grandchild. Benny, you will be missed.

And lord, the next time you feel it necessary to jerk a knot in my rear end, please try to do so a bit more gently. I promise I'll try very hard to pay attention.

To all of you that pray for me, a great thank you. I know I've said it before and I will continue to say it. I KNOW PRAYER WORKS. Again thank you. To my readers ( and who would ever have thought I would be saying that ) I promise that I will try my darnedest to keep you informed and possibly entertained. As a bit of a teaser I'll tell you that I've written a short story that is at the editor's now and when they get through with it I'll turn it loose on an unsuspecting public.

Till the next time.