Rough weekend

Friday (the 4th) Doug had labs, got de-accessed, radiation and we saw Dr Travis.  He felt well enough to go to work Mon-Thur but by Friday he needed to stay home.    Doug asked him if he was finished with chemo and he said "no, you really need to do one more week."  But he said it would be done at half strength of the 5fu chemo drug.  He did get iv fluids again Friday to get him thru the weekend.  (I could really rename 5 f u -  but I won't.  But I could!  :)

It has been a challenging weekend.  Doug has basically been in bed, on the toilet or soaking in the tub all weekend.  Sitting is pretty much out of the question.  His back has bad (2nd degree) burns on the tailbone and lower.  Still a lot of pain where the tumor is inside of him.  So we've put lotion on constantly all weekend, and been switching between Motrin and Tylenol for the pain.  It doesn't take it completely away but dulled it enough that he could get some relief.   He's got basically no appetite and as of this morning is down 13 lbs.  Thank God for the nutrition he's getting from the Isagenix shakes as well as a few supplements.

So next week he goes in on Monday for labs, access and get the pump again.  Then he has (I think) 5 days of the intense radiation where they narrow the field down to concentrate on just the area of the tumor (and not the surrounding lymph nodes.)  We've heard this is going to be really tough.  With that and the chemo..........well who knows what the week will hold?

That brings me to the decision he/we are wrestling with.   He has the option of saying "no" to treatment.   The decision to stop chemo is one that is being considered.   There are many cases of patients that had the same condition that did no chemo, but did do radiation.   We are praying for wise specific direction in this area......with a "beyond a shadow of a doubt" answer, and quickly at that.   :)   If you would agree in prayer with us we would appreciate it.

Eric has an appointment at ACH on Thursday.  The appointment time is 1030 but she emailed this week and said it's been 2 years since his last echo (of his heart) and the only time they had available was 8 am.  Which has us leaving at 4 am.  And rush hour traffic basically from Conway to L.R. Oh happy day.  Normally we would go down the night before but considering how Doug is feeling I'm not real crazy about that.    Pray for that too ok?


Thank you for your continued prayers.

Love,

Jan