Multiple Hubby Updates

Good afternoon, my friends! I hope you are all having a lovely weekend!!

Its been a mixture of highs and lows since I last wrote, but I am pleased to report that we are on a high at the moment! Hurrah!!

On Wednesday evening after chemo Hubby was on astoundingly good form so I suggested we pop round to our friend and neighbour's house to catch the end of the baseball (Go Red Sox!!) thinking that a wee half hour out the house would do him good. Happily, we ended up there for about 3 hours which I think is the longest he has been out of the house for something other than a hospital appointment for a couple of months!! Yay!!

Thursday wasn't a great day as he was very tired and sore at the hydration session at the chemo centre. The afternoon appointment we had with Immigration Services didn't help, but it was only to get our fingerprints taken for our green card application and luckily we were in and out in about 15 mins.

On Thursday evening we had a nurse come round to get us set up with the IV nutrition program I mentioned on Wednesday. It seems all very straight forward and idiot proof - which is fortunate as I will be playing nurse for the next few weeks and changing the IV bag daily!!

Friday was a particularly rough day for Hubby as he didn't sleep much the night before and was very sore and nauseous from the chemo. We spoke to the oncologist and arranged for a prescription of a Fentanyl patch which is a much stronger painkiller, and is worn for 72 hours so we should be able to avoid the pain highs and lows.

It took a wee while to kick in, but by this morning Hubby was feeling a lot better and was a more chatty when I went to check on him. I am really confident that the combination of the patch and the IV nutrition is what is going to put Hubby on the road to recovery!! :-)

Well on that note it is time for me to go prepare his new feed bag, and then there was a rumour that I might be able to get him out of the house again for a little more baseball action (Go Red Sox!)

I'll check back in with you soon! x

Long Overdue Hubby Update

Hello all!! Apologies for the lack of recent information but the last 3 weeks have been mega busy!!

It hasn't all been doom and gloom as we have had some wonderful friends and family come to visit from Scotland, but it has been a particularly rough couple of weeks for poor Hubby.

The new chemo pills have been reacting with the area in Hubby's throat where he had the radiotherapy causing something called radiation recall, which caused Hubby a lot of pain whenever he tried to eat or drink.

This got worse to the point where Hubby was living on boiled eggs and miso soup and, after calling our oncologist for advice, he ended up in hospital for 3 nights last week getting fluids and a blood transfusion :-(

While he was there they also did an endoscopy to make sure the pain in his throat was not being caused by new tumours, and hallelujah! For once we got some good news and they were able to confirm that it was definitely caused by the radiation.

He seemed better when he came out and was managing to eat a little more each day until Monday when his appetite dropped off again and he was in a lot of pain. He has been prescribed an appetite stimulant but that wont kick in for a couple of weeks.

We discussed this with the oncologist when we saw him today and we have been referred to a company that deals with at home IV nutrition to try and build him up as he is incredibly weak right now, but we are not sure if he can eat if he is taking the IV nutrition which seems like it might not really help in the long run so we have a few questions before we agree to this treatment.

Based on his blood counts last week and how weak he was looking today we were unsure if he would get the planned chemo but surprisingly his blood counts were all good today and the oncologist was happy to proceed, but has told Hubby to stay off the additional chemo pills until we see him again in 3 weeks.

Hubby seems to have taken today's treatment quite well and is dosing happily in the chair next to me. Back in tomorrow for more hydration, then fingers crossed we will have a more peaceful cycle this time round!!

I'll keep ya posted!! xxx