The last two days have been really rough on Dougie. He has what is known as delayed onset nausea/vomiting from the chemotherapy. It happens occasionally and when it does, it is really hard on the patient. The typical anti-emetics that are given for chemo induced nausea do not work as well this far out from chemo. Monday he vomited several times, once immediately after I finished feeding him through his tube. He lost everything I had just fed him. Tuesday he did not manage to keep much down either. His mom was supposed to take him to the doctor yesterday so he could get routine labs done. He went to run some errands with his mom that morning and by the time he got home, he was really quite sick. I gave him a Compazine for the nausea and within seconds, he threw that up as well as most of the water he had been sipping on. The vomiting is really hard on him, as it hurts his head afterwords for a while. It is so hard to see him like that.
When you are on chemotherapy, the most important thing, second to avoiding infection, is avoiding dehydration. At the rate he was going, he was going to be admitted to the hospital for dehydration in a matter of days. We made the decision to have his mom stay home with Zoe and I took him to the doctor’s office. When we saw the doctor, I discussed having him sent home with some Saline so I could infuse him with hydration over the next couple of days until the nausea/vomiting relents. They decided to give him a liter of fluid yesterday along with a cocktail of drugs designed to allow the patient to sleep off the nausea. So we stayed in the office for a few hours while they boosted him up with fluids and we have home health care coming in today to bring us supplies so I can hydrate him at home. Our goal is to keep him out of the hospital, especially on Christmas Day. We have an arsenal of drugs at home to knock him out if he is not feeling better today, but I am hoping he will wake up today and feel much better.
I asked Dougie to fix this so that we can add pictures, and he has not had the opportunity to do that yet. When he does, we will post some before, during and after pics of his journey. . .
See, we are following along at home! Strange, I’m not that happy that our birthday present may be getting some use for once. I know what getting sick feels like normally, I can only imagine what it’s like when you’re in a lot of pain as well. All I can say is that we’re thinking of you guys, and hope the nausea settles down for Dougie.
Dougie – forgot to tell you about the note Cody made for you. We were in the car and he kept asking me how to spell words: K-I-C-K…C-A-N-C-E-R. So later Maddie shows me the note the he wrote, and it says “Kick Cancer’s Ass” No, he didn’t get punished for that one, I was too busy laughing. I am a little nervous that he knew how to spell ass, however!
I’m working on it, but I found out today that I don’t have permissions. I’ve forwarded the request onto the appropriate people.
Bill, that is too funny. I’m not sure I could have punished him after that either. Did you ask him what he intended to do with the note?
Doug…I hope by the time you read this some of the worst is beginning to pass. Laurie, if you ever needed “nursing” help that you can’t get to, please let me know. I’d be happy to start lines, push fluids, etc.
If I give Doug vodka through the tube would that help or hurt the nausea?
How many points do we get for each cc of fluid he keeps down?
Go Cody!!! Kick Cancer’s Ass!! (This needs to be a WOD, by the way, one with squats and lunges!)
We should do a wod with the rep count being the amount of cc’s we get him to keep down!!