[singlepic=16,500,400]Last Tuesday Doug was rushed to the hospital in respiratory distress. This is a picture of him on the ventilator. He had no less than 5 IVs going in him at any one time. Today, he was strong enough to restart radiation. He has lost quite a bit of weight, he weighed in today at 175 pounds which is almost 10 pounds down from the last time he had chemo (about 10 days ago). He is trying to up the amount of “tube food” he takes in daily to 6-7 cans, we currently get an average of 4 cans (although yesterday he did get 5 cans in). The goal is 7 cans, but it is hard to squeeze that many cans in one day, so today’s goal is 6 cans.
He will restart chemo later this week. We have 15 days of radiation and 3 chemo sessions left until he is done with treatment. It seems like so little, but when you are going through it, it is still quite a bit. We did learn that lip balm can amplify the effects of radiation, he had been wearing lip balm when getting his treatments and this may have led to the horrible lip sores he suffered from. He wants to start back on the Duragesic patches (pain control), but I am hesitant to do this since we still don’t know for sure what exactly happened to cause the problem last week. They are unsure if it was the Duragesic (fentynl)patches alone, or combined with dehydration and vomiting that caused the problem. The doctor said we can start back at 50mcg tomorrow morning, so I guess I will bend because I don’t want him to be in pain, but only with super, duper, extra- close supervision. . . I cannot do a repeat of last week.
Oh come on, it wasn’t all that bad. I slept right through the whole thing. It was better than my recent usual Tuesday. In fact, if I could sleep through the rest of the treatment that would be great for me.
Ok, kidding. But I’m serious about getting some pain relief.
I love you babe!
Keep strong Dougie! You’re almost there. Oh, and Laurie told us you were grounded. Maybe you can come play when your off being grounded:)
Let us know if you need anything. Love you!
She can’t ground me. I’ll just kick her butt if she tries to pull a power play on me. 😉
I started back on the patch today, but at half the dosage from last week. It is already doing the trick much better than the other stuff they gave me. The pain is very tolerable and manageable at this point.
Doug,
You and Laurie are both very strong. Hang in there! I am glad that the pain is tolerable and manageable now.
Honey, you can’t kick your own butt right now. I have already pulled the power play on you and you are GROUNDED!
Laurie, you go girl! Do whatever it takes to keep my man Dougie walking the straight and narrow road to full recovery :-).
Doug, we’re keeping the prayers rolling for you all. “This too shall pass”. And after it does, you all can join us and our ringer Bailey for our next bowling outing. With the bumpers up, she can give daddy a run for his money. Now that really tells you all you need to know about my bowling skills (or lack thereof) ;-).