Completed and healthy... so far

This blog started as a place that I could vent and provide some insight as a care giver, but for the most part, my husband has had an easier time than I expected. He completed his last chemo in mid May and received a clean scan the end of May. Next step is a colonoscopy in September.

Here is what I have learned about HIS treatment.

• Men (at least him), don't pay any attention to the program and the meds being given to them, so wives..... it will be up to you. Pay attention to the order of the meds because what would happen to him is that after about 6 treatments, he would start getting ill after they gave him a certain med... BUT he never asked what it was so they didn't know what to reduce. When I asked, it was actually the steroids, so they pushed that drip slower. That worked.
• Neuropathy continues to get worse as the treatments go. It got to the point that it was in his feet and he would almost fall over in the shower. The Oxaliplatin causes this and luckily, he only had a few more treatments so they were able to cut it back without any effects.
• He slept most of the time when he had the pump on for those 2 days. He was extremely tired. The simplest of things wore him out. Don't make any plans for long outings.
• His taste changed and he wanted to eat ALL the time, BUT he only would eat a little bit of it and be done. Everything looked good. Commercials are your worst enemy. You can literally be cooking dinner and a pizza commercial comes on and the next thing you know.. you are order Pizza Hut.
• Have some sort of outlet for yourself. Whether it be blogging, church, friends, school... have something that you do just for you. You will need it to keep you from falling into the "I do everything for you... I need some time to myself" mode.
• Make sure to take stuff to keep you busy at treatments and don't forget some snacks. It will be anywhere from 4-6 hours.

Just remember, CANCER is a very scary word, BUT it doesn't HAVE to be a life sentence. Thank God for us, it was just a bump in the road.

Busy Busy Busy

WOW.... it has been a really long time since I posted. I feel like I don't have time to think these days. Delbert just started his 5th treatment yesterday. We are finding that he has trouble sleeping the 2 days that the pump is on. When he finally gets the pump off, then he has 2-3 days of uncontrollable restroom issues. He only leaves the house a couple of time during a 2 week period. I do most of the running around. Between that and work, gym, and school, I am just beat most days. So far, with every treatment, he finds a new side effect. He has the first bite jaw pain and cold sensitivity so bad that he says it feels like he has a mouthful of 9-volt batteries. He has off and on paralysis on the left side of his right hand which makes it tough to use the mouse. He sometimes seems to drift away in his thoughts and seems tired more. In some cases, he seems to have trouble concentrating and in other cases, he can't seem to get something out of his head. He has some bouts of depression but only for a couple of days during the meds. This last treatment, at the chemo lab, he starting getting nauseated but was able to push through it. I am sure that he gets tired of me asking him if he is ok all the time... It's just a helpless feeling. He is trying to keep up on his treatment videos but I can say that the first couple of days, he isn't much up to talking.... those are the days that his mind seems to wander more.

On a personal note, I started hitting the gym mid December and go 6 days a week... most days at 6 am so that I can be back before work starts. So far, I have lost 15 lbs. I have also started back at school. Started with an Intro to Programming class. I figured it should be easy and can fill in some of the gaps in my programming education.

Well, I will try to do better at keeping up on this. Bye for now.

Treatment Number 3

Well, Delbert went in for his 3 treatment today. So far so good... He is 1/4 of the way done with his treatments and down to single digits with only 9 left after today. So far he isn't sick or having mouth pain like last time, but he also isn't trying ice cream anytime soon. I get a little worried that this may all be too much for him, but I do know that others have conquered this with a lot more side effects than he has had. At least the holidays were between treatments so we were able to enjoy them. We had a great Christmas dinner with the kids and a very quiet New Years. We didn't even stay up until midnight... guess we are getting old. I will let you know more tomorrow on how he is doing. If this holds par for the course, he won't be having such a great next few days.