Chemo Shmeemo

Thursday was a big day. We met with Rob's oncologist, a palliative care physician, and had chemo.

Rob's oxygen saturation levels were extraordinary! 97% on two liters of oxygen. Wahoo....!!!

He has lost another pound since February 3. Not alarming, but he is down seven pounds since December.

We told his oncologist how awful his first chemo week was, what with all the puking, feeling like puking, and sleeping. His oncologist told us that he was going to add an IV drug called Amend prior to the chemo to help with the nausea. He also added a few more prescription drugs to help with the post-chemo nausea.

We started the chemo and whilst waiting for the blood work to come back, Rob and I decided to run an experiment. He took off his oxygen and then we retested his levels after 25 minutes. His levels were at 93%. So, after talking to the nurse, we decided to only use his oxygen when he is exercising or sleeping. He is so happy about that. I am still waiting for the pulse oximeter I ordered forever ago to arrive to double check and make sure he is getting enough.

The palliative doctor was fantastic. She went over all Rob's medicine and told us how he should better utilize the medicine he is taking. Up until this point, he was taking so many at random times for this or for that.

Last chemo go-round he was soooooooo sick the day after. This time around he has been really good. There is some nausea and fatigue, but not near as bad as it was last time. Funny thing, though. He has the worst hiccups. (If you remember, which you probably don't, last treatment in 2005, he had terrible hiccups and required a prescription drug to take care of it - it didn't help the fact that he was still healing from his lung surgery.) We are trying a few different things right now: Maalox Advanced, GasX (I know, right? Who would have thought?), and a prescription drug for his nausea that may help with the hiccups. We will see.

We took a small walk today. It was nice to get him outside, but he was exhausted when we were done. (It was uphill, to his credit.)

Thank you for all the kind words, thoughts, and deeds on our behalf! We are very, very grateful.

Eat, Drink, & Be Merry

Ahhh. The last few days (compared to the two weeks prior) have been good. Rob has eaten almost like normal. Wahoo! He is still tired, but really, the last few days have been good. He was even making jokes. This is a huge thing, since last week, I think that he would have just assumed crawling into a six-foot hole. His nausea is just about gone (thus the eating).

We visited his oncology office to get some blood work done. His levels are pretty low (duh - he just had chemo), but not alarmingly so. He is highly susceptible to catching any kind of illness, so we try to keep people at bay. If someone comes to our home, we spray them down with sanitizer.

His oxygen levels were FANTASTIC! They were 98% on four liters of oxygen. They lowered it to two and tested him ten minutes later. It was 96%. They decided that we could leave it at two. I purchased a pulse oximeter so we could test his blood oxygen levels at home. No more guessing - or assuming that he is getting enough (or not) oxygen.

He is on day nine after his last dose of Levaquin (antibiotic). He is already noticing a difference how he feels; he is coughing more and he has more pain. Thank goodness for drugs to help ease the pain. Hopefully, this vicious cycle of pneumonia on and off again will end.

One week from today, he will have another round of chemotherapy. We are looking forward (with much trepidation) to the days following. We are preparing for much vomit and sleeping (hopefully not at the same time).