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.