some positive news!

Sorry it's been a bit since I've posted....I wanted to wait until yesterday's appointment, because we weren't sure what that would hold.  There was strong suspicion that Dad would need a blood transfusion this week, but NOPE!  His blood counts are holding steady, which is great.  Next week could be a totally different story, but this week we are in the clear.  No transfusion needed.  Cue the falling balloons. 

And...he gained 8 pounds this week!  That is HUGE.  The nurse said the number and I cheered out loud {and then I asked her to repeat it twice}.  Haha.  Last week he had lost 8 pounds from the week before, so now he is back to where he was 2 weeks ago.  We would have been happy with him just not losing anymore and holding steady, but for him to actually gain weight is great.  He is still, of course, about 30 pounds light from where we were in May, but still - we are taking the victories that come our way. This is a victory.

The nurse is continuing to come to the house each day to administer fluid via IV, and he is taking the nutrition well also -  we are able to get to the nutrition "quota" almost every day. 

Both the pain and nausea seem to be well controlled now and seem to also be abating on their own.  We have been able to scale both the pain and the nausea meds way back, so he is a little bit more clear and focused the last few days as a result of that.

No transfusion needed, pain, nausea, nutrition and hydration all managed = ALL.GOOD.NEWS!!

Of course there is something on the other side of the ledger...you knew that was coming, right? 

******

Dad has an extreme amount of cancer related fatigue and weakness.  Cancer related fatigue is different than normal fatigue in that it is not brought on by exertion, it is just there, and it doesn't go away after resting.  He is extremely weak and fatigued most of the time.  There are bright spots {today he went to Target and buzzed around in a motorized wheelchair for an hour - yeehaw!}, but for the most part he is sleeping most of the day and is pretty sedentary, with exception of getting up to go to the bathroom or going to one of his doctors or radiation appointments.  His energy level is in the negative.

Cancer related fatigue is brought on by cancer itself {check}, chemo {check}, radiation {check} and meds used to control pain, nausea and swelling {check, check, check}.  Basically everything he is doing to fight the cancer along with the cancer itself can cause the extreme fatigue.  The combination of it all together only makes it more intense.

Since he is sleepy and fatigued the majority of the time, and is not moving around much, he has gotten a bit shaky on his feet over the last few weeks.  In light of that, we went ahead and ordered a wheelchair and a walker.  We cannot take the chance of Dad falling right now and hopefully he will be feeling being a little more steady with the help of the walker and that {hopefully} will give him more confidence to get up and move around a bit more. 

That is the update for now...we are grateful to be celebrating the laundry list of really good news and we will work through the fatigue and weakness.

****

Sometimes it feels like we are working with a switchboard.  Something goes off and we flip a switch {a new treatment, prescription or schedule} and it works.  Or it backfires and we flip it off and flip on something else.  It's a science experiment.  We have no idea what we are doing, we only know that we are committed to doing everything we possibly can to get the best outcome for my Dad.  All that we do is aimed at that.  Sometimes, it's a moving target, but that's alright.  We have our running shoes on. ;) 

We are in this together.  Thank you for being in it with us.  We are so grateful for the support.

....Team Poppa