Still smilin'

Hi All.

Today's been a little rough, but overall it's been a pretty good week for Dave. Today is day 12 of chemo. He hasn't been feeling too badly overall, although he finds that he'll be out for a bit and feel like he's just 'hit a wall', and just needs to go home & crash. Sleep is still an issue, but it seems like this is going to be an ongoing side effect of the 5-FU chemo med that he's on 24/7. Although Dave doesn't have too much of an issue with the PICC line in his arm, the actual bottle with the pump inside makes him physically nauseous just looking at it. Thankfully he doesn't really have to look at it, as it's inside a little protective sleeve with a zipper.  The bottle itself has a little bio-hazard symbol on it, and they actually send you home with a 'Chemo Spill Kit' in case it somehow were to break. (This really is like a poison to kill the cancer cells, and the thought of it is just too much for Dave.)

This is a pic of the bottle. I guess there is a heat sensor on the end of tubing on Dave's arm that controls the continuous infusion through the PICC line.

There's no batteries or anything - just this bottle. with a kind of balloon inside that deflates as the drug is used up. And once a week (Wednesdays) he goes in to get it replaced.

This morning Dave woke up with what seems to be the start of a cold. He sounds fine, but any coughing really does cause him a lot of chest pain as he tries to clear his throat. (It breaks my heart to listen to him as it obviously hurts him.) Also going outside seems to give him the chills very quickly. We take his temperature twice a day, and it's been fine, but we're keeping a close eye because we know that things can get bad quickly because his immune system is compromised while on chemotherapy.

Another 'sore spot' has been the suture anchor stuck in his chest wall from the VON nurse removing the stitches improperly on his feeding tube. (In case you missed this, see the post from Dec 31st. Feeding Tube Fiasco.) It's kind of been bugging Dave for days, but this weekend especially it seems to be very painful. Dave contacted the Radiology department, this evening. It's not an emergency and she said she'd set up an appointment for Dave tomorrow afternoon. So we'll see what happens tomorrow. The only positive thing that has happened because of this incident is that VON now only sends in one nurse to see Dave at our home, instead of a different nurse each time. She comes weekly to change the PICC line dressing, or as needed, and she seems very competent.

On a positive note, so many people have contacted Dave or posted on the blog or facebook pages, to share their stories about their  faith being strengthened, or just being encouraged by our story. It is reciprocal and we need you guys so much!

Also, for those of you that know Dave, I'm sure you can visualize this. For the most part Dave has been feeling good this week. Occasionally when he coughs and has a moment that causes him pain, he'll look over at me and if he's sees I have a concerned look on my face, he always smiles back at me or does something to make me smile. He is always positive and won't let this get him down.

Never give up!

Val