Kel had his second day of chemo today, and with it another chemo drug (bleomycin). He had a longer wait to start and was in a group room rather than his own, but made me just drop him off ...
The excellent news: Since his first treatment yesterday, Kel has barely needed to take the pain meds!! He had been taking them every 3 or 4 hours since he was in the hospital, and since last night he has only taken 2 doses and said his pain is fine right now. That is a HUGE improvement!
The good news: While he isn't eating much, Kel is eating something. He had bread this morning and some soup when we got home. Then he even told me he had a craving and he had 2 bowls of cereal! Hours later it has stayed down too. ;)
The harder: So far, the biggest side effect is fatigue. We got home, Kel ate, and then was out cold for the next 2 hours. He just woke up again, but I don't imagine it will last long. He has a little bit of altered tastes too, with tasting vinegar, but very minor.
Overall he is doing VERY well, taking all of his medications and we think the disappearing pain is a good sign! Either it is psychosomatic (all of the cancer is in his imagination? Don't we wish), or this is VERY responsive to chemo and the mass in his back is already shrinking.
For me, a lot of chauffering today. I drove David to school, came back home, got on my motorcycle (and dang was it cold this morning) and went to work. Came back home at lunch, grabbed a car and Kel, took him to chemo, and went back to work. Since his chemo started late, I left work at 4:30, went back to get David from school (which is close to home, so about 10 miles from work), took him to the neighbors so that she could take him to storytime at the library with her kids, went back to get Kel (about 5 miles past my work), and then came home. Phew! Would have been great if all of this could have been done on the motorcycle - would have saved some gas. :) Start again tomorrow.
So, day 2 done, only ... hmmm, need a calendar ... a lot to go? Until evaluation for needing surgery there are 82 days-ish (4 cycles of 21, minus the 2 already completed). Of those, 24 are chemo days, so maybe that should be the countdown. 24 chemo days to go!
For tonight's 'Suck': I pick fatigue. For all of us. Definitely for Kel - he is beyond exhausted (could be the wait he had for me to pick him up since he was done earlier than I expected? I am such a bad wife ...); I am tired too, but have no excuse other than being back sleeping on the couch downstairs and me not trusting Hudson not to attack Saja in the night (he is an evil dog); and I think David is tired too. Although you wouldn't know it by the crazy running around that he does.
Things that don't suck tonight are (in general) how good David is being! He had an incident with scratching at school today (both being the scratcher and the scratchee), but overall he has been a very good boy. And when I took him to the neighbor's house and told him I was going to pick Daddy up from the doctor's, he was sure to immediately tell me that he was going to be a good boy for Anna (neighbor), he would listen, and listen, and listen to Anna! I think, unfortunately since we went through the chemo-schtick with my mom, he is used to the careful around sick people bit. Wish he didn't have to experience this again ... or at all ... but I am definitely grateful for his laughter, childish self (in a good way), and his love for us all.
Definitely off to sleep now (after only a little bit of work),
Tracy
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