The good news this week is that the nausea from (we now believe) reaction to the infusion part of last week's chemotherapy has pretty much subsided. There have been no retching spells for the past couple of days, which of course is a big relief. And Steve did eat a little food by mouth yesterday—some chex mix and a small dish of canned peaches for breakfast. The day before, he had a small serving of ice cream. This doesn't add up to a lot, but every little bit seems like a good thing.
The complication this week was increasing leakage from the feeding tube—so much that on Wednesday afternoon we called the Kaiser advice line and were instructed to proceed to the emergency room for assistance with it. Unfortunately, the emergency room personnel didn't have the necessary skills or materials to do anything beyond putting an extra gauze dressing around the tube site and telling us not to use the feeding tube until we could see a surgeon the next day. Since that would mean no food intake we declined to follow the latter instruction (the leakage had subsided—sort of like your car stops making the funny noise when you take it to the mechanic…). So, we felt disappointed in the small result from our six-hour investment of time, but at least it did yield the surgery appointment on Thursday. I rescheduled my Thursday school appointments and we spent the day in preparing for and going to that surgery appointment. (Actually, since they moved the appointment from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., there was time in the morning for a quick grocery trip and a visit from our next-door neighbor, which was nice.) This time when we got to the office things went efficiently (in contrast to the Emergency Room…). And it seems at this point as though the procedure this different surgeon did (basically further expanding the balloon of water which holds the tube in place, I gather) has been effective. We do still need to keep an eye on the gauze dressings around it, but have not seen further problems with that so far.
In addition, the oncologist has recommended (and Steve's contacts in the patients' group at The Gathering Place concurred) that his chemotherapy infusions would be eased by the insertion of a "port" through which infusions and blood samples can be done, so he will less often need to be stuck with needles. (It sometimes has taken up to five attempts for the nurses to find a "working" vein. ;-< ) The port insertion is an outpatient surgery procedure, so we also had a Pre-Admission Testing visit this week, and will be spending Monday (starting at 9:30, lasting we're not sure how long) getting that procedure done.
Yesterday (Friday) Steve was feeling really quite good, relatively speaking. He had a visit from a friend during the day, and we talked with both kids, and the Rankins came over to visit in the evening. He slept well last night, but still seems very sleepy this morning—has asked me to delay the meds so he can rest some more. Since we have playreading scheduled for 1 p.m., he's still napping and I'm hopeful that he'll gather strength to enjoy that event.
All for now, I think. Thanks again to everybody out there who is helping out, whether with expressed or silent support. We're convinced that all versions of that are helpful.
--Carol
