Chemo and Radiation

We ran into one of Jason's friends from Harding today at the Zoo who told me she was anticipating my next blog, so here we go...
Jason had his first round of chemotherapy almost 3 weeks ago. We sat in the chemo room from 8:30-5:00pm!! It was such a long day of sitting and waiting. Apparently Mondays are busy for the oncology office because we had plenty of company. As always, we were the youngest in the room by at least 30+ years. Jason sat in the recliner and the nurses start by giving him anti-nausea meds and pepto to soothe his stomach. The saline fluids are followed by the first type of chemo called Taxol. Some people are allergic to this drug, so they went ahead and gave him Benadryl just in case. This is the same drug that led to the intense pain in Jason's knees the week after chemo. After Taxol is done, they give him Cysplatin. The first day was actually much more painless than we anticipated, but the next 6 days proved to be quite difficult.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Jason tried to work from home, but he was continually tired and nauseus. Jason has still yet to actually vomit, but he did have an upset stomach for a while. He and I unfortunately share an extremely sensitive stomach, so we always say that our children will be doomed to have tummy issues from day 1. By Thursday Jason was sleeping all day! On Friday, Jason attempted to take a shower and got so exhausted standing in the shower that he ran from the shower and collapsed on the bed. His eyes were rolling in the back of his head, so I called the oncology nurse immediately. Laura told me that he was likely dehydrated. We were initially shocked because he had been drinking plenty of water, but with as much as he had been sleeping it was obviously not enough. On Saturday, Jason was finally feeling a little better, but refused to get out of the house even to talk to his Dad as Tommy mowed our grass. I was extremely worried about Jason's mental state more so than his physical state which I knew would get better. The doctors had warned us that the third day was generally the worst and on the seventh day the white blood cells would be at their lowest. Even with the warning, I tried to remain optimistic and was shocked by how exhausted and ill Jason was. By Sunday I had spoken with my family as well as Jason's about his mental state and expressed my concerns of his depression.

I can handle being his nurse and making sure that he's well dydrated, but it is very difficult to try to uplift someone who is depressed and not willing to cooperate. I had a long talk with Jason about how he was projecting his hurt and anger onto the easiest target- his wife. I was shocked to find that Jason was oblivious to the things I was bringing to his attention and he was immediately apologetic. I married a strong man that promised to support me through anything, through rich and poor, illness and health. I just didn't know God was going to test those vows so quickly in our marriage. Sunday afternoon we were able to go out to eat with our families and Jason's spirits were beginning to be lifted. Thank God! Monday morning Jason tried to go into work, but he ended up coming home before lunch. That second week was much better than the first, although he was still feeling tired.

Bloodwork showed that Jason's creatine (measures kidney function) levels were high. We were initially worried about his white blood cells being low, but that was not an issue. The nurse said the creatine levels would explain his behavior Friday when he was dehydrated. From Friday on Jason has been loading up on fluids, but apparently it hasn't been enough. Jason went in to the office on several occasions to receive IV fluids and they said "keep drinking." So of course Jason turns to Crystal Light and plain old water. Little did we know that too much water can cause sodium and magnesium levels to plumet! Yep- can't win for loosin!Just this past Thursday we had an appointment with Dr. O who said that Jason needs to be drinking Gatorade along with plain water. Well if the nurses had told us that, we wouldn't be in this situation!

Knowing that tomorrow is a dreaded day, we knew that we needed to hear the word of God today. God spoke to us today through Chris Conlee by preaching about finding PEACE. It was a powerful service because after the treatment stops, you have to go on with your lives. How is that possible when you know there is NO test to see if my husbands body is infected with this cancer? PET scans show highly active cells and with this mucoepidermoid carcinoma- it's slow growing. So unless the cancer has spread so heavily that Jason is coughing blood or having difficulty breathing because the tumor is obstructing his airways, we are supposed to sit around and wait. Wait, wait, wait. We have only lived a third of our lives and we're supposed to "find a way" to go on with our lives knowing this could be the end? "With Christ all things are possible" and "God never puts anything in our path that we cannot handle" are two quotes that I hold onto dearly.

Tomorrow we will go through the second round of chemo and 16th radiation treatment. That means we are about halfway through our journey. Jason started to loose his hair Friday and his initial response was casual- typical of a man. Dr. O ginxed us Thursday when we saw him about the bloodwork because he was so surprised Jason still had all of his hair! We feared that Dr. O was going to change the chemo meds because although the kidney levels are improving, they still arent normal. Dr. O said that cysplatin has the best results with lung cancer so he does not want to change the drugs and make them less effective. It resonated for the both of us this weekend as we were laying in bed and as I was rubbing on his chest, the hair was coming off in the handfuls. To make the transition easier, Jason got his head buzzed short and trimmed the rest of his body hair. To put things on the lighter side I told him it looked like we already had a puppy with as much hair was in the bed!

Please pray for us tomorrow as we face this again. Hopefully since we are mentally prepared for what is coming up, it won't be as difficult for us.