Sunny October Day

As with any illness, you have good days and bad days; ups and downs. Two weeks ago I started feeling pretty yucky.  I had nausea, vomiting, lack of appetite, pain, dehydration that just kept getting worse and worse.  Of course they have a medication for every symptom but when you have every symptom, how do you figure out what might work.  I was admitted to Cleveland Clinic under the palliative care service on Monday, October 9th to try to get everything under control. The Pall Med team, Oncology team and Radiology team worked together to get a good plan for medications for symptom control and pain control in addition to 4 days of hydration. I came home feeling better, not 100% but much better. 

Since I have been home, I have done a lot of sleeping. Fatigue is a huge part of cancer.  The body just keeps fighting against the foreign cells and the body is just constantly fatigued. I have been taking the meds as planned and that is keeping pain and nausea under control. I have an appetite and am just trying to eat, eat, eat.  Apparently it is harder to gain weight in my situation than it is to lose. Dan is being incredibly creative in his food offerings, some healthy, some not so healthy (sometimes you just need a french fry), but right now I need protein and calories.  The Grandma's and Sis have kept up well stocked in soups, which are easy for me to eat. (We really appreciate the help) 

Gaining weight and gaining strength, resting, and also trying to move and get more exercise are priorities now as we re-start the chemotherapy and then have the next Y90 bead placement in a couple weeks.  

I cherish these sunny warm days of October (how lucky we are!!) so I can walk around the yard and sit on the porch with Daisy. 

All three kids were home last weekend and even though sometimes I watched them from the couch, they are my best medicine to feel better!  Just seeing their faces is my therapy. We love them and their craziness so much!

Thank you to every one of you for your well wishes, prayers, thoughts, gifts, donations, purchases. We feel like the most loved family on the planet.  We feel the strength that you all share with us. It keeps all of us going. Our children have wonderful, supportive friends, and those friends have parents that we have known for years who are also "holding our hands". Old friends, new friends, close family, distant family, teachers and coaches, co-workers past and current, and anyone else out there I may have missed.....we thank you. 

#KBelieve