Celebrate- last radiation for now!

Pictures: The radiation machine; Dave with his mask on; ready for treatment; but is he really a monster?

Today was Dave's last radiation treatment until the repeat MRI. He may have a targeted procedure after that. Lindsey took him and they went for a breakfast celebration afterwards. In honor of the last treatment, he asked the techs to take a few pictures. He's feeling a lot better today. We have a wheel chair for the weekend, just in case. Getting clothes ready....what should we wear? Looking forward to a little break. My mom is staying at our house with the dogs and cat. She won't leave the dryer door open.....:) Will post pictures and try to get Dave to make some comments.

Returning to normal

Pictures: if you look hard- there's a cardinal on the fence; spring has sprung; all the grass is planted and it's raining!

Dave continues to fight through the bowel issues. We've added prune juice, fiber, fresh fruit, walking....finally some "results" this afternoon. Still burping, maybe less hiccups. We're planning for Friday. We'll leave about 11 am and have lunch at the Grand Lux Cafe downtown Chicago. Probably just some of us will then go to the Art Institute to see the Matisse exhibit. Dave wants to just go to the hotel in Naperville and rest. We'll meet up at the hotel and have dinner around there. I know they'll be a lot of pictures and fun. I'm happy Dave's getting back to normal. He'll be tired, but we'll have a good time.

Tomorrow his last radiation, for now. Next appointment in 2 weeks and we'll discuss when the next MRI of the brain will be. He didn't lose much hair, just very tired. Still my CW!

The Steroid Wean Begins

Dave's appointment with the radiology oncologist today went well. I haven't been able to make any MD appointments. Angel Julie and Angel Joni have gone with Dave. They are starting to decrease the dose of the steroids. He's down to 3 tabs a day for a few day (from 4 tabs a day) and then they continue to slowly taper down. He's sooooo glad. He does have thrush which is making it hard for him to swallow and is a result of the steroids. They started him on Diflucan and Benadryl/Maalox/Lidocaine swishes today. This should help him feel a lot better a 2 to 3 days. He did the swish before eating mushroom soup for dinner and got more down tonight. Still bowel issues. Only 2 more radiation treatments. Then Friday we leave for Chicago and Naperville. Chick Corea/Gary Burton concert on Saturday. Looking forward to a little get away and hope Dave feels good enough to enjoy it too.

Pooped

I think Dave and I could have slept until noon today. He went to radiation about 10:00 am. Appointment with the radiation oncologist tomorrow. Only 3 more days. He's still very tired. Food tastes dry to him. He's still burping and hiccuping a lot. He's lost some weight, not really eating as well as he has been. And he's having issues with constipation (usually don't mention those things, but it went with today's title so well).

First appointment at new oncology clinic was this morning too. Dave saw some family friends when walking in. They are encouraging. The new MD is very friendly. He asked Dave how is was holding up with all of this and if he was tired of it. He wants Dave to finish radiation, try to hang in there with the steroids and we have an appointment in 2 weeks to discuss treatment option ( 1 is a pill).

Dave slept most of the afternoon. The neighbor, Kevin, just planted the rest of the grass in the back. I think I'll get Dave to sit out in the sun before the next rain starts.

A Good Sunday

Pictures: Dave and Kay; Liz and Kris; the new cooking area- almost done; the fence is going up - Dan, Kevin and Lindsey; garden bed gone and fence up; mom cleaning up; time to eat- notice the orange fence in the background.

What a beautiful day. Kevin, Lindsey, Dan and Tim got the smaller posts in and stapled up the fence. I had to go exchange the first one- it was damaged. Actually, I was at Meijers twice, Lowe's once and Harding's once through the day. Best laid plans. Kevin and Kay got the area under the counter clearer so we could put in some extra pavers and get the refrigerator below the counter. Tim, Joni, Kay, Claire, Emma, Liz, Dan (did I get everyone?) helped clean up more leaves and the rest of the yard. Bill came by and helped us plant grass on the right side. We didn't have enough seed for the left side, we'll get that this week. But, we put up the orange snow fencing to keep the dogs out. Finally about 5:15pm, Ruthie and Nikki got to go out in their back yard..... 2 happy dogs. Tim made smoked salmon on planks for dinner- it was awesome. Add Joni's mac and cheese, corn, bread, asparagus risotto, some smoked pork roast.... ummmm good.

By the way, Nancy is going back in forth between the upstairs and the basement now. Still sleeping and a little slow. I'm so happy he's okay. Dave continues to be tired. Most food tastes really dry to him, so he's not eating as much.

Tomorrow radiation at 10 am, new oncologist at 11:30.

Our cat

Picture: Nancy-Boy this morning.
I just couldn't write about this last night. About 5 pm yesterday I went to get a friends jacket out of the dryer and our cat was lying in there with the clothes. I felt so HORRIBLE. We took him to the vet. He had motion sickness and was in a little shock. He was in the dryer for over an hour and it had run for about 12 minutes. The vet said he could have heat stroke or low oxygen from being in there. He didn't have either of those. He got a couple shots and the vet said it would take a couple days for him to get back to normal. When we got home, Nancy-Boy hid from me. I looked in all the hiding places at least 5 times last night. I knew he was okay, but I didn't sleep well. I found him this morning. He's much better, but still a little slow. Lesson learned- never ever leave my dryer door open again.

Rain, rain, go away!

Pictures: And the garden bed is coming down; the 3 poncho-amigos; rain doesn't keep us from working; Dave comes out to supervise the posts going up; then there is sun.

11 am and it's raining. 12.....it's raining.......Ed came over. Then Lindsey, Sue, Chuck, Cookie and my mom arrive. Dave thought it would be good to take some bottles back since it was raining and difficult to do a lot of things. Sue and Cookie made 2 trips for us. The garage is half empty now...cool. Ed, Lindsey and Chuck worked on the fence/garden bed. We had 2 rain ponchos I bought years ago and never used. I also went to Walgreens and bought 4 more. It was short work for the 3 poncho-amigos to get the garden bed apart and 4 of the large posts in. Mom helped Dave cook onions, brats and potato salad. At 3 pm the rain stopped and the sun came out. Kay, Emma and Claire came over with some deviled eggs. The girls helped restring our tree art (Bell's mini-kegs). Kevin got the fire going. Dinner was great. We roasted hot dogs and the brats on the fire. After dinner there were S'mores. Dave did pretty good today. Still tired, a little stomach discomfort. It was so fun having everyone over. That's the big goal this summer. If there's a fire, just stop by....we'd love to see you.

Tomorrow we'll finish the fence and work on some garden bed stuff. Oh, and the x-mas garland isn't down yet...it will be tomorrow.