Monday, September 7, 2009

"Still Kicking"

Whoo hoo... thanks Eddie! I should be able to update the blog more often since a friend was able to work some magic in the IT dept here at the hospital. I now have access to the blog using the hospital network. :)

Yes, we are still here, 10 nights so far. Danny said to let everyone know that he is "still kicking". The past few days have been a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs. We have experienced times of no sickness only to be followed by a pretty bad case of vomiting, sometimes for no reason and more recently because of eating a "bread" meal as requested by the doctor. Each of these episodes set us back in our progress to being nausea/vomiting free.

The endoscopy came back with only a few irritated places in his stomach and esophagus believed to be from the vomiting and retching. Nothing was found that is contributing to the vomiting. They have increased his platonics to twice the dose previously prescribed.

The TPN feeding has gone pretty well. The only negative side effect that
Danny has experienced is the his blood sugar count. It keeps fluctuating from high to very high. The highest so far has been about 370,normal range goes up to 112. They adjust his insulin shot accordingly.

Danny started running a fever last night. It was 102.2. They were able to get it down for a while but it has started rising again. They are treating him with antibiotics and have decided to have a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. They know with the fever there is an infection but they want to find the source.

Danny is going to try to eat some clear liquids again today. We hope this will stay in his system. They are also going to try a fairly new drug called Marinol. I know I have mentioned this before and the concern was that he is not able to take meds by mouth. This is the only form of this medication and at this point we have "nothing to loose" as the doctor said. We will try it and hope that is the magic medicine. We have no other choices. If there are any the doctors have not mentioned them and I feel sure they would have at least tried them. Pray this is what we need.

Danny should finish up his second round of chemo with a treatment tomorrow. Meaning we will be officially half way through with the chemo treatments. He will receive Bleomicin which will not contribute to his being sick. This particular chemo does not cause nausea or vomiting. The true culprit is cisplatin. It is one of the chemo drugs he receives at the beginning of each cycle for the 5 day treatment week, which will begin again on Monday of next week.

I know we have said this so many times before but we truly do mean it.... THANK YOU! We have been so blessed with many friends and family that love and care about us and it shows in everything you say and do.

We know that the Lord is extending His mercy everyday. We are so thankful for the medicine that Danny is receiving because we know without it he would be in a horrible place right now. Even though the meds are not curing the nausea & vomiting we know they are helping him to survive. There are brighter days ahead and we are setting our sites on the future!

2 comments:

  1. FWIW, my mom (on her nth series) uses peppermint tea and altoids. Peppermint oil has been used for generations to calm a sick stomach. Even a weak tea (cool if hot bothers) can help a little. I keep altoids in my medicine cabinet.

    My thoughts are with you.

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  2. There are brighter days ahead!!! Alot of times we have to get thru alot of dark days to see the sun again, but it will come out again!!!
    Love all of yall and yall hang in there.

    Kelly

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