Still Dancing....

Well…. We are still dancing… two steps forward, one step back… turn around, 3 steps forward, 2 steps back. It seems that we have taken a few steps in the wrong direction.

Yesterday, they began giving Danny most of his meds by mouth with the exception of Phenergan. It is on standby as needed to help calm down the vomiting or nausea. This is a huge step towards home. We must be okay with taking meds by mouth before they will feel comfortable sending us home.

Danny wants to eat! He had a small amount of grits yesterday morning and did so well when it came time for lunch he was looking forward to eating something really good. Well… really good from the hospital menu is a stretch… he was actually looking forward to beef broth. They delivered cream of mushroom soup. He was so disgusted he didn’t even try it. Fortunately, his mother brought some good old faithful Campbells. He was able to eat a small amount of potato soup. Then he had a few bites of some chocolate pudding for dinner. The fact he is eating is great news!

All was going well until about 1:00 am when he was scheduled for some medicine. Shortly after swallowing the pills we started to dance, we took a few steps back… he became very sick & began vomiting. We were able to get it under control fairly shortly because of the IV Phenergan. This medicine makes him sleep so he was out of it for a while. I finally got back to sleep around 4:30 this morning only to wake at 7:30 with him vomiting again because he had just taken some medicine. This is the same song we danced to at home when he began going backwards to the point we needed to come to the ER. This morning we had to wait about an hour before they could give the IV magic this time. But fortunately, they finally gave it to him a little early… he is still resting.

The doctor decided they would go back to making most of his meds IV today and see if he gains his footing again. Yes, we are finished with the chemo this is a direct result of the chemo treatment he had 3 weeks ago. We are so hopeful this will begin to subside soon. We know that he needs to at least be able to take his medicines by mouth consistently for us to go home. Everyone is still trying to figure out why Danny is having such a hard time with the chemo meds. We knew it would be bad but had no idea it would be this tough for this long. This has totally taken the doctors by surprise too.

Danny’s mom asked the doctor could his age have something to do with how poorly he is handling the chemo. Remember this is a young man’s cancer. Usually this cancer is found in men 15 – 25 or 30. Even though the treatment is the same a body of a 41 year old is going to take it harder than a younger man. So Dr. A thought that she was right and agreed that his age did have a lot to do with it, but he is still perplexed with how tough it has been regardless of his age.

Our prayer is that the Lord will see fit to lift some of the sickness and allow Danny to begin to recover soon. I can tell it is really starting to take a toll on him emotionally as well. This is a hard place to be when you are receiving treatment but I think it is harder for him since he is over the treatments and he (and everyone else) thought he should start to feel so much better since the blood transfusion and the fact that time is passing since the last of the drugs. I think it is harder to deal with the steps backwards since the expectations are we should be moving forward. He is so ready to go home and be with the Daniel & Summer. He just wants to feel better. We know he will begin to feel better but it is getting harder waiting for that day. It is very hard to watch him be this sick for so long.

However, all I have to do is walk the halls of this hospital and then my heart begins to change… I am so thankful for our situation because it could be so much worse! We CAN & DO look forward to happier, healither days!

Thank you for all of the encouragement we have been receiving from everyone. It is very uplifting. Being here isolated from life as we normally know it makes it hard to keep your spirits up so each one of you play a vitally important role in supporting Danny and helping to keep him keep his head up and ready to face the next day. THANK YOU!!!! We are so blessed to have such a huge family of supporters!