Catching Up...

I'm going to attempt to catch everyone up on the events of this past week or so. On Monday May 9th chemo went well for George. His blood counts were good, with the exception of  low potassium (but easily corrected with a supplement) so no hold up with cycle # 3. We had Susan again as our nurse. Not sure if I have mentioned this but she is a down to business nurse. She knows her stuff, and is very efficient. She is not really the warm and fuzzy type but she knows what George needs and gets the job done. She happened to be in charge last week, but still took George as a patient. The infusion center was very busy, and our first "Chair" where we were placed was not the best. Susan was able to move us into a window seat half way into the infusion, which was more private and comfortable. It was nice because Rick V. came on his lunch hour to hang with George and give me a break for a bit.
Dr. Wainberg and Dr. Chung (The fellow) rounded and were both pleased with how well George has handled the chemo. He stated "You have been handling this particular toxic Chemo about as good as anyone I've ever seen." George felt good upon hearing this.
Dr. Wainberg decided to give George an extra week off chemo to help re-gain his strength and some weight. We will get cycle # 4 on June 2nd. That week is Memorial day and the infusion center is closed Monday so we decided on a Thursday appointment. Dr. Wainberg will be doing another high resolution CT scan after cycle # 4 to measure the progress of the Tumor. We just found out the date will be June 7th. We scheduled Cycle # 5 although that might change depending on the CT results.
George had seemed to be doing better this round. He has been able to keep food down easier, and with fewer trips to the bathroom. His overall fatigue level is his biggest problem at the moment.
Many have asked if he's losing his hair. Well he still has hair, it's just thinning quite a bit. My friend Leanne, who cuts my hair, came to the house, and cut George's. She didn't buzz it off completely, but trimmed it real short.

On Thursday May 12th I had been at work all day, and I came home to find George in bed with no energy to eat. My Friend Jan delivered a wonderful meal (Thank you Jan!), when I headed up stairs to bring George food, I found him under the covers telling me is was very cold. Took his temp, and sure enough he had a low grade fever. Took it again and it was at the mark that meant "Call the Doctor" so that's what we did. We headed to the ER, and started the long process of getting admitted and started on Antibiotics. George stayed in the Hospital until last Monday night, and was very happy to get back home.
The last few days have gone well; he continues on antibiotics taken orally for another 5 days. His strength is getting better each day, and he is able to eat and even gained back a few pounds. The plan is to get Cycle 4 on June, 2nd along with the drug Neupogen. I failed to mention that he received Neupogen after being admitted to the Hospital to increase his Neutrophil count. From now on Dr. Wainberg will give it to him on his Chemo infusion day.
George is looking forward to the extra week off, and getting his strength back. Thank you to everyone who helped us with the kids during his Hospital stay. The Finn family, and the Stewart's, for the last minute overnight stay with the kids. Shelli for staying the weekend and spoiling the kids. Diane for making sure Hanna got home from school and Andy and Kari M. for the large stack of reading material. All of the emails, texts and calls have kept George encouraged while he was in isolation for four days and feeling very much alone.
We are grateful to all of you!

~Donna
(Sorry for the long post)