It was miserable. The nutritionist said he needed to take six cans, which is about 2,250 calories. Vic could barely get three down. It took forever, it made him feel woofy and light-headed for a few minutes, and he had a rumbly tumbly for about an hour. Just in time to take a nap and have another can.
His bad nurse (me) kept hammering him about "eating" more, and he did get up to four cans—but that just increased his suffering by 33 percent. ;-) Fortunately, his good nurse stayed by his side and licked him until he was ... well, less sad. Because you just can't be sad with a dog licking your face. (Of course, the good nurse has now abandoned him at mealtimes. Apparently, she will lick her butt, but she will not eat Vic's "food.")
And as if that's not enough, he started having "throat bleeds" again. This was how he found the cancer—but hello??? Cancer found! No more throat bleeds required thank you very much! He was certain it was somehow related to the "food" because they started about the same time he went on the tube full time. He mentioned the bleeds to his radiation doctor, and she suggested that perhaps the radiation was exposing some blood vessels. (Which I interpret as: the cancer is shrinking—yea!). She said if the volume of blood increased significantly or if he felt light-headed (meaning he was losing too much blood), he should go to the emergency room.
The morning of NotChemo, he had a particularly nasty bleed, so he mentioned it to his oncologist. The oncologist said the same thing as the radiation doctor—but he also said a couple of other things. First, Vic's labs showed that the bleeds were not related to low platelets, and they weren't enough to cause anemia, so he wasn't too concerned at the moment. Second, he suggested that Vic try diluting his "food" with water—half and half, or maybe a third water. We decided to try that for his noon feeding after NotChemo.
So, after the oncologist, we skipped (trudged is more like it, but who wants to read that?) back to the chemo/NotChemo room, where Vic was greeted with a cheetah on his NotChemo bag:
Man, I love those nurses! They do everything they can to create a positive energy throughout the room. What would we do without them?
Then Vic covered himself up with his new NotChemo blanket from his friend Cara. She made it for him in, like, a week, and it's filled with positive healing energy to kick cancer's butt!
He was the belle of the ball. Or whatever the man equivalent is.
After NotChemo, we went home and he tried the diluted "food." It went down so much faster and easier, and he tolerated it so much better—have we found the solution for getting enough nutrition??? Best of all, I think he has only had two small throat bleeds since then. One more symptom kicked to the curb. Suck it, cancer!
Unfortunately, the last couple of days have been hard. He hasn't been resting as much as he should because of the Fair (but he needs to do the Fair because it's a "normal" activity as opposed to a "cancer" activity). So his feeding has been harder, and he has generally not felt very good. Plus his mouth is getting drier, and his lips are a little chapped. But he came home after judging today and had a tube of "food," and then he crashed. Then we came upstairs and he laid down on the bed and crashed. Then we took Wags out for a short walk, and we came back and he crashed. I think he is currently ... crashed. With Wags. So getting the rest he needs—yea!
And I think that catches us up-to-date! I have one Fair activity tomorrow, and one next Sunday, and I might go out there from time to time, so don't be concerned if you don't hear anything for another week. If there's something to be concerned about, I'll definitely post it!
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2 comments:
Thanks, Patty. My dear fried, Vic, is on my mind constantly, and I'll be callin' to chat about photo stuff very soon.
Thanks for always being there for us, Phyllis!
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