Good Days, Bad Days

It's been a week since the last posting and my sense is that Richard is progressing well physically. Tummy infection almost all healed up and dry. We're just changing a small dressing after Richard's shower every day. The saintly district nurse, Theresa is confident with my handling this so she might not be back until we think we can stop the dressing altogether. We're hoping that will be sometime next week. It's an important date as that is when Richard will be able to get back to swimming, an activity he is longing to resume to build up his strength and just for the shear pleasure. We've been assured that he can do this safely with his feeding tube...no problem. We might just put a gauze pad over the site and then put a waterproof bandage over it so there is no chance that it gets snagged on anything.

The cough is diminishing though there has been only slight progress with getting any phlegm up. Three days ago was the best day for that and we thought we were on a roll. Two big globs and three smaller ones in the morning. Extraordinary!! Fabulous! Hurrah! It came after Richard had been doing his inhaling of hot steaming water infused with Olbas drops. But with subsequent sessions nothing has come up. We will persist and have a few other "products" approved by Dr. Kon which we will try.

The cough is what has been getting Richard down as it uses alot of his energy and is often painful to his healing incisions. He has gone from 4000mg of paracetamol a day to just 1500 which is an amazing reduction. I have to keep reminding him that if he is feeling a bit rotten sometimes he needs to recall that the paracetamol is not masking the pain in the same way anymore! Other gentle reminders from Helen, Dr. Kon's sweetly mannered secretary,  lovely nutritionist Stephanie (she and Andy flew to Thailand last night for a week..) and the queen of Practice Managers, Melinda are all encouraging Richard to accept that he is doing really well and that progress is typically slow with such a serious operation...and, the chest infection WILL GO!

It seems clear that as the antibiotics (he's on a second week long course, I think just for good measure) tend to be depressants and coupled with the trauma of the surgery as well as the huge physical adjustments regarding energy levels and physical abilities, it's no wonder he feels down alot of the time. When the sun comes out, quite literally, his mood changes. Sadly, February in southern England doesn't promise that much sunbathing time! Should we go to Spain? Morocco? Some perfect beach? We do drift there in our minds with some storytelling/visualization sessions which seems to help.

Despite eating really well Richard has lost five pounds over the past week. I put this down to a bit of diarrhea brought on most likely by the antibiotics, a bit of an interruption in the switch from Skandishakes to Fortisips and Calogen shots, the new nutrition supplements and possibly the final loss of extra body fluid as his ankles and legs have finally stopped swelling up when he is inactive. He's stopped wearing the tight white stockings. I'm pretty confident he can gain the weight back as his appetite is good.

Richard has an appointment to see Prof Hanna next Wednesday and then Dr. Kon the following Friday for a chest xray. I imagine an appointment with Prof David Cunningham, Richard's oncologist will come shortly thereafter.

So, today we are surrounded by colourful, fragrant cut flowers and blossoming bulbs of every variety courtesy of so many deeply loving friends and listening to lovely calming music. Richard is reading the Saturday papers as I type. What could be nicer? Oh...I think he's hacking up a glob! That's even better!