Finally, on his third try, Richard was allowed to start his chemo. That was Tuesday, April 5th which will be two weeks ago tomorrow. He's out mowing the lawn right now, doing it in fits and starts as he's feeling a bit short of breath.
Briefly, after the second postponement, the slight chest infection cleared following a three day course of antibiotics, the diarreah lessened, his energy level improved and his red blood cell count remained adequate so Prof Cunningham's team began this final stage of the treatment. Richard had about four visitors during the day and we drove home to Whithurst Tuesday evening where he ate a pretty good evening meal before tv and sleep.
The following day was not great. He awakened feeling horrible and nauseous and after trying to eat his porridge, threw it up. He was pretty swollen as well. For two dark and discouraging days he couldn't keep anything down but then things started to get better on Friday, enough so that he emerged in the evening to sit with two friends who had come to spend the weekend.
We had a small dinner party on Saturday night and then a lovely Sunday roast lunch for about twelve and Richard was eating modestly with the rest of us! It's been kind of up and down with appetite, energy levels, diarreah, mood and sleeping since then but we try to remember that each day we're getting closer to the finish line.
Last Tuesday, our wonderful Francois had to return to South Africa as his UK visa application had been refused. This was a blow to both Richard and myself as his suppotive presence has been so important during this period. Not just because of the countless things he did for us, cooking, cleaning, shopping, lawn mowing, dog walking, chicken feeding, chaufeuring, car washing, typing emails...the list could go on and on...but for his humour, love and positive energy. Tears were shed, needless to say. We are working to get him back.
In the mean time lovely Caroline, our housekeeper, is still away on holiday until May 3rd so we are in a fairly big transition with just the two of us keeping the home fires burning til then.
Last Thursday Richard drove in to London (I had to stay with the dogs!) to see Prof Hanna about re-stitching one of the corners of his feeding tube. Instead, he took it out!!! Richard was thrilled as he is finaly free of any foreign objects invading his innards! We're just hoping he get's through the next two chemo sessions without eating problems.
He's lost a bit of weight (his older trousers are once again almost comfortable around the waist!) and is still growling but with much less frequency. Being concerned about his breathlessness, today he consulted our local GP who immediately took his blood oxygen level which was 97 out of 100. This made Richard feel alot better and he was admonished to take it easy remembering what he has been and is going through. We're eating liver tonight. Lots of red blood cell helping iron in that! In fact, I've got to run, as I'm the cook!
Only 50 more days to go!
