Day 15

Geli has been admitted to the hospital again for the second dose of this cycle’s chemotherapy.

The first dose went absolutely as well as it possibly could have gone while she was in the hospital.

The way this round of chemo works is that Angelica is getting 3 different types of chemo for the 9 weeks of this cycle. One she takes every day by pill. The other two she gets once every two weeks. One she gets over 15 minutes through her IV port in her chest and the third one is a High Dose drug that is given over a 24 hour period.

Geli had been so sick for the two weeks leading up to the start of this cycle and had only just started to feel slightly better when we had to start this cycle. We really weren’t sure what to expect and the thing that everyone had been “freaking about” were the mouth sores. Considering that Gel hadn’t been eating really much of anything and had ended up getting a feeding tube, we really didn’t know what we were getting into. Often the fear of the unknown is WAY WORSE than what actually ends up happening.

Geli started the Chemo on a Thursday and the best case scenario was that the chemo would flush out of her system and that she’d get to come home on the Sunday. They give her the high dose over a 24 hour period and then they give the antidote to the chemo, because if it was allowed to continue on in her body, it would kill her. They they flush her system and wait until the concentration of the chemo drug in her body is down below a certain level. Imagine our surprise when they informed us that she was able to go…..on Sunday. What was even more amazing was that she was feeling pretty good considering how poorly she had been feeling.

I was a little nervous because she had the feeding tube in and now we had to deal with all of the fun that brings, only at home…..which meant that we were responsibly for it all. AAAAAWWWKKK! Basically we were feeding her meal replacement shakes or formula. But, we were so excited that she was doing well(ish) and that she had cleared the chemo in a great time.

She did end up getting some mouth sores right all around the inside edges of her lips and they hurt pretty bad. Like she wouldn’t drink from a glass because it hurt that bad. She was using a syringe to shoot water into her mouth. It’s not a fun thing to deal with and yet, she is such a trooper.

And then on Tuesday night, in the middle of the night, she started barfing. We finally got her anti-nausea meds back on board and by Friday morning she was starting to feel better again.

The worse part was on Thursday. She managed to barf up her feeding tube. And I put it back in. I was freaking and panicking on the inside but on the outside I acted so calm and like it was no big deal…….I routinely place feeding tubes up my children’s noses and down their throats and into their stomachs. And, if it weren’t bad enough to just do it the once…..she managed to throw the tube of twice more that day. Once in the evening and then again in the middle of the night…..After the third time, she said enough was enough and that we’d think about it some more in the morning….this of course freaked me out because she still wasn’t eating anything or drinking anything and obviously was still barfing.

But then, she woke up on Friday morning, and between the anti-nausea meds and whatever ever else was working…..she was feeling a bit better. Not up to par, but definitely better. And so we left the tube out and I tried not to panic about what she wasn’t eating and drinking and so desperately tried to focus on what she was eating and drinking….which was precious little, but compared to the past few days was HUGE!

Every day since then she has gotten better and at this point, for the past 3-4 days, she is feeling the best that she’s felt in almost 3 months. And even now, she’s still not “normal” just WAY better than she has been.

And so our plan going into today is to get through the next 4 days of treatment and hopefully be able to come home on Sunday. We are doing ALL we can to minimize the mouth sores and will start the anti-nausea meds on Monday or Tuesday in the hopes of avoiding the icky feeling and vomiting.

If you are looking for things to be praying for, please pray
1) that there will be no mouth sores this time around.
2) that Geli will continue to feel stronger and better and that she won’t end up getting sick
3) that her weight would continue to rise (she lost more than 15 pounds)
4) that all of us would remain healthy
5) that peace would reign in our hearts and in the home
6) that Jon and Geli would have some great “moments” in the hospital
7) that the kids and I would have some great “moments” together at home
8) that everyone would get great rest….sleep is often elusive around here these days

I’m sure that as soon as I post this, that I’ll remember something else…..Oh well, if I do – I’ll just add it later.

Thanks so much for your love and support. I cannot fully explain just how appreciative we are of all of you.

Thank You!

Author: Patricia Culley

I'm the ringmaster of my own circus. Just trying to stay one step ahead of the monkeys. View all posts by Patricia Culley