It’s finally over…

…RT that is.  30 treatments completed.  They gave Ken a T-shirt.  It was a Relay For Life T-shirt listing all the recent sponsors.  I really think they should have given him a “I went through pure hell and 30 Radiation Treatments and all I got was this lousy T-shirt” shirt, but hey, Relay For Life is a great cause so he’ll wear it proudly.

So this phase of the journey is over.  Now it’s time for recovery.  The RT Dr. said it would probably take him a while to recover and be back to his old self.  The effects of the RT on his body have been profound.  It will take him a long time to be able to eat real ffood again and be able to get rid of his feeding tube, and that will be after he gets his new prosthesis, which will be 4-6 weeks, depending on how/when his mouth heals up. 

Monday we see his surgeon for a follow up with him.  We were told before that the RT Dr. would be following up in 3 mos. to see if the RT worked.  At yesterday’s appt when I asked him about it he said he would see Ken in 2 weeks to check on his RT symptoms but that was it.  The day before that the Oncologist told us that he wouldn’t be seeing Ken again unless the Cancer came back in another spot.  And at one of the appts. after the surgery, his surgeon told me that he would follow Ken through RT but after that he wouldn’t be his Dr. anymore because Ken’s Cancer was not curable by surgery so I don’t know what is going to happen but I intend to make sure that no one drops the ball and he gets proper follow up care. 

I need to wrap this up before WWIII breaks out at my house.  Tommy is taking a bath and has about 20 of his Hotwheel cars in there with them, giving them a ”car wash” with the girls face scrubbing brush, their apricot face scrub and lavendar body wash.  I need to go save him before Dani and Cait get to him.

Please continue to pray that Ken recovers and that all of this hasn’t been for nothing, and that the RT worked.

Wendy 

 

Ken is hanging in there.

I haven’t been able to update in a while since the computer has been acting up (again).

Ken is still suffering from the sife effects of RT but he is hanging in there.  Only 3 more to go!  We will be so glad when this is over.  He is unable to talk at all, still having a bit of vomitting, tongue has blisters and sores in the rest of his mouth but he is hanging on for Thursday.  He is anxious to get back to work.  He told me last week that after he thought he’d need about 2 weeks to recover enough to go back to work.  I think he’s a bit optimistic but we’ll see.  He won’t be able to get the permanent prosthesis for his mouth until at least a month, possibly 6 weeks or a bit more depending on how his mouth heals up so I think he should at least wait until he has that.  Actually he’ll have to because he will not be able to communicate very well until he has that.  But at least we see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

Then we have to wait 3 months to see if RT worked.  I certainly hope it has.

Wendy

Ken’s back home.

Ken got released last night a bit before 9pm.  He is still vomitting, but not nearly as bad.  When they released him he hadnt’ thrown up since monday night.  Well, last night about 11 or so, he started up again.  He has thrown up a few times today so far.  The anti-nausea meds he had in the hospital are different than the ones they sent him home on so we are hoping his body will adjust, and he will be able to keep down his food.  That late at night all the pharmacies around here were closed but I was able to find one about 35 miles away and get his meds. filled.

Please continue to pray for him, he’s sick and tired of being sick and tired.  We are all tired.  On the bright side, only 6 more treatments to go.

 Wendy

Ken’s doing a little bit better.

Ken’s still in the hospital but doing a bit better.  He was able to keep some broth down last night and this morning so they are going let him try a feeding of his “food”.  Hopefully that will stay down.  Unfortunately now he is having more sores on his lips, mouth and throat.  He is on pretty storng pain meds for that. 

He did have another RT treatment today.  The RT Dr. doesn’t want anymore delays in order to keep up the culmative effect of the RT.  Let’s pray that he makes it thru the next few weeks with as little side effects as possible.

Wendy

Not doing any better :(

Ken is still pretty sick.  He’s actually worse than he was yesterday.  The anti-nausea meds aren’t working so they have doubled his dosage and added some other meds to it to try and control the stomac acid.  Since he hasn’t kept anything down in days he has the worst case of heartburn ever.   There are now sores on his lips that weren’t there yesterday.  The nurse said she sees some spots on the back of his throat.  I had hoped that wouldn’t happen again but it looks like it’s starting. 

He didn’t sleep more than an hour last night.  Please pray he can get some relief soon so he can rest.  He is going to be in the hospital until we can get this controlled.  I don’t know if he’ll be able to have his RT treatment Monday or not.  The admitting Dr. seemed to think he shouldn’t have any more treatments until he has been able to keep food down for a few days but the RT Dr. has told us before that he had such a long break any longer and he would have had to start the whole process over.  I AM PRAYING THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN.  He only has 9 more treatments to go. 

 Wendy

The latest chapter in Ken’s epic novel.

Hi everyone.  I havne’t been able to update in a while.  Ken has been doing pretty well with resuming RT.  However, now he’s been vomiting constantly for the past 4 days, so he’s been admitted to the hospital after a night in the ER.  I made him go once he started running a fever.  He will be there until he can keep down his feedings and his fever is gone.  I got home about 3am and just spoke to him this morning and he said he’d been barfing all night.  ::sigh::  I was hoping after he’d had the anti-nausea meds he’d stop that.  Hasn’t worked so far.  He said he only got about an hour or so of sleep.

The plan is to give him fluids by IV and anti-nausea meds and after he’s been puke-free for a while, slowly introduce his feedings back.  He will be there as long as it takes for him to tolerate food.  At least a couple of days is the estimate.  He was really dehydrated and they had a tough time getting the IV in. 

He’s at a local hospital so I was able to come home last night to be with the kids.  Tommy’s pretty ticked at me for “leaving” Daddy at the hospital.  He keeps telling me this morning “I can’t believe you just left him there”.  I’ve told him that Daddy’s sick and the hospital will make him better but he’s not going for it. 

As soon as the kids are done with the cards they are making Daddy, I will head back to the hospital.  I will keep the blog posted with any updates.  The cell phone works fine at the hospital so if you want to call it you may.  And if you could say an extra prayer or two, we’d really appreciate it.

Wendy

Radiation resumed.

Ken resumed RT treatments Wednesday.  Already he is starting to have some side effects, but we are hoping it doesn’t get as bad as it was before.  He is to have 30 treatments.  Tomorrow (Friday) will be his 15th treatment.  That means he is half-way done!   We can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Ken has an appointment in Cleveland in the morning.  We are going to be making more trips than originally planned so they can keep a closer eye on Ken’s mouth.  We are hoping to be able to better control the side effects so they don’t get out of control again.

I will keep you guys posted on any new developments.

Wendy

RT is being postponed…

…a few more days.  We saw the RT Dr. today and after examining Ken, he thought it would be best to wait until at least Wednesday to start back up again.  He still has a very large sore on his lips, and the Pneumonia, and lost another 6lbs.  He is doing much, much better though. 

The Dr. is hoping if we let everything get all healed up, Ken will have an easier time of it.  I certainly hope so.

Please keep up the prayers.  They are defenitely working.

Wendy 

Back from Cleveland…

…Ken can hear again.  He had lost about 60% of his hearing and now can hear a pin drop.  The kids and I are having to adjust from having to practically yell the past 3 months in order for him to be able to hear us to pretty much whispering now because his ears are very sensitive.  He had tubes put in both ears as his left was also full of fluid.  They found out that the right ear (the side his surgery was done on) was full of mucous (the same mucous he has been choking on) and had a hard time removing it, making the “painless procedure” painful.  It didn’t help that the numbing solution only numbed half of his ear drumb, but they eventually got it all removed and the tube in, and Ken could instantly hear.

Ken is doing better today.  His breathing is much better and he was able to sleep a couple of hours last night, this morning in the car on the way to Cleveland…in the waiting room….and on the way back home.  I’m soooooo glad he was able to finally rest.  He has been snoozing for a while at home now too. 

I can definitely see an improvement  in Ken.  Steroids and Antibiotics are miracle drugs.  The swelling has gone down and his breathing is better.  He still has choking incidents but not as often.  His mouth and tongue are still a mess, but better than they were a few days ago.  Once he starts RT back up, they will get worse again. ::sigh::  

We had a discussion with his surgeon regarding the RT treatment.  I told him that Ken wanted to stop treatment and he told Ken that if he stopped it was guaranteed that the Cancer WOULD kill him.  Not a matter of IF, but WHEN.  There is nothing else they can do to treat it because of it’s location.  His only chance is RT.  Dr. said that it isn’t like they are doing the RT as a precaution to make sure it doesn’t come back, he knows for a fact that there is still “significant disease” there and RT is the only chance we have of stopping it grow.  Even then it is not guaranteed.  But it is all we can do.  He also said that he has seen people have the reaction to the side effects that Ken has, and that he has watched people go through pure hell, but that they DID SURVIVE it, and they had more years with their families. 

Ken has decided to go back for his RT appt. Monday.  I am planning on asking for the Morphine pain patches so we can be prepared in advance for the painful effects of RT.

 Thanx everyone for all the prayers and please keep them coming.

Wendy

Pneumonia

We spent all afternoon and most of the evening at the ER.  Ken has Pneumonia.  He is on new antibiotics as well as steroids, more narcotics in cough syrup, and an inhaler.  When we first got there they gave him an hour long breathing treatment and that seemed to really help.  He did not want to stay in the hospital so they sent us home, with strict instructions to call the Oncologist tomorrow to let him know how Ken was doing and according to the ER Dr, have a discussion about whether or not continuing RT is in Ken’s best interest. 

The good news is that they did tons of tests, blood work, blood cultures, X-ray of his neck and head (the chest Xray wasn’t good…that’s how they found the Pneumonia) and EKG and some other stuff I can’t remember after  2 nights with barely any sleep, and all of that came back ok.  The ER Dr. said that both he and the Oncologist were surprised how good all of his other test results were so that is encouraging.

So, please, more prayers for healing and pain relief for Ken, and SLEEP, for both of us.

Wendy