Treatment Days

Ed had another treatment on Monday, January 9th.  When I got home from work, he was resting in bed.  He was feeling a bit queasy and achy.  The same was true after his last treatment as well.  The good news is that the chemo is keeping the tumors at bay.  Unfortunately, though, Ed is experiencing more side effects than he did in the first two years.

So as Dan and I prepared dinner for ourselves and set some aside for Ed to have later in the evening, I realized my updates on this blog tend to stay on the positive side and only share the good.  But for those of you who come here looking for updates on how Ed is doing versus a sugar-coated story, I have been doing you a disservice.

Don't get me wrong, Ed is still battling this nasty disease and the chemo is keeping the tumors at bay.  But the Avastin has resulted in more side effects than Ed experienced earlier.  As you know, he was losing his hair last fall and ended up shaving his head in September.  He has since lost his eyebrows and eyelashes although this is less noticeable hidden behind his glasses.

The Avastin has also resulted in high blood pressure and so now Ed is taking blood pressure medicine and recently had to up the dosage.  He frequently has muscle aches and his energy is low.  Of course, I attribute this to him being older and tell him he needs to be more active and exercise/move more often (which falls on deaf ears).  In general, though, treatment days seem to take more out of Ed than they ever did previously.  He feels more queasy and tired, has an obnoxious runny nose for hours, and comes home to rest afterwards.

The good news is that this only typically lasts a day and overall, the good days still greatly outnumber the bad days which we are thankful for.

Happy New Year, Happy 2012

Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a great time ringing in the new year.  We certainly enjoyed the 3-day weekend!!  Dan left for Long Island Thursday night to spend New Year's with Cassie and her family.  This is the first time in 24 years that we did not spend New Year's together and Ed and I somehow survived!  Of course, lately, we need Dan to help keep us awake til midnight!!  We did manage to stay up til midnight and watched the ball drop in Times Square on Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve.  We must really be getting old because some of the groups they had performing (1) I've never heard of and (2) weren't very good!!  I mean come on--a band that is named LMFAO and has a dancer who had a cardboard box on his head the entire time??!!

All-in-all the weekend was good and productive.  Got simple things done around the house and started sorting/cleaning things out to start 2012 organized.  I think we decided we were NOT going to rent a cottage in Misquamicut in July.  The place we've rented for the last several years is not available this year.  So we discussed whether we wanted to find another cottage or do something different.  We ended up deciding not to rent for a week since we have Dan's graduation in May and we'll be staying Bristol for a couple days for that plus we'll probably have a small party/picnic for him as well (so well save our money these events).

Last week Dan got a part-time at ES (where I work) as a copyright permission assistant.  Not that that is anything to brag about....but rather he has some part-time work that will give him a regular paycheck and will give him the flexibility he needs this month to finish his thesis project and to start looking for a full-time job.  I am thankful for all the flexibility and support (N)ES has given Dan over the years.  They fully understand that he'll be looking for full-time work and gave him this position since it gives him flexibility for interviews, etc.  They are so good to us (did I tell you our HR director was Dan's middle school principal?)  Keep your fingers crossed that he can find a full-time job in his field (architecture) without have to go to Dubai!

Ed is doing the same...no changes--which is good news although he hates that he has lost his hair (including eyebrows and eyelashes now).  But other than that...he feels fairly good and continues his treatment every two weeks.  Next CT scan won't be until later in February.

And, me, nothing new.  I continue to update this blog which I'm sure is QUITE boring for most of you.  I don't even have any fun pictures to post today!  But I'll keep it up for now.  If you're out there and find this even remotely informative or entertaining, please drop me a comment or click a reaction (below each posting) once in a while, just to let me know you're out there!

Here's hoping 2012 is good to you and here's hoping it's a healthy and prosperous year for all of us!!