Unholy Trifecta

(image via Betype)

You know what's seriously the pits?

Being sick.

You know what's worse than being sick?

Being sick AND taking care of your husband as he goes through chemo at the same time.

You know whats worse than being sick and taking care of your husband at the same time?

Being sick, taking care of your husband as he goes through chemo, and taking care of a toddler...all at the same time!

It's a very unholy trifecta.

It seriously blows and I DO NOT recommend it.

I've got a brewing sinus infection (thanks Mother Nature...thank you very much).  I have 4 more days of antibiotic ahead of me and however long I want of the cough pearls (those are the best things ever made and ought to be made available over the counter).  The only thing that helps my sinus congestion/itchy eyes/sneezing/everything else horrible is this generic sinus medication I got at Kroger.  The catch is that it knocks me out....REALLY knocks me out.  So I'm great for about 10 minutes before I fall asleep, and pretty good for the first half hour after waking up...then it's all downhill from there.

The silver lining:  It's Wednesday, so Aria goes to my parent's house for the remainder of the week.  And with tomorrow being Thanksgiving and no work for me / no treatment for Dave, we get to sleep in. YES!

This would have been much more ideal if it had occurred last week....just sayin'.

This week for Dave is already going rough.  On Monday he was already feeling pretty lousy and the metallic taste had returned (this seems to be the absolute worst part about chemo for him).  He had me drive him to treatment on Tuesday already.  When he got home yesterday he stayed downstairs on the couch, which is pretty good.  He ate a little for dinner (leftover Thanksgiving mac and cheese and 2 pieces of pound cake) and drank some water + gatorade.  Sure it wasn't the healthiest of dinners, but it's what his body felt up to eating, and that's all that matters right now.

He woke up feeling pretty awesome today.  He seemed to have a lot more energy today and actually wanted something of substance to eat for breakfast (though I sure do wish I could have convinced him to go to Bojangles instead of McDonalds...again).  We are prepared, however, for him to all of a sudden change as he gets further into treatment today.  We're hoping it doesn't happen, but hey....you gotta be realistic about this sort of thing.

Dave met with his Urology Oncologist this week and they discussed how things will play out after his last cycle of chemo is over.  They'll do another CT scan after chemo to check the size of his lymph nodes.  They may still be swollen, they may not.  The cancer cells may be entirely gone, but the lymph nodes may stay swollen.  At that point, if they're still swollen, there's no way to tell if there really are any dormant cancer cells laying around in there without taking the lymph nodes out.  So.  If they're still swollen, there will be another surgery to remove the swollen lymph nodes.  It will be done laparoscopically with robotic assistance.  Robotics...neat!  It will land him in the hospital for about a week and a half and then will put him out of work for another 2 months.  We're hoping it doesn't come to that, but we know that it can happen and are prepared (as much as we can be) for such a thing.

The family lost a dear, dear person a couple days ago.  My uncle's fiance', Susan, passed away from a very long battle with ovarian cancer that spread to all other sorts of places.  I only met her a few times, but she was a beautiful person!  Always bright and smiling and full of life and love.  She'll be greatly missed and I'm hoping everyone will join me in sending soothing thoughts (and prayers, if that's your thing) up to my Uncle Mike this week.