Thursday September 10, 2009 (Day 43)

Daddy seems to be making progress each day. He is staying off the CPAP machine all day and is only using it at night. Thank God he's on it at night because early Wednesday morning (4:00 a.m.) Dr. Chen told us Daddy stopped breathing and the machine had to kick in to breathe for him. Dr. Chen didn't know what may have caused him to stop breathing, it could have been the oxycodone or the fact that he was off the CPAP for 16 hours on Tuesday and he just got too tired. Nevertheless Dr. Chen was stopping the oxycodone and starting him back on Lortab. His kidney function is the same, not good but not too bad either. I assume his white and red blood counts are okay since they haven't mentioned them in several days. Usually they tell us if something is wrong. Daddy does have a little temperature this morning and seems like he just doesn't feel good today. He also has a large swollen red splotchy patch on his upper left arm where he had an IV over the weekend. They took the IV out on Monday and it was just a little tiny red spot where the catheter was. It is now much, much bigger and doesn't look good. The nurse put a warm compress on it this morning. Dr. Chen came in around 12:15 today and I showed him the area. He marked the edges so we could watch to see if it gets any larger.

Daddy is now only getting nourishment through the feeding tube 3 to 4 times a day and they are actually bringing him a tray for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Everything is pureed so he can swallow it. Sometimes we have a hard time figuring out exactly what it is he's eating. He also doesn't like the "Thick-It" that we are supposed to put in his liquids, he fusses at us anytime we try to use them. Even though he's getting the trays of food, he eats very little (if you can imagine that). Dr. Chen did make the comment yesterday morning that "At least he's NOT malnourished anymore.

Carilion Transport came and picked Daddy up this afternoon and took him over to the Cancer Center. They had to redo the mask that he will have to wear for his radiation and they did another CT Scan. He will start radiation sometime next week and once started he will go 5 days a week for 8 weeks. He will still need chemo too, but we're not sure at this point when that will start. Daddy did very well with the whole transport process and they allowed Mom and I to ride in the ambulance with him. The whole trip took less than an hour but was of course exhausting for him especially when he was already feeling bad. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.