Home!

After 10 days in the rehab unit, Dwayne will come home today! He is more stable and stronger than a couple of weeks ago. His speech seems to be a little better too.  He has now had eight radiation treatments and those will continue for the next four weeks. We are encouraged by the progress.

Thanks again so much for the prayers, encouragement and practical help. We are truely blessed.

Eight Weeks

Today marks eight weeks since we began this adventure. It has been a wild ride at times! We thought we were in a routine for the next two months, until that changed this week. It is interesting that this year the Bible study I was in, we went through the book of James. About two weeks before Dwayne was diagnosed, we studied the passage from James chapter 4, that says in verse 14 "yet you don't know what tomorrow will bring". I tend to be a planner, I like a routine and not real big on changes. There have been many times that passage has come back to me over the past couple of months. But as a friend reminded me this week of Psalm 91, in verses 1-6 tells us that God is our refuge and fortress. It was a good reminder that He is our strength in this, even when it seems way too big to us.

New Direction

The doctor at UCLA agreed that radiation is the direction to go. Once that was decided things moved quickly. On Wednesday afternoon all the prep work was done for radiation, CT mapping, a mask made and some other things. The tech was great about explaining everything and it was interesting to see how they do this. A lot of things have changed since Jared did radiation. We thought it would begin on Thursday, but the doctor wanted it to being on Wednesday. So the techs stayed late and they did his first treatment at 6:30 in the evening!

The decision was made on Wednesday to move him to the rehab floor at the hospital.  He will be getting five to six hours a day of speech, occupational and physical therapy. My concern had been that he was not as steady as he had been and I didn't want him falling. The insurance has the final say on how long he gets to stay, so we are praying that he gets the time he needs. The rehab doctor said the average stay is about a week. The nurses call the rehab unit "boot camp"!

Detour

Well, yesterday took us in a different direction than we thought we were going. In the morning one of the nurses noticed some changes in Dwayne that she had not seen in him a week ago. She brought them to the attention of the doctor. He decided to do an MRI yesterday instead of waiting for three weeks. The MRI showed that the chemo has not been effective is shrinking the lesions. So he did not end up getting the chemo yesterday. The doctor has a call into the doctor at UCLA for another opinion. A radiologist met with us yesterday afternoon. Looking like that is the direction that we will be heading, depending on what the UCLA doctor says. Please keep us in your prayers. We need wisdom and direction

A few bumps along the way

Dwayne was home last week.  Early in the week, I was feeling overwhelmed at times with the largeness of what we are dealing with. Fighting a sinus infection did not help either. God sent encouragement to us as the week went on. The doctor's visit on Thursday was good. He was pleased that Dwayne's blood counts were high, and that other than the extreme fatigue, he is not experiencing any of the other side effects. On Thursday, I took him for a hair cut. Who needs a hair cut while they are on chemo? The gal who cuts my hair knew he could not get up the stairs at her shop, so she had us come to her house and did it there.

Two weeks ago, one of the men that Dwayne works with offered to mow our lawn. I told him that I would appreciate it, since neither Nathan or I do well with the pollen this time of the year.  Friday afternoon, not only Bob comes, but 10 other men, and one of their wives show up! They trimmed the trees, mowed and edged the lawn, mixed 15 bags of steer manure into the flower beds that have been sitting on the side yard for the past two months. The yard looks great. It was such a blessing!

Yesterday, Dwayne went back into the hospital. Round three will be today. Pray that it will do the job it is supposed to do and get rid of all the lesions. New MRI in three weeks.

Small Steps

Dwayne got to come home yesterday afternoon. He is tried but that is to be expected. His speech is a little bit better than it was after the first round. Grateful for that. He is not having to work as hard to find the word he wants, and is more aware when he doesn't have the correct one. That is progress.
Thanks again for the prayers.

Round Two Done!

Dwayne had his second round of chemo yesterday and tolerated it well. There are sure some better anti-nausea drugs then there were 20 years ago! He even ate dinner while he was getting the chemo. He will get fluids and the other drug to counter the chemo for the next few days.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Nathan had made a very good dinner when I got home. Someone taught that boy well.....

Thanks for the prayers, hopefully he will not be as tired as he has been over the next two weeks. That is the only side effect that he is experiencing.

Grateful for the little things!

This has been a good week overall. We spent Easter afternoon with family and that was wonderful. Good company, good food. The speech therapist was very encouraging on Friday. She can see improvement in his expression and word finding. I was seeing it, but nice that she does too. Yesterday, we went out for the afternoon with friends. Saw a movie, and had Chinese food for dinner. Can't beat that! Thanks Tim and Alice for encouraging us to go.

The admitting nurse called awhile ago.  Dwayne will go in late this afternoon and get a porta-cath inserted in his chest tomorrow morning. This will make it easier on his veins for the chemo, fluids and blood draws.  Second round of  chemo tomorrow.