5th Update: 1st Chemotherapy Treatment

February 15, 2017

Another update on dad: So, not a great 1st experience with chemotherapy, but we hear the 1st time is the worst and it gets better after every dose.

A few hours into his last drug combination, around midnight on Tuesday February 13th, his arm started to swell and burn. They had to wait for a vampire to remove and redo his IV, around 4:30 am Wed, to restart his 5-FU. The doctor came by later Wednesday morning to check on him, but he didn't say anything about it nor seem concerned about the pain. They had to move him to inpatient because the bedside chemotherapy unit is closed on Wednesdays. They're only open Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. They also forgot to schedule his port study twice, so that got pushed back until Friday afternoon, and unfortunately we have to go back again. Poor dad.

We were supposed to pick him up Thursday morning at 5 am because of the lost time restarting, but didn't get released until noon waiting for the doctors to sign him out. It hasn't been easy, not that we were expecting it to be, but still.

My dad hasn't seen his doctor since Wednesday morning because he's not around unfortunately. Hopefully he'll be there tomorrow to see my dad sometime around when they fix his port.

My dad was feeling good until he got in the car. The bumpy ride an hour back to our house from the hospital made him nauseous and gave him a headache. Otherwise, despite the pain and slight chill, he seems to be OK.

The bright side: his esophagus has opened up a bit and he's able to eat softer things at thicker consistency back to what he was like a few weeks ago. Also, so far after sleeping it off most of the day there's been no vomiting, diarrhea, and no cold sensitivity.