HALF WAY MARK REPORT
Some of you have been wondering the status of the Schmirtz Report. So, here’s the latest update:
Last Wednesday marked the half way point of the radiation/chemotherapy treatments. Actually, not much has been happening and things are relatively quiet. Ron goes to his radiation appointment each day at 11.15am via the kindness of his five drivers. They sometimes go to lunch afterwards but most days he comes home, crawls into bed, sleeps until around 6p, watches Jeopardy at 7.30p, goes back to bed after Jeopardy and arises around 11p to take his meds. Then back to bed. That’s to say that he’s sleeping a lot after his treatments. He’s in relatively good spirits. However, he does get frustrated trying to communicate as the radiation and chemo have returned him to the state where finding words is difficult. His brain works but his mouth won’t cooperate. The docs say that this is a side effect of the chemo and radiation and that he will return to regular speech patterns after the treatments are over.
Speaking of speech, he’s also started working once a week with a speech therapist at Kaiser which seems to be helping a bit. Hopefully, once the treatments are over they will continue their work and his speech improve.
While he still wants to return to work in September, the docs are asking him to be cautious about that hope. The usual pattern is that after the chemo and radiation treatments have been concluded, people are totally wiped out and exhausted. (Well, hell, who wouldn’t be after having one’s brain buzzed for a month and a half and one’s immune system wiped out by the chemo! Hullo!!!). Nancy Dapper had taken him for the appointment this past Tuesday and was present at the care conference afterwards since she hears this stuff more professionally than I do. The docs are also concerned about the fatigue caused by driving and how safe it will be for him to do so. However, for him, there’s no other option. There is no plan “B.” He got really nasty and mean– a side I’d seen at home when we’ve had the same discussion – last Tuesday with the doc at expressing his, the doc’s, concerns. The compassionate interpretation of all of this is how much he loves his work and the people with whom he works and now much of his identity and life are made up of it. My preference is that if you have a conversation about it, be supportive and gentle and just let it go. Trying to convince him otherwise is futile and just makes him agitated beyond compare. The doc has said he’ll be the bad guy when and if the day arrives that he has to give him a check on reality.
This past week was also the first week of nausea and its unpleasant results. They’ve given him nausea medicine which works but, as you know him, he’s trying to rough it out. I now just go every 6 hours and give him the pill and it works. Then he’s not losing his breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, by dinner time he has no appetite as a result of the treatments. So, I’ve been making him high calorie, high protein breakfasts like bacon and cheese omelets and the like. He has an appetite in the mornings and scarfs the whole thing down. There are probably enough calories to keep him through the day. I’ve been trying to get him to eat his edible
As for me, I’m doing OK. I get a bit of cabin fever on occasion but try to get out of the house at least once a day for a walk or something as well as trying to keep the house in some state of order. I’ve been trying to finish a couple of icons that have been shelved for a while. The face of Our Lord on one of them looked like a comic strip
So, that’s all the news for the moment. Thank for your support, your phone calls (Ruby et al) and general good wishes. Keep up the prayers too. They’re what are keeping us afloat at the moment. Another update will be made probably this time next week. Hope you are all well.
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