IT IS FINISHED!

In the immortal words of Our Lord, “It is finished.” Yesterday, the 20^thof September 2018, was the last day of chemo/radiation for Ron. YAY!!! Afterwards, we went out for lunch to celebrate with Cyndi Wolfe, the day’s driver.  And there was great rejoicing.

There hasn’t been an update recently basically because not much has been happening besides the daily zapping as well as things that have been so up in the air that reporting them would be silly.  Now that we’re at the end of chemo/radiation, the update will make more sense.  It’s long and I’ve divided it up into sections.

Chemo/Radiation

As I mentioned, the treatments have concluded.  It’ll take a month or so for the body to do its thing before they do a CAT scan to see the results.  Ron will also be having a week of oral chemo each month starting in October.  

The side effects of the treatments have been pretty mild in comparison to the horror stories of years ago. Most days, Ron would come home from radiation/chemo – after having lunch out with his faithful driver of the day – and hit the hay around 2pm.  He’d sleep til about 7 or 8ish, get up and take his meds and go back to bed and sleep til around 8.30am.  Usually he skipped dinner as his appetite was nil.  He only had 4 sessions of losing his lunch which was fortunate but I’m sure the neighbors could hear.  

He also now has a good case of chemo brain which means he’s kind of in a fog of sorts.  He’s certainly competent to do things like dress himself and even cook but sometimes conversations are odd because trying to find certain words is frustrating.  Chemo brain is a crap shoot in that it can recede or it can be permanent depending on the person.

School/Work

This topic has been the most volatile of this entire adventure.  He was bound and determined to go back to work next week under his own power – his Smartcar.  I finally hid the keys.  About every week we would have this conversation about the “fact” that he was going back to work and driving there.  Initially I would respond, “Well, that’s what we want but we have to see what kind of shape you’re in at the end of chemo.” “NO!!! I’M GOING BACK TO WORK! AND YOU MUST SUPPORT ME IN THIS!!!”  I would calmly respond that he needed to be prepared that his body might not be able to respond well enough, etc., to which he would respond by yelling at me.  So, I started just responding, “That’s nice, Dear.”

One thing he couldn’t wrap his brain around was the idea that if he got in a car accident that, if his fault, the other party could sue us for everything we have thus leaving us living in a cardboard box for our “golden years.”  “That won’t happen.”  I finally threatened him with legal - vs. Sacramental – divorce to protect my own finances.  Didn’t make any difference at all.  So we called the insurance company and talked to a real person who spelled out in clear language that we could wind up homeless if….. “It won’t happen! Why can’t you just support me on this? Why are you standing in my way?”  Believe it or not, through all of these conversations I remained cool, calm and collected on the outside.  Inside: AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

In the meantime, he was trying to work out rideshares to South Tacoma to teach.  Mind you, he couldn’t form a sentence or drive, but he was going to teach. Then about ten days ago he got an email from the college saying that since they hadn’t gotten the release to work form from the doc, they were looking for other people to teach his classes. He seemed to take that pretty well which surprised me.  The next day during pillow talk, he says to me, “You know, maybe going back to work isn’t the best idea. The commute will be complicated and getting words from my brain to my mouth is still a frustration.  Maybe I should just stay home for the quarter and maybe teach an online course if they’re OK with that.  What do you think.” As it was 6am and I hadn’t had any coffee yet, I didn’t get up and dance a jig.  I just said, quite calmly, “That sounds like a good idea.”  And that was that.

So, that’s the upshot. He’ll be teaching an online class for the fall quarter as well as getting more sleep and taking short walks here and there.  He won’t be driving for the foreseeable future.  The hope is that he’ll be able to return to work for the winter quarter – all dependent on the effectiveness of the treatments and future health issues. 

Naturopathy 

When Johnny – who’s now in England – was here, he started going to this naturopathic doctor whom he recommended to us.  I called and made an appointment right after Johnny left and this past Monday Ron had an intake there.  The info forms filled out before the first meeting were extensive – a lot of stuff I didn’t know and Ron couldn’t remember.  The appointment was quite impressive.  They sent us home with several tests he needs to do and send into a lab. We’ll get those done this weekend.  He was also given a huge binder through which he and the naturopath will work. Her take on all of this is that health issues have to do with what we put into our bodies as well as genetics. At one point, according to her, Ron’s immune system was at a low point allowing the cancer cells in his body to take hold and grow producing the tumor.  The chemo and radiation eradicated most of the cancer cells left behind after the removal of the tumor.  The MRI or CAT scan will tell how much is left because the tumor had tentacles that branched out into the brain.  With nutrition and such, the immune system is restored and boosted to the point that it keeps the cancer cells from growing and reproducing since the body has the ability to do such things – which is why most of us don’t have cancer – yet.  So, the future is still unclear and we’re still in a holding pattern.  But then, isn’t that every day?  We could get hit by a bus tomorrow cancer or not. So….

So, that’s where we are at the moment.  The first part of this rollercoaster ride is over.  We’re now beginning Part II.  I’ll update this blog on the event of any interesting events.

Neither of us can say enough about the care received at Radiation Oncology at Kaiser Permanente on Capital Hill.  Professional, competent, approachable, kind, compassionate people who helped make this whole process as bearable as possible 

As usual, your prayers, thoughts, cards, notes, flowers, calls, emails, meals, etc., have been a godsend to us. Your support and care have kept us going over the last eight weeks.  Keep them going though we’re not eating as much as we used to and I’m cooking so….  Many thanks to you all and we remember you in our prayers too. 

Thanks for your patience in reading all of this.  

Peace,

Kevin.