5 Days of Chemo Down, 2 More to Go

Days 3, 4 and 5 of chemotherapy were rough.  The regimens were the same as days 1 and 2, but with each additional day of chemo, Brandon grows more and more fatigued and exhausted.  You know how you feel the day after you've been in bed all day with a stomach bug? Sore, achey, weak, tired, with an uneasy stomach?  That's how Brandon feel times 100.  That's how he describes it to me.

Other issues have come up due to the chemo; such as indigestion, mouth/gum/tooth sensitivity, some restlessness (despite the extreme fatigue), and food aversions.  He wants something to eat, but nothing sounds good.  He's having to drink so much fluids, that he'll drink one or two orange gatorades, and then it will turn his stomach and he won't touch it again.  Then we move on to purple gatorade and the same thing happens.  So far, we've been through water, cranberry, cran-grape, orange, purple and blue gatorade, and now we're on yoo-hoos.  I would drive to Tennessee to get him something he would drink - that's how bad I need him to keep drinking.  So that's our biggest issue right now - getting him to drink something more than once!

I also try to get him out of the house every evening to walk for about 10-15 minutes.  We go when it starts to cool off, on a flat little walk down to the end of the road and back.  On Wednesday, he had to sit in the grass on the way back home.  He did better on Thursday, but we didn't try today.  Today has been kind of rough.  The anti-nausea meds are still working wonderfully, so thankfully we have been able to avoid that thus far.  

Thank you all for your continued prayers.  Brandon gets two days off (Sat. & Sun.) from chemo before he goes back on Monday.  After Monday's treatment, he'll be off the hook until the next Monday.  His white blood count will probably take a dive next week, which means we'll have to be extra careful about any contact with viruses.  That should be fun with the kiddos.