Feeling pretty good!

The cancer center is made up of a complex of buildings.  When you need to travel between buildings, you can walk through the beautiful skywalks OR you can hop on the shuttles!  This place really does care about their patients!

Speaking of patients, my favorite one is back to work today.  He went to bed early and tried to sleep.  This morning he felt only tired.

His medical team is so impressed by how well he is tolerating the chemo.  He hasn't gotten all the issues that most people get.  The most visible side effect is his hair loss.  ( I can't help it, but I think he looks sooo cute with his new do!). The non-visible side effect is exhaustion.  But as you can tell, it's not slowing him down!

This guy amazes me!

Ding! Ding! And that's the end of Round 4, Folks!

My guy had a pretty rough go of it yesterday, but he made it!

The IV wasn't viable for the third day of treatment so that meant another stick from the needle.  Not good!

The most horrible, incompetent, patronizing, and rude nurse we've seen to date didn't help the situation at all.  She pretty much created the situation and within seconds, it was hostile!

She did put in a new line, but missed the vein.  OUCH!

So another nurse came in and put a new line, but blew the vein.  OUCH!!

Albert said it felt like it went in at an angle, but the nurse said No!  It was because he was dehydrated?  What!?!? This guy is a one man water guzzling machine!  We insisted he was hydrated, they insisted he wasn't.  WHATEVER!!!

I wonder why all that saline made a huge bubble under the skin?  Hmmmm?!?  Could it be it wasn't in the vein!?!?  Stop shooting in the saline already!!!!  Can't you see it missed?

So by his time, he's got two band aides on one arm from Monday and Tuesday, and three on the current arm.  Those three are bleeding like crazy!  All three swelling and turning colors!

So in goes another stick of the needle!  This time in his wrist...and thank God it went in and the tube got all the way into the vein!  Almost an hour and a half later!

After that, things went well, thankfully there was a shift change and we got one of our sweet nurses back!  Mary was a God-send!

She told us that Albert had been the talk of the nurses station at shift change!  So she took his case and came on in to check on him!  Love her!

She made sure he was comfortable the rest of the night, brought him warm blankets and made him feel good!  Poor guy hates needles, and I gotta tell y'all, through the ENTIRE ordeal he was breathing slow and deep and doing such a good job cooperating.  I felt so helpless!

I'm glad that round 4 is all over and we are back home, enjoying our four-legged babies!!!  

Round 5 is in three weeks, and that will be the last one of this treatment plan so, yay, it's almost over!!

Thanks for checking in on us!!

-Becca 🐸

Strike Through Cancer!

Yesterday I told you guys that this week MD Anderson is celebrating SURVIVORS AND CAREGIVERS. 

One of the activities is providing a graffiti wall so we can express ourselves.  Very cool idea!  

And you know I can't pass up a chance to take pics of my SURVIVOR!

Ding! Round 4!

Today is the beginning of chemo Round 4!  

Bloodwork this morning indicated that all levels and counts are good and mostly within normal ranges.

So chemo is on schedule today and going very well.

My hero is pretty tuckered out!  I've had a heck of a time getting him to slow down.  I'm super excited that he wants to do all the things he usually does, but thankfully the doctor asked him to slow down!

His exhaustion is the biggest complaint right now, but he is also having some lingering radiation issues.  Namely, more exhaustion and some swallowing complaints.  His esophagus is sore and irritated.  Additionally his shortness of breath is still problematic.

New (or should I say, back) is his deep, painful cough.  The doc did prescribe a cough suppressant; hopefully it helps.

This might all sound like complaining, but it's not!  It's just an update, because I know you care!

The hospital is all decked out to celebrate SURVIVORS AND CAREGIVERS!  It's pretty cool and makes us feel extra taken care of!   

Thanks for checking on Bert and me!

Love y'all!