Round 2 almost complete

Thursday we saw Dr. Goldsweig before we entered the chemo room. He told Troy that he should be very proud of himself due to how well he was doing. The fact that his weight was up and he was strong mentally and physically were all good signs. The doctor hasn't decided whether there will be a 3rd round or not at this point. We will have to have Dr. Riley check Troy out first. He has an appointment with him on the 28th. Troy had a bad night last night and we had to call after hours in order to get instructions for medications. He was very nauseated to the point of nearly vomiting. He still held back from doing so. He's feeling better this morning and he gets his pump off tomorrow afternoon. He may be heading to radiation soon if he doesn't get the 3rd round of chemo. We just have to wait for the doctor's orders. Speaking of the doctor, Dr. Goldsweig reads our blog so he told us that he's very careful with what he tells us because he knows it will be published! Hi Dr. G! This is a good opportunity for me to say nice things about him. He bought us lunch at Troy's first round of chemo (in fact he bought it for all the patients and staff in the chemo room that day). Thank you very much for that nice gesture and thank you for making Troy hate Steak 'n Shake now (I guess the meal you have during chemo, is generally the one you end up detesting for the rest of your life). That is one place on my list of not-so-favorites that Troy used to enjoy. I wish you would have brought in Waffle House take-out on this past round! But seriously, our apprehension and cynicism that we had in the beginning of this process has been lifted. We didn't know where to go or what to do when we were hit with Troy's diagnosis. Dr. Riley, who is very fatherly and fairly low key and we really liked and respected led us into the direction of Dr. Goldsweig. We met with him the following day at his office and he was high speed and quite the opposite of Dr. Riley. We weren't sure what to make of anything at that point and questioned everything. Dr. Goldsweig has brought us a lot of comfort and answered a lot of our questions over the past couple of months. He obtained a 2nd opinion from the Mayo Clinic on his own and called another doctor while we were at his office in order to confirm that his treatment route was the one to take. I'm sure he has done other things behind the scenes that we don't even know about. He and his staff are always cheerful despite what they deal with day in and day out and this rubs off well on the patients who are less than cheerful. We are in a great place and we just wanted to take this opportunity to thank him and his staff for taking care of Troy so well. As I said, Troy is heading back to his office tomorrow to have his pump removed and have his blood tested. We will catch up with you then.

Heading to Round 2

Tomorrow Troy will be getting his 2nd round of chemo. He went to the oncologist's office on Monday and his blood samples tested very normal. He didn't need any additives or anything. He is starting to lose his hair, but he has decided to shave it down to his scalp and looks rather handsome bald. Troy's weight is 4-5 pounds above normal and he is in fairly good spirits, but as you can imagine, he is not looking forward to tomorrow. Donna, the kids and I went to the Atlanta Zoo today in the rain. We had our umbrellas and raincoats and we were only one of about 4 groups at the zoo. There are 3 new cubs (4 months old) at the zoo and we all got a kick out of them - especially Ryan. We were under cover watching them through the glass so the trip was eventful despite the bad weather. We need rain here. It's been dry for a while in Georgia. Troy had a nice day to himself and was able to work in peace. I just asked him if he had a good day while we were gone and his reply was, "Very good!" I know we are really loved and missed when we aren't here!!! We will let you know how tomorrow goes.

Better few days

Troy has been much more lively over the last few days. He has color back in his cheeks and he has been eating and maintaining his weight. He has had no hair loss, but his ears are still bothering him. His mood has shifted and we aren't walking on eggshells as much as we were when I last wrote. He wanted to do some yard work this past weekend but his mother and I wouldn't let him. He needs to take it easy so he doesn't get so worn out. He is still a little fatigued, but doing really, really well from what I expected him to be. We went to Dr. Goldsweig's today for a follow up visit and he was really optimistic about Troy's prognosis. I hate to name percentages, but he said that he had an 85% or better chance at curing his cancer. He met with other doctors to review Troy's case at the hospital and they have definitely confirmed his diagnosis as oropharyngeal squamois cell carcinoma stage 4A. He just reiterated how much better this diagnosis is than the prior nasopharyngeal stage 2 because of the prognosis. He stated that the former prognosis was at 46%. This really uplifted Troy today. He has been working hard at eating and hydrating himself and it really shows. We don't have another appointment until Tuesday. Dr. G's office will just be taking blood samples before his 2nd round of chemo which is on 10/9. We'll let you know how things are going again soon. It may not be until next week before you hear from me again.

Last few days

Tuesday was another bad day. Troy really had a lot of ringing in his ears and really didn't even want us around because it's pretty hard to stop a 4 year old and 14 month old from making noise. He went to Dr. Goldsweig's and he loaded him up with fluids. He wasn't surprised that he was dehydrated because he said that everyone on that regimen of chemo has to be hydrated. He also had neulasta injected into him in order to increase his white blood cells since they were destroyed with the chemo treatment. Troy had to hang around in the chemo room and Donna stayed with him and drove him home afterward. Wednesday was a better day because Troy felt like eating as soon as he woke up. We went to the Waffle House. For those of you up North, there is a Waffle House about every 10 feet here in Georgia and it is Troy's favorite place to eat and my least favorite because it is the most fattening food I have ever tasted for breakfast. If it doesn't have grease or fat in it, you will not find it on the menu at the Waffle House. Oh, excuse me, they do have coffee, juice, and milk. Anyway, I was all for it because he can get about 1000 calories in him in one sitting. He had his ears evaluated in the afternoon by Dr. Riley and everything seems to be fine, but they are going to keep evaluating the situation to make sure that the Cisplatin isn't causing any damage to his hearing. Troy has been a little testy lately - actually a lot testy - but I can't blame him. He has a lot of changes going on with his body right now. Today he had his medications changed for sleep and anxiety because he is not getting real good sleep. I am actually going to sleep on the couch tonight so he can hopefully get a really good night's sleep. Gus, if you read this, I'm really sorry that Troy or I haven't gotten back to you. The days have been real busy with the kids. We have a busy day planned tomorrow as well, but I will try and get Troy to call you or I will call you myself. He has been real grumpy the last few days and has barely wanted to talk to us! He has been avoiding the phone (and like I said before, us/the kids) because it bothers his ears. Ryan was being real whiny this morning and you would have thought that cannon balls were hitting the house the way he was carrying on!!

Chemo removed

Today we went to the gastroenterologist's office to have him adjust Troy's feeding tube. He didn't sleep well last night because it was giving him a lot of discomfort because it was too tight. We also went to the oncologist's office to have his pump removed. Now one round of chemo is complete. Troy is very very tired and sick of the whole process already. He is trying to keep hydrated and fed like he is supposed to but he is having a hard time pushing his body to do the things he should. I can't understand the way he feels and my wanting to push him comes across as nagging. We need a full time nurse here to kick him into shape! Since that is not a reality, he will just have to put up with the nagging. Anyway, he's knocked out on Lunesta right now and will be seeing the oncologist tomorrow. He has some ringing in his ears from the Cisplatin that needs to be checked out. It's just another possible side effect of the medicine. I'm going to stay home with the kids tomorrow and Donna is going to drive him to his appointment tomorrow morning. Derek had a real hard time when we left this afternoon. It was enough to make us feel bad for the whole time. He forgot about it 5 minutes after we left. Isn't that always the way it goes?

One day closer to the end of treatment

Troy did really well at the oncologist's office yesterday. We were there from 9-5. It was a long day. He played his PSP games and we had fun talking to this other couple who had just started chemo treatment the day before. The man had lung cancer. He was quite a hoot and kept Troy's spirits up with his sense of humor. I think today it is definitely hitting him. He has been pretty nauseous and unable to eat and he is sound asleep now. There has been no vomiting. They pumped him with around 10 bags of medications and a lot of it was to prevent the vomiting. He has a take home pump of chemo medicine that will be removed on Monday. The kids and I went to the gymnastics center down the road this morning while Donna took care of anything that Troy needed. We have been trying to just let him rest upstairs, but we don't want him to be confined to his bed so we're going to try and get him downstairs some more. I'll let you know how the days progress. Thanks for the prayers and for thinking of us.

Chemo tomorrow

We are heading to the oncologist tomorrow morning for the chemo to start. As you can imagine, Troy is not thrilled, but the way I see it is that we are one day closer to this being over. We met Marcy & Hal on Saturday and they are just a very warm couple who is more than willing to be there for us through our ordeal. They understand every emotion we are going through and they plan on helping us get through this. Hal has even offered to go to Troy's treatments with him. Anyway, we are very grateful for our accidental meeting with them. Ryan hurt his leg today and I had to bring him to the doctor because he was limping around. He seems better now. Derek thought it would be a wonderful idea to give him a leg tackle! We went to the general surgeon's office yesterday for a follow-up to Troy's port surgery. Everything is fine there. He is healing pretty well from his PEG tube and I think he is even starting to get used to the fact that it is there. The nutritionist at the oncologist's office even gave us a case of food to try out. I told Troy that I was just going to mash up some food and syringe it in there! At least we can still laugh about all that is going on!! Donna & Ang bought Troy a PlayStation portable video game player so he will have some entertainment while he is sitting around receiving his chemo. The room he goes in to receive his treatments has a whole line up of leather lazy-boy chairs and every person receiving chemo for the day shares the room and shares their sad stories. Troy is planning on putting his ear plugs in so he can play Madden football and Medal of Honor. I don't think he will be trading stories! We'll let you know how he makes out. Talk to everyone later!!