Radiation Completed!!

Today was a milestone for Troy. He has finished his radiation treatments. Troy had an appointment with Dr. Goldsweig this morning and then we all met at the radiation center at noon. Derek was picked up at school an hour early by Grandma & Grandpa and Ryan and then they met up with us at the radiation center next to the oncologist's office. Hal Mendel met up with us too so he could join in our celebration and it was truly a special day. For those of you not following along, Hal was cured of the same type of cancer last year and he has been great support for us (and especially Troy) throughout our ordeal. Hal convinced Troy to keep his radiation mask so we have that souvenir. It's a grim reminder of what we have been through over the almost past 6 months, but it also reminds Troy of what he was able to conquer. We have an appointment next week with Dr. Goldsweig and I believe they will be setting Troy up with his 3rd PET scan at that time. We will just hold onto faith that everything will be fine. Feel free to keep the prayers coming! I will let you know how we make out and I will continue to let you know how Troy is progressing with his eating and energy. A good sign is that Troy told me to check out travel plans for Disneyworld with the kids for the end of March. Joanie & Dickie - We are still considering meeting up with you at Disney in the middle of February, but we aren't sure that Troy is going to feel up to it in just 3 short weeks. Hang on to the hope that he will and I will hold off on booking anything for March until he knows for sure.

27 down 8 to go

Troy is doing well. There's not a lot to report. His tongue is the most painful part of his body right now. The treatments have caused various ulcers to form all over it and it is just killing him. His throat is sore and he has occasional bouts of nausea. He feels tired a lot because he can't sleep well at night and the treatments are causing fatigue. I know it must sound like he can't be doing all that well with everything I'm listing, but comparatively speaking he really is blessed. I have heard stories of other cancer patients being hospitalized because of their side effects and I have seen other patients in the chemo room at Dr. Goldsweig's office who don't look well at all. One of them was taken away by paramedics. We're thankful that Troy can start his recovery process soon and we will continue to let you know how things are going.

Derek's Move-A-Thon

Happy New Year everyone! Troy is doing pretty well. He had nausea last night and got sick, but he tries to hold back on taking his phenergan sometimes and I think that causes issues for him. He also started a fentanyl pain patch last night and that might have done it, but I don't think it even had time to enter his system before he got sick. He is doing well though and is still above his normal weight by a couple of pounds. He only has 13 treatments left (less than 3 weeks to go now!).

The sheet to the right is for sponsoring Derek's Move-A-Thon that he will be participating in at the end of January which will raise funds for his Spring Fling event at the end of April. If you can donate any small amount, Derek would appreciate it. Let me know by sending a comment to this post or emailing me directly at soothcage@bellsouth.net. I will catch up with you for the money at a later date. Thanks for your support!

Radiation 1/2 complete!

Troy was pretty sick on Christmas. His throat is real sore right now, he has had some bad nausea, and he hasn't been getting good sleep. He started taking his nausea medicine more frequently and that seems to be resolving the situation with the nausea. He started taking the pain medication for his throat again (he thought that was giving him the nausea) and that seems to be helping his throat. We just pray for the sleep to happen and that's just a crap shoot as to whether it will happen or not. It's just a vicious cycle that we know will end at some point. Anyway, he starts his 19th treatment Monday and has another short week because of the holiday week schedule at the radiation center. One thing that I can say is that he looks great and has been keeping his weight above his normal weight. He's made it his mission to not lose any weight by using the feeding tube for all his meals. He's pretty much hooked up to his gravity bag pole all day long (each can takes about an hour and he eats about 6-7 cans a day). He's doing great and has a lot to be proud about. Thanks, again, for all your prayers. It seems as though they really have been working! Also, we want to send special prayers and ask you for additional prayers to Troy's cousin, Pat DeSimone, who is going through a much harder battle with cancer herself. Our prayers to Pat and her family at this time. It's hard enough to go through this, but it's even harder to cope when it's around the holidays. God bless you all.

3 weeks nearly completed

Sorry, I've been slacking with the blog. The holidays have us busy lately and I just haven't had tons to write about. Troy has 22 more treatments left. He feels slightly fatigued and his tastes are changing. Acidic foods irritate his tongue/throat. He has been using his feeding tube for the past almost 2 days because he is noticing that his weight is starting to drop. He has lost about 5 pounds, but is still 2 pounds above his normal weight. He eats what he can and then he supplements through his tube. He is actually requesting the feeding tube food because he is wanting to be proactive in keeping his strength up. His throat is starting to feel sore, but he still looks great and is still getting around pretty well. The kids drive him crazy when they are loud, but they drive us crazy too! I guess they just drive him crazy to a higher degree. Our precious angels will be reveling in Santa's aftermath in one more week. Hopefully all the new toys will keep them busy for a while. If I don't write again before Christmas, have a wonderful holiday season and I will update you again soon.

1st week completed

We have made it through the first week of radiation. Troy goes every day at 1:20. It doesn't take long at all and so far his side effects are minimal. He feels a little sick to his stomach at times and has lost his appetite at times, but other than that he is doing well. He has one day each week that he sees Dr. Goldsweig and receives the Erbitux drug. That takes a couple of hours each time to do that. Today starts week #2. We have the next six weeks ahead of us and then life should start to go back to normal for all of us.

1 down 34 to go!

Troy saw Dr. Riley today and he looked down his throat again and still cannot see anything. He said that everything looked normal in his throat. Troy will continue to see Dr. Riley (he's the ENT/neck surgeon) once a month to have his throat looked at. After his office, we went to the radiation center and he received his first radiation treatment and it was really fast! I'm happy for this because I think it will make his treatments seem to go by faster. He is doing well right now. His only symptom is that he has a rash that is a common side effect of the Erbitux. His hair is starting to grow back slowly. We go to Dr. Goldseig's tomorrow for his weekly dose of Erbitux and he has his second dose of radiation next door at the radiation center.

I brought Jennifer to the airport yesterday and she is back in Arizona. Thanks for helping us out, Jen!! It has been so nice to have friends and family here. Although we will be happy to have our lives back to normal, the love and support that we have received is very heartwarming. I went to Lowe's today with Grandpa and Derek and we picked out the Christmas tree. The branches are settling tonight and we will start decorating tomorrow. I told Troy that even if he has to sit on the couch with a blanket and food being dripped into him, that we were going to have a great Christmas together. I'm feeling the same Christmas stress that I feel every year. If Ang and Donna weren't here for us, I might lose my mind, but we are managing just fine and people have been so wonderful. The gifts that we have been given are just such wonderful blessings. Thank you so very much to everyone.