Treatment #5 Postponed

Today is Tuesday & Tuesday is David's get bloodwork & have a chemo treatment day.  However, once again, David's white blood cell count was too low for chemo to proceed, so treatment is being deferred until next Tuesday.  After four rounds of chemo, this is his pattern ... a week on treatment followed by a week off treatment because of a low WBC count.  We had anticipated that David would probably be postponed this week, but it is still a bit of a blow each time that he is not able to have treatment.  It may sound funny, but we begin to get ourselves psyched up for battle on Monday & then spend a couple of hours at the cancer center on Tuesday waiting for the test results to let us know whether treatment is going to go forward or not -- its kind of stressful!  We're hoping that David's oncologist will just concede that David's body is only going to let him have treatment every other week, so we can cut the level of anticipation & stressfulness down to every other week rather than every week.  In the overall scheme of things, this is not such a big deal ... just means it is going to take longer to complete this course of treatment than we had originally anticipated.  The only disappointment we have with the longer length of time to completion is that we are going to miss David's youngest brother's (Carl's) retirement party from the Navy at the beginning of May.  Mom Hager & all of David's siblings are going to be present (this is not a phenomenon that happens all that often), so it will definitely sting to miss this particular event!

I do have some good news to share.  With the blessing of David's oncologist & the gastroenterologist that we consulted with a couple of weeks ago, David began to taper & then completely discontinue the pancreatic enzymes he has been taking with his meals & snacks since surgery.  Some people have noted that the enzymes make them feel bloated, crampy, & gassy after eating, which is something that David was most definitely experiencing.  Since discontinuing the pancreatic enzymes, there has been a significant improvement in his gastrointestinal symptoms & he has been able to tolerate many new foods, which makes the entire eating experience so much better!  He still hasn't been able to put on any additional weight, but he is exercising harder (despite his ongoing significant anemia that makes him quite out of breath when doing any kind of aerobic endeavor), so is probably burning up the additional calories that he is now able to get into his system.    

Please know that we continue to appreciate the blog comments, emails, texts, cards, phone calls, & positive energy & prayers that you all send our way.  We understand that this fight has been going on for a while now & the fact that you all have stuck with us for the long haul is comforting & strengthening to us both! 

Much love, Janet