Round 2

Hi Everyone,

I feel bad that I haven't updated you all for such a long time, but things have been very very busy.

First, the kids finished up the school year with flying colors. They both had a great year, and we are so pleased about all they have learned. So, now I have a First grader and a Second grader.

Secondly, we closed on our new house!! We are super excited to be in a new place that is merely 15 minutes from Rob's work. It is amazing how much stress this has relieved from our lives. The house is in a great neighborhood, and has plenty of space for all of us.

Last, I was without internet for a couple of weeks while we were moving and unpacking and so forth. I am still only a fraction of the way through, but it is nice to be able to have all our stuff in one place again. I am finding that there are many things that I don't need anymore that will give me the chance to have a nice big yard sale :-).

We will be taking David back to Duke on Thursday and Friday of this week for his second round of chemo. Once his counts recover from that, we will be starting his radiation treatments. We have found out that they will be daily treatments - five days a week. We get the weekends off. This will last for 3-4 weeks. This is the part that I am the most nervous about. Even though they have improved the techniques of radiation a lot, they will be radiating his eye socket. There is the chance for him to have some facial deformity and possible brain damage. We will covet your prayers especially during that time that the radiation will kill whatever cancer might be there with no physical, mental, or other side effect at all. We are grateful that Rob will be able to be at each of these treatments. It may mean that he will have to work some later hours or possibly weekend hours, but we are just thankful that he has a job that is being so flexible with all of this.

Oh, our new mailing address is 101 Roquemore Road, Clemmons, NC 27012.

I'll try to update you again soon.

-Kim

Scare

I know it's late, but I am still a little wired from our day, so I thought I would update everyone.

I am sitting here in the hospital between my two sleeping guys. David is peaceful right now, and Rob is zonked (and it is well deserved).

We started David's chemo yesterday - as planned. It went pretty well, although we didn't get to our hospital room until nearly 5pm, and they started his 4 hours of chemo after that. He did have a couple of episodes of vomiting, but we are pretty sure that was caused by the nasty tasting medicine that they gave him by mouth. He had a peaceful night, but woke up very early this morning. Rob and I spent a short and restless night on a tiny little pull out cot (not even as wide as a twin bed). We rested as well as can be expected, though, so we were grateful for that.

David's second round of chemo was not able to start until about 1pm today. He took his first chemo med. very well. However, about 15 minutes after they started his second med, he sat up in the bed choking and sputtering and crying. He turned bright red all over and then started to turn blue around the mouth. Our nurse - Marian - was especially quick in thinking and pumped him full of Benedryl. They gave him oxygen and did several other things, and he recovered fairly quickly, but it was a huge scare to all of us. The docs said that he was having an allergic reaction to the carrier agent in his chemo. They gave him some steroids and some other stuff to make sure that there was not a secondary flair up. Then his oncology team decided to give him the same chemo drug mixed with a different carrier agent. He just finished this infusion about 30mins ago, and he seemed to tolerate it very well. He was able to be un-hooked from the iv for the night, although his port is still accessed just in case. We should be able to go home in the morning.

Needless to say, we had a scare, but are so grateful for the quickness of the doctors and nurses. We had about 20 people in the room in the matter of a few seconds. David seems to be handling things well for now, and doesn't seem to be too nauseated for the moment - other than when he had that nasty medicine. We will all be glad to get home and have a good night of sleep in more comfortable beds, but it is great that they are letting both Rob and I stay with David while he is going through all these treatments.

Thanks for all your prayers

-Kim

Starting

Hi Friends,

As I type, I am sitting in the hospital bed that David has been assigned to for his first round of chemo. He is about half of the way through his first day of chemo.

Our oncologist has been working hard on getting the right chemo regimen for David. He has been talking to doctors around the world and together with them, we have started a new chemo regimen. David will be on 3 chemo drugs, and will have chemo for two days every 4 weeks. We will be spending the night in the hospital overnight each time he has chemo so that David can get continuous IV fluids. This is to help protect his kidneys. They also have to monitor his blood pressure regularly. The fun part is that our nurse tonight is someone that knows my cousins very well, so it feels like we are with family. They are also allowing both Rob and I to stay with him all night.

Here his is in all his glory...



Thanks for all your prayers!
-Kim