Shaking off the fog

I think we turned a very important corner this week. Strother has been home since Sunday afternoon and other than a clinic visit Friday, we have every reason to believe he won’t be hospitalized again until Round Three in two weeks. Half of his chemo is now complete and the difference is remarkable. You can see while he sleeps that he’s not working so hard to get air. You can see when he’s awake (and he is awake a LOT more) that he is more comfortable sitting up. His appetite is strong. He doesn’t have heavy eyes.

Strother described the feeling like the chemo fog lifting out of his head. He’s putting in the work too, forcing down water to stay hydrated. Eating snacks when he’s not hungry because he understands that more protein helps the healing process. It’s such a relief. And it is so gratifying to see the chemotherapy at work.

The tumor is large but decreasing with every round. His docs were absolutely spot on when describing how he would react to this very specific regimen of medication. Except for the nausea, which they really did anticipate at least some of the time. And that boy hasn’t had any!

My mother had breast cancer six years ago. Sadly she didn’t win her battle. But she was a champ during her treatments. She made friends with everyone in the infusion center. She couldn’t wait for her driver to show up every day because she loved his funny stories. And she never had a day of nausea. I hope Nana passed that ability to soldier through so effortlessly to her grandson.

His visits with the kids are his favorite time. (I know you guys are grown ups. Humor me.) Thank you Sigma Nus and TCU friends for continuing to show up for him. He knows his schedule now and will keep people away when his white blood cell counts drop. But he’ll certainly also tell you when it’s safe to come back. I’m so glad you keep coming back.