2 March 2018 - Evening
Nick made it home at about 9 tonight, and headed straight up to bed. He's pretty wasted after a week of chemotherapy, and all the attendant drugs - hydromorphone, dexamethasone, Gravol, ondansetron, etc - a sickening, brain destroying cocktail.
Upon our arrival home we were visited by a respiratory therapist who set Nick up with oxygen. Nick's lung function is not all that bad; his lungs are rendered quite reactive and irritable due to the cancer in them, and this manifests itself when he exerts himself or tries to breathe too deeply. The oxygen allows him to breathe a little easier and avoid painful and exhausting bouts of coughing. Presumably he'll gradually need less and less supplemental oxygen as the chemotherapy eradicates the cancer. We're not sure how many cycles of chemotherapy this will take.
Nick's home for two weeks now, until his next cycle begins. The challenge is to get him to consume enough water to flush the chemo drugs out of his system - about 2.25 litres/day - about 9 cups of water. About half of this will be provided by intravenous hydration through Home Care nurses. Good thing he has Alex to cajole him to gulp down the rest. In the past, dehydration has lead to a downward spiral of vomiting, which leads to further dehydration, and eventually right back into the cancer ward for full-time intravenous hydration.
Upon our arrival home we were visited by a respiratory therapist who set Nick up with oxygen. Nick's lung function is not all that bad; his lungs are rendered quite reactive and irritable due to the cancer in them, and this manifests itself when he exerts himself or tries to breathe too deeply. The oxygen allows him to breathe a little easier and avoid painful and exhausting bouts of coughing. Presumably he'll gradually need less and less supplemental oxygen as the chemotherapy eradicates the cancer. We're not sure how many cycles of chemotherapy this will take.
Nick's home for two weeks now, until his next cycle begins. The challenge is to get him to consume enough water to flush the chemo drugs out of his system - about 2.25 litres/day - about 9 cups of water. About half of this will be provided by intravenous hydration through Home Care nurses. Good thing he has Alex to cajole him to gulp down the rest. In the past, dehydration has lead to a downward spiral of vomiting, which leads to further dehydration, and eventually right back into the cancer ward for full-time intravenous hydration.
Thank you for the update, Matt...hugs and love to all of you!
ReplyDeleteCan you use a humidifier? My prayers and thoughts are with you every day. Wishing you all the best!
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