Pages

    Friday, November 16, 2007

    Sugarcoat

    So, I have come to the decision that I won't sugarcoat how things are going with Cole. It's tempting, to strive to have a profound, upbeat blog on a regular basis that will make folks feel all warm and fuzzy about how Cole is doing. But, after today, I just can't do that. I do hope that things will tend to be upbeat, and that as a side-effect, I can be profound, but I think that my ultimate aim should be a window into how things really are.
    Today was long. And we saw one of the major side-effects that the doctors have been talking about, which took me by immense surprise.
    Cole is taking a steroid called Decadron (my spelling may be off). It has a side-effect of intensifying hunger immensely. Now, in a chemo regimin, that doesn't sound so bad, does it? You want them to eat, and not waste away (which is the horror story you always hear). But, I found out today that that side-effect could be very bad indeed.
    See, Cole was insanely hungry today, but he didn't really want anything we had. Everytime we'd ask him if he wanted something, he'd respond "Something else." He got to the point where he was almost inconsolable, wanting something to eat, frustrated that he couldn't find anything he really wanted. We spent several hours trying to get him to eat anything.
    Add to this the worry that Decadron can cause water retention due to an increased appetite for salty foods and that it can cause diabetes if they get too much sugar. Everytime I'd feed him something, I wondered in the back of my head if I should be. It was horrible.
    The day was not helped out by the fact that Cole was once again anemic and had a low platelet count. He got platelets and red blood cells most of the day (1 unit of each), which takes 2 to 3 hours per unit. During this time, his vitals are checked every 15 minutes at the start, and pretty frequently after the first hour. One of his hunger attacks happened in the middle of his platelets. Also, Cole hates having his vitals taken (or pretty much anything done).
    The one bright spot in the day was when Cole was given Versed (once again, my spelling may be off). It's a happy drug that was given to him so that he wouldn't be anxious during his pic-line dressing being changed. He was a little chatter-box for a couple of hours, and even gave the VAT team member that changed his dressing an impromptu high-five (along with the nurse and Dalynn and I) when he had finished changing his dressing.
    Jill Klaiber came to visit during this time and brought us some apple crumble cake, which Cole devoured, then said it was "very yummy". This, of course, made Jill's day! Our main thought afterwards was that it was like Cole returning to his normal self for a little while. It was wonderful.
    On the up side, also, is that they are saying we can probably go home tomorrow. Cole will get his 3rd chemo drug tomorrow by injection and then we'll know if we can go home. Pray that we will be able to, as a return to some normalcy would be awesome.
    --
    Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/michael.rollins
    Blog: http://michael-rollins.blogspot.com/

    0 comments: