Steve’s Story

Big thanks to Steve’s former co-workers at North Bay Landscape. They took up a collection and sent him a box of bucks! <–more–>I know he hated leaving that job. It’s hard to leave when you like the people you work with. So thank you guys!

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Today is Steve’s re-evaluation. They will evaluate the results from the previous radiation and chemotherapy rounds and decide what to do from here. Presently, tomorrow, Wednesday, is scheduled to be the last of the current round of radiation. He should have a period of rest now. He seems to be feeling ok, none of the horrendous side effects he had with the first chemotherapy attempt. He is tired, understandably, from the radiation, but he seems to be eating a bit better. Still some problems sleeping at night thought. He has to use the Morphine Sulphate at night for the discomfort. We will see what they say at today’s re-evaluation.

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Last week was a fairly good week for Steve in terms of how he feels. He had been dehydrated from the treatments and that made him feel worse. He had a couple of hydration treatments last week and he felt good enough that he actually got out to the course to play. And he felt well enough to hang out at the river for one day. Of course, the back side of that was that there were no treatments last week, which, in terms of the disease, was a bad thing.

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Yesterday wasn’t a good day. Steve went Sunday afternoon to have his chemo pump removed for this round of treatments. (more…)

Yesterday, Steve spent most of the afternoon having the pic line put in. This was to facilitate the Chemotherapy treatments which start today. I think this was a good decision. In my mother’s case they waited until they couldn’t find any good veins to use. With the strong drugs that are used in Chemotherapy, the veins become irritated and inflamed. Eventually, they more or less ‘go on strike’ and begin to spasm so much that they can’t find one they can put a needle into. By starting off with a line, they avoid this difficulty later one and there is less chance he will have to miss a treatment. It is easier on the patient. A lot of people say they don’t like Kaiser Permanente, but I’ve always received excellent care. I think, because they are a teaching hospital, you receive the newest treatments and they have the newest equipment.

Just spend running around, getting various things done that needed to be done. Taking care of the storage space, etc. Steve met with the radiation therapist and found out that the actual treatment will start next week, either Thursday or Friday. The treatments will hopefully shrink the tumor and therefore make him more comfortable. Keep your fingers crossed. I’m not sure what is up for tomorrow.