I wanted to give an update since it has been several days. I am utterly exhausted right now. We have had very busy and tiring days this week. I gave an update on the events of Sunday. Monday and Tuesday weren't the easiest of days either. To give a recap, here is what has happened:
Sunday: We spent 7 hours at the ER with what really has been the most pathetic patient care that we have personally ever received. During these hours, Rex told three different people in the ER that he felt like he was dehydrated and needed some fluids. Everytime, the response was that his blood pressure was fine, thus no fluids. Now, to Monday.
Monday: We already had a scheduled appt. with Dr. Tate at 9am for what we believed was going to be the start of a week of chemo "in office." When we arrived, Rex' heart rate was a staggering 144, considering he hadn't done anything but get ready for his appt. that morning. The dr. was very concerned and spent quite a bit of time listening to his heart. He told us that he didn't think that this had anything to do with the cancer or chemo. Rex told him about our day at the ER, and Dr. Tate asked if they had given him any fluids there. No. Dr. Tate left to go make a phone call to Rex' primary dr. to discuss his heart rate and schedule an appt. for Rex to see his primary dr. When Tate came back, Rex told him that he felt like he was dehydrated even though his blood pressure was steady. Tate agreed and said that we might as well get some fluids since we were there. Lo and behold, the fluids brought his heart rate down and calmed the erratic beating. It was such a difference that they decided to go ahead and give him the chemo that was planned. So, the 9 am appt. ended up being an all day affair; the girls and I did get to come home for about an hour to get something to eat before we went back to pick Rex up and get him to radiation. We got home around 4pm from all of that.
Monday was also Erin's 9th birthday. She was a little upset because it had not been her idea of a good way to spend her special day. We did get a chance to celebrate that evening with just the five of us; that lifted her spirit and helped overshadow the day spent in waiting at dr. offices.
Tuesday: I woke up again with my neck out of joint. Again, this usually happens once a year for me. Since all of this has started with Rex, it has done this three times. I know it is tension getting to my body. I decided to make an appt. for an adjustment. So, now there were 4 dr. appts. scheduled for Tuesday. Rex had chemo from 11:30 - 2:30, radiation at 3:30, and a follow-up with Dr. Wright at 4:15. I had my appt. at 3:00 and the girls had a music lesson from 2:00 - 3:00 -- there 's nothing like double booking and overbooking appts. We were able to adjust the music lesson to 1:45 -2:45 giving us enough time for me to get my dr. appt. Rex had driven himself to his appts. While at the girls' music lesson, Lindsey decided unvoluntarily that we didn't have enough on our plate for the day, so she started vomiting -- fortunately, we were already in the bathroom, and I was able to get her to the toilet before she started vomiting. I was afraid that she had some kind of bug because on the way to music, she didn't look good, and she said that her stomach hurt. We made it through music with no more vomiting, but as we started to leave, Lindsey had another moment, and she did a good job of spraying herself and the car with lots of vomit. Lindsey being naked and me running late for my appt., we made it there. Rex was in between appts. so he showed up to help watch the girls while I was in my appt. I couldn't let him near Lindsey because his immune system is nothing. So, Rex sat in one car while the girls sat in the other. My dr. appt. was running way behind, and at one point, Rex left went across the street to his radiation appt. and then came back before I had even seen the dr. Finally, we were out of my appt. headed to Rex' last appt. I felt that I needed to be there because we had not seen this dr. since right after Rex' diagnosis, and I wasn't sure what he was going to be talking to Rex about -- this dr. had actually called our house to make this appt. rather than us calling him. With Lindsey being naked, I needed clothes. Rex went on to the appt., and I ran to a nearby consignment shop to get Lindsey some clothes to put on. We made it to the appt. before Rex had been called back.
It was a good appt. -- Dr. Wright is by far the best dr. we have seen through all of this. He is extremely on top of things medically and with the care of his patients. He wanted an update on everything that had happened treatment-wise since he had last seen Rex, including our recent ER experience, and where we were scheduled to go next. We left there - Rex taking the two older girls and me with Lindsey. Lindsey and I made a trip to the store for Pedialyte and Gatorade. Lindsey made it through the night and woke up happy as could be proclaiming that she was all better. Thank you Jesus.
Wednesday: It was a bit of a normal day today with homeschool gym and swim for us, and Rex to chemo and radiation. He is a bit run down today as the chemo is starting to bring his body down again. I think that we are all tired from a hectic week so far.
Please pray for us to have some down time where we can rest; pray for Rex' body to hold its fluids this week; pray that this chemo and radiation is doing supernaturally far more than it could do on its own; pray that his body will have no cancer when we have the next PET scan done on March 7th.
Once again, thank you for your prayers.
Donna Meadows
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