Introduction
Today (May 21, 2025), I’m changing this blog entry to better fit the needs.
My goal for this blog entry is to provide current status information to my family and some close friends. This is my third attempt to find a way to do this without a lot of work.
We will give this a try and see where it goes. There will be a phase in time where I’ll keep old information while provide current information. Overtime, I’ll attempt to summarize the old information.
One of the reasons it didn’t work is because there was no predictability of when an update would be provided. Hopefully, this new version will fix that.
Status Updates
May 21: 6:15 am:
I’m still on the recover road from the side effects of taking the oral Capecitabine. I was on day 13 (May 14) of the medication when I decided I had to stop. The side effects were just to intense. I had diarrhea for three days and it was not being controlled with over-the-counter medication. I had gotten a call from the lung surgeon’s office asking me to stop it 4 weeks prior my surgery and since I was only one day away for my week off, I decided to stop it immediately.
The side effects didn’t go away as fast as I had hopped and on May 19, I checked myself into the ER to fix the dehydration due to side effects. I felt if I didn’t get help, I would have a serious situation at home, knowing Rita would not be able to deal with.
In the ER, they tested the various conditions and after 6 hours sent me home after giving me an IV and some medication to treat a possible mild diverticulitis. In reality, the ER doc called the cancer center and found out that my side effect was the most common and what they saw was normal for those taking the medication.
This raised a few serious questions about taking chemo and having the quality of one’s life compromised so badly that you ask why are you taking this med? The good news the lung surgery date allows me to kick the can down the road until after that surgery.
The logistics of getting to the ER, arranging someone to help Rita and get home was complicated with the fact my primary care helper, Rachel had a sick kid and could not help. I finally took up Jesse’s offer to come for the night and Jen was able to come too since she was off work that day. I hated to disrupt their lives, but needed them there overnight in case the ER found something that would require me to stay overnight.
I had not been able to adequately care for Rita for the past few days, but Rachel’s presence filled in for me. When she bailed, it became a more serious situation.
Today, 20 hours after ER, I feel somewhat better, but still very weak. I have some simple small tasks to do to enable Trevor to move to the next project on his list and find I am unable to work like I use to before the Chemo routine. If I was at 25% of my capacity yesterday when I went to the ER, today, I’m at 50%. I can’t play pickleball, I can’t move simple easy things around by myself, and have to space my work to 5 – 10 minutes of simple tasks time – like doing dishes.
I need better backup plans and need to follow up on getting more help than just Rachel. Rita is fighting me on this since she sees it as a control issue. Oh, the joys of caregiving.
2 replies on “Fred’s Cancer Status”
This is a better solution than using Google Docs. Or is it?
I have the power to edit this comment, Approve it, or trash it.
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