It's been a week since Harv's last chemo infusion...and it hasn't been a happy week. 

A fact about the chemo he's taking: it causes diarrhea and cramping. Because of that, they give him a nice big dose of pre-meds to help with it. However, the pre-meds cause constipation -- which also is not fun.

I suppose it's been long enough for us since he's had Irinotecan that we just kinda forgot how to deal with it... So, when he had the constipation, we decided that maybe a stool softener would be helpful. And, it was, for a short time. Then the diarrhea phase kicked in...which is where we are now.

Now, I don't know about you other wives out there, but sometimes I have a husband who doesn't  follow the advice of medical professionals to avoid as much discomfort as possible during chemo. This is one of those times. 

Long story short, he might need to play catch up with fluids and the BRAT diet and boring food. And, in my humble opinion, just generally "suck it up."

And his grumpy old wife might need to take some deep breaths and perhaps a few long walks to avoid "losin' it." 

Please pray that Harv feels better, that his system straightens itself out, and that he can go on a fun trip that he has planned this weekend with a buncha guys to one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Merci beaucoup!

If you're wondering, Harv is doing okay. The first day is always pretty good.. 2nd and 3rd days are harder. He has some stomach discomfort and has slept most of today, but I THINK he might be slowly feeling better.

Thank you for your prayers.

Lots of love to you all.

Chemo Time

Chemo for Harv today... First of at least three rounds every three weeks. Would appreciate prayers that he handles it well and that the chemo seriously kicks some cancer butt.

Sleep, Glorious Sleep!

Well, here's some good news! Harv had a normal night's sleep last night... (Normal as in: took some Ibuprofen PM and was able to sleep without being in pain.) A wife likes THAT.

MRI

Harv's havin' his MRI now... They told me it was in two parts: a 40 min. session and a 50 min. session. Please pray that the muscle relaxer relaxes him enough to lie still for as long as they need him to... He's not lookin' forward to this. :-/

Sleep...

Dear Friends and Family,

For the most part, Harv is doing well. And, he has done pretty well for the past (almost) three years.

Currently, however, the biggest issue that he's having is that he has some real pain in his shoulder/neck/back area. Dr. Lin thinks it's related to the surgery he had last year, but we're not sure. He's gone to medical massage, acupuncture, physical therapy, our primary care physician has given him muscle relaxer, he's used heat and cold and topical pain medicine. And, still... he has this pain that will not go away.

Dr. Lin has asked Harv's local doctor to order an MRI and hopefully that will shed some light on what the cause is and how we can alleviate the pain.

In the meantime, would y'all please pray that he can get to sleep and have a good night's sleep for many nights in a row? Not sleeping is a big, fat drag. Not sleeping can affect lots of things and lots of people.

Thank you very much.

Many blessings to you all.

Harv update...

CT scan today. No real change. Dr. Lin wants to give Harv some KA-POW!-y kinda chemo and see if we can get the numbers down a bit more. So, he'll do that in about 3 weeks. Which means that he will be off of chemo until then. Always a good thing when chemo is not a part of the routine. 

In the meantime, school has started and life is about to pick up speed. 

Wishing you all a wonderful rest of your week.

From this day forward...

I just wanna say this:

I know of a really good, solid marriage that's very hard sometimes. Sometimes feelings get hurt. Sometimes communication is fuzzy or non-existent. Sometimes somebody needs to sit in time-out.

I know of a really good, solid marriage that sometimes doesn't even feel that good or that solid...

Sometimes trust is broken. And trust has to be re-learned...and/or earned. 

Sometimes this really good, solid marriage that I know of doesn't even feel very loving. 

Sometimes this really good, solid marriage that I know about looks around at the other marriages and wonders "Do THEY ever have these issues?" 

This really good, solid marriage is made up of two people who might not like each other 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year... 

Really good, solid marriages take a lot of work. Sometimes more work than a person actually FEELS like doing.

But this really good, solid marriage that I know about is committed -- in spite of hurt feelings, bad communication, broken trust, not-loving feelings... 

This particular really good, solid marriage that I know about is made up of two extremely imperfect people working over and over and over and over and over and over and over again to make sure that it lasts until forever. 

So... that's all I wanted to say.