No news is pretty much always good news

Just a quick note to let you know that (1) the radiation seems to have helped shrink the tumor enough that Harv is no longer having shoulder/neck pain and (2) the steroids seem to be helping with shortness of breath, etc.

Harv has taken a few good walks this week and feels energized and motivated to take on some minor house projects. And, work has picked up steam and he feels good about tackling that as well.

So...there you go!  

:-)

Check-up

My daffodil bloomed! Yippee!!

We went to Seattle today for blood-work and a check-up after Harv's radiation treatments.

The symptoms he's been experiencing so far since radiation are mostly fatigue and some shortness of breath or it might be more accurate to say that he is out-of-breath easily with exertion (i.e., walking to the mailbox and walking up the stairs).  He hasn't had a huge appetite, though he has been eating pretty well...just smaller portions pretty much. He's had really long naps in the daytime and has been able to go to bed early and sleeps most nights all night long.

There was some concern about his shortness of breath when I first reported it, but they thought it might be anemia -- which can happen sometimes with radiation. 

Dr. Lin looked at his blood-work and took all the recently taken "vitals" and thinks that maybe the shortness of breath is something called radiation pneumonitis. So, he gave Harv some steroids and said that we should know in a few days if that's what it is. If his shortness of breath improves in a few days, then we'll blame it on that. If not, Harv will need to get a CT to rule out other possible things.

His CEA is down a bit and the rest of his blood-work looked good so we're kinda thinkin' it's radiation pneumonitis.

That's pretty much it for now. 

Love you, peeps!

Radiation Is Finished

Last Wednesday was the final day of radiation. The photo above only shows a few of the staff who came out to watch Harv ring the gong to signify the end of radiation. There are about 15 people you can't see.

He's been feeling okay, but the fatigue lingers. He has long naps in the middle of the day and goes to bed pretty early. Yesterday he got out for a walk -- the longest he's had since he started radiation.

Not much else to report for now. We go in next week for a check-up with Dr. Lin and to see what the next steps will be.

Thank you, again, to all of you who helped with the driving. 

Thank you to all you for following our journey and for loving us.