something old, something new...

Something old - or "same old" anyway.  More chemo.  Doctors appointments. Chemo crash. Wired on steroids. 

Something new - Callum starting having increased pain around his knee about 10 days ago or about then.  He was really needing more meds to help control the pain so we went to see the pain specialist.  Thankfully he put Callum on a long acting form of Dilaudid, the med he was on before.  It seems to really help. They also put him on Gabapentin, which will help with the nerve pain. I made many, many calls to track down the x-ray report - can't believe it took almost 3 weeks for the Cancer Centre to get it - but it did!  Anyway, the outcome of that is that there is some scarring and sclerosis at the site of the tumour and radiation treatments. This seems to have disturbed the nerves in the bone - apparently there are quite a number of them! That is what appears to be causing the pain. Between the 2 drugs he has now he should have quite a bit of pain relief within the next week or so - it takes a while for the Gabapentin to fully work.

The nasty thing, though, is that he has another break out of mouth sores.  This is the second time in a row that he has had them after chemo. They are quite sore - he hasn't had them like this for a long, long time. We are hoping he gets over them quickly. I am having to try and remember what we did for them before - I have forgotten since he has been so lucky to not have had them!

We are doing OK. We have been lucky enough to have company here and there for the past couple of months.  It is so nice to see family and friends and get in those visits. Of course, we had a blast when Vanessa, Stu and Cade were here! Cade is so much fun - he had his first trip out in the snow! He loves being outside!

I reduced my hours at work for November, which really helped me get in lots of visiting!  I am taking December off - time to have some recovery time and catch up on a few things around home. Not to mention Christmas preparations!  Thanks to Callum's brother our tree is up and so are the decoration in the kitchen. I have a few things to finish off but the tough stuff is done. We are so lucky to have the help.  

We just keep marching forward....one day at time. It's been kind of nice having an almost predictable schedule again. 

Gratitude takes three forms: a feeling in the heart, and expression in words, and giving in return,

TTFN