Cycle 3 begins

Kevin and I woke up this morning around 7:45 knowing chemo was starting soon. I hoped he would have a little better day. Once the Cisplantin and Amophostamine were given he was pretty much sick right away. He spent the better part of 90 minutes with his little face over a platic tub. It was obvious his body wanted no part of the chemo today. He was given Benadryl and adavan on top of the Ondastatron that he takes every day (all 3 anti-nausea meds). This did the job of settling his stomach and gag reflex down, but it pretty much put him out for the day. Rachel and I agreed that it's better to have him sleeping hours on end, then continuously getting ill. I left around noon as Mike did his last shift before his flight home. Rachel picked my brother and mom up at he airport. Rachel went back to the hospital with my mom to be be with Kevin (along with Mike Scotty and Jake). As I understand it, once he woke up again he pretty much got sick for another hour or so, before the cocktail of meds put him back to rest. This cycle so far has mirrored the first round much more then the second. All in all he's okay though. He had about a 4 hour window of time where he was awake, and he took advantage. We watched Scooby Doo Two the movie, which he enjoyed. I also read him an entire 100 page kids book I let him pick out yesterday. It was nice to crawl in bed and read to him. The vomitting stopped but the other end wasn't as settled. We had another hour of "fun" getting him cleaned up and getting his bed changed and the floors scrubbed. We watched t.v. for a 1/2 hour or so, and he let me know that he's ready to go to sleep for the night. So far so good (it's about 12:30). We'll see if he's able to make it through the nigh without major incidences. His attitude is still good, and he's making the most of the windows of time when he's not miserable. The following two nights will be the tough ones. I've described the last two rounds about the getting up every 2 hours to make sure he urinates, so as to protect his bladder from damage. It will be a fairly challenging couple days for both of us, but we'll get through it together (I have some important things going on at work, so I probably won't have the luxery of extensive naps during the day). It's nice to have Brad and my mom here, although Rachel will probably see them more then I will. What's important is Kevin sees them. My mom is so good with the messy stuff, she'll be a great help with Kevin tomorrow. The combination of his extended sleep and the cloudyness from the meds, led Kevin to the conclusion that he had been in the hospital for a few days when he woke up. Perhaps it was wishful thinking :-). Thank you to everbody who sent me kind text and emails celebrating the good news of the clean MRI's.

Take Care,

Eric