Hello,

Chad completed his second cycle of chemotherapy today and let me tell you, he has been nothing short of amazing! He has been through so much and he's done it all with a big smile and a hilarious trail of Chadisms. He has kept all of us strong and positive simply by being himself and that says so much about his energy. I am having trouble with finding the words to describe how in awe I am of him and his perspective of life so I won't linger here, just know, who he is as a person takes my breath away. [...]

Greetings Family and Friends!

Chad started his 4th infusion today and will complete his second cycle of chemotherapy Thursday morning. It was a pretty smooth visit to the clinic this morning, we got to skip the lab and doctor and head straight to infusion at 7:00 am which was great. There was a little issue with one side of his port not returning, with no luck after a few flushes. It appears to be a normal issue and since one side was working well it was decided to leave it alone and we will go back Thursday for disconnect and they will check it again to decide if they need to treat it. Chad's weight held pretty steady, he was down a few pounds but nothing alarming, in fact, I think we're figuring some things out in that department. [...]

Good Morning!

Chad is almost a full week out from infusion and doing well. The side effects during this infusion were much better than the previous one. I've been tracking symptoms and looking for patterns and it appears that the steroid has made a big difference while he's on it. He is given the Decadron through IV at the hospital before he starts the infusion then he continues it by tablet at home for the next 3 days. The steroid did exactly what it was supposed to do, his nausea and appetite were much better and his energy level was much higher. The main takeaway from the observation was that once Chad gets disconnected from the pump he starts to feel cruddy. The first 24-48 hours after the chemotherapy infusion is complete seem to be when the side effects are the worst for Chad. Our deduction is that he rides that steroid wave for the first few days and then suffers the crash as the medication leaves his system. Fatigue, nausea and mood changes are heightened during that time. Those days are rough and it stinks to watch him go through it but honestly, it was worse for him before the steroid so at least the toughest of his times have been shortened. I'll keep working to find ways to offer him relief during those days, so far I've discovered the Medicine Ball at Starbucks, peppermints and diffusing certain essential oils have all been helpful. [...]

Good Evening! [...]

Good Morning!! Due to technical difficulty the post that I wrote last night has accidentally been deleted. It was likely user error but we'll call it technical difficulty and here is a shorter version of the original post.[...]

Chad has completed his second infusion which completes a cycle. Each cycle lasts 28 days and includes 2 infusions. He did well and we are thankful for an uneventful 3 days. I disconnected the pump again at the end of the infusion and Chad said that I did well. I was a bit more comfortable this time, not, "going to nursing school' comfortable, but not,  "I'm going to permanently injure him" uncomfortable. We'll both take it. As you can imagine, Chad has already become memorable with the nurses and there is lots of smiling by everyone there so I'm sure that they won't mind disconnecting him one bit. I just think that it's something that I need to be able to do. [...]

Good Evening!

Chad began his second infusion today and it has gone very well so far. The wait time for the appointments today was considerably less than the last infusion and that helped with the overall feel of the day. We also had a better idea of what to expect and made some adjustments on how we prepared for the day that allowed both of us to be a bit more comfortable while we were there. Chad has his pump for the next two days and I will do the disconnect again at the clinic with a nurse on Wednesday. Being connected to the pump is not Chad's favorite but he's still smiling. I like to think that it's all of my Indiana Jones/Satchel/Fanny-Pack/Man-Purse/Murse references that he's smiling at but I’m not so sure.[...]

Hello Everyone!

Chad is a full week out from his first day of chemotherapy and we are pleased to report that he is doing very well. [...]

We are happy to report that Chad made it through his first administration of Chemo and his pump was disconnected.  He's done well but has started to experience a little bit of the side effects - nausea, a different sensation in his fingers and toes and sensitivity to cold when he takes a sip of a drink.  Chad is sluggish and moving around slowly but he said he doesn't feel bad and is not in any pain. [...]

Chad and Aja's day today at OSU started at 10 am and ended well after 5 pm.  After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, we were able to meet with the Oncologist who confirmed the results of tests from last week and provided some clarity around the goals of treatment:[...]