This too shall pass

We didn’t have a good weekend. Shannon spent too much time getting reacquainted with our bathroom on Saturday, which, as many readers of this blog know, resulted in a visit to the emergency room early Sunday morning. Shannon slept most of the day, but thankfully no more unplanned trips to the bathroom. The positive side of this is that Carter so far seems unphased by the situation. He knows mommy has “owies,” and gave her a big hug this morning before going off to daycare.

The doctor wanted her to go to the chemo infusion clinic for additional fluids this morning. It’s much more comfortable than the ER. Her nausea never really went away, so she went to the clinic as planned, and it’s controlled some but still not adequately enough. By this time, she’s so dehydrated that she is so drained and physically weak that they admitted her for observation overnight. There are no guarantees she will get to go home tomorrow, but she’s a fighter. She’s already given me a list of what to bring her. At least we now have a plan to make sure this doesn’t happen again in two weeks when she goes in for Round 2.

The plan involves having chemo earlier in the week. Having it on a Friday may allow you a weekend to recuperate, but if you need medical care on the weekend, the ER is often the only option. This way, she can do her next-day follow-up at the clinic and get more fluids and anti-nausea medication through the IV. And this time, they are going to send her home with a one-two punch of more powerful anti-nausea drugs. Also, her custom cocktail will be tweaked to see if a change in the formula will help. Her cancer may be aggressive, but we’ve been told is such a “plain vanilla” type that there are numerous options and drugs that will be just as effective.

Even though treatments for chemotherapy and chemotherapy induced nausea have been perfected over the last several decades, it is still impossible predict how people will react. It’s a bit of trial and error, but her doctors and nurses are fantastic. They have been at this longer than we have, so they will be doing everything in their power to control this. We know what doesn’t work. We just need to find what will. In the meantime, enjoy the Rube Goldberg stylings of OK Go.