Post #33: Improvement!

Happy Fourth Everyone!!

And happy news from here. Since this morning, Anita has had her nausea under control. She has even gotten out of bed and walked into the living room to self-test her condition. Unfortunately, the shortness of breath issue has returned, but it does not seem as severe. So she has spent the rest of the day napping off and on, chatting with us and watching TV.

Medications during the day included 3 nausea pills, 2 tranquilizers (one a.m., one p.m.), the Fentanyl pain patch and that's it. For nutrition, around lunchtime she could only handle a bit of lemon sorbet and a vitamin fortified fruit-flavored water drink. But, by afternoon her appetite improved considerably and she ate more sorbet, strawberry jello with cream, white rice with butter and a bite of papaya. But that's not all folks - in honor of the Fourth she ate a whole hamburger! And no ill effects so far! Tonight she finished with some vanilla ice cream and 1/2 a papaya while watching fireworks on television.

Why is all this so remarkable? After her first chemo treatment, as you all may remember, she could hardly hold anything down and was too sick to enjoy much of anything for a week. Today, all day her color has been good, when awake her demeanor and attitude have been alert and normal, and she has retained a positive attitude, even smiling and laughing at our bad jokes!

Obviously, that could change tomorrow as the chemo drugs kick in even further. But comparatively speaking, she is reacting far better - so far - to this second round of treatment and that is so wonderfully encouraging to us, and particularly to Anita.

So, it's been a good Fourth of July for us, I hope it was the same for all of you!

Melissa