Depression

Marshall is in a hole of depression that he can't seem to come out of. And there is nothing I can do to help. He doesn't even feel like getting the motorcycle out because he is having so much achy-pain in his legs and here lately intermittent stabbing pains in his groin.

Tomorrow or Saturday I'll try to get out and get the compression stockings. And we have an appointment with Dr.Bliss next Thursday to get the physical therapy started and to get the referral to a cardiologist to see if we can take him off the Plavix and get started back on Prilosec and hopefully at least try to get the coughing/nausea situation under control.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Today's visit to Cancer Center

Lab work today was good. PSA is still 0.88 so that is really good. He is well hydrated (also good), his iron levels are coming up nicely, calcium level is normal range, kidney function good. So he will now stay on monthly monitoring instead of every two weeks.

With regard to leg pain, they recommended that Marshall start a physical therapy program to try to regain some strength. The goal of the cancer treatment is to kill off the testosterone which in turn causes fatigue. So building up the muscle strength will help in that regard. He will call Dr. Bliss here in Westcliffe tomorrow to set up an appointment to get the physical therapy started.

With regard to the increasing nausea, they want Marshall to see a cardiologist to see if he can discontinue taking the Plavix (which has a bad interaction with Prilosec) and if he can stop the Plavix, then he can start the Prilosec again and hopefully calm the stomach down which will hopefully cut down on the nausea. (The Plavix was prescribed as a precaution during one of Marshall's hospitalizations when they thought he may have had a small stroke and it's possible that now it is not needed any more).

With regard to the varicose veins, which also cause leg pain, they want him to get some compression stockings.

With regard to the coughing (which has gotten progressively worse and usually leads to nausea), they think it might be from GERD and that if he is given the go ahead to start taking Prilosec again and his stomach calms down, the GERD will go away and the coughing will lessen.

He got his Xgeva (bone strengthener) shot today.

So we have some doctor appointments to make but we felt good when we left the Cancer Center today because we had some concrete action to take to try to resolve some of these quality of life issues.

PS -- we had a laugh with the doctor today because for the longest time all we did was agonize over the PSA and everything else took a back seat. But his PSA has been at zero for two months now and we immediately put the PSA on the back burner and moved on to other things to obsess about! How soon we forget.....



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Quiet days

It's been a quiet week since I got back from St. Louis. Marshall still has leg aching problems and his knees are hurting. Plus he continues to have nausea that comes on suddenly.

But we did manage to go to Pueblo on Tuesday and we went to lunch (although he just didn't have an appetite). And we went to lunch yesterday (again, he didn't have an appetite). So we bring doggy bags home and he eats it later.

And he hasn't used his cane much this week, so maybe that's a sign that some of these side effects are going to calm down a bit.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Back from high school reunion

I got back from my reunion late Sunday night. Marshall did well on his own, but he was glad to have me back (smile). He still doesn't feel well and his legs ache, his knees hurt and he is exhausted all the time. We go back to the University on the 28th and we will talk about those things.

As for my reunion, I had so much fun. It was great to catch up on classmates. We had a very fun class. I think 32 of us showed up out of a class of 61.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Back from class reunion

I got back from my reunion late Sunday night. Marshall did well on his own, but he was glad to have me back (smile). He still doesn't feel well and his legs ache, his knees hurt and he is exhausted all the time. We go back to the University on the 28th and we will talk about those things.

As for my reunion, I had so much fun. It was great to catch up on classmates. We had a very fun class. I think 32 of us showed up out of a class of 61. Here is our group photo:

Awesome end result of Marshall's photo shoot

Our photographer friend, Sean, finally finished putting together a 6-minute video with all the photos, interviews and videos he took of Marshall over the past 3 months.

My 50th class reunion

On Wednesday I am heading back to St. Louis for my 50th reunion.

Marshall is staying home and fending for himself. I won't be writing any more until I get back on the 19th (unless something noteworthy happens).

Our next appointment at the Cancer Center is August 28th.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Feeling better

Marshall has been feeling steadily better since Saturday. He is now on Zantac for his stomach and the iron pill is going to be taken with food from here on out. It isn't absorbed as well that way, but the doctor says that's okay. We'll continue eating more iron-rich foods.

Today we went to lunch and ran some errands and he did really well.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Battling nausea

I had to go to the Apple Store in Colorado Springs today to see what's wrong with my iPhone. When I got home, Marshall was pretty sick -- sicker than I've seen him since we started this journey. I won't go into ugly details but it took a while for him to get to a point that he could get into bed, calm down and go to sleep.

We have absolutely no idea what caused this, but he had just had his iron pill which he is supposed to take on an empty stomach with a glass of orange juice. I'm thinking either one of those things could have caused this.

I hope he feels better when he gets up.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Thunder and lightning

We are still getting lots of lightning and some rain. So to avoid another strike we unplug phone and Internet the minute we hear the first rumble. So we are out of touch off and on. Ugh.

Marshall was really tired today and his legs ached so he didn't do much today.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone