The End of Week #6

It doesn't seem possible that a week has gone by since I wrote The End of Week #5, but here we are, Tuesday afternoon again. Jim now has five more treatments at the rad lab, one chemo on Thursday. He is in the home stretch. The nutritionist commented on how well he is doing, compared to what I don't know, but I will take her word for it. He is no longer losing weight; he is gaining a few ounces a day after having lost a total of 20 lbs. As of last Friday. Yesterday he was up 3/4 of a pound; today up almost one pound. I guess if you pour 2600 calories into yourself and are fairly sedentary you will gain weight no matter what else is going on.

Anyone who is squeamish need not read this next part! We are going to get a new device in the house tomorrow. It is a suction pump, the kind the dentist uses when working on your teeth to keeps the saliva out of the way. Well, Jim can't swallow any saliva anymore mainly because it has become too thick, so he has to clear his throat and spit. But it is now too painful to clear it out so he will remove it with this handy little machine. Even though he swishes water in his mouth he can't swallow what accumulates. It should now be much easier and no longer painful to keep his throat clear. These folks have thought of everything to help a patient be more comfortable. Now they really need to work on better treatments!

I had another day off today. Alex took Jim to treatment and I tried to catch up on keeping the house presentable. For what, I don't know, but you never know when Publisher's Clearinghouse is going to ring the bell. The weather is still holding here. It's actually shorts weather.


Here is our beautiful Hawaiian Umbrella Tree. I think the picture is a bit on the tilting side. Actually, our floor is level; the photographer was not.