Well last week went pretty well with a few hiccups. My dentist appointment went well except that I have to get a couple fillings replaced. It's better than having to get crowns which would be the next step if this doesn't take care of it. Fingers crossed. Owen's Ortho appt went well, at the next appt he's getting some brackets repositioned so they can fine tune his positioning. YAY! Ariana's test didn't go quite as planned but there's a lot more studying going on around here now and as for David... he got a lot of rest.
Dave didn't actually get in the wheel chair at all this week because he's got so much edema. The nurse got the dr to give him a diuretic and she thinks it's working but it's hard for us to tell because we see him every day. She sees him twice a week and claims it looks better but it's basically his whole body is swollen. I agree that his face isn't AS puffy and his hands aren't quite as bad but it's especially his legs and feet which makes us more wary about putting him in the chair since that makes it worse. Of course tomorrow he has chemo again which also makes it worse. This will be the 7th Avastin treatment. We're not sure how much they will want to do but the dr will basically let him get treatment as long as he wants to take it. At this point it's built up in his system so it makes him more tired and he gets more side effects. Thankfully those side effects are minor in the grand scheme of things but they can potentially cause problems. Our biggest concern with the edema is skin break down. Since the skin is so taut it bruises easier, dents easier even with a crease in the sheet and is prone to break down easier. Just a little added stress, no biggie ;) The dr may increase the diuretic dose but that means we have to be more cautious about his potassium levels and electrolytes. Banana's for David!
Ooh on the bright side he's been off the steroids for a couple weeks and that seems to be helping the skin problems. The rashiness on his face is going away although it's not gone and the body rash seems to be going away as well. YAY! We're definitely clinging to every bit of positive that we can find. It's been really hard on him to be bed ridden. His neck is still hurting although not quite as bad as it was, that's a good sign too. When he doesn't move his head for a while his neck stiffens up so after naps and in the morning is the worst time for him, especially the 5 am medicine wake-up. It can be hard for him to fall back to sleep. He's not taking extra morphine anymore though so that means it's getting better.
So our (not) fun for the week is that the truck died again. My dad helped me get it to the shop, the mechanic replaced the idle motor and said it worked fine. We went to pick it up and it started right up and Ariana headed to school. After school it wouldn't stay running again unless you gave it gas. I picked up the mechanic and he drove it back to his shop (he's magic) by giving it gas as he went and after a couple blocks it was fine... frustrating. Again he said to come pick it up and when we got there it wouldn't start for us... hahahahaha Ariana and I decided the truck must be sexist. David mentioned that he read that a computer problem might cause the gas mix to be off and that could be part of the problem. I asked the mechanic if he reset the computer, he said no because it showed no codes. He said he would reset it if I wanted him to. Yes please. So he took off the battery cables, cleaned and reattached them then ran an idle reset routine and VOILA! Working truck! We picked it up yesterday and it worked great, A said it ran better than before and the big test... it started this morning too! YAY! Hopefully it stays running this time. We may not know much about cars but we do know computers. Always reboot!
This week Owen has a big presentation in reading class, he has to BE Alexandre Dumas and talk about his life (in the first person). Ariana is taking french so she's helping Owen with his pronunciation of some key french words, it's so cute. When he was practicing his speech he left his rubberbands on his braces which make it harder to understand him and he said something about the Duke d'Orleans and it came out more like Dork d'Orleans. Hahahaha I had to interrupt him because I was cracking up. Poor kid, can't even get through his practice run. It's a good thing he loves me. I took to calling him the Dork d'Orleans the rest of the night. I'm glad he has our sense of humor. We also discussed other french things... (from the movie better off dead) “French bread, french fries, french dressing, and to drink…Peru.” He added french kissing. I told him no french kissing and we were both cracking up. Dumas was a womanizer so he was saying he could work into his speech by saying "I kiss my girlfriends like this..." We were practically on the kitchen floor giggling. Boy oh boy is he a teenager now or what? Heaven help me. He has always gone out of his way to make me laugh, not that it's difficult. I love that about him. The only person that makes me laugh more is David.
I spent this last weekend doing the bare minimum around the house and I read The Hunger Games series. It made me remember how much I like to read but never take the time. I'll have to dig into my giant stack. Game of Thrones series, Mistborn, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo... I have to pace myself because I get sucked in and only do the things around the house that I HAVE to do. Ah well, everyone needs an escape sometimes.
Oh yeah! I found Dave's razor too! It was lost in the abyss that is the garage but I found it. Not that he's going to shave off his beard or anything but I thought it might make him feel better if he could trim it up. Small victories and all that.
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