Change

We have made it through the week being home and are adjusting to the changes in our lives.

Paul getting his nutrition through a J tube with a feeding of liquid nutrients is going well.  I find the J tube becomes hard to flush if the feeding goes more then a couple of hours, but we are working on getting that resolved with frequent flushing during the day, every two hours, and cleaning the J tube in the morning after the nutrition going overnight with a wired brush one of the doctors had given me at the hospital. I am striving for 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep instead of the four that I have been getting.  It's a change I'm looking forward to.

His open wound on the abdomen is healing beautifully.  To watch this change in his physical body as the hole slowly heals has me fascinated.  Who the heck can look at something like that and not accept  the "Intelligent Design" of the human body?  Our God is an awesome God!

Thursday brought Paul's first Chemotherapy session.  It went well with the exception of it running longer that we were told.  This created a conflict with the scheduled Radiation therapy session.  The oncology staff was very good about contacting the radiologist to let them know of the delay.  It all worked out and Paul now has three new tiny tattoos that will aide in the radiation being pinpointed to the exact place it needs to be.  So far, with the help of anti-nausea medicine, he has not had any real side effects from the treatment.  I know it is early in the course of treatments but I'm optimistic that he will do well and not go through anything horrific.

Being home has been wonderful.  We've been blessed with friends bringing food, dessert and hugs!  Can never get enough hugs!  Paul has journeyed out of the house for short walks in the sunshine.  I can already see an improvement in him just from being home for a week.  His weight is stable, not gaining, but most importantly not losing.  He has even tried to take a few things by mouth.  Not much, a few sips of a protein shake, chicken broth, tea, a couple spoon fulls of yogurt and even a bite of chicken!   Heck, he even requested a tea and it's been over a month since he has done that.  You know these Brits, they must have their tea!  We are feeling encourage that something good may have come from having the NG tube in  for a week.  It may have dilated the esophagus just a little, which is enough for some food to get through.  As long as the esophagus is opened enough for the food to go down, he'll keep trying to eat.   His taste is a bit off, but I'm sure that will improve with more eating.

The change of winter to summer is taking place as many of our winter residents are preparing to leave or have already left for their summer homes up north.   We look forward to them returning in the Fall.  Paul is already looking forward to returning to work after all this is over and so am I.  This being home everyday is nice, but we both miss the interactions of our community which our jobs bring to us on an everyday basis.

We know that this cancer has already changed our lives and we will need to adapt to more changes as we continue down the road of treatments and preparing for the next surgery.

So tonight, I will leave you with the words of Socrates,

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

Hugs, love and peace,

Jo and Paul