Wednesday, March 4

Last week when Todd had his meeting with Dr. Yom, the radiation oncologist, she and her resident looked in Todd's mouth and palpitated his lymph nodes. "Excellent!" she said. "I can see that the tumors are already shrinking." Dr. Yom is not one to sugarcoat news (so we've heard) so this is great news after just 3 days of radiation! It's got to be easier to go through painful treatments when you KNOW they are working, as opposed to just hoping that they are working.

I have been concerned about Todd as he hasn't been eating much at all since last Wednesday. He has already lost the 10 lbs (cheesecake) he gained before his treatment started on Feb 24 (just over a week ago). He has just been feeling so bloated. Earlier this week we changed to bird-like portions on saucer-sized plates because just seeing even a normal portion of food made him feel sick. Then, last night at dinner he had TWO tiny portions of Christine's baked ziti. The breakthrough came this morning when he ate half a scrambled egg portion and a WHOLE PIECE OF TOAST! I drove him to his noon appointment and back, and after a 15 minute rest he was ready for lunch: applesauce and a mini quesadilla. I went back to work and he called me with the good news -- he was still hungry after that "lunch" and ate more! Maybe the effects of the chemo are finally dissapating. Dr Yom says he should stay on the anti-nausea drugs anyway.

I sent out an email last week to neighbors, friends in our gourmet group, and my ladies' investment club asking for help during Todd's remaining weeks of treatment. Both Joyce and Glen Thomas (Glen is a UCSF cancer treatment alum who when through this last spring) said to ask for help early, because it is very hard. They were so right! With no family west of the Mississppi, I quickly realized I couldn't handle driving to the city 6x a week, caring for Todd, working, and keeping up with the kids and their activities.

Roni Jacknow organized a sign-up email of kind people willing to bring dinner twice a week and / or help drive Todd to his appointments. These first 2 weeks I have just been taking time off work, which makes for a chopped up day. I work a bit in the morning, run out at 10:50 to pick Todd up at 11:00 and run back into work somewhere around 3:00. Having drivers will help me a lot, although there are several appointments a week that I will still drive to so I can talk to the doctors and the nutritionist. Having dinners delivered has been a blessing, as twice a week I don't have to even THINK about what the kids and I are having!

Lauren's been great about picking up prescriptions and driving to Safeway for popsicles or whatever Dad needs today. She works after school though, and usually has a lot of homework, so she doesn't have a lot of spare time.

Todd got our taxes done today -- I don't know how he did it (he was curled up asleep when I got home from work at 6 and said he felt really tired). He had been so lethargic over the weekend and for the first part of this week that I thought he was going to be like this or worse the whole time. He worked a little bit on the taxes yesterday, but to tell the truth, I was thinking that I would have to figure out Turbo Tax in my spare (?) time. (Nooooooooo!)

It's good to see him with a little more energy. He is doing a good job today of pacing himself: taking short rest and nap breaks throughout the day, and trying to eat more often. Today he's probably eaten the equivalent of 1 normal-sized meal, which is a big improvement.