Round One--Check!

Chris finished his first round of Chemo. today! A minor milestone, but a milestone nonetheless. Yesterday was pretty frustrating, as I'm sure you have read in his blog. As the "caregiver" it was equally as frustrating, however obviously for different reasons. I had taken the afternoon off of work, so having sat in the chair beside him for 5 hours knowing he had to come back tomorrow to try again, was just one of those things that had me gritting my teeth. I know that a lot of the reason they had him go home was because they didn't want one of the nurses to have to stay past 6/7 o'clock. Understandable, I guess...I know that it's a bit trying when a parent forgets their child at daycare and we have to entertain one kid when all we want to do is go home after a long day. Nevertheless, I really wish they had been able to get it done yesterday because as wonderful as they try to make the Chemo. room, it's still downright depressing--think of it as the exact opposite of Disneyland. It was just another thing we had to roll with I guess.

Yesterday was the first time I've encountered Chris with "Chemo-brain" as they like to call it. Well, it was either that or "boy-brain." We were told that the Rituximab treatment would be 5-8 hours, so obviously that meant we'd need to bring a lot to do and bring enough to eat. Me being, well...me, had a huge bag packed with books, magazines, an iPod and a ton of food--the epitome of organization. No surprise there, I live for planning and packing. When we got there, I asked Chris what he had brought, his answer? "Um...a couple of cinnamon buns, a Cliff bar and my DVD player." *sigh* I almost think it's more a boy thing than anything else haha. Luckily, I'm a good sharer :)  I think the weirdest part of the 5 hours was that Chris didn't really do anything. I told him that by just sitting there he was probably hyper-aware of all the side effects that were happening and that distracting himself might make things go faster and easier. However, we had just taken out the DVD player when we were told to "try again tomorrow."

Today went much smoother as I'm sure you have read in Chris' blog. He kicked Rituximab's butt today--flew through the bag! I went to the gym in the morning before heading up there and went from the Cancer Clinic to work. When I got there, Chris was on his laptop (yay, Wifi!) responding to everyone's kind messages. He told me that "the distraction of the laptop makes it so he's not focused on the side-effects," hmm...where have I heard that before? hahaha.

Chris' brother Jeff came to sit with him today as well, which was awesome because I had to leave for work before he was finished. I got a text soon after I started work saying that he was done and on his way home--much sooner than I thought! He said he went for a walk around the golf course and was feeling pretty good, not even coughing that much! I'm so happy that his cough and stomach have stopped bugging him, now his body can go towards fighting the cancer and not be so tired from the exertion of coughing so hard.

I'm off to Vancouver on Friday for a bit of a break from everything. My Mom and I are going to a concert and then are going to hit up Robson before heading home on Saturday. A short trip, but it'll be a nice temporary distraction.

Until next time,

Kaitlin