This new chemo drug that he got last week can cause severe constipation. Well, it did! By Thursday night he was in so much pain that we ended up taking him to the ER. When we got there we realized he had a low grade fever. Not good for a chemo patient that has almost no white counts. The ER helped him with his constipation problem and sent him home. When I talked to the PA Friday morning she wanted him to come in and get IV antibiotics and fluids. He will also be on oral antibiotics for 7 days and will also get shots of neupogen every day to get his white counts back up.
In the meantime, yesterday I was trying to get housing situated. God totally opened a door for us! The housing situation has been difficult to say the least. We need a large home, furnished, near the hospital, with a short lease. O and did I mention it has to be pet free because of Luke's allergies. We quickly realized all these things weren't going to happen. So we were trying to figure out the best option and had some possibilities through friends of friends. But yesterday I made a phone call to a company that I found out about through the IU Cancer Center that rents out furnished apartments. At the beginning Jon and I were opposed to apartment living with small kids because it would not give them enough space, no yard, etc. Now we are all about it! It is very difficult to find a 3 bedroom apartment downtown and impossible to find a 4 bedroom. So we are going to rent 2 furnished 2-bedroom/2 bath apartments. They are in the same building a floor apart. The one that Luke will stay in has been remodeled, new carpet, etc. The family living there now does not have a pet and the girl in charge of renting these assured me she would have it cleaned well! It is less than a mile from the hospital. Kids will stay in one apartment and Jon in the other! This week has been tough. Jon LOVES seeing the kids and they always bring a smile to his face. But he HATES hearing them fight, yell, whine, cry and scream. You probably get the picture. This will give the kids an opportunity to ride the elevator and go see their daddy in a good mood and return to their own apartment to whine, scream and cry! We quickly realized this week that the hospital will be a place we will frequent often even in the middle of the night so being right next to it will be a HUGE blessing. We can make apartment living work for 2-3 months!
We are also going to take advantage of "city" life. We live in a small town so we do not have opportunities that a big city offers (but we do have the beach, golf and pool year round!!). I have enrolled the kids in kindermusik, gymboree sports class, we will do CBS, the zoo is within walking distance, the children's museum is the biggest in the world, etc. The kids will have an activity everyday to get them out and about.
Jon will start out outpatient. Which means, he will go to the hospital every morning around 8am. He will be there until 3 or 4 getting chemo, fluids, meds, transfusions, etc. He will return to the apartment for dinner and to sleep. If he has any "issues" they will admit him to the hospital. I will be with him most days. Another blessing is that we have a full time live in nanny from Hilton Head that is going with us. She will be with the kids everyday along with either my mother, Jon's parents or Jon's sister. They are all rotating. And then on the days I am with the kids a family member will be with Jon. It should be interesting to say the least but we will make it work and help Jon through this time.
Please pray for Jon. He is very sleep deprived. He is very weak. He has lost 10 lbs since he started this round almost 2 weeks ago. He has been nauseated today. He needs nutrients. His body has virtually no immune system. His fever has gone up to 102 today. Currently as I am typing this we have it down to normal! Praise God. Please pray it will stay 100 or below. Otherwise he will be in the ER again. Pray that along with the antibiotics, his body will be able to fight this infection. We are finding out quickly this is very different than 1st line chemotherapy. When he went through this the first time, he gained 10 lbs, his counts never got as low as this time, his doctor told him he was text book perfect. This is extremely difficult for Jon mentally and physically. Jon is not a lay around person. He has tons of energy and is on the move all the time. It is very difficult mentally to try and fight through every day. He is miserable! Physically he already feels his body being depleted. He wants so badly to be at home but the doctors have suggested we stay here because we need to be near the hospital. He will get another dose of chemotherapy on Tuesday and we will figure out if we can go home. Lots to pray about. Thanks for being prayer warriors on our behalf.
I will leave you with some pictures.
When I got home from the hospital this morning at 1am, this is how i found Luke sleeping, hugging his little Clifford. It made me smile! I miss my children intensely right now. I absolutely know I am doing the right thing by taking care of Jon, but I miss being with them during the day and even sometimes at night when I am not around.
SSSHHH!!! Don't tell Jon I posted this picture. This was us at the Piedmont ER. They had pretty purple masks.
This was us at Gwinnett Medical where we originally went. When they were checking Jon in and checked his vitals, we realized he had a fever. I kinda freaked out because I knew they would admit him, starting crying and explaining to the nurse his situation. I told him his doctor was at Piedmont. He looked at Jon and said do you feel like driving 40 minutes to Piedmont? Jon told him he did (LIAR, haha) and the nurse told us we needed to go to Piedmont where his doctor was. I signed papers refusing service and we left! It was definitely the right decision. At the moment though Jon was not real thrilled!
This was a rainbow we saw driving in to Piedmont one day. I could literally see the whole rainbow. It was gorgeous. I was reminded of God's promises. He stays true to His Word always! He keeps his promises. During this journey, I love to be reminded of God's promises!
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