Living with Cancer

We are in the stage of cancer treatment where we are learning to live with the side effects of cancer. Since Bruce started targeted therapy they have had to lower the dose twice. He felt so nauseous and fatigued that he could barely function. Daily hygiene and eating what little he could were a real effort. Finally he is at a dose that seems to be better. He can get out of the house once or twice a day which is really good comparably. We have been to dinner and to run a couple of errands (yahoo)!

He still has trouble with food due to the radiation. Nothing tastes good to him. Well almost nothing, he loves Ruby Red grapefruit juice and grapefruit (really?) He lives on eggs, soup (creamy mostly and I stack on the calories) and a few other things. He can't eat sugar it is just too sweet for him. (Crap that means I eat all of the sweets in the house and the creamy soups and high calorie foods:() It is really hard to find things he can eat. We rarely eat out because he has a hard time eating well except Chic fil a. Seriously did you know that a small bowl has only 130 calories and the salad barely anything? How is he going to gain weight on that? He can't believe he is looking for ways to gain weight:)

He has been having headaches which we worried about because of the brain cancer.  I finally got him to email the Doc. He wanted him to have a MRI on his brain just to be sure that everything was alright. Worry, worry, then the scan yesterday. The Drs office called in the afternoon to let us know that there was no cancer in his brain. Yahoo! I guess the headache is just a side effect of the meds. It is manageable with Tylenol, thankfully.

Also he has been coughing a lot. This is worrisome for me but Bruce keeps telling me it is a side effect of the med. We'll let the Dr. know at our next visit and see if there is something he can do to suppress it. Sleeping is hard for both of us when he is coughing so much.

Bruce's hair is finally growing back! I even had to trim off a few stragglers the other day. Right now it is thin and fine but will thicken with time. He is grateful for that. 

We have had lots of family here for the month of July which was awesome. Chad finally moved back to Utah (hip hip hooray), Jen came with 4 of her children to visit, and Jared came with his family for a couple of days too. We had a blast! Cousins sleepovers, and parties galore! So much fun. Our house looked like a child hotel and it was fantastic!

We are grateful for all of your prayers in our behalf. We know Bruce is alive because of them! We are so grateful for the knowledge that we have. We are grateful for the miracle of modern science, we know that it is a gift from our Father in Heaven.