Tuesday, December 21, 2010

If you don’t have any real hope…


Today was supposed to be day 1 of a 21 day course of Chemotherapy. On Friday we saw the doctor and they laid out the program. Don went off to visit with some friends for the weekend but by Monday morning he couldn’t breath and was back in the ER.

The cancer has now metastasized to his pericardium and possibly to the heart muscle itself. “Multiple poorly focused lesions”, was how the doctor put it. They do not think he would get any benefit from chemo and he was too sick to withstand the drugs side effects anyway. “They have given up on me” was how Don put it.

We spent the day talking to various social workers and the palliative care specialist Dr. Ali, A very caring woman that helped lay out the options for pain relief as well as some new medicines to treat the nausea. We had to redo the living will paperwork as for some reason it was not on file and call various and sundry relatives and friends. All in all another really crappy day.

When you don't have any real hope a little false might just get you by. Que the Rally Hamster.

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