8 doses complete - Week 1

On Tuesday morning we had our first visitor, Felicity. She is a friend who actually works as a Doctor at Karmanos. It's amazing how much having someone visit lifts our spirits. Nate felt well enough in the afternoon to walk 5 laps around the floor and eat a light lunch and dinner. Karen and Carol, from my small group through Genesis, stopped by to visit. They brought us an additional blanket and pillow along with a Panera veggie sandwich that Nate and I shared. Nate started feeling the chills around 7pm and was given a dose of Demerol. We were told it would make him sleepy but would stop the chills immediately. They were right because he fell asleep for three hours waking briefly around 10pm and then slept through the night.

At 7am on Wednesday he was feeling nausea and was given some meds made him fall asleep for a few more hours. Nate's dad came at 11am to visit while I went to a professional development class for school in the afternoon. In my absence Nate walked one lap but spent most the time sleeping. In the evening we had four visitors- Mike, Eric, Donnell, and Tom who brought us some snacks from Trader Joe's along with a sub for Nate. We have found that we really enjoy the visits as they help to break up the day and energize Nate. After everyone left Nate began to feel nausea again so it was decided that he could skip his 11pm dose. Dr. Flaherty said that it hasn't proved more effective to get all of the doses so to skip a few is fine. Nate slept fairly well through the night and received his 8th dose in the morning. He was able to take a shower and do a little email and reading of the paper but only for a short time. At 11 a.m. he surprised me by getting up and walking two laps around the floor. He just needed to get up and stretch his legs.

If all goes as planned we will be headed back home Saturday afternoon for a week of recovery. Then on Monday Aug. 4 its back to Karmanos for a second week of treatments. Then its back home for another week or so of recovery and that will end round 1 of biotherapy. He will have 4-6 weeks before they will do a CT scan to check whether the IL2 is working.

The kids are staying the week up at Nate's parents (Gramodder and Papi as they call them) in Port Huron. For the second week they will be at our house and my mom will come in from Chicago to watch them. Thank you to those who have sent cards, emails, comments, and especially prayers. They mean so much to us.