Git 'Er Done!

It is with great pleasure that we announce Tony is nearly 2/3 done with radiation! (Last Friday was halfway, and this coming Friday will be 2/3). Believe you me, we couldn't be happier to be approaching the end of this ordeal. To date, Tony has lost about 14 pounds. The weight loss can be attributed to all the side effects of the radiation, which vary in intensity from day to day. Dry mouth, loss of appetite, mouth/tongue sores, and altered taste all affect how much he can force himself to eat. By far, though, I think he'd say the altered taste is the worst. Dairy products taste rancid to him, and sweet foods (such as ice cream, which I thought would be our savior), taste bitter (like "bug spray," he says). Meats are one of the few things that still taste somewhat desirable, so we've had every type of turkey, roast beef, rotisserie chicken, and pot roast known to man in the last few weeks!



Much to Tony's consternation, his radiation oncologist mandated that he is to have a minimum of four nutritional supplement shakes each day. We should probably buy stock in the Carnation Instant Breakfast line of products. Of course, he is growing very tired of these and it is probably safe to say he will never touch them again after this.



I am so very proud of him, though, for keeping a positive outlook and putting up with my incessant nagging to drink a shake. ;) We were concerned at the beginning of radiation that he might require a feeding tube, as many patients with this type of treatment do. But it looks like we may get away without it! However, we still have to keep his nutrition in mind, so when you see him out and about, feel free to ask him how many shakes he's had that day (muhahaha!)



We still have crappy days and days when we both get bummed by the monotony of going to the Cancer Center and getting painful treatments every single day, but it seems like God always sends encouragement right when we need it. For example, this past Monday...the weather was gross, we were in a "going-to-treatment" funk, and I thought I was going to have to drag Tony into the Cancer Center by the collar (or he'd have to drag me). We got a message from our all-time favorite CT tech, Lynne, that she wanted us to drop by when we had a chance. We stopped by to see her, and Tony got the coolest, most unexpected gift ever: a framed picture of the Navy's Blue Angels flight team, signed by the pilots and crew! And it had Tony's name on it! Tony went from "blah" to elated; even when we got back in the car he kept saying, "Isn't it COOL?!?!" It was such a pick-me-up to know that people were thinking of him and cared...it was really needed that day, and we appreciated it very much. (Thanks Lynne!) It's also been nice to have Tony's sister, LaTonia, visiting us this week...there's nothing like a big sister to keep things in order. ;)



So we'll just keep on keepin' on...at least we're on the downhill slide. Thanks for taking the time to read this or to say a little prayer - we appreciate you all! Hope you have a good weekend; we certainly plan to. :)