CANCER = FATIGUE

Well, Steve got treatment underway late last night.   They started some of his pre-meds around 9:30, but I don't think all of his drugs were officially started until around 11pm.  Steve and I both slept pretty well through the night.  The nurse came in to draw blood around 3:00 am.  Since she has to draw from his arm on my side of the bed, I have to actually get up out of the chair/bed, move the chair out enough for the nurse to be able to get in there and wait for her to draw the blood.  Luckily I am able to sleep while standing :)

We got up around 8am and I ordered our standard breakfast. Honey-Nut Cheerios for Steve and Cheerios, Banana, and Seasonal fruit for me.  Steve ate his breakfast but went right back to sleep.  The doctors made their rounds early today.  Dr. Davies is in charge of making rounds this week.  He came in and said that the numbers on Steve's lab work had significantly dropped already.  They wanted to go ahead and redraw the blood to make sure it was not a lab error considering he started the drugs at @ 11pm and blood was drawn @ 3 am, it seemed pretty drastic in a matter of only a few hours.  They redrew labs and came back again and let us know it was not an error.  His white blood cell counts yesterday were 3.5 and with the 3am blood draw were 1.2.  His platelets were 146 and were now 99.  His Hemoglobin was 9 and was now 7.9.   Dr. Davies also ordered a blood transfusion.  The blood did not get here until around 4:00 pm and will take about 3 hours to complete.  So, they are going to watch his labs closely and may even have to start drawing labs several times a day versus just the one time in the night.  If the numbers keep dropping drastically, they will probably stop 1 or more of the meds.  The key is to always keep the IL-2 going.  That is the most effective drug against melanoma in his drug regimen.

Blood!!!  Let's hope it helps his energy levels!

The nutritionist stopped by this afternoon.  She asked how Steve's appetite is.  I let her know that he eats breakfast every day, but barely eats the rest of the day.  She asked what he has for breakfast and I let her know he has cereal and milk and she quickly let me know that was not enough!  She said she would like for him to change from the low calorie Gatorade to the regular full calorie Gatorade.  She also suggested that he start drinking milkshakes and maybe even ask the dining service to add some Boost to the milkshake.  After she left, I asked Steve if he wanted to try a milkshake.  He said that he would try.  I asked if he wanted to add some Boost for extra calories.  I think he had too much pride to have the Boost added (I think I will make a sneak call next time and have them add it in).  Once the milkshake got here, he just stared at it since he has no appetite.  I asked him to just try it.  He did, and he drank the whole thing!!  Yay!  He really needs the extra calories to help with his energy levels.

Steve's Gatorade stockpile

It's been a pretty quiet day.  Steve has slept all day for the most part.  The good news is he has not had any chills so far.  That is always the worse!  (EDIT: 6pm CHILLS - YUCK) They are going to start day 2 meds @ 8 pm tonight.  He has started running a low grade fever and started to turn red. This is standard and always happens, so no biggie.

I will update again if needed tonight or sometime tomorrow.

Love you all!!