Getting Better

Phil had lost about 25 lbs. at Christmas time and he was starting to eat a little more each meal.  He was still on chemo twice a week and the bone strengthener once a month.  The stuff that strengthens your bones just knocks him down.  We always dreaded that one.  It is given to him through his port just before his chemo treatment of Velcade.  I know the names of this stuff doesn't mean anything to anyone who doesn't have cancer because it certainly didn't to me before now.  But for the benefit of those who know, I thought I would name it.  Anyway, we had been waiting on insurance to OK us for the stem cell transplant procedure to start taking place and now it was the first of the year.  My company had been bought out and we had a new insurance company.  Great!  I'm sure that was some of the delay but boy are we thankful for great insurance.  I just don't know how people do this without insurance.  We are so blessed with incredible coverage.  God has just prepared us for this time with immeasurable blessings.  My job, our insurance through my job, great family, great old friends, wonderful new friends, lots of prayers, I could go on and on.  Back to my rambling. 

Here is Phil getting chemo. The chairs are heated and have two massage levels.  My chair is in the background.  Notice he gets a warm blanket too!

We were finally able to meet with the doctor who would be performing the stem cell transplant.  For those that don't know, let me explain.  This is a procedure where they harvest stem cells from Phil's own blood, freeze them, then replace them after they have been cleansed and hopefully will produce new healthy stem cells in his bone marrow where the cancer is now.  That is in very simple terms the way that I understand it and I'm sticking to it.  The doctor that is treating Phil is Dr. Fay who is the doctor who started the entire stem cell transplant center at Baylor Sammons in Dallas with the Baylor system here.  He is a large man with a large voice.  When he talks it is with a loud and very pronounced volume.  I feel like after every sentence you should hear the word, BOOM!  He creates that much of a canyon in the air.  I like him though and so does Phil.  He talks above my head like most doctors do but I try my best to keep up. 

The first time we met with Dr. Fay Phil was still having trouble with low blood pressure and being dizzy.  He had to hold on to me, all of little me holding up big Phil.  It was pretty funny thinking that I could hold him up but I did.  Phil walked with a cane at that time.  We walked into the office and they took his vitals and they were shocked that he was even standing.  They immediately hooked him up to fluids and said that he needed to rest and when he was feeling better the doctor would be in.  Our meeting was cut short because Phil was unable to comprehend everything because he was still a little dizzy.  We just thought this was normal.  Dr. Fay took him off of Velcade (the chemo) from twice a week to once a week.  This helped a lot with the dizziness.  Unfortunately, the neuropathy had set in.
Neuropathy.  That was a big word that I first heard of when we went to a support group in December.  Oh my gosh, the support group.  That was a group of weirdos.  I'm sorry but Phil and I decided not to be totally consumed with this illness and not to be focused on the effects, M spikes and whatever big words they had associated with it.  Those people were obsessed with their illness.  I sat there holding my breath the first hour and looked for a quick escape route the second hour.  They had notebooks full of their stats and tried to outdo each other with their knowledge.  I spoke up and just told them how much I did NOT know.  They probably thought I was so stupid.  I think you should be educated but I am not going to med school and I think that if I have a problem with what is going on, I will find someone else if I am not pleased with the results but oh my gosh!  Phil and I felt like fresh meat.  Any way, back to neuropathy.  They were talking about the effects of it at that meeting and Phil had yet to experience any of that so we had not heard that word.  Phil, of course knew what it was.  This is where your limbs go numb and your feet feel like stumps, it is "nerve pain".  You have trouble walking.  Phil started feeling all of this in his legs.  It makes it hard for him to stand for very long and walking is a problem.  Thank goodness for the railing that my brother had installed in our shower shortly after Phil came home from the hospital.  It really helped to steady Phil on many occasions.



Waiting on the insurance to approve the stem cell replacement was the next step.  Sometimes the days were long for Phil and depression was hard for him.  When you don't have something to look forward to, it gets difficult but he kept himself busy some days by researching an artist named Noel Rockmore and even purchased a few of his paintings.  This became his new passion other than his football team, "Kentucky Cats".  There were days that I would have to push him to get up and get out though because it's easy to stay settled and he would even say that he felt better when he moved around but getting him to do so sometimes was difficult. 

The day came and we got the schedule for the stem cell replacement.  The next trip to Dr. Davis would result in a 30 lb. loss in all.  Now it was time to turn things around.  Dr. Davis started giving Phil meds for his neuropathy to take 3 times a day.  This seemed to help him quite a bit.  Still it was difficult for him to stand long periods of time.  The test of time will be to see if this goes away or not.  They say that sometimes the neuropathy is permanent.  We are praying that it is not.