Treatments Begin

Josh had his first radiation treatment on Tuesday at 3:30 pm.  Thankfully it went well and the technicians said he did great!  Unfortunately we can’t say the same for his first dose of chemo.  He had Benadryl around 8:00 pm to preemptively prevent nausea from his chemo treatment. Then took his chemo around 9 pm. The Benadryl quickly knocked him out and all seemed well until about 1 am when he got sick. It happened again a few more times until they got another dose of Benadryl into him at around 2:00 am. And then he finally fell back asleep for the rest of the night. Mom did not however.

Today, he was tired and had a bout of nausea again. And another dose of Benadryl which helped that but knocked him back out and he slept through a session of therapy and part of lunch. When we finally got him awake he was groggy and upset. (picture added to show how sleepy he was)

The doctors here at MFB and his oncologist are now going to have a discussion about alternative nausea meds during the day and maybe continuing the Benadryl at night. He needs to be awake for his therapies and Benadryl isn’t helping. The reason he is using Benadryl instead of a directed anti nausea medicine is because he is on Prozac to help balance out his brain chemistry. And Prozac and most anti nausea meds don’t mix well together. So Benadryl was the safest option. Now we’ll have to see if they decide to cut the Prozac in favor of the anti nausea or decide to use something else.

Radiation appointment number two went fine thankfully. Jon and I got to take him to his appointment for the first time in our own car and it was a quick appointment. Which is a bit nerve wracking but so much easier than waiting for the ambulance transport. Tomorrow and Friday Jon will be doing it on his own as I’m headed back home for a couple of days. Also tomorrow he’ll have a consult with Dr Mahacek his radiation oncologist. Those will happen regularly on Thursdays just right after his radiation treatment.

Tonight he’ll take dose two of his chemo and to be safe they are cutting foods off after dinner tonight to assure that his stomach is empty and then see how that goes. They aren’t sure if the nausea last night was because of the shock the meds caused to his system or the fact that he had a snack around 8 pm. So fingers crossed this experiment goes well and he has a good nights rest tonight.

Even after a rough day he is now laughing and eating his dinner while chatting with his sister on A video FB messenger call. So hopefully the day will end on a good note for him.

Finally I wanted to thank everyone again so much for all of your prayers, support, donations and love. We are blessed in so many ways by our family, friends and community. Specifically today, I want to give a huge thank you to our most amazing neighbor who surprised us by mowing our lawn yesterday while Jon and I were both away. And to the church family at Mt Pleasant Community Church who have taken the stress off of us at mealtimes many times over the past month. Love to you all!

Also please keep the messages coming Josh loves seeing them! You can post right to the group or leave a comment.