Tuesday December 2, 2009 10:50 AM

As the song goes, "What A Difference A Day Makes".

Monday we went in to start his new chemo treatment and his platelets were too low and he couldn't have one.

Since he was having so much pain, the doctor increased the dosage of his pain medicine. We also discussed his shakes, that sometimes so intense that he can't even take his pain pills, get to the bathroom, get dressed or eat. It eventually all gets done, but only with great effort and assistance and then he is totally exhausted and breathing very labored.

Tuesday, he started to say strange things, like unrelated to the actual conversation or off the wall, like he had been at the hospital. The doctor doesn't know if all this behavior is pain related, medication or cancer related. He said due to the advanced state of cancer, it could be that. He also said he didn't feel any further testing, like nuero testing, to see what is causing the shakes, was warranted at this stage of his illness.

So, out of the blues John said, "Have you heard anything about the cows?" I said, "What cows?". He said, "The cows that got out of the fenced area?". I replied, "I haven't heard anything about that". He continued, "There are 2300 cows that broke out of the fenced area and they are trying to gather them all up." He asked me to go check the news and see what was going on, which I promptly did. More news to follow.....

This morning, he woke up with a lot of pain basically all over his upper body, has a swollen left foot and was bleeding from his nose. I wasn't too alarmed at the nosebleed as it is so stinking dry here, my nose has bled and my fingers are so dry they are cracked with open sores. I guess you take the good with the bad here; the dryness makes the cold more tolerable. It can be in the 40's here and you may only need a light sweater, but if you were in California, you would be so cold your teeth would be chattering. So, 40 degrees, cracked fingers, bloody nose, who cares.

But to continue on, John got through the day okay, but not in comfort and ease.

Today, Wednesday, he got up and was having concentration problems. He would start a sentence and stop in the middle and say he hadn't said anything and then in the middle of doing something, he would just stop, like you put the TV on "pause", his hand in mid-air and eyes shut.

He is really shaky and having trouble getting around. Thanks to the appetizer enhancer, he did get breakfast down, with odd conversations in between each bite. Pain still bad, so he went to bed. I think sleep is good for him right now. I think sleep is good for me right now..... I'm out of here.