September 4, 2009 9:17 PM

Today, we went to John's 4th chemo treatment and met with the doctor beforehand. We went over all the side effects he was having and the difficult times he has been having. Especially the dizziness, tremor like shakes, falling down, slurred speech and foggy thinking. The doctor said, "We can't give him this treatment any more or it will kill him." He said he was not responding to the chemo like he thought he would, i.e. no vomiting and no hair loss, which he has been having almost every day, which surprised the doctor.

So, today they gave him an IV to rehydrate him and have taken him off all treatments for two weeks. He wants him to get back to some sort of normality, then take another CT scan and see if the cancer has spread or the chemo has helped in any way. He will stay on the pain patches and his pain has been in much better control with the patches.

The CT scan is scheduled for September 17. I don't know if everyone would like me to just check in and give a one liner on his day, each day, or you can wait until I have something to report. The problem with the waiting is, you never know when that time will be for reporting. We have had phone calls and emails asking for updates on the blog, so the word I am getting is to update once a day, which might be a drag for you all, but then you'll know.

I think we are both relieved that we don't have to worry about what he will be like in two days from his chemo treatment, which was always the worst day of all. His appetite was better today. One of his buddies took him to lunch today and he said it was the first time in a long time he felt like eating and tonight he ate well.

Let's hope for a good night's sleep for us both and that he won't wake up with the dry heaves and feeling crummy. I know a few people that would not have used "crummy".

"That's all folks"