Sunday, October 23, 2016

Just a quick update today.  Brian has been doing okay, we went for chemo last Tuesday and although his neutrophils were still low at 1.1 (they prefer at least 1.5 or higher), they still gave him his chemo and I was to give him two injections of the Neupogen, one on Thursday and one Sunday (I"m getting pretty good at giving needles now!!)   Brian had no ill effects until Thursday night when he started to feel nauseated but I made him take an anti-nauseant right away which he did.  Still on Friday, he was not feeling the best, very lethargic, nauseated and "off" as he likes to put it.  Anyway, by Saturday he was feeling good again, so we are good to go until Tuesday when we get the last chemo for  Round #2. We see Dr. McCarron on Oct 31 for a followup and then Chemo round #3 will start November 1st.  I suspect that she may recommend that Brian continues to get the neupogen injection.  I think she wants to keep the white count (neutrophils) up so that he doesn't have to keep missing chemo every other week.  

In other news, we moved my dad to a smaller room at Arbor Trails.  We were finding that having the one bedroom was starting to get too expensive and with downsizing he would save quite a bit of money, so he decided it was worth it.  So, between Bob, Roy, Brian, James and Breanne, me and Roy's friend, John, we got dad moved in good order and everything set up the way he likes.  Since this room is at the farthest end of the building from the dining area and other social areas of the building, we convinced dad to buy himself an electric chair for him to maneuver around the building without causing too much pain and effort on his bad leg.  At first he resisted, but soon we convinced him that with the savings he was getting by moving to a smaller room, it would pay for itself in a couple of months, so he finally agreed and I think he is quite happy that he did now as he realizes it is a long walk for him if he didn't have it.  

Dad so kindly took all of us out for lunch at the Mandarin on Wednesday as a thanks for helping him move and we had a great time!  Dad wants to go back to the Mandarin more often, he was quite impressed.  For those of you reading this who don't know what the Mandarin is - it is a high end Chinese buffet with very good food!  Thanks Dad!! 

Dad's new chair.  

We have beautiful colour to our trees this year.  This picture doesn't do it justice but this is the front of our house.  Very beautiful colours!