As always, life continues to have its ups and downs. We were able to drive over to Kerrville (about 5 hours each way) and visit friends over the Memorial Day weekend in May. It was wonderful to spend time with friends and to see the sights at a large craft fair – but the trip wore us out more than I expected. Apparently, we still don’t have a great sense of how to pace ourselves. Still… we loved getting out and about after a year and a half of staying home – thanks, Greg and Joan, for your hospitality!
Since then, Jack has been taking it easy. He heads over to the Office (Starbucks) almost every day, but in the middle of June, his energy just seemed to drain away. When I took him to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for his weekly appointment, Jack didn’t even have enough strength to walk to the elevators, so I had to push him everywhere in a wheelchair. He blamed the lethargy on his chemotherapy, and his oncologist decided to increase his steroid dosage to counter the chemo. Several days later, I started noticing changes in Jack… and not very good ones: shortness of breath, numbness in his legs, trouble with his balance, back pain, mood changes, and lots of swelling. At this week’s checkup, we discovered that Jack had gained over 20 pounds since last week. The docs cut his steroids immediately, to reduce the fluid retention, and so now we’re waiting to see if the chemo continues to induce the lethargy. Some of that may just be because the chemo takes away his ability to sleep well - he can rarely sleep more than about 3 hours at a time. We’ll let you know how he's doing. It’s just been a pretty depressing month, from my perspective. And yet… we still count ourselves as extremely fortunate. We got to see one grandson turn 4, and our 7-year old granddaughter just got her martial arts green belt. The heat is oppressive and the rainfall non-existent… but we are alive! And yes, Jack still manages to get to Starbucks almost every day for a couple of hours with his “Cheers” like family -- where everybody really does know his name… life is good!
Again, we thank all of you for continued prayers. Honestly, we couldn’t stay on this road without you; you are all the best!
With hugs and love to all --
Sue and Jack
