Quiet Night, No Nausea

Friday, February 17, 2006

This is Randy posting again. I got up early and got to the hospital shortly after 7 AM. Kathy was sleeping sweetly and the nurses were just starting their morning rounds. The nurse showed me the report from the evening before – “Quiet Night, No Nausea”. This was great news because Kathy’s greatest concern was the side effects of the chemo treatment. CTCA does an excellent job of managing the treatment to avoid side effects. Kathy awoke a little after 8 and was feeling great. She was allowed to get up and go to the resource center to check her email. When we went back to the room the chemo was not quite ready but we met with the N.D. N.D.s are doctors that have been specially trained in the normal medical schools and then received Naturopathic Medicine training at one of 6 accredited institutions. The nutritionist also stopped by and assessed Kathy in terms of muscle, fluids, and body fat by attaching electrodes to Kathy’s right foot and belly. Following the assessments I went down to the pharmacy to pick up the supplements Kathy will take between treatments. The nutritionist will also share the results of the assessment with the physical therapist, who will set up an exercise program.

Kathy’s second chemo treatment went very well. The dual port in her chest really makes it easy to hook up the IVs and regulate the treatment.

Tomorrow we will get another early start and will have a really busy day. We need to check out of the hotel and then get ourselves and our luggage to CTCA for Kathy’s 8 AM chemo treatment. Kathy will have a 4 hour chemo treatment tomorrow and immediately after that, we will be driven to the airport for the flight home. If all goes as planned we should arrive back in Philadelphia around 7:15 PM. It’ll be nice to get home and see the family.