Week Thirty

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 9, 2008

Two words can sum up the week: visitors and nausea.

The visitors came almost daily which helped since Robbie remains in the stasis between surgery and resumption of full chemo. The week kicked off with Kate still here and was joined by Uncle Jim and Aunt Jen. As usual, Father Sam made a Monday appearance and then throughout the week, various pals from Fairfield came to see him which was terrific. His first 7-West nurse, Tonetta, also made a surprise visit which cheered him.

On Thursday, he was visited by one of his teachers from the Aquaculture school, Ms. Ebmeyer who brought along three of his classmates from the magnet school. It was there he really began his interest in piracy. The class, which every week went out on a boat for marine biology, dubbed themselves the pirates and it stuck.

The other part of the week was Robbie feeling constantly unwell, mostly with rounds of nausea. As a result, each day was like a constant cycle of anitemetics from Benadryl to adavan to kytril and back again. None seemed to be doing the trick and it persisted and seemed even worse yesterday. We spoke with the resident who tried compazine which seemed to help a little. Still, constantly feeling unwell seemed to be taking its toll and Sarah, one of his nurses, commented she saw this evolving as well. He was most certainly not like himself when she cared for him on Thursday. Jess and Nichole both suggested marinol, an antiemetic made from marijuana.

This morning this was tried and we’ll see what happens and what the oncology team thinks is the cause.

Meantime, a CT scan earlier this week showed three spots in his lungs that the surgeon continues to think is blood. That the spots have not changed size or shape three weeks after surgery is the puzzle so a repeat CT will be done on Monday and then we’ll see what happens. His blood counts finally recovered this week but with his lungs still in question, it was decided to resume the holding action chemo, etoposide, before moving to the full chemo. He did endure another bone marrow biopsy yesterday which should also help direct next week’s actions.

So, we make him comfortable. He watches TV and takes walks. We’ve gotten him back to reading, setting aside time each day and he’s now into Ender’s Game. We get him to eat when he can but he’s thin and what little hair had started to return is now falling out. Fortunately, he continues to deal with this with a tremendous amount of strength, remaining a good a patient and a terrific example to the rest of us.