Dad seemed to sail through his first chemo, hardly any side effects despite us preparing for him to be sick, the bucket by his bed remained unused, he continued his daily walks to the pub, everything was and felt normal - almost easy to forget that dad has got cancer.
The Onc said he should expect to feel the same second cycle - great we thought. But wasn't to be. Not sure if it was the side effects from the chemo, a touch of food poisoning, or his bowel cancer playing up but it's been a long, hard week and finally, today, he's up and about and had a little walk (Morrisons though, not the pub!).
So in the space of a couple of weeks, dad is unable to walk far, he has lost more weight, his hair is falling out and he looks so incredibly tired, gaunt, ill and very sad. He was sat in bed on Sunday playing with his new ipad in a vest and I could have cried.
His week has been filled with stomach cramps, diahorrea, nausea and feeling very tired. He went to the chemo ward late last week, all blood tests and other tests were normal, blood count normal etc. so maybe it was just a poorly tummy which wasn't connected to the chemo. Dad has a separate bowel cancer (currently being treated for lung cancer because that is the biggest threat to his life) which is stable so it is being left. But the cramps and problems he's been having mirror those that led to his diagnosis (which settled down on their own) so our concern was that the bowel tumor was growing. If the bowel needs attention, then lung treatment would be delayed and we can't afford that until his lung is stable. Bloody hell it's complicated!!
But the sun is shining today and dad has been for a walk, so today is a good day.
