Yikes. So sorry to hear that. Hoping for a swift and permanent recovery.

Sorry to see this. I just want to wish him good luck and hope that he will get through this OK.

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

Thats never easy. We can disagree on a lot here, but pets, kids, and health transcend all else. Wishing your family the best.

This.

So sad to hear this update, Jane

I hate to say this, but I didn't know how bad chemo was until I read Lance's first book ["Platinum? They're putting metal in people's bloodstream? And that helps?!!!"

All the prayers & hope coming from Jersey for you, hubby & kids [St. Peregrine is the one you want here; St. Joseph doesn't hurt, either]

ETA: My BIL is a Big Pharma rep in SD; PM/DM me your docs' names and I'll have him check them out for ya, in the most Jersey of ways "You're gonna take good care of this guy, right? 'Cause some of us would be very disappointed - on a personal level - if something unfortunate should befall this gentleman"

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Sorry to hear, best of luck to you and your family. Hope it works out for the best.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

I hope the treatments go well. Make sure you take care of yourself, that's a lot to balance on a small plate right now.

Hugs! I took care of both of my parents with terminal illness and the energy to bounce between that and a young child with the swing from sorrow to laughing was so exhausting. But so many smiles were brought right when I most needed them.

Occasionally snap a picture or two - you will look back and be proud of how you fought this battle together.

Make sure you take care of yourself - there are a lot of people relying on you - and you can only be there for them if you take the time to stay strong - it seems counterintuitive to take some time for yourself- but you are entering a marathon and need to watch your pacing early on so you don’t blow up at mile 20.

Again lots of hugs!

Jane my heart is with you and your family. You're crazy strong and will get there day by day. xx

Cancer sucks!!! I really don't know very many folks who haven't been affected by it either personally or in their family. Will pray for a full and speedy recovery for your husband.

I sent you a PM.

Oh yeah, almost forgot

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I know some people make fun of that statement, but where I grew up, it is meant with true sincerity. I have a lot of patients dealing with cancer within themselves or their spouse. It's such a total bastard of a disease. And the treatment can be bastardly too. I know no other way to state it than to scream to the world "cancer sucks!!!". Until you've been in your shoes, no one can imagine what you are going thru. Please keep us updated on his progress

I'm going to include your husband and your whole family in our kids prayers tonight. If he is married to you, then he must be a tough guy..(-;

Thanks, Kay & ST-ers.

Monty, Brian IS a tough guy. He’s feeling so-so. We’re doing pills every 4 hours for nausea control. As his steroids wear off and the poisons fo their work, I think we’ll have other troubles. But at this time, it’s not so bad.

So sorry to hear this news.
As has been mentioned, make sure to take care of yourself! When I was diagnosed and going through chemo, that was a very critical piece of advice my wife received from friends.
If Brian is on multiple anti-nausea meds, stagger them. This was really helpful for me- I was on 3 meds, 2 on 8 hour cycles, 1 on 12. I would take 1 at noon, another at 4 and the third at 6. That way one was always being absorbed/peaking when others were waning. It’s much easier to KEEP the nausea knocked down than to try to bring it under control once it breaks through. We actually made a spreadsheet of my med schedule so that I (and whoever else was “on duty”) knew what I was taking and when.
Feel free to DM me and I’ll give you my phone and/or email if you or Brian want to talk or ask questions.
FYI- I had testicular cancer, metastasized to my abdomen. 3 cycles of BEP chemo. Coming up on 11 years all clear.
Very different from the R-CHOP Brian is likely getting, but found general symptom management strategies seem fairly universal from volunteering for Livestrong for a few years &, sharing my experience with folks going through lots of different chemo regimens.
Healing vibes and cancer-kicking mojo flowing your way,
John

Very sorry to hear this.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Update: hubby is doing pretty well. The lemon on his neck is more like the size of a baby hummingbird. It has shrunk dramatically in 48 hours!

So, prior to chemotherapy, Brian had 4 biopsies, including one surgery. They didn’t try to remove his lemon— they just took a lot. It grew back really quickly. Now, the chemotherapy drugs are breaking down the cancer cells, I guess. In order to not clog up his system, he’s taking a drug (allipurinal?) to help flush the bits and prices of broken down cancer cells out. He has to drink a lot of water, too. I think that’s interesting.

The chemo drugs do bad things to Brian’s immune system & blood cells. So, he gets a drug to stimulate his bone marrow to produce new blood cells. He’s taking Claritin to reduce the deep bone pain from the bone marrow stimulation.

I could be a little wrong on these details. I think I’m remembering it correctly.

Yesterday, Brian was very crabby. Today he’s feeling much better. Happy. He has said “thank you” more than I’ve ever heard before. He walked 2 miles.

Kids are kind of screwed up today. Eldest has swimmers ear so we went to the doctor & pharmacy. Middle child has been busy making homemade frappes. She says she is “carb cycling.” Ok. Youngest has 100.8 temperature. We called Brian’s doc for advice. The young, sick child is isolating in his room with video games. He’s peppy enough to troubleshoot connectivity issues. I cleaned the non-porous surfaces in the house with Lysol. Also I argued a wee bit on Facebook with an old co-worker. Me time. : )

That’s all, Folks!

Sorry to hear about this. I’ve experienced cancer on multiple sides. I’m an oncology pharmacist and split my time between the hospital/inpatient and the infusion center. I’ve had many patients on R-CHOP. I also have a sister with stage IV colon cancer who is in the middle of her treatment. Cancer is tough. Hard on the victim, hard on their loved ones.

Allopurinol is used to prevent Tumor Lysis Syndrome. Lymphomas often have what is referred to as a high tumor burden - basically means there are lots of individual cancerous cells. When the chemotherapy kills these cells they release into the bloodstream their interior products wheich the body gets rid of via the kidneys. The concerning ones are uric acid (which can damage the kidneys) potassium, and phosphate. If the kidneys are damaged then the body has difficulty getting rid of of potassium and phosphate. Too much of these in the blood stream can lead to severe heart issues (among other things). The allopurinol works to keep the uric acid from getting too high. Drinking water helps flush out the excess uric acid, potassium and phosphate via the kidneys. The goal is to just make sure is continues to pee the normal amount.

Make sure that you and the kids are taking good care of yourselves as well as well.

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Matt

Sorry to hear that. Will say a prayer for you. Cancer treatment has come a long ways in the last 30 years. One of the big improvements is the anti-nausea and other symptom controlling drugs. Still no picnic for sure.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

We are sending you positive vibes and prayers! Looks like you have a positive can-do attitude. Keep it up and lean on us however you need. Take care of yourself and your family as well. You, your hubby, and family will get through this and on to better days. 🙏💪👍

: > ordinarily i wouldn't recommend arguing or FB during a difficult family time but a womens needs to blow steam.

I’m really sorry to hear about your sister’s cancer. Stage IV colon cancer sounds really demoralizing for your sister and your family. I feel like we’ve had these moments where we face really scary questions, anxiously wait for days for results, and then learn that there are more scary questions that require more anxious waiting. You keep thinking things will be easier in a few days after you know. But it’s not really true.

For us, we’ve had good answers (stage I of treatable cancer, not super aggressive) that lessons the burden of the horrible chain of questions-waiting-and-more-scary-questions. Your poor sister has had a lot of anxious waiting and heart-dropping answers. That’s so hard, and I’m really sorry.

Thank you for the information about tumor lysis syndrome. Pharmacy is so interesting. In my mind, it is a combination of chemistry, which seems like a set of rules of predictable cause & effect, and biology, which is full of likelihoods and some randomness. Maybe it’s not. I don’t really know. If I could live a bunch of lives, I would study pharmacy in one. It’s so interesting and useful.

It’s a nice distraction. I woke up the other morning and wondered whether PPP loans will be repaid. Are they “loans” or loans? “Loans” for some people and loans for others?

After thinking about PPP loans for a good while, I remembered the cancer. Oh, boy. What a bummer.

Anyway, I’m sure you’re right. It’s better to get distracted by pollywogs in a swamp during a walk with the kids.