The Good Fight

When Mark left the hospital and started radiation the same day, he spiraled into his worst week yet. The final diagnosis was metastatic squamous cell cancer that metastisized to the right lung from the left lymph node. With the extreme pain from his tumor on one side, the lung post op pain on the other, exhaustion from recovering from the lung procedure combined with radiation on top of extreme nausea from medications and radiation, he felt like he had the worst flu of his life and was hit by a Mac truck! He was unable to eat and the thought or even the smell of food repulsed him. It was so bad that when he got to chemo yesterday, he asked the nurse to close a curtain in his line of sight so he wouldn't have to view the cans and boxes of food!
Yesterday was his first day of chemo and they added in something to relieve the nausea and also gave him a script for an anti-nausea medication. By the time he left his first three hour session of chemo, the nausea had subsided and an hour later, he insisted I take him to MacDonalds for a cheeseburger, fries and a coke and he actually ate it!!! I felt like a miracle was happening before my eyes! In addition, the radiation has already eased some of the pain of the tumor and he has a bit more range of motion in his arm. He had been put on a marijuana derivitive pill last weekend to increase his appetite and now with the anti-nausea pill, he'll be sending me out in the middle of the night to get Doritos, pizza and ice cream!! We are both feeling much more optimistic and have a new sense of determination to fight this disease in the past 24 hours.
Our old friend, Katie, came from Maine for a visit last weekend. There are not three old friends who feel more comfortable together and we even had a pajama party and watched "Five Easy Pieces" together. Gary is on a business trip and will return tonight with a million ideas of how to spend the business' money. Kevin will be arriving home from UVM in search of a math tutor tomorrow and Mike arrives, jobless, from L.A. on Friday. He quit his job and probably will become a professional poker player after his friend, Dave Iannotti, won $30,000 in a tournament last weekend!
We are all gathering for Dan Sheehan's wedding to Natalie Hawkins on the Cape. And, with my parents joining Mark's relatives, it promises to be a fantastic family gathering and couldn't come at a better time! Dan is embarking on this venture at 72 years old, Natalie trails him by just a few years, they already have 6 children and are not planning on having anymore! Natalie has three sons and one daughter. Her daughter is her maid of honor and has been in treatment for very advanced breast cancer, so both families have much to be thankful for in coming together this weekend in celebrating life and new beginnings. We wish Dan and Natalie much happiness, good health and days of fun and adventure in the years ahead.
Meanwhile, thanks for the new round of cards, e-mails, and well wishes. They are the happiest part of our day!