Family Matters

This morning I went with my dad to his doc appointment to find out what treatment he'll be receiving for his lymphoma. He'll be doing chemotherapy three days a week, once a month, starting Monday. So, he'll have chemo Monday-Wednesday, then be off until three weeks later where he'll start again the following month. Dr. Blair, his oncologist, said he'll do this for four months and then he will have another scan to find out how the treatment is progressing. Everyone reacts to chemo differently, but he said there should be minimal side effects. Since my dad is already bald, he only has to worry about his mustache hair thinning. This was good news to my dad who asked me a few weeks ago, "Do you think my mustache hair will fall out? I've had this since '66." Dr. Blair also said they will control his nausea with medicine so he'll probably only have flu-like symptoms for about a week or so. I just hope the fatigue doesn't get him down because my dad is not used to laying around...he went for a three mile walk one week after his toe was amputated.

I'm feeling hopeful that the chemotherapy will really do work on his lymphoma. My biggest concern is that my dad will not deal well with the fatigue and flu-like symptoms. He's been on medicine before with these same side-effects, so it's not new to him, but I just don't want him feeling lonely while he's feeling sickly. We have quite a few family events coming up over the next four months (my birthday/Ella's baptism, Thanksgiving, Ella's first birthday, Jamie's birthday, Christmas...) so I'm hoping being around family will perk his spirits.

In other news, my brother is following in his little sis's footsteps and has started his own blog! It's mostly about sports, most of which I don't understand, but it's pretty funny. Check him out!