Treatment 1

Tim stated his chemo treatments this Wednesday. He had to hang out at the cancer center for 4 hours and they sent him home with a pump so he could continue treatments for the next 48 hours at home. He went back to the center this morning to have it disconnected. Looks like they have changed how do things now. It used to be that he would have to physically go in Wednesday, Thursday as well as Friday. I say the less appointments he has the better. He won't have to go back for a week and a half.

So far his side affects include nausea and sweating. He still insists on going to work though. On Thursday, he was able to work all day without feeling too horrible. Oddly enough, his back didn't hurt much that day either. Despite all of his obstacles this week, he has managed to work 20 hours. You go Timmy!

His case worker for Kaiser set up an appointment for him to meet with a pain specialist. He makes house visits and stopped by this morning. He is going to increases the strength of his Actiq suckers from 100 to 600 mcq. He also said that patches he's been using probably haven't been helping because Tim is so skinny. I guess the more fat you have the better they work. His solution is to get Tim a special Methadone based cream he can apply directed to the area on his back that's been causing him so much pain. He seems to think that given Tim's symptoms it's highly likely this truly is nerve damage. He can't say for sure but it's probably from the all the surgery he's had. If this doctor helps Tim, it truly will be a blessing. He's been so uncomfortable lately that just getting the pain to a manageable level with help immensely. It's bad enough he has to go through chemo and be sick from that but to be in constant pain is really more than anyone should have to deal with.