Home at last in Arlington. Getting Dad settled in to his new surroundings, where he's stayed many times, but only for a maximum of about three nights. Thankfully, he believes the sofa bed is quite comfortable. ;-) It's low enough to accommodate his ever weakening knees and soft enough to cushion the big knot on his liver that has contributed to his lack of sleep (he's a belly sleeper). So, he's finally beginning to get some sleep after two months!
Poppy-Dog even took shifts as bedside nurse! ;-)
Things started off alright, he's still eating (tiny portions, but something anyway), and he's still cooperating taking these three handfuls of pills every day (refer to earlier pics I hope to get loaded from my phone soon!) And I try to get him outside to walk back and forth across the back yard a couple times a day, here he is talking to one of his friends, soaking in some fresh TX autumn air.
Now, something I've learned already in this process is that Cancer feeds on sugar, so I proceed to remove everything from his diet that even breaks down to sugar... basically all the white stuff, bread/crackers/pasta (flour), potatoes (including chips): things that he really likes...of course he knows he can't have the real favorites, like ice cream, anymore. But, he just starts eating less and less (when he wasn't eating much to begin with. I did find alternatives (other root vegetable chips, which are actually quite tasty!) and gluten free cracker/pasta options, he likes those better than the chips, esp. the crackers... but I'm trying to get him to intake more protein than bready product...not enough calories, strength/muscle building food...so, I'm trying not to feel guilty about depriving him of some of the simple pleasures, trading quality for quantity of life? Figuring, if I can get him more days, he'll be able to enjoy these things again to some degree in the future. Then there's the fight with the vitamins. It didn't take long before I was breaking those down into juices, easy enough since most of them are capsules, got a tablet cutter, then crusher. But there's a reason those things are designed to be taken whole. They're awful when broken open, and mixed with all these other awful powders, no matter what liquid medium you choose!
Toward the end of October, I was glad to get a meal of vitamins in carrot juice into him because I knew that at least there was some substantial nutrition in the carrot/spinach/green pepper/broccoli/any other veggie I could find to throw in and an apple to sweeten a little. All the while, we're also mixing baking soda in his water to keep his alkaline levels up, because "cancer can't live in an alkaline environment". Oh, and there's one more potion in the mix. I came to call it the soda syrup. Basically, it's like a Trojan Horse to the cancer. A 3:1 mixture of any sweet syrup (honey, molasses, maple syrup, we finally landed on brown rice syrup as most mild) to baking soda. The concept is, that like the glucose mixture used to carry radioactive isotopes to the cancer cells for a CT scan, this glucose mixture carries the pure alkaline baking soda to the cancer cells for a one-two punch! ;-) But, he never quite acquired the taste for the stuff, saying it was too sweet! (I always thought it was too salty myself!) Anyway, for a dose we were supposed to get 4x/day, we were doing well to get in two.
Took this pic early on thinking it would be a baseline of how bad it had gotten, not dreaming it could get any worse. And I promise he is wearing his shorts here! ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment