Saturday

• Sitting here doing one of my most favorite things to do with my husband - watch football. Ric is doing good today - tired but we expect that as it's been a crazy week. We got moved from Swedish Cherry Hill Neurology to Swedish First Hill Oncology yesterday afternoon. Had his first treatment late last night - Avastin with 5 FU (fluorouracil) and leucovorin. Leucovorin tags the cancer cells so that the 5FU chemo can kill the cells. The Avastin is not a chemotherapy drug but reduces the growth and spread of cancer cells by inhibiting the growth of new blood vessels, making it harder for the tumor to grow.
• Ric is also on steroids to keep the swelling in the brain down and anti-seizure medication. Thanks to the steroids, his appetite has increased. Pretty much eating everything we put in front of him. Unfortunately you can't get very good food in a hospital. They don't take diet seriously for some reason especially with cancer patients. You just try to make choices that are the healthiest of what's available.
• He is also very alert and doesn't let anything get by him - witty as before. They did give him a small doseage of pain med last night because of his lower back pain but that makes him also a little loopy. He woke up early this morning trying to get out of bed and he said he needed to wash his shirt, something about Nicaragua and doing laundry. They changed his bed to one that has a bed alarm so now he knows he can't try to get up on his own.
• Physical Therapist came by and had him walk a bit down the hall and do a few exercises to help him start building some strength back especially in his left side which is a bit weaker than his right side.
• We have felt even more love and support than before which is amazing as we thought that was alot. The things that we need prayer for now is that Ric will not experience any of the potential side effects of these drugs, that the cancer cells are being killed, that Ric will get the rest he needs and that we continue to have the peace that we do.