Day 12 of treatment. Not such a great day. Tom felt pretty good this morning when we headed to radiation. After radiation we were off to see the Oncologist for review of the treatment so far.

Tom's blood pressure is very low and his blood work indicated that he is anemic. This is consistent with agressive Chemo treatments (maybe treatments in general). In addition, Tom was dehydrated again, in spite of drinking water all day.

Because of the anemia and the dehydration he was given saline intravenously for a couple of hours and also given an injection of Procrit. The side effects of Procrit are very serious but the Oncologist assures us he doesn't think it will be a problem. Tom is supposed to get Procirt injections once a week. I'm going to follow up with the Oncologist because frankly it makes me nervous. The injections are to ward off a possible blood transfusion.

For those of you who have offered to give blood I did speak with the Oncologist. He indicated blood would have to be given at least two weeks ahead of time in order to be processed for the intended person. He said he didn't see any advantages to doing that because we don't know if Tom will need a transfusion and the blood bank is very safe.

We're watching him to make sure he doesn't become disoriented, dizzy or other symptoms that would indicate a further decrease in blood pressure.

Chemo starts back again on August 9th for six days of agressive treatment. Tom and I were both thinking it wasn't going to start for a while. We thought it would continue on August 29th. I guess we put a 2 where it didn't belong. Needless to say he was a little unsettled. He thought he would have a little more time to try to bring his strength back up. When they said agressive treatments, they meant it.

Taking care of Tom is a full time job. Thank you Brad for letting me work at home so I can do this.

Thanks for the blueberries Kel.

Thanks to you all for reading the Blog, leaving your comments and checking in. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.