October 6, 2008 Update

Gus' last day of radiation went great last Friday.  He had his first radiation at 10:00 and then we immediately drove to where they would remove the PIC line and the chemo pump.  Taking the PIC line out was simple.   I had to sign when we took the chemo pump seven weeks ago and I made sure they signed that they got it back.  Our lunch of Chinese food tasted really good to Gus and he ate a good sized meal.  His 33^rd and final radiation was at 4:00 in the afternoon.  He hugged everyone he could and walked out of the cancer center with a huge smile.  

He hardly slept in the car coming home and even felt good enough that evening to be a part of moving the cows and calves the six miles to our place so we could wean the calves the next morning.   

Saturday Gus came and went enough in the corrals to keep us all on track.   He feels a little better each day and wants to start walking and building his strength back up.   Gus never did get as sick as I expected for having a double dose of radiation in one day.  Of course, he wears a nausea patch all the time and takes nausea pills also.   We look forward to the nausea being just a bad memory from the past.  

 

The soles of Gus’ feet are still tender so he only can wear tennis shoes right now, but that will improve.  The yeast infection on his arm is steadily getting better now that it is exposed to the air and medication.  Gus looks good for what he has been through.  None of the medical professionals believed he could pull off 7 weeks of radiation with the schedule of driving back and forth each day.   Gus’ fear was that they would decide to do more radiation treatments, so he asked them.  They had given him the maximum number of treatments possible and didn’t dare add anymore on.  That was a relief.

 

Gus and I have both seen how important our attitude is in this walk.  Our faith is the only thing that keeps us going when the shadows and doubt come.