3 letters that came back.

Today is Tuesday, July 11, 2023,  4 days post Chemo.  Kent's strong nausea med that is given through IV has now worn off.  It has been a delicate balence between all of the medications he now takes orally to navigate the nausea.  He often wonders... is the nausea feeling, stomach pain, chemo unsettling my stomach, do I need food or nausea medication.  This is harder for him to navigate than you think.  Kent is a real trooper.  I try to help him understand what he needs but its not my stomach.

Today, he woke up and took his medication at roughly 6:30 am.  He had a little food and then fell back asleep until he needed to shower before his 8:30 meeting.  Now he has always worked at home so this is all doeable.  I bring him all his next set on medications roughly at 9 ish.  He walked back out to me today roughly at 10:30 am and said, "Today something doesn't feel right."  I said, "Can you explain it to me?"  He told me, "I'm warm, and I feel like I have another UTI!" I went to grab  the thermometer.  We took Kent's temp and it was 100.0.  Now the magic number to call his Doctor office is 100.4 however we made the decsion after consulting my mom to tell her what was going on, to go ahead and make the call.  Kent called, and about half hour later we hear back from them that we should come in.  My Mom was in Holland and she drove back to Hudsonville and then us to Lemmen Holton.  A true life saver, for a daughter who is scared to drive and a son in law who can't drive. He needed to get a blood test and Urine test once again.  Later we expected a call from a nurse.  The call came back at roughly 12:30 pm and did in fact confirm an UTI.   So now our minds question why did this 3 letter word come back? What is happening with his chemo regimine that we are 2 chemo cycles both ending with an UTI?  We are not sure of what is the cause.  He once again is on an antibiotic.  This time 3 times a day.  Why not one more medication to add to my memory to give to him! We are hoping that he will regain strength after being on the Antibiotic.

On July 20, which will be his next Chemo day,  we will also be meeting with Kent's NP that works alongside his main doctor.  He will first get labs that day, meet with the NP and then if the labs reflect good white blood counts he will again recieve his number 3 chemo treatment.  When we meet with the NP, we will have a ton of questions.  Both of us are very familar with this NP as it was Kents old Doctor's NP for a while and my NP for Hematology.  We truly trust her and will lean on her for answers to help us understand. 

So in the mean time what do you ask..... We ask for prayers for Kent's strength to come back.  For him to have normal days, for him to be able to just do daily tasks without being so tired.  

I just want to add a bit of a note on the bottom of this blog.  We could not do this without our Mom's.  They run to get scripts, they grab us food, they stop by with little gifts and they pray non stop! 

Another little note to add...We are so thankful to our daughter! She has been at Camp Geneva all summer.  She works endlessly to lead young girls to have a relationship with Jesus and have a blast at Geneva.  There are fun days and nights filled with games, skits and smores but most importantly I love hearing about each hug she gets at the end of the week.  She comes home on weekends and we love our hugs!  I will never complain about doing her laundry at the end of each week! She has been a true inspiration of strength for her Dad and I love that!  

This week Saturday is her
19th Birthday and we can not wait to celebrate her.  Happy Birthday dear, "Blue Eyes!"  (Papa Breen's nickname for her)  We Love You! 

-Leah