A tough week

We're still having a tough time, I'm sorry to say. The week following Easter we were dealing with increasing nausea brought on by the new pain patch we had started that weekend. By the end of the week, Joshua was eating next to nothing and was even having trouble keeping water down. We tried the usual anti-nausea medications, Compazine and Zofran, but he had no luck with them. We've removed the pain patch and will give him a break from that for as long as we can. Fortunately, he hasn't had any more pain. On Friday we started a super-duper strong anti-nausea medication. It is actually a cocktail of a few different meds, one of which basically puts him to sleep. Which is what he did for much of the weekend. He has started eating again and the hope was that he would start to regain some energy. Today he almost seems weaker than late last week. He's having trouble getting up from a sitting position to standing and is pretty wobbly on his feet. He is using a walker to get around the apartment and we're nearing the point of getting a hospital bed for him.

I wish I knew for sure he was going to regain strength and energy, but I really don't know. He could, or it could be that his body is in such a weakened state anyway that he won't be able to recover. That pain flare-up he had a week ago could have been the thing that tipped him into a continued decline. Or I could be wrong. He could be eating chocolate and getting outside by the end of the week.

Jackson and I are hanging in there. Jackson is scared of the walker and is a little confused as to why he is constantly kept out of the bedroom. I'm wishing I had a dishwasher and a dogwalker. At least I can arrange for the dogwalker. We may have to let dishes go unwashed, switch to paper plates or just give up food. Although that would work against trying to get Joshua to eat more, wouldn't it. Seriously, I am hanging in there, reverting to the odd Hamilton/Vasquez trait of obsessively planning. I keep re-arranging the bedroom furniture in my mind, figuring out how to set up a hospital bed in there along with something for me to sleep on. It's slightly insane, but it gives me something to focus on other than the obvious.

Other news of interest in the "oh F#?%!" category is that my mom has just been diagnosed with cancer. It appears to be a reoccurrence of the leukemia she had six years ago. She's at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where she had treatment in 2002. We're still waiting to hear what the treatment plan will be this time. I hope to get there soon to see her at least for a day or two with someone such as Mabel or my sister staying here to be with Joshua, but those plans are pending until we have more details.

Once again, we'll just take everything a day at a time and hope for improvement on all fronts. Love you all.