Two posts in two days – a record! Yesterday was a big day for Pat, he had scans done of his lungs to try and work out what’s causing his ongoing shortness of breath and horrendous cough. Unfortunately it wasn’t good news, Pat’s lungs are inflamed, an apparently rare side effect of the chemo. So, despite being due to start round 3 today, chemo has been called off, instead he’s having a bronchoscopy to ascertain the damage to his lungs and to look for infection deep within the tissue. It doesn’t sound like a pleasant procedure and he’ll be in hospital for much of the day. Next Wednesday he meets with his oncologist again to discuss treatment options moving forward. It sucks, in the hospital’s history Pat is only the second person to have developed this rare side effect.
In addition to the news about his lungs we found out that Pat’s been losing significant amounts of weight. Throughout our three months with him he maintained a pretty stable 74-75kg. Since we left 17 days ago he’s lost 5 or 6kg and is down in the high 60s. With the loss of appetite and the issues with his lungs we’re hoping to see an improvement now that we know what’s going on. I’m looking into having meals delivered daily, he might not like it but I feel it’s the least we can do to ensure he’s eating well.
Finn is struggling too, he’s not aware of these issues but the stress of knowing his beloved Poppy is sick is weighing heavily on him. Yet again last night he cried himself to sleep. He begged me not to leave him to sleep alone so I think we may return to cosleeping for a while until we all feel a bit more secure. Tough times.
Pat and the Pancreas 