Day 6 round 2 was MUCH better than round 1. I can't even elaborate how much, unless I were to get up on the roof and do a little jig to thank all things that there was no spinning, no dizziness, no barf, no convulsions, no ER this time. Man, what the hell was that in round 1 anyway? Talk about blind sided. 6 days in and OOPS THERE'S A PUNCH TO THE GUT. Also, WELCOME TO HELL. I suppose the positive in that is that is that it made day 6 this time seem like a beach walk in comparison, despite it still being day 6 and pretty much hell for Oliver.
Oliver felt like a pretty consistent 9 out of 10 (again 10 being the worst, and I have to clarify because we still can't get it straight over here. Forgive us, for our malfunctioning brains at this point). He felt like total horse shit, and that's about the nicest way I can come up with to describe it. He did sleep pretty well, so that is a saving grace that he (and Colleen) are able to rest at night. Remember in round 1 when he wasn't sleeping at all at night, and then would sleep ALL DAY? Today, we decided to wake him up around 4am to give him some marijuana in the hopes that once he actually woke up for the day, he would have a little bit of the edge off. So, Colleen (Rockstar mom that she is!) did so. We kept the THC flowing about every 4 hours, which seemed to keep him kind of held "at bay." He has 5 days of chemo building up and just completely ravaging his body, so day 6 is always supposed to be one of the worst. He kept saying, "if this is the worst that it gets, I can do it- but thank god for pot because otherwise I would be at about a 15 out of 10." Literally, weed is jesus, and thank goodness we tried it again and have discovered that it seems to be the only "drug" that helps him and is about 1000000 times better in terms of impact on the rest of his body versus any pharma drugs that he has tried or been prescribed thus far.
As Oliver and the boys got settled this morning, Justin actually was able to get out and train a client. I know he was happy about this as doing his work makes his world feel a little more centered. I caught him in action.
After training, checking in on our patient. He basically sat like this all day. He couldn't lay down and had to sit up like this due to the discomfort in his belly. And once he started moving, he started to feel even worse. Watching anything on his phone or tablet made him have a headache, and he wasn't really comfortable or tired enough to sleep. So he basically just sat like this all day. But, he was eating, so that was good!
The faces of cancer... trying to capture just how awful this is, but pictures don't really do it justice.
Late morning, Colleen took the kiddos out to play. We are SO grateful for her! It's not only that she doesn't have to play with the boys and she does, but they LOVE having her around, and were so excited to "go on a trip with Colleen." They don't love just anyone but they have a particular fondness for her. When she isn't here, they are asking about her. I don't think she realizes that they are not going to let her go very far away, ever. She's going to be a perma adult in their life from here on out. My .02 is it takes a village to raise little kids, and the more good adults and parent figures we have in their lives, the better. Shoot, she let me share her boys, and I am more than happy to return the favor! And it benefits me anyway, because I have also gained a friend. I know I have said it before, but this is the one ginormous positive in this whole experience- becoming some kind of weird extended family as a result. Sometimes Justin will look at us both sitting at the table and say, huh, my ex-wife and my wife sitting next to each other... and then we gang up on him. And it's...nothing short of epic. I guess at the library the librarian was drilling Colleen about how she was related to the kids. I told her next time to make up some story about Justin and his two wives and really throw off the town. Haha.
I was able to squeeze in a ride this afternoon, and when I walked out of the gym, I saw these two monkeys "going on a trip."
Also, look at the fun starting to begin! Yahoo.
Justin got a new toy for father's day, which seems kind of boring to me, but we have so many bloody pine needles and pine cones that our old blower wasn't cutting it. So, he took to the roof to get rid of some of them. Truthfully, I think he was less concerned about the pine needles than trying out his new toy.
The kids were in the bath and I saw Justin walking up to the window outside. Priceless picture of Justin scaring the bejeebus out of them. HA!
We spent the evening chatting while Bailey worked on his fishing rod. So funny to see the similarities between Bailey and his dad in these pics. We ended up giving Oliver an Ativan (pharma) at around 10pm in addition to the THC with the hopes that it would help him get a restful night's sleep. We are hoping that day 7 is much better as compared to day 6. Might still be some residual but hoping that it calms down a little bit. Everyone will be here as Bailey and Angel as spending the night, so we'll have the full crew to take care of him and keep him entertained.
More #oliverstrong photos. Seriously loving getting these! Honestly, overwhelmed and humbled by the amount of outpouring of love and support for people who have requested them and who are wearing them in OG's honor. #oliverstrong
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