105ians

Paul had his 1st round of chemo-therapy yesterday at the hospital. He's feeling ok so far. Praise God for that. Since his admission on 7 Jan, Dr had been giving him 2000 calories nutrition thru tpn and also about 1.5litre of isocal(soya milk) thru tube feeding daily but he's still not gaining any weight as he had been vomitting at least twice a day until they inserted another tube through his nose to suck out the bile and other fluid from his stomach yesterday.

According to the doctor, a normal human being excrete between 750ml to 1l of bile daily but in Paul's case, he was excreting more than 2lit yesterday and before I left hospital today, I reckon it's already more than 1l. The doctor is not prepared to discharge him until the level goes below 1lit per day. The reason is because he is quite dehydrated now and they want to continue to monitor his progress and increase his nutrition intake and both the oncologist and the surgeon hope the chemo-therapy is able to address the stomach problem. It seems the stomach is not contracting as he's still having reflux despite total tube feeding. The oncologist is not giving him a fixed programme as his 1st chemo last year as he has to see how Paul is responding to every session and since the relapse is so soon, they have to observe him very carefully esp now that he just had the surgery on 21Dec and he's not as strong as before. They have to proceed with the chemo-therapy as they fear that the cancer cells are attacking vigorously around his abdomen area and hope to kill the cells before they spread further with the chemo drugs.

He will be coming home with the tube attached and I have to learn to feed and nurse him. The staff nurse let me try today at the hospital. It looked easy when they were doing it but it's not so simple. I made quite a mess, splashing the milk on Paul's face and the bed.... It's not easy to be a nurse..... esp a genuinely caring one....

I know this nursing business is going to be for awhile at home and I pray that I can manage it well. It may kind of affect my sales and work but it's all worthwhile as long as he recovers and doesn't lose faith. With so many friends and loved ones behind us, I know we can definitely make it thru victoriously....

Lily