One more chemo treatment done!

One more chemo treatment done! Robert lost a 1/2 pound this week weighing in at 170.5. That does not give him any extra weight going in to this round of chemo. This is the bad stuff that will make him really sick, but hopefully now we will be better equipped if the thrush sets in, which I suspect it will. Seems he gets it every time he takes the Cystplatin and Taxotere. His hair is still falling out and after yesterday's chemo it will not be long before he looks like the butternut squash I bought yesterday at the Farmers Market. Good news, Dr. Nadler will scan him in 3 weeks to see how the cancer is reacting to the chemo.

Robert got a very nice surprise yesterday. His cousin Keith showed up during chemo for a visit. It really made Robert's day pass very quickly and he said it was just the boost he needed to lift his spirit. Keith, we can not tell you how much that meant to us for you to take the time out of your long drive to stop by and spend a couple of hours, hope you made it to Odessa safely.

Michael came yesterday and him and I spent the day together running around. He took me to a Mediterranean restaurant for lunch. It was alright, but it would not be my choice again. I was not real sure about most of the things we ate. When we got back to the hospital, he was telling Robert what we ate, and he said "we ate Lamb", I said "no I did not" and he assured me I did. Well then I was sick the rest of the day.. Yuck. I told Michael I felt like I was jipped out of a meal.. Michael and I went over to the the Farmers market for fresh vegetables and fruit, I love that place, except for everyone trying to shove samples down you that they have cut up with those nasty old rusty knives.. Neither one of us was brave enough to try anything. I am looking forward to going back next week for more goodies. Thank God for the little things, huh?

Thanks to all for your support and prayers. Love to all, Robert and Judy

Sigh!

Wow what a GREAT day! Robert had one of his best days he has had in weeks.. He actually felt good enough to go to church this morning. When he mentioned last night that he was going to try and go, I prayed that he would have enough energy to go. I can not tell you how nice it was, I told him that I actually felt like we had a normal life for a couple of hours. I think it is gonna be a good week for Robert.

We want to send out a big thank you to our church family. You really made Robert feel so good with your excitement to see him walk in the door. We are so blessed to have each and everyone of you in our lives. Hope everyone has a blessed week.

I'd rather not mention that his day ended great also, but his driver won today. If I knew how to change the font size before I had to mention that I would have.


Love,
Robert and Judy

Nascar, Football and cooler weather this Saturday!

I forgot to add Coconut Pie. Robert mentioned yesterday he wanted a Nanny coconut pie. I made him a Judy coconut pie and he had one piece and said there was too much coconut in it...

Robert has had a decent week. He is struggling with fluid intake and nutrition. He has no appetite so not getting nutrition means no energy at all. He completed his 2nd Vectibek chemo treatment last Tuesday and will have his 2nd treatment of the nasty chemos Cistplatin and Taxotere this Tuesday. Robert's hair is now starting to come out, he is not happy about that, even his eyebrows are coming out. Can you imagine how bad that poison is to make all your hair fall out?

Robert said he was going to try and go to church with me in the morning. I sure hope he can.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and thanks so much for all the prayers and words of encouragement this past week.

Love,
Robert and Judy

Relief for me and hopefully Robert.

Cassie got here last night. What a relief for me, she came in took inventory on all Robert's meds and took over his care for me. She is taking him to the doctor for me, and Coley had her stop and buy a juicer for his dad. When I left this morning she had already had Robert take his meds. and was making him some juice, apple, grapes and was going to throw in some vegetables in there. I really hope he will drink it, at this point we have no other choice. My cold is not much better, but I did get manage to have a good nights sleep, fist in a long time. Thanks Cassie, we love you. Judy

Better days!

Robert is looking forward to better days. He has had a hard day! He is having a hard time keeping up with all the medicines and trying to get fluids not to mention nutrition down. I have a cold and feel terrible, so my patience level is very low right now. The last thing Robert needs is this cold. Cassie is on her way up to stay with us this weekend. She is going to take Robert to the doctor for me tomorrow and that will be a big help. I am going to hide out at the cabin rental office all weekend. If you are wanting a cabin at Beavers Bend it would be a good time to call, I'll be on cold medicine.

Walking on the Beach one day to possibly be admitted to the Hospital the next!

Let me just start with I HATE CANCER AND I HATE THE DRUGS IT TAKES TO KILL IT!

Robert and I decided to run down to Port Aransas with our dear friend Lisa for a few days before the Chemo started taking its toll. We left Saturday and just got home this evening. We had a good trip, it was so nice to just kick back on the beach. Robert was pretty weak and his appetite was almost null, but he was able to just rest, and I had the company of my best friend.

Robert noticed Sunday that he started getting thrush on his tongue. I called the doctor's office Monday morning for them to prescribe something. We loaded up and headed to the beach, when we got everything set up I went back into town to pick up Robert's prescription. While I was gone a school of Dolphin were swimming just a few feet from Robert and Lisa. They were so excited, neither thought about grabbing a camera, so unfortunately for you and me we missed it.

Also Sunday morning when Robert got up he was covered in a rash. Dr. Nadler had told us to expect it and that if he did get a rash that meant the chemo was working. The rash is very annoying for Robert, but he can deal with it and a welcome sight for us.

Robert started getting weaker and Lisa started missing her grand baby, so we decided to come home Tuesday. By then the thrush was in full force and the medicine was not helping. Robert could not drink or eat anything Tuesday, so dehydration set in. On the road home we were trying to get the doctor's office to call in some medicine that would numb his mouth long enough to get some fluids down, but it did not work out so we spent the night with Mother and Benny and were at Baylor first thing this morning. Thrush is a side effect of the chemo, so they will have to stay on top of it for the next round of chemo. Robert lost 12 lbs since last Wednesday. He is 6'3" and weighing in at a 170 lbs. Dr. Nadler is very concerned with Robert's fluid intake and nutrition. He told Robert today that he may end up having to have a feeding tube. Robert has said all along, he will not do that again. Dr. Nadler's response to that was, "he was not in the business of killing people, cancer does that and at this point he was killing Robert". If Robert does not show a big improvement in the next couple of days he will hospitalize him to get him over this hump. Our prayers are that this medicine Robert has now helps get rid of the thrush and numbs his mouth so he can get fluids and nutrition on his own.

Grand Pa Tucker's surgery..

My dad had surgery today, everything went well. Praying for a fast recovery for him! The sooner he gets better the sooner he can come keep Robert entertained. Love ya Deddy..

Chemo underway!

Robert had his first chemo treatment yesterday! First chemo drug they administered was Vectibix. This drug is not approved by the FDA. There was some confusion on the insurance as to whether they approved the drug. Dr. Nadler was told it was approved, after inquiring twice, he even told us that he was very surprised it was approved without him having to prove the necessity. Anyway, they started the drug, and then found out that indeed the insurance company denied this drug. They will of course appeal and Dr. Nadler feels he can get it approved. We hope so because the cost of this drug is $11,000 and we had to sign a form stating if the insurance does not pay, that we will have to cover the cost. I laughed and said yeah just show me where to sign. Next they administered Cisplatin and Taxotere. The treatment lasted 6 hours. My BFF Lisa came up and sat with us, after what happened to Robert last week I did not feel comfortable with leaving him alone. Because of Lisa the hours flew by.

Robert will get the Vectibix once every two weeks and the Cisplatin and Taxotere once very three weeks. The side effect will be pretty bad, because of the high doses he will recieve. He has already experienced stomach aches and weakness.

Lisa made it home just in time before the storms hit and we were running out of Baylor at 6 with reports of tornado's everywhere. It seemed we were dodging them until we got to the East side of Rockwall. But we were determined to get back home.

We are going to see how Robert does the next couple of days and if all goes well we may head down to Port Aransas and spend a few days on the beach at Mother and Benny's beach pad. I think a nice sea breeze will be just what the Dr. ordered.

Try Try Again!

We will be heading back to Dallas bright and early Wednesday morning. We are anxious to find out what Dr. Nadler's treatment plan will be now. Robert has had a bad week, he has been feeling really weak. A dear friend was able to get him out of the house yesterday and we went for a boat ride. It was really nice, we were out on the lake for about 3 hours and when we got home Robert was pretty wiped out. We are not sure why he has been feeling so bad, maybe we can get some answers tomorrow.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Harold and Pat Starbuck. Harold is also battling cancer right now and needs healing prayers. We would like to thank everyone for the cards, emails and phone calls. I am sorry it takes me a while to return calls, I will try to be better. Looking forward to seeing my BFF tomorrow.. I think Chemo is suppose to take about 7 to 9 hours and am so glad I will have company. Don't forget your pine needles Lisa, with all the patients there we should be able to wipe out about 50 baskets.

"Stumbled Out Of The Gate!"

Robert picked himself up and is right back in the race!

It has been a very hectic/scary couple of days to say the least. I will start from the beginning.

We left Monday morning for Robert's PET scan at Baylor, (well, let me go back to Friday, after the medi-port surgery and on our way home we got a call that the insurance company did not approve the PET as of yet. After a very tense conversation with customer service rep, we were not sure they would approve the scan. After speaking to our doctor he assured us we should go ahead with the scan, he felt confident he would get it approved and we could always appeal.) So back to our trip to Dallas Monday morning, the insurance company called and said they did approve the scan, big sigh of relief until Baylor called and said the machine was broke and they were not sure it would be fixed Monday. We told them we were already halfway there so they said to go ahead and come on in. When we arrived we were told that the machine would not be fixed, but they were going to fit us in at the Medical Pavilion building. They said there was a golf cart outside waiting to rush us over and that they did.

Tuesday AM

Robert has Lab work and then appointment with Dr. Nadler to get the scan results.. Our prayers were answered, the scan showed that the cancer had not moved to any other areas. Dr. Nadler congratulated us 3 times, he was very encouraged by the scan. He told us as much as Stage 4C cancer being curable, this was curable. Then they take Robert up to start chemo. He is going to be receiving 3 chemo drugs, one is a new drug he had not had before, the other 2 he had last time, but in small doses. The first drug they administered was called Erbitux, it was to be administered over a 2 hour period and then he would receive fluids for an hour before the started the 2nd chemo drug. The nurse (Lea) gave Robert all his pre-meds. Benadryl and steroids and then started the Erbitux, and had just stepped out of the room for just a minute when Robert had a reaction to the drug. He was having anaphylactic shock due to the drug. It all happened so fast, Robert lost conscientious and was unresponsive for quite some time. The called Dr. Nadler in and when he got there he said push EPI. They did and he told me "Judy, people die from this type of shock everyday, but Robert is not going to die on my watch" I had not even thought about him dying until that moment and said "you mean he could die from this" After the EPI shot he started coming around in about 2 minutes very long minutes. After the EPI shot he still was not responding like he should so they rushed him over to the ER, which was only across the street. Robert was complaining of chest pains and in their words his vitals "tanked". Robert spent the rest of the day in ER, they pushed so many drugs down him there were nurses not even assigned to him coming in just to see the patient who had received all those drugs. He started feeling and looking alot better after a few hours. They ran tests to make sure there was not any damage to his heart from the shock. Robert was released Tuesday night.

Dr. Nadler said that Erbitux was 1/2 mouse and 1/2 human. After consulting with colleagues they are going to try another kind of Erbitux which is 100% human. It is not FDA approved yet, and he thinks the Insurance company will deny, but he feels he will be able to build a very strong case as to why he needs this drug. So we will try this all again next Wednesday. Robert does not have any side effects from all the trauma and drugs yesterday other than he is having a hard time talking. He feels very blessed to be with us today. He said he felt like he was going to be spending Labor Day with Jesus yesterday. Also his words were, "you know I might have stumbled coming out of the gate, but I am still in this race".