Tuesday 30th September

Good afternoon,

Yesterday we met with Bobby,  I do feel we can call her on a first name basis now,  given our forced friendship don't you think? 

It has been a grueling three weeks for Johnny, no bounce back whatsoever.  Bobby explains  it's the chemo which is  "accumulative".  Trying to get Johnny to eat something sumptuous has been dampening, small mouthfuls, bite size mouthfuls of a morsel here and there.   Two Sunday's ago I cooked him a typical English Sunday Roast with all the trimmings - Yum.   His eyes gleamed and he devoured as much as he could.   Yes he has food desires, from his Chemo bed yesterday, he asks "can you get me a burger",  I look at him in horror,  "you want what and with onions too".  Burger or not he can only eat small portions. 

 

Chemo Day yesterday was pretty punishing, his body has extreme   temperatures from hot to freezing cold, along with  heavy incessant sweats.   The sweats are the toughest to handle physically and emotionally, severe weight loss along with the onerous task of  changing  bed linen on a daily sometimes twice daily basis.   Last Monday he had a  temperature of  103.  I find myself constantly slapping my hand against his forehead, he looks up at me in shock,  rolling his eyes, saying "little one what are you doing",  I ask fiercely  "are you hot why are you so hot" or "are you sure you are not cold, shall I close the doors".  "Do you want a blanket" "let's change your t-shirt you are sweating". " "Are you hungry shall we snack, oooh how about some ice-cream".   I  will do absolutely anything to keep my darling Johnny as comfortable as possible.

Currently swallowing is the hardest, right after Chemo his jaw up to his ear clamp/tightens up.  He has to massage his jaw on a regular basis in order to swallow the endless pills, glug juice or even eat. 

Chemo without a doubt has it's drawbacks, the good  the bad and the ugly.  The side effects are truly horrible to watch, no matter how one is prepared this is truly an arduous road for him.  But my Johnny, your friend Johnny we all, must  applaud him for being so terribly brave to go through this. 

 

Our tumor(s) are shrinking or shall we  say they have been "stunned" but note this is not "remission".  Johnny's lifestyle balance, quality of life has been shot to pieces.  Repeated conversations with Bobby to this effect, a decision now been made to have chemo every 6 weeks.   It seems Bobby had a game plan after all.  Wanted to ensure his body could take the aggressive form of chemo and stun  the tumors/nodules for a quick period of time and thus pull back on the chemo, upon good results.

But one cannot say how quickly the tumors will grow back.  They are not going away.
But for a small grace period of time Johnny can have  quality of life and enjoy the Autumn and his all time favorite theme of the year "Halloween".

Lee Carter Pye will be arriving this Thursday for several weeks here at the house.  Lee is Johnny's son a strapping 6ft 2' of a lad.  Will be nice to have him around.  Haha - I might even enlist him to walk Bubble n Squeak!

Do keep sending emails of support, strength and love to Johnny at,  johnnypye@yahoo.com 
Don't be offended if he might not respond, it's due to lack of energy and less of a fight in him but he does read your emails.

Given the weather changes this comes with germs and bacteria.  Please be mindful when you do visit that you do not have any snivels, use the hand sanitizer as you enter the house placed conveniently at the door for your use.