This month Chris finished up his 2 weeks (he only worked like 4 days) at the site to reset his short term benefits. The site has been really good to work with him. He's definitely feeling the effects of chemo and radiation now. He has been getting fluids fairly regularly along with his chemo.
Carson is REALLY missing his dad. At night before bed he will usually climb into our bed and just sit with Chris for a while. When Chris is asleep during the day, he does his best to get into our room to see him. It's a little on the heartbreaking side. :(
Chris got his feeding tube and port placed this month. His port went fairly smoothly but his feeding tube was awful. After putting it in they told him that it shouldn't really hurt or anything, and he can take some tylenol if he feels like he needs it. We got home and he was in excruciating pain after not too long. We stopped by the doctor and he pushed on his stomach to see if he could feel anything. He wasn't sure why he was in so much pain so he sent us to the hospital to do an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed that everything was fine. After doing some research, he decided that he was just one of the few that have extreme pain with this. I felt so bad for him. I had to help him sit up for a while because he could barely move.
He got the hang of feeding himself fairly quickly and the boys all loved to watch. They thought their dad was pretty much the coolest/luckiest guy ever. The dietitian had ordered a complete nutrition formula for Chris to use with his tube. We ordered a month supply, not thinking there would be any issues with it. Also, insurance didn't cover it... he was supposed to use 6 a day at 2.09 per can. The formula just didn't sit well with him. It sat in his stomach and made him feel bloated and horrible. After a few days of trying, we called his dietitian and she switched us to a formula with no fiber. That didn't work either, and he ended up deciding he was done with it and switched to his own mixture of ensure, weight gainer, and Reliv. It worked much better, but we were still out $500 from the formula. At least it got donated to someone who needed it. I'm sure they were grateful! Chris had a couple accidents when he was feeding and the syringe popped out of his tube, spilling liquid everywhere on him and in the bed. I think I thought it was much funnier than he did! :) Poor guy!
Shane Smith and a few of his friends that I don't know took him out on a plane for the day. They were lucky that he was feeling good enough to go! He had a blast. I'm sure he really appreciated being out and about a bit. Chris has had a huge amount of support and love from friends, family, and co-workers. That man has really impacted a lot of people's lives, and it was nice to see how much people care about him. I love him with all my heart and it is so, so hard to see him going through something so miserable and painful.
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