Mystery of the Swollen Feet

A new issue has arisen over the past couple of days. On Sunday, Kevin woke up with very swollen and red feet, and they caused him a lot of pain. His feet especially hurt when he attempted to bear weight on them when transferring from bed to wheelchair to recliner. We are not sure exactly what is causing this, but our best guess is that this is a side effect of one of the chemotherapies he’s taking. Dad ran in several rounds of Kevin’s bloodwork to the hospital lab, and everything came back normal—even Kevin’s platelets and potassium are at decent levels! We were worried this might be issues with blood clots (again), but after consulting several doctors and having a couple come to the house to see Kevin, the best consensus seems to be that the swollen and painful feet are a chemotherapy side effect. His feet had improved today, and hopefully the swelling will continue to decrease.

The good thing through all of this is that Kevin’s nausea has abated for the time being. His appetite is slowly returning, and he’s finally able to keep some food down. When he’s not nauseated, Kevin is able to sleep pretty well in his own room. The dark, foggy mornings certainly help him sleep in and get enough sleep. While it’s stressful to go through one more roller coaster dive with the appearance of yet another new symptom, we’re happy to have him home in a warmer and more relaxing environment than the hospital. Thank you all for the love you have been sending Kevin and our family. He continuously needs emotional support and motivation, so if you have anything inspirational or hopeful to tell him, please send it his way.