Energy Improvement

Kevin’s energy level has dramatically increased over the last three days. He was exhausted for several days after his large chemotherapy session last week, but his energy is finally bouncing back. With his energy improvement came an attitude improvement as well; he was pretty depressed when he was so tired, but now he has at least few moments of positive attitude during the day. It’s wonderful to hear his laugh bouncing through the house from time to time.

Over the past few days, Kevin has also been working hard at occupational therapy and at home while practicing his exercises. At the moment, he’s sitting up in the wheelchair without much support at all, and he’s sitting up remarkably straight. Besides relearning how to use his muscles and building muscle mass, he has to regain a sense of balance. His senses have gotten so screwed up that he has had a very difficult time telling straight from crooked, or feeling where his center of gravity lies. However, as more time goes by, he’s more able to sense if he’s leaning to one side and what he needs to do in order to straighten up.

We are also plowing along with the steroid taper. We’ve picked up the pace of decreasing the steroids, and so far (knock on wood), Kevin is coping well. We’d like to get him off the steroids as quickly as possible because, at this low level, they probably mess with his emotions more than they’re helping with the swelling. He still has severe mood swings, and can emphatically display five different emotions in under two minutes. The sooner he can return to his normal emotions, the better!

After an extremely wet, cold and foggy June and July, we finally got some warmth at our house. However, now it’s over 100°F (it’s 100 in the shade), so the weather quickly swung from one extreme to the other. We are now headed outside so Kevin can spray the rest of us with the hose. At least it finally feels like summer!