FINAL WEEK AND ALSO THE HARDEST

(John and Michael Lawrence - June 19th, 2009)

This final week, week number 7, has been tough. I found it very painful to swallow or cough and even talking became difficult so I decided to stop taking phone calls and only speak where necessary. Text messages and emails worked well to keep in touch with most members of my family and friends. I stayed in my room most of the time and watched videos and slept a fair amount. As I had my feeding tube, I didn't have to worry about eating in the dining room and could just hook up a bagged meal and watch a video.

3rd & Final Chemo
I was supposed to have my final chemo on Monday but as my blood cell count was down, it was postponed until Thursday. Having chemo on Thursday evening and over night was cutting things a bit close, but I was determined to have may last radiation on Friday morning at 8am , get a taxi back to the lodge and catch my ride back to Wasaga Beach.

Friday was my 35th and final radiation treatment and at that point I graduated and got to go home. I even got to keep my scary mask as a souvenir of my journey and yes I was home in my cottage by about 3 pm on Friday afternoon. Oh what joy to be home and the great part was that my brother Michael had decided to drive up from him home in Picton to spend the weekend with me again. Even my cat sidrick seemed pleased that I was home although like most cats that was short lived and he soon returned to his bed to catch up on his sleep.

More to come of the first week of freedom later........

ONE MORE DOWN – ONLY ONE TO GO

Having my 'bagged lunch' at home on Sunday

I now know why they say that the last few weeks are the worst. Last week at the lodge I rarely went out of the room except for my treatment, to use the computer or to see the nurses. I was so glad that I bought a little DVD player which really helped pass the time with my ‘bagged’ meals. My throat was really too sore to talk so I had to keep talking to a minimum. Naturally I still had a fair number of phone calls but even those I kept very short. This weekend has been even worse and after a brief trip on Saturday morning to Walmart to get the cat some litter and food and a case of water for me, I haven’t left the house since. The problem is that I keep falling asleep which then creates a very dry mouth and throat. When I wake I start coughing and believe me that is very painful. I am so glad that I had the feeding tube put in as I don’t know what I’d be doing for food right now. I even take my medications through the tube which saves on the throat. All I can say at this point is ‘Praise the Lord’ I only have one week left.

Part 10 - WEEK 5 FINISHED

As the feeding bag works by gravity, I needed someting to hang it on. My good friend Wayne Sproule came to the rescue and made the aparatus shown here. Works time a charm. Thanks Wayne



FEEDING TUBE NOW IN PLACE
After last weekend’s sore throat and my inability to eat anything, I was quite happy to have my feeding tube put in. This involved a trip on a stretcher through the underground tunnels from Princess Margaret Hospital to Toronto General Hospital. First the doctor sprayed my throat to freeze it after which he inserted a small tube down into my stomach. Air was put through the tube to inflate the stomach so that after a small incision was made, another tube could be inserted through that opening into the stomach. As a local anesthetic was administered I was awake during the procedure which took about 20 minutes from start to finish. The trip through the tunnels to get there and back took way longer. The hardest thing was that I was not allowed to eat or drink anything for about 36 hours before and after. The following day I was allowed to try the tube and so I had my first ‘bagged lunch’.

RADIATION SIDE EFFECTS
The radiation treatments have caused my neck to become very sore as the skin has dried and started to flake in the creases under my chin. I am constantly applying creams in an attempt to keep the area moist. The other change is that my doctor has changed my pain medication from the Codeine to a liquid Morphine. I was finding that the codeine was very hard to swallow and really didn’t seem to do much to realize my pain. The morphine is much more effective but tends to cause me doze off from time to time. This weekend my brother Michael drove up to stay with me. We didn’t do much accept chat and watch videos but it was so nice to have someone here with me. Thanks Michael for coming, I really appreciated having you here.
Tomorrow it's back to the lodge to start my 6th week of treatments. Almost finished.