Dear Friends and Family,
Washington DC is truly making us feel at home with expected temperatures in the 90s-100s this week and the warm welcoming, all encompassing humidity that meets you as you exit the front door. We finished our first round of chemotherapy and now have a short break from doctors for three weeks until Matt's next appointment on August 4th. Of course the appointments and Friday did not go quite as expected, but that's what keeps our lives so exciting!
We were scheduled to begin chemo at 1pm, but at 12:30 pm we found out that Matt needed another CT Scan across town. Needless to say, after our tests were finished it was 5pm and Dr. Smith, our wonderful oncologist agreed to let us continue as planned and begin the treatment. We began close to 5:45pm. The office we were in has a very nice set up of a community of chairs in a big room with big windows, blankets and pillows. Matt was instructed to sit in one of the chairs and I was able to sit next to him (there were only 3 people in the whole room of over 40 chairs since it was so late). The process of chemo is as follows: Matt sits in these comfy chairs and has an IV started in his arm. First he is given saline fluids to clean out the IV and hydrate him. Following this are the 3 bags of chemicals/drugs that are also run through the IV. Depending on the drug, the bag will empty at a faster or slower rate. This session was due to take 3-4 hours. Matt did very well with the treatment, he had a slight allergic reaction to the first drug (Taxatere) which is naturally made and the nurse said many people react to it. She gave him a dose of Benedryl which cooled him down, enabled him to breathe normally again, and turned his bright red face back to normal color:) After this she re-administered the drug and continued with the rest of the treatment, which was a success. During this time we met a wonderful lady named Mary who was receiving Bone treatment (when you receive chemo it attacks your bone marrow which weakens them) she had been diagnosed with breast cancer at 39 and is now 57. She had come over to give encouragement to us, and then out of the blue started talking about her friend who just became a Dominican in South Africa and was looking for assurance and support in her vocation. We gave her some encouragement with certain flourishing orders in the US- she was thrilled! (Amazing how we were able to encourage one another in God' s perfect plan!) The treatment ended at 9:30pm. Matt was able to eat dinner during the whole thing...no worries about his appetite thus far:)
Side Effects: Matt has experienced a few side effects, but has overall been going strong. He says he feels like he ate some bad potato salad all the time, but not bad enough to throw up (he knows from experience). He is also much more sensitive to the sun, since he is already fair skinned, he burns much quicker (even in these past 3 days). Other side effects include cold sweats normally at night, achy-ness, bloody noses and loss of taste. And now he even has an excuse for forgetting peoples names and being confused:)- its a side effect:) He should expect to lose his hair sometime next week, we will probably give it a shave before hand. Matt was getting a little overwhelmed by the side effects, he said he has never had so many ways at one time to offer up prayers for people:)
In conclusion, as Matt says with a laugh, "Lucy you have a husband that is confused, sweaty and will have dry mangy hair...and then no hair at all, how do you feel about this?" I'm glad we can both laugh about it:) (the mangy hair is a quote from our wonderful nurse Ellen who administered the chemo and was trying to describe what his hair would look like in a few weeks) We are both back at work, and Matt is steadily working on his thesis- what a blessing for both of us to be able to continue to work and give glory to God through this work. We are very thankful for all of your prayers, and for those who have helped in other ways, especially in the preparing of meals for us. For those who have asked for our prayers- thank you so much for the opportunity to offer up some of our struggles for you, and be assured of our prayers.
Through the love of the Sacred Hearts,
Matt and Lucy
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