August Update

Cody hasn't been doing very well. The last month it seems as though he has really gone downhill. He finished up his week of radiation at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, UT (July 16-20th).  He has had a hard time eating and was throwing up daily. He has lost a lot of weight and is very weak and tired all the time. He has nausea and pain constantly.  He has been losing weight due to throwing up and not having an appetite. He has had a lot of stomach pain so on top of nausea med's he has been taking lots of pain pills. 
The doctor decided to Start IV hydration and to give his nausea med's IV as well since he has had a hard time swallowing and keeping pills down. The home health nurse accessed his port and started his IV's on Thursday August 9th. They have been rotating Zofran, Ativan, and  Phenergen every 2 hours in order to keep the nausea under control. The last couple of days they have been able to stretch the nausea to every 3-4 hrs. They gave him a break from the Votrient chemo pills for a few days to help get him hydrated and feeling better. He seems to be doing better with the IV nausea meds and they have finally got his nausea under control. In fact, for the first time in months Cody actually said he had no nausea! He is still having a lot of pain and they are rotating Oxycotton and Oxycodone to try to manage his pain. At least he is able to keep the pain medication down and is not throwing them up anymore. The IV nausea meds work well but they also keep him pretty groggy and drugged up. He spends most of his time in his room going between his bed and his computer chair. 
We did receive some good news! We finally got the results from the CT scan that was done in Salt Lake prior to radiation. The Votrient seems to be working. There was no new growth and was even a little bit of shrinkage in the large tumor in his stomach. Hopefully we can get him feeling better and back on the chemo. While we know the chemo is not likely to get rid of his cancer at least we know it is preventing further growth (at least for now) and has even helped to shrink some. 

Our sister and her family came down while I was up for the summer. It was fun to have everyone together. We don't do it very often and really need to try to do it more often.

All the kids had a great time. Stacy has 3 girls and I have a boy and a girl. They all love their Uncle Cody!

I had a nice visit this summer and was glad I was there to be able to help take care of things while they had to travel to Salt Lake for Doctors appointments and Radiation Treatment. It was nice to feel like I was doing something and the kids really enjoy taking care of the animals. I am so thankful to have such understanding employers that allowed me to take the time this summer to spend some much needed time with my family. It was  very hard to leave, it always is, but each time gets harder and harder. 

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers and support. 

God Bless.

Cheryl Stout