Les Fountain's Cancer Experience

Tuesday, 7/29/03 Les had a MRI yesterday along with a hearing test and a clinic visit. We will hear the results of the MRI in the next couple days. His hearing is great and hasn’t changed at all. Please pray that this next round of chemo does not affect it. The Cisplatin drug is known for affecting the hearing. Les has continued to lose weight and has a poor appetite. We are going to get a g-tube for him to supplement his nutrition. There will be a surgical procedure to place it and a couple nights in the hospital to recover and learn how to use it. Though I’m not happy about having Les go through another surgery, I’m excited to know that I will be able to “feed” him and help him stay strong enough to fight the cancer and withstand the treatments. Les will still be able to eat normally. He is also excited that he won’t have to take the oral chemo through his mouth anymore, I can put it in his g-tube and he won’t have to taste it. The surgery is scheduled for Friday, August 1st. De...

Wednesday, 7/17/03 Well, it’s been a couple weeks since I last updated. I apologize for keeping you in suspense. Les did go to camp the week of 7/7/03 – 7/12/03. Les also finished his radiation treatments on Friday July 11, 2003. YEAH!!! No more 7am appointments and being away from home so much! There were a few “big” things that have happened. The first “big” medical thing that happened, and it wasn’t a huge deal, was that Les needed a blood transfusion on July 8th. His blood test after the first day of camp showed very low hemoglobin counts, so he had to skip the second day of camp and go to the hospital instead. He had a great time that day because I let him watch television all day long. The transfusion went smoothly with no complications. He looked a little “pinker” after he received all those new red blood cells. The neat part was the next day the camp went on a field trip to the Rueben H. Fleet Science Center and Les was shown an exhibit that let him “fly through a heart”. ...

Wednesday, 7/2/03 Yesterday was “Free Tuesday” at Balboa Park. This week we went to the Natural History Museum, the Model Railroad Museum and Les’ favorite, the Rueben H. Fleet Science Center. We enjoyed our outing and stayed a little longer this week since the museums held more interest for Les. Today we went over to Dr. Meltzer’s office for a quick “social call”. We wanted to make sure the “zipper” was healing as well as we thought it was. He gave it two thumbs up!! Miracles of miracles, we actually pulled out of the parking lot before the 20 minutes were up and didn’t have to pay anything!! YEAH!! Now that was a quick visit. The afternoon/evening was spent at Ocean Beach. This is an area adjacent to Point Loma, but faces the open ocean (Point Loma faces the harbor). Les and I walked a little way down the pier, but didn’t have time to go all the way to the end. It’s the longest pier on the West Coast. We were meeting great-grandma for lunch and needed to get back. We lunched in ...