Les Fountain's Cancer Experience

Tuesday, 8/26/03 Yesterday’s blood transfusion went well. Daddy was able to go with us this time. We got to show Daddy all the different rooms in the clinic. Now he has a better idea of where we are when we go to clinic. Les and I go back on Thursday for another blood test and also PT. I took a couple pictures of the event, so I’ll let them tell the rest of the story.

Thursday, 8/21/03 Clinic Day today. Les had another finger poke blood draw and he decided that some people do it better than others. Today we had one of the “others”. They did succeed in getting a sample though, so all was not lost. (It really wasn’t that bad, and it looked like he cried more to keep up appearances than because of pain) Anyway the results were a low hemoglobin count. We will go back on Monday (8/25/03) prepared for a transfusion if his counts dropped any more. He’s currently just above the cut-off value for a transfusion. I know many have asked about donating blood directly to Les, and I asked about that today. Here’s the deal. If someone was a match for his blood type, they could direct donate – for a fee – through the blood bank. The blood would take at least two days to process before Les could get it and then if he didn’t need it, the blood only has a limited shelf life and could well be wasted. Also, it wouldn’t be available if Les needed it sooner than the two

Friday, 8/15/03 Well, we’ve been home for a week now. Les was discharged on Friday afternoon (8/8/03) after receiving his first dose of Cisplatin on Thursday (8/7/03). He did great with it. They are concerned about nausea and vomiting with Cisplatin, but Les didn’t have any of it (they also premedicated him with three different meds to prevent it). Anyway, the only “side effect” that I noticed was tiredness. He slept for 3-4 hours at a time during the day and all night long. Side note: the “official” report is in on the MRI and it confirms that there is no recurrence in the brain and also one of the larger nodules on the spine is no longer there. Praise God! There are still some smaller nodules in the spine. Please pray that the chemo is effective at removing those. The g-tube feedings are going great. Since we have been home from the hospital, Les has gained about one pound. He hasn’t eaten much by mouth, but that should kick in as soon as his body is used to receiving consistent

Thursday, 8/7/03 Chemo will start today as scheduled. They started the Cisplatin at 2:00pm via an IV and it will last for 6 hours. Prior to giving Les the Cisplatin, they gave him a combination of medications that are supposed to help eliminate the nausea feelings that are common with Cisplatin, though they say that the nausea often doesn’t kick in until 3-5 days later. We will stay at least one more night in the hospital and if Les is doing well, we’ll go home on Friday 8/8/03. Les has done great with his g-tube. It’s going to be nice to be able to supplement his calorie intake and make sure he stays as healthy as possible. He’s happy with it too, now that it’s not as tender. The night before last (Tuesday 8/5), daddy came down after work to spend the evening with us. That was a nice treat. Les went to in the wagon for a little while and we went to the activity center and played Hungry Hungry Hippos (noisy, but fun). Daddy tucked Les into bed and then had to go back home. Yeste

Monday, 8/4/03 We’re still in the hospital and it looks like we’ll be here more days (I’m not sure yet how many more). They didn’t tell me that the process at the beginning of using a feeding tube takes such a long time. We didn’t start using the g-tube until 6pm on Saturday night (8/2). The first order was to give Pedialyte at 5cc’s (1 teaspoon) per hour for 24 hours. Then we moved to Kindercal (formula for big kids). We started at 5cc’s and hour for 6 hours and then we increase it by 5cc’s every 6 hours until he gets to 45cc’s and hour. By our calculations, that will bring us to Tuesday evening (8/5) at 6pm. There are some different ideas of what to do at that time regarding the start of chemo, etc. But, since it’s not set yet, I’ll refrain from publishing it on the web. Our weekend was pretty uneventful. Jason came down Friday night and was here all day on Saturday. He went back home to be at church for Sunday morning (he runs the sound board) and then came back down here for the

Saturday, 8/2/03 Les’ g-tube placement surgery yesterday went well – very fast. I happened to be in the wrong spot when he was in recovery because I couldn’t hear the intercom when they called for me, so Les ended waking up on his own. He was perfectly fine when I finally tracked him down. What was I worried about? After he woke up they transferred him over to a room (I caught up with them in the hallway on their way over). He got settled in and started his videos. His tummy started being “uncomfortable” a little later and they gave him some morphine. That seemed to do the trick. He slept fine last night with another morphine dose at 4:00am. Today has been real low-key. We’ve just hung out and read, watched videos and napped. We still haven’t seen the doctor for his follow-up prior to using the g-tube, but that’s what happens on weekends. It sounds like we will be here until Monday at least. I’ll update when I know for sure. We talked to one of the nurse practitioners assisting