Wednesday (Please Beth, make it SHORT!)

Trying SO hard to make this one shorter. I write TOO MUCH.

1. Bill said he'd give today a grade of C-minus.

2. He was nauseated off & on all day.

3. He was fatigued.

4. He got a lil bit scolded for stepping on and killing 2 sunflowers and 3 black-eyed susans while fooling with a hummingbird feeder.

5. His fever went up to almost 101 last night, 2nd night in a row. S'posed to go to ER at 100.4, but he refused again.

6. Sores in mouth becoming a BIG DEAL. They start out feeling like sand, then blisters, then blisters pop, then white patches appear, then the patches fall off leaving "raw meat" as it was described to us, and at that point you can't talk or swallow water, and have to get hospitalized for IV nutrition/hydration. So here comes that side effect, developing more each day. He's at the blisters stage.

7. Two angelic, devoutly Christian women friends, one who hardly knows us, worked together today, without our even asking, to get Bill some medicine to start fighting those mouth sores. One of the women knew about the medicine because she had chemo and her mouth and throat fell apart like this, and she ended up in critical care from dehydration/starvation. She's never even MET Bill, but simply loves Bill automatically as a Christian brother, and these two women made this happen. This medicine costs $734 a bottle. They had it here by 8:30 am. You wanna talk about people who walk what they talk? Was that love? Was that charity? Kindness? Empathy? I could cry from the beauty of what they did. This medicine completely stopped Bill's mouth pain! It can be used up to 10 times a day. God bless those women down to their smallest atoms and every drop of their souls.

8. At dinner, he couldn't eat much, and his fever is headed up near 100 already, so he's going to bed. He feels pretty darn bad. He was carrying his throw-up bucket around with him today.

9. Tomorrow, he gets blood drawn and any IV replenishments he needs.

10. Funniest thing of the day: We gave the dogs an empty lasagna pan to lick (not much to lick), and the poodle took possession of the pan and started carrying it around in his mouth EVERYWHERE he went. It is empty and weighs very little, but is bigger than he is, and we died laughing all day when he'd come around the corner with that huge lasagna pan in his mouth. Brought it outside when he played fetch with Bill. Took it with him for naps. Wish my camera worked. Anyway, you can picture it.

I'll post tomorrow evening with news of his blood situation, IV's needed, transfusions, platelets, etc. as so many things get crunched by this poisonous chemo.

Thank you always for caring and loving and praying and thinking about Bill. He so much appreciates it, as do I, and he so much doesn't deserve this.

Love you all (and remember, if you wanna get this blog in your inbox, give me your email address).

Bethie Wethie