First, he still tired. REALLY tired. Walking from one part of the house to another requires a rest to recuperate. He's still pushing himself to do a few things he enjoys. The most taxing is going for a ride in his hotrod, but that's also the thing that's the most fun. Other than that, he's either watching TV or playing solitaire with lots of catnaps. It would be incredibly boring except he's too tired to feel bored. He's not even wanting to talk on the phone. This is a tired that is far beyond anything most of us have experienced.
He's running fevers. We were told that if they ever went above 100.4, we were to call CTCA. They haven't. The highest we've seen in the last few days is 99.8. He keeps breaking into sweats on and off, too. Fevers are common with hepatitis, so it's probably that.
He's having a bit of joint pain. Mostly in his neck. That may be from falling asleep in his chair with his head at an angle. He uses a heating pad pretty often for that.
He has some knots on the side of his neck. This is not on the side with joint pain. These are new. They don't hurt. They might be swollen lymph nodes. Is that the cancer? Is it hepatitis? Is it some other crazy thing he's been struck with?
With the way his luck is going, I wouldn't be surprised if he contracted leprosy from an armadillo. I wouldn't even be surprised if he had a kidney stolen by aliens.
His appetite stinks. My cooking seems to be getting worse. Not a good combination. Rudy is still loving cinnamon rolls, but today, even cinnamon rolls are a challenge. His appetite perked up briefly a few days ago. He was almost too tired to lift a fork, so it took him forever to finish, but he was at least enjoying it. Today, he's just not hungry. I made a halfway decent meal - pork chops, pinto beans, collards and corn bread. In the past, that would have made him very happy. He tried to eat some of it, but only because he felt like he should make an effort since I'd gone to the trouble to make it. I let him know right quick that I didn't care about that. I would rather he have the cinnamon rolls and feel happy about it. After a little while, he did just that. He should just do anything that makes him happy.
As for me, I'm tired to the bone. I'm going through another bout of not being able to sleep more than 3 or 4 hours at night. Then I drag through the day, not able to get much done. On the days when I can get a nap, I do pretty well.
Today, I tried to take a nap 3 times. Each time, just as I fell asleep the phone rang. Every charity on earth has us at the top of their list. One particularly irksome breast cancer charity continued to try to get money even after I politely explained our situation. Apparently, they have a plan so that people like me (who are scared to death that bankruptcy could be just around the corner) can give just $15 a month. Seriously? They did that to me twice in the last 2 weeks. I think it's in very poor taste and I took the time to let them know. On the other hand, the firefighters group that called was very nice. Unfortunately, we're in no position to help anyone right now.
I don't want to end this post on a bad note. Despite all these side effects and setbacks and trials, we are able to find things to smile about. There are still good things in our days. A good hug is one of the best. There's nothing like a good hug.
