The Tumornator: Tom's updates

We're officially through 1/4 of Tom's chemo of the initial plan! He's supposed to have a total of 12 rounds and he finished up #3 over the weekend.  Let's start with the positives 1. His bloodwork continues to look good--no concerns at this point. 2. Some of you have heard, but we did confirm with the oncologist (here at least) that Tom has actually been staged at a 2B (which is like half a step better than a stage 3)  Mayo may have updates once they do their scans--but good news for now! 3. We have an appointment this Friday to get the process started for genetic testing for Tom. 4. We saw the dietician and the nurse navigator both briefly during chemo.  The dietician recommended some new medication in hopes of helping with digestion and addressing the GI issues/weight loss.     Onto the less good news---this round of chemo was a bit harder for him 😞  The cold sensitivity is increasing, his fingertips primarily, so he's wearing knit/st...

 Nothing too exciting to report so far this week, we are maintaining the status quo for a bit.   The girls are busy sleeping in, seeing friends, going to Adventureland, swimming, and keeping us updated on the UV on a daily basis.   The puppies continue to be amazing additions to our family and get so much love during the day (even by me who has been the resistant one for 5 years)  They couldn't be sweeter and really are super chill with us 💗 We lucked out!   We celebrated a super low key Father's day--just eating at home and watching movies with Tom.   Tom might be eating just a tiny bit better this past week, but honestly it's hard to tell.  He gets weighed on Thursday, so we'll know for sure then.  We also see the oncologist and we have a fair amount of questions for him.  Tomorrow starts #3 round of chemo, so we'll plan to update over the weekend after that's done and if we have any new info from oncology!  ...

  We are surviving the first full week of summer!  Per the usual, our girls have attempted to cram an entire summer worth of fun into the first week of summer *sigh*  Activities have included, but not limited to:   Multiple sleepovers Multiple friends at our house Adventureland trip with friends Getting our above ground pool running Shopping with friends Lots of time with our neighborhood friends Puppy snuggles Random store trips since V can drive now! (Walmart, Target, Hy-Vee, thrifting, etc) Overall, the girls are kicking off their summer with a bang.  Viv is doing some part time work this summer helping nanny for a friend of ours and she's applying to work at ChildServe PRN.  Scarlett will be spending some time at volleyball camp this summer and doing some babysitting/pet sitting as well...and whatever chores I'm willing to pay her for!   The dogs (Murphy and Millie) are continuing to do amazing overall!  They do growl a bit if startl...

Lots of updates coming your way--there's been a ton happening since our last update, which seems crazy since it hasn't even been a full week!   First the basics--we'll be doing Tom's 2nd dose of chemo this Thursday 6/5 again and then taking home his little bulb of 5FU (that's legit the abbreviation of the chemo and I'm here for it!)  We'll also be asking if genetic testing is appropriate for him as pancreatic cancer can be linked to the BRCA gene, so if that's the case, we'll want that information for the girls.  This was something I didn't realize until Tom was diagnosed and my new reading hobby.      Tom still has little to no appetite so we'll be chatting with his team this week about medications that might help with that and see how his weight is doing (he's been hovering around 155-160lbs)  A friend and co-worker of mine has created a meal train and google doc list of helpful items for us, mainly high calorie/high protein items for T...