Hi, Marcia here with an update on the Olsons.
Those of you who are Mary Engelbreit fans may recognize this image. It is one she has used on several of her calendars. It also seems a perfect description of the Olson’s life right now. Although things are headed in the right direction for Gary, the day to day realty of his treatment and recovery is often quite wearing – for both Gary and Anne.
He continues to add new foods to his diet – that’s a good thing. However, he has mixed success with how he feels afterward, and a lot of days he just doesn’t feel that good – queasy, low energy, etc. That gets old.
On Monday, they are going to ask Dr. Tseng to take him off TPN. Hopefully, he will be able to get sufficient caloric intake only from the food he eats. As a backup, they will request that his tube for tube feeding be “reactivated”. There are some problems with it now and it is only serving decorative purposes.
So, collectively, let’s hope/pray that the next several days go well – that taking Gary off TPN helps make him feel better, that he is able to (comfortably) eat sufficient amounts to avoid any supplemental type of feeding, and that he will be in good shape to start chemo as soon as possible.
Your fan club members all wish for a smooth road ahead. I hope to hear that with more practice, your new stomach will be more willing to accept a variety of foods without causing any distress. The ups must be great, but the downs need to just stop! All the best from frigid WI!
It’s hard to figure. Yesterday morning I was miserable after eating cream of wheat, which should have worked just fine. By evening I ate half a mini-pizza with almost no problems. The pizza, by the way, was absolutely wonderful. I’ve been fantasizing about pizza for months.
Hi Gary,
It sounds like you are doing better and that is good. The guys at the pool ask about you. I figure I tell 1 or 2 jokes a day at the pool and each week you miss there are 6 to 9 jokes you do not hear, so I think when you get back to swimming, the first day we will just sit you down for 30 minutes of non-stop jokes until you catch up.It gives you something to look forward to.
JOHN
It looks like the cancer isn’t going to kill me, but it appears your jokes will. For the first time I am truly frightened.