Last night I tried my experiment of not eating or drinking and trying to sleep through the night. That did not work as I am still going to the washroom every couple of hours, regardless of whether it is night or day. I think that the one consolation though is that I am actually getting up because I know I need to instead of sleeping through it and making a mess. The good news though is that when I do not eat or drink at night that I can fall back asleep instantly. I ended up sleeping 7 hours last night because I did not spend much time with the food intake. I then got up at 6am and then ate at 6, 7, 8:45, 10:30 and then again at noon, before my afternoon stretch. I managed to also drink quite a lot during that time and were done all of the the regular fluids I take daily by noon. I am not sure if that routine is better or not, but today felt good for my food intake and I did not struggle too much with it. I had to drive Xavier to track and pick him up today as well as do some clean up in the kitchen. Mel brought in our vehicle to Palladino and they said that there is something that will need fixing and they only quoted us $11,000 for it. At that point we would just buy a new vehicle instead of getting a wiring harness fixed. Apparently there is some corrosion in the wires underneath the floors and they “may” need to be replaced. If they do then it is a bit pricey. I think that the stress of all of that just made me extremely exhausted. The thought of car shopping is exhausting, especially when Mel is difficult when choosing cars. When we bought our first car together we ended up getting a Hyundai Sonata because it was a good cheap car that did everything that we wanted and it was a good family car. I wanted to get a Lotus Evora as our family car. It is a light weight car with great handling. The only real downside was we should not use it in the winter as the salt is not good for the car. I thought hibernating and not going out was a good compromise or a Cooper Mini as we could fit both vehicles in our single garage. Unfortunately we I lost that argument and we purchased the Sonata. I might be able to convince her this time though. We were going to get a truck next, but if we sell the trailer we do not really have a need for the truck. One thing for sure is that we do not want to get 2 new vehicles at the same time.
The days have been flying by and I have not noticed much of an impact on me this week in terms of anything that might impact my treatment next week. I am doing well with my mouth rinses and food intake has been fine. There are occasions when I am a bit sensitive to some textures and I have noticed that I can predict it a bit because of the feel I get within my throat and stomach prior to me eating or swallowing. If there is a tingling sensation then it means that things may possibly not sit well. I have not thrown up in a while and have not felt close to it and when I have eaten today for the most part it has been good. Earlier this week when I ate 2 pieces of bread it was delicious. Today I ate a couple of smaller pieces and I could feel some of the burning sensation and when that happens, the bite of food is not pleasant. The taste and textures are off. I can still eat it just fine, but it is not enjoyable. I have noticed that this decreased dosage has made a lot of the previous symptoms much more manageable and we will see what next week brings with more treatment. I had gone quite a stretch without any treatment so I am not sure if the cumulative effects have been reset or not. I still do not know what to do about some of the negative biopsy reports and will wait until we chat with the doctors in June and hopefully we will have some scans done by then.
Mel is planning on ditching me again this weekend for a girls get away at a friends cabin. I am not allowed to go out on my own, but Mel sure is. She was going to go for two nights but has now decided to only go one night. At first I did not really care, but upon reflection it might be a good idea. I think that I can handle two nights just fine as I did last time she went away and I was supposed to get treatment that was cancelled. My biggest concern when she goes away are chores around the house as I am limited in my capacity and we need to make sure that the kids do them. Olivier and Xavier can fend for themselves and would easily survive on their own in the house with making meals. Where it all falls apart however is making sure that the kitchen is cleaned. If arrangements are made and they know that they have to then it works out just fine.
Yesterday some things that I ordered for Xavier came in and he wanted to test them out with his brother and mother. He told Olivier to hold the pads while he punched him. Initially he said he should move his hand forward prior to him striking but the coordination of Olivier was abysmal and it did not work out well. He did it with his brother for a bit and then Xavier asked Mel to do it for an hour which she declined. He had spoken to some people at the gym and asked how he would do in a spar. He was flat out told he would get crushed and told why, That did not phase him at all and I laughed at him saying was he not surprised, he has only gone to like 5 classes. What I am grateful for is that we can afford to provide our kids opportunities like this where they can exercise and do things that they enjoy. Luckily we do not live pay cheque to pay cheque and Mel and I are comfortable in our careers that we can provide a lot for our kids. Having grown up on the other side of this, I get it and I understand prioritization of things. This is why when I have the chance to give them an experience I am all for it. You never know if you will be able to do it again. This was my philosophy with Mel when we went to Florida and I wanted to go all out and really enjoy it. I think it was worth it. I will use argument if we need to buy a new vehicle. i need the experience.
Raul