A Real Pill

Paul and Leigh settled into their room on 3 South yesterday afternoon at the Cook Palacial House of Medicine. Paul began day 1 of 5 on two chemo meds: Irinotecan and Temador. The main side effect to watch out for on this combo is diarrhea (which is controlled with Vantin). It seems like he is on 1000 oral meds right now, and what we didn't know until they brought it in yesterday is that the Temador comes in an unbreakable, uncrushable, capsule. That's right. Something this important escaped our detection. (-: There are actually 4 pills that Paul has to swallow (per day). After some tears, encouragement from Mom and practice, he was able to get the first two down. Later, with some success behind him, he did the last 2 without too much trouble. Don't get me wrong...he doesn't like it, but what 5 y.o. would? How many 5 y.o.s can take pills? Anyhow, they both slept great last night. Paul's pain is much better. Two main things to pray for today (this week): 1) Fever would go away; 2) Paul will become good at swallowing these pills - this is especially important so that he can get the full dose of the Temador, but also because the Nifurtimox (which I will talk more about soon) is 3 small pills a day. And...pray for total remission and healing...(-: