Mouth sores

Today Tom is in some serious pain from mouth sores caused by the chemo he had last week. He is taking strong pain relievers via IV (because he can't swallow very well) and he also has a device that allows him to push a button every 15 minutes for extra pain medicine. He's very difficult to understand. Imagine starting to take a huge bite out of an apple. Now try talking before you actually bite down. That's how he sounds when he talks. He's almost completely unintelligible.

The medicine he's on makes him imagine things that aren't really happening. For instance, he told a nurse, "This is a great party". Later on he asked me, "Did you go have a pedicure?" (I don't get regular pedicures). He was also reaching out with his hands which caused him to wake up. He said, "I thought I was at home reaching for the peanut butter." Also, as some of you may remember from a previous email, he took a butter knife off his breakfast tray and just held it for awhile.

That's all a little humorous but there is however a scary part - he gets out of bed and stumbles. He fell the night before last after which the nurse asked me to stay with him every day from 7am - 7pm. When I leave, a sitter comes in and stays from 7pm - 7am. Someone is with him 24 hours per day to make sure he doesn't get out of bed unassisted. They are afraid he may fall and hit his head.

Tom will stay in the hospital for several more days to try and combat the pain. The doctor says what he is experiencing is completely normal - almost every patient is hospitalized for painful mouth sores following high-dose chemotherapy.

That's about all for now.