All is well

Long day No. 2 is over. Mike is putting in a full day of work today. He had some swelling in his face and neck this morning and last night. The nurse told him it's probably from all the fluids that were pumped into him yesterday. Not to worry.

The hiccups have also made a return appearance. This time, we figured out it was the drug called Cisplatin, which they gave to him first in the series this time. The hiccups started as soon as the drug entered his system. This has the doctor and chemo nurse baffled. But I googled Cisplatin and hiccups on my handy-dandy iPhone and found a study that says while the hiccups are rare, they are predominant in males, and the majority of the males who got hiccups with Cisplatin didn't have nausea or vomitting. Mike didn't have either of those after the last big chemo so hopefully he can ward those off again. Let's hope so.

We met with Dr. Neel prior to chemo and he again remarked that the tumor in Mike's neck is shrinking. I was taking notes and his exact quote was "there's no doubt that it's gotten smaller." He says that because the tumors in his lungs were spread from the cells in his neck, they respond the same to the chemo. So if the one in his neck is getting smaller, so too are the ones in his lungs. Normally, Dr. Neel wants a CT scan after the second round of chemo --which we've just finished -- to see if it's having any effect. But since he can see with his eyes that it's having an effect, we're going to wait until after the fourth, and hopefully, final round of this kind.
So that's it from here.

We're taking Julia to the beach for the holiday. Happy Fourth, everyone!