Feb 24th - first day of radiotherapy

He struggled to RAH for first radiotherapy treatment at 1.00 p.m  Luckily the check-in lady remembered us and took him through to lie on a bed and wait ... 40 mins!

He stayed on the bed after the treatment until he felt he could tackle getting up ... but the bed didn’t have a trapeze or a remote to raise himself up with and half-way into it he had to shuffle off to 🤮 (in the bathroom in front of the nurses station!!). The silver lining was I could ask them to clean it up! 😔 ... sadly it continued during the 10-min drive home (we have a supply of “sick bags”) and didn’t finish until 5.30p.m. when he finally fell asleep. 

I called Oncology & Radiology & Renee with hopes they would suggest he be admitted to hospital - but alas! Just a suggestion of a different anti-nausea pill - so we have that now ... and dear Simone telling me to get it into him now!  (Hmmm should have thought of that earlier).  But we did - along with more OxyContin (lost track of how many he took and lost, then took again!) and decided to put on the new 75mcgm Fentanyl pack!!  We honestly thought “what did we have to lose”!   

So it seems the self-medicating has worked along with him remaining immobile in bed and not getting up for ANYTHING!  But he’s dehydrated and we both fear a repeat performance for the next treatment at 9.30 am.tomorrow Feb 25 - at which point i think we will beg/demand/plead/cajole - whatever it takes to have them admit him until the treatment is finished (Friday).

That way he could avoid the pain of; in/out bed, in/out car, on/off bed and the only pain would be sliding on/off hospital bed onto treatment slab.  The “funny” thing is they want him drugged up so he will/can lie still for the 15 mins of setup/treatment - but for Joseph - that’s the easy part... it’s all the other bits that cause him so much grief (not the treatment) and no amount of painkillers seem to help that ... just the radiotherapy we hope.