Caution Tape

Tate and I both got out first round of COVID vaccines this week! I probably would have missed the window to sign up if it weren’t for Mary Jane. I was having a busy work morning, and when I didn’t see her texts she called me and told me to get going! Tate and I were logged in on our separate computers, and we ended up getting appointments on different days at different locations, but no matter – round one is done, and round two is scheduled.

I had almost no reaction to it; my arm was a little sore and I got a little whiny the next day, but mostly it was no big deal. Tate hasn’t fared as well; he has been looking pretty green, and he’s experiencing a lot of pain in his arm. Nothing so bad that it’s an emergency, but also not great.

Tate was identified as high-risk right away since he has had allergic reactions to medication in the past. The staff marked his car with caution tape, and everyone took extra care to make sure he was okay through the entire process. He had to wait 30 minutes for observation after his vaccine instead of the 15 most people do, and he was feeling pretty gross by the time they cleared him to leave.

This week Tate also had an appointment with the GI specialist Dr. Fernando. Tate’s weight is up to 140.8 pounds, which is extremely low for his height. Dr. Fernando showed Tate a graph with his weight charted since May 2018 and pointed out that it’s on a downward trend again. One of the objections Tate has to appetite stimulants is they make him want to eat more even when his stomach is aching from so much food. When that happens, Tate uses stubbornness and will power to override the effects of the appetite stimulants to keep himself from eating, which is obviously the opposite thing we want to happen. Dr. Fernando had some suggestions to manage that, and we started right away. For now, Tate is to take half a pill Monday-Friday and none on the weekend to give his body the opportunity to generate some hunger pangs on its own. Except for Prednisone days – he won’t take any then because the steroids already increase his appetite and adding to that would be too much.

Tate’s next chemotherapy appointment is Tuesday, April 6th. He’s only scheduled to have Vincristine, so it should be pretty quick. Then he’ll take steroids for the next 5 days and hopefully recover in fewer days than it has taken the last few rounds.

Happy Easter!