Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Back from Parowan - recuperation time for us

Last Saturday, April 18th we celebrated the life of our father Fred Dalley Dalton at his funeral in the Main Street LDS Chapel in Parowan Utah and then placed his remains in the Parowan Cemetary overlooking the valley.  It was a very good service.  Mom decided that we would do one viewing/visitation period from 9:00 am until 10:30 am Saturday before the funeral was to begin at 11:00 am.  Our trip began Friday afternoon when we (all 7 of us & 3 dogs) left our house in two cars to go to Coral Canyon where we planned on spending both Friday and Saturday nights.  The drive up went pretty well and we were all getting along pretty well until we realized that I had forgotten my little cooler that I always pack our medicines in.  We had left then here at home during our hurry to get on the road and to move cars in and out of the driveway while we were gone.  We talked about ways around it, but in the end I got Matt to travel back home for us to get our medicines because Patty and I were without all of our medication.  I am thankful to him for his willingness to help us and even though he got back late, it really helped us out for the long day we had in front of us on Saturday.  Saturday was a very long day, we left Coral Canyon at 8:00 am (got up earlier than that) and didnt make it back there until after 8:00 pm.  We were all pretty tired and after getting some food in us, went to bed.  Sunday morning was spent cleaning and getting all of us ready to go, Amanda and Josh stepped up and took good care of Patty to get her ready, I'm afraid I wasn't at my best and they decided to rescue her from me that morning.  I am thankful to them for that.  I'm still learning patience.  We got home Sunday around noon, just in time for the priests to come by and give Patty and I the sacrament that they do most of the time.  Then we spent the rest of the day watching all the Hallmark movies, Patty's retirement money is still with Hallmark, so we have to support them whenever possible, plus, we like the sappy love stories.  Over the past couple of days, Patty has actually done better than I thought she was going to do.  She has been very tired and worn out, but she hasn't been "out of it" like she often is when she gets very tired.  She is having trouble talking, her diaphram is not helping her too much, so I have to remind her to breath deeply every now and then so she can make some words that everyone can hear and understand.  She is doing remarkably well compared to what I was expecting for today.  Hopefully over the next couple of days she'll perk up a little more.

I had my 6th treatment today, I think they are going well.  Last night I leaked less fluid on my pillow case that I have in quite some time, hopefully that continues tonight and Dr. Dean was right when he predicted that by the end of this week that I would stop leaking almost totally.  I decided today that I am going to give my phone to the radiation therapists and ask them to tak 3-4 pictures of me when they have me all taped up and fastened to the table so I can share that with everyone.  I am still very fortunate that the side effects have all be fairly mild.  I still have not experienced any nausea and from what they tell me, I may not.  The open sore on my head is in a very strange way, it seems to be shrinking a little over parts of it, but that is causing it to itch and at times be very sensitive, I guess that would be expected when an open sore is healing, but it drives me crazy at times.  I have noticed that I am getting tired more, I've been having some very good afternoon naps - not intentionally most of the time.  But after I wake up, I ususally feel pretty good.  I just began my week long break from my Pomalyst, so I'll have to see if that helps or hurts the side effects from the radiation - who knows?

It was really great to see everyone last weekend, I really appreciate the effort that some family members went through to come and help us honor dad.  We really neet to plan a big family party under better circumstances.

Until next time.  Thank you all again for your thought and prayers on our behalf.  They are felt and appreciated.

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