Day 170, Year 11: Ups and Downs
Date: Saturday, April 9, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny, High Temp 49, Low 25 degrees F
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA
I’m really waiting for a time we have two or three ‘boring days’ in a row where everything goes smoothly. But that doesn’t seem to be part of the plan right now. We are in a period of ups and downs. Last night Mark felt good and because of that we cut back on the nausea meds. And we were so hopeful this morning because he felt great and was able to eat a big breakfast. We went for a walk in the glorious sunshine around noon, but things went downhill from there. In fact, he wasn’t able to eat any dinner at all. So we are upping the nausea meds again. We will just have to wait and see how he feels in the morning and adjust things accordingly.
The learning curve on my end is steep. I am constantly searching for ways to keep Mark well-nourished when he doesn’t feel like eating. We’ve added juicing to our repertoire, as well as making various kinds of smoothies. And today I added making a skin moisturizer. I mentioned in a previous log that Mark is starting to get the rash that comes as a side effect of the Cetuximab. From my reading, the best moisturizer for his face is a combination of coconut oil, shea butter, and vitamin E and lavender oil. I had the coconut oil and shea butter as I had purchased them last spring when the rash got so bad. But as soon as I bought them, the rash went away. But when we left Windbird in South Carolina, I threw them in the bag of things to take with since I knew the trial included the same type of biologic that caused the rash last winter. So with some of the ingredients on hand, this afternoon I whipped up a homemade moisturizer. My vitamin E oil is on Windbird in South Carolina and I’ve never used lavender oil. So I’ll have to add those to our stock. In the meantime, I’m happy to report that the coconut oil and shea butter combination helped immediately. And somebody help me. What is shea butter?
