A better week
Glenn and his oldest daughter, Steph (and the infamous mullet)
For the first time in a while, it feels like we maybe caught our breath a little.
After last week’s sodium chaos, Dad was actually able to keep his levels up enough at home with salt tablets, salty food, and what feels like a medically-approved amount of pretzels and chips. Thankfully, that meant no hospital stay, which honestly felt like a massive victory.
Treatment was back on schedule this week too. He got chemo, immunotherapy, and his first bone-strengthening shot. His sisters, Chris and Mary, were with him for treatment, and he’s already fitting right in at the cancer center here in town — somehow making friends with all of the nurses already. They’ve all been SO lovely.
The doctors also ran a much deeper blood panel trying to figure out why his sodium keeps dropping so dramatically. One of the things that came back was low ACTH levels, so tomorrow he’ll have a brain MRI to get a better look at his pituitary gland. It’s not because anything suddenly became urgent, they just happened to have an opening available tomorrow, so they grabbed it. We’re hopeful maybe this finally helps connect some dots and gets him into more of a stable rhythm with treatment because, frankly, we would all enjoy fewer plot twists.
The good news is that he’s actually been feeling really good the last couple days. He’s been eating more, his weight is slowly climbing, and overall he’s had more energy and looked more like himself.
One thing that definitely did not go over well though: his hair starting to fall out.
Out of everything so far, he said losing his hair hit harder than the original diagnosis. Which, honestly, tracks completely if you know Dad. This is a man who proudly rocked a long mullet back in the day and has been attached to his hair and beard for at least 50 years!
Thankfully, his sister Nancy stepped in and gave him a fresh haircut to help get rid of that constant reminder. I think having a little bit of control back over the situation helped more than he expected.
And in true Dad fashion, he still somehow managed to find a silver lining in it. He gathered up the hair from his beared and head and tossed it out in the yard for the birds to use for nests. Which feels like the perfect summary of him as a person somehow. Equal parts stubborn, outdoorsman, soft-hearted, and unintentionally sentimental.
This whole process is still hard. There are still scary moments and frustrating days. But this week feels lighter. More normal. More hopeful.
We’ll absolutely take that.
