Quentin, Vader, Chemo, Stats, and Tips

I am totally prepared to bore you with more cancer details, BUT first, I wanted to shamelessly brag about one of our sweet sons.  Quentin made his goal of donating his hair to Locks of Love!  It all began in kindergarten when he met a boy at the park with long hair.  Being a fairly inquisitive kid, Q asked him why he had long hair.  The boy told him he was growing it for Locks of Love and explained what that meant.  By bedtime that night, Quentin had firmly decided that he was going to grow his hair to donate, too.  Jim and I were both a little skeptical about that decision, but we supported his caring heart 100%.  So, over the next two years, we learned all about kid conditioners, the best combs for his thick mane, how to deep breathe when our child was sure we were pulling his hair out in our grooming attempts, and when to shake our heads and let our guy conquer the day with a bit of a tangled mess.  For his part, Q dealt with my endless nagging to brush his hair, Jim's careful combing after a shower, being mistaken for a girl by strangers, and unfortunately, some mean teasing from kids at school.  Quentin has learned some powerful lessons along the way about name calling and how to be confident in his own skin.... or hair as the case may be.  About a week ago, his gorgeous curls were finally long enough to donate.  With just over 11 inches on his head, he willingly had 10 inches cut off to send to Locks of Love.  We are extremely proud parents!  Way to go Q!!!!

Q before his Locks of Love donation. 4/28/15

Q after his donation!  So handsome!!! 4/28/15

Now for the star of our show.... Jim.  He is back to the Vader force choke hand again!!

Our last glimpse of the pre-chemo hand.
Not sure who is more menacing!

This week, Jim started week 4 of topical chemo.  Each Sunday, we take the multiple gloves and dressing off his left hand so he can give it a good washing.  Then, we reapply the cream and carefully wrap his hand and cover it with gloves.  It isn't a hard process to do, but it isn't really fun for either of us.  I am including some visuals of this *awesome* endeavor.

After the chemo cream is applied, each finger and then Jim's hand is wrapped in thick, drippy gauze.  The "drippy" component is zinc based and helps with healing.

The gauze is covered with a cotton glove to keep everything together.  That is followed by a latex glove to help keep the cream from dripping and leaking out.

The final step is a black glove to try to blend in a little bit.  This glove gets changed out and washed often.... germ factor!

Throughout the course of this treatment, Jim has been experiencing burning and itching, like he did on the right hand last fall.  The spot we were concerned about (on the side of his middle finger) has been particularly painful and irritated.  Yesterday, Jim visited Dr. Sears to check in on the chemo process.  He has two more weeks of chemo treatment to go before he can shed the gloves.  The doc told him that the red spots in the picture are all precancerous lesions.  He feels that the bigger spot on his middle finger is squamous cell carcinoma.  Jim also had a spot on his right hand frozen.  Might as well get our money's worth, right?  Sadly, there was no tequila on this Cinco de Mayo appointment.  LAME.  

Jim's left hand 5/5/15.  Week 4 of chemo.
The spot on his middle finger is most likely cancer.

I also decided to revisit the stats.  Sometimes, I get kind of curious as to how far we have come.  On one hand, no pun intended, it is nice to celebrate my husband's strength and tenacity through this trip, and on the other, it is kind of discouraging to see just how much stuff he has endured.  In any case, here it is for the curious minds that want to know:

16 total biopsies

5 surgeries that removed 9 total spots of cancer

3 skin grafts

13+ frozen concerning spots 

4 weeks of chemo on the right hand

working on 6 weeks of chemo on the left hand

10 or so bottles of medicinal fireball drained at our home

25+ cases of wine consumed by the loving spouse

And... the profanity count is just too high to keep track.

Finally, May is National Skin Cancer Awareness Month.  I suppose everything has a month nowadays!  The link at the bottom has a few tips about sun safety that can help reduce your skin cancer risk.  Also, Friday, May 22nd, is "National Don't Fry Day."  It is celebrated on the day before Memorial Day Weekend to help remind us to enjoy our holiday safely in the sun.  I'm not sure how to personally celebrate this day, but am considering a tub of fries and an umbrella... or since it is "don't" fry day, maybe I better make that a tub of jo-jos and an umbrella... and wine, definitely wine.
  Don't Fry Day Tips