After the Kidney

After the surgery daddy was home resting for a few days then on to the holidays.  When they did the surgery there was some cancer on the liver, and because they had to move it around and remove some, his liver would be compromised even more since he already had cirrhosis of the liver.  This was the first time we saw his skin turn really yellow.  At the end his skin was a grey mixed with yellow, but for now it was yellow and the doctors said it would take a while to clear up.  The first round of radiation was already done, now it was the first round of chemo pill with all the side effects.  The first round.  There was a list a mile long of side effects, scary to read them but we needed to be aware.  The hair loss wasn't even a issue, actually we think he grew some hairs on the top of his head.  Kind of funny, but the most uncomfortable was the throat and the burning on the tongue and lips.  He got the bone aches, the tiredness. The tiredness, very very tired.  It was hard seeing daddy go through all the changes.  We were use to him being able to get up and go.  Now it was an effort to walk down the hallway, then sleeping was hard.  We would make meals for them, and usually something soft without any spices, momma couldn't have the spices either.  At first we/he thought the spices were what made his mouth burn more, but eventually it was just anything that touched his tongue and mouth area.  Some mornings I would go and make homemade butter biscuits,  Soups, abondigas and chicken, he would cool down before eating, and no tomatoes, just carrots and potatoes with the meat and very little salt.  They gave him a throat spray but it didn't help the taste of food, food had a metallic taste too.  Badoll would bring meals, Christina would make cocido.  But this was still the beginning of the weight loss, which by the end was significant and sadly noticeable.  But even with all this he tried to keep his goal of making through the cancer and fighting with everything he could.  STARBUCKS helped a lot, he loved to have strawberry frappacinos, something Christina introduced him too.  They were cool and sweet, diabetes sugar levels weren't even a priority by now.