As if dealing with cancer isn't enough...

My Dad has had an eventful week! On Monday he was in for a regular check up when it was discovered that his white blood cell count and platelets were both a bit low. This is something that they will be vigilant about now that he is on the Sutent, and it is not totally unexpected for this to occur. While there, he also had a bite on his leg that the nurse practitioner checked out for him and since it seemed to be infected, and with his counts on the low side, she prescribed a course of antibiotics for him. However, a couple of days later he began to feel very sick. We don't know if it was the antibiotic itself, or the combination of the antibiotic and the Sutent that caused this, but regardless he was feeling awful by Thursday. He was supposed to have had an MRI on Friday to see how he is faring with his treatments, but he was feeling so poorly that this just wasn't possible. Instead, he went back to the doctor's office where they re-hydrated him and took a more detailed look at his bite. It turns out that the bite may be an infected tick bite and as a precaution, they are testing him and treating him for Lyme disease. The test results will take about 5 days to receive, so we will know something definitive by mid to late next week. As of today, he is feeling better and is mostly just suffering from fatigue now.
Every family probably has a "googler' these days, and it's me in ours. So of course I have googled Lyme disease. I'm relieved to see that if in fact he has Lyme's, it's very treatable and the complications that we hear about are usually because it goes undetected for a long time and is therefore left untreated.
Jacquie and Louis are visiting with my parents and so thankfully my mom has had some help with picking up prescriptions and food and general things like that. My dad sadly missed out on playing golf with them this morning though :( Hopefully he will be feeling up to getting back at it sooner than later, there is a 4th of July tournament that he has his sights set on, so we'll keep our fingers crossed!
The MRI that was cancelled on Friday is rescheduled now for the 10th. In the meantime, my dad will be followed closely in the doctor's office and we hope the infection will resolve and that his strength will be restored. Thanks for checking in again and for keeping our family in your thoughts and prayers! Lovingly ~ the Daniel family