Journal entry by Ken Low —
Ken healed pretty quickly from the horse injury so by February 2018 he was feeling good and moving well. Then our world slipped again - his PSA numbers were rising - the cancer was on the move. We, of course, went back to the oncologist hoping for more magical treatments, but his bag of tricks was getting low. We asked him about Ken's prognosis and he really wouldn't say. He just said since we have the means, we should enjoy and travel while we can. He took Ken off the Zytiga and we went back to the same chemo drug he had used in 2016. The chemo began working on the cancer again and reduced his PSA numbers again. This time, though, it came with more side effects. Ken's digestive system was not handling the chemo well and this limited some of the things we could do. We still managed though to go with Ken's twin sister, Kit, and her husband, Bob, to Branson Missouri in April and had a great time. Ken threw me a wonderful 60th birthday party at the beginning of May -- and then Ken and I flew to California over Memorial Day weekend and traveled north to see the redwoods - so majestic! And at the beginning of June we threw an exciting Luau party and had our family and friends over friends over to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary!! We've been flying fast and furious while we can, because we know Ken's time is limited. And that begin said, we just found out in mid June that the cancer is growing again... and this time it has moved to his liver. I took him to ER 3 nights running for pain that week. I asked the oncologist what to do for his pain - I couldn't keep taking him to ER - he didn't have any answers so he referred us to pain management. We had begun noticing the chemo was affecting Ken's movement and he's was struggling with fatigue. And that weekend he lost control of his legs. I called on my sons for help. Chris and I decided it was time to talk to someone else so we called Visiting Nurses and they came out to talk to us. At that point we realized the chemo was doing harm and not helping any longer, so after much discussion, we determined it was time for Ken to go on hospice care so we'd have help managing his pain. Since then, he's gotten the use of his legs back. Now it's one day at a time.
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