Tom

Have you called the American Cancer Society for help yet? If not, they can help with alot of things like transportation to tx, helping financially up to $300 with prescription co-pays, or to lend an ear to listen. Sometimes they will even help to reimburse your travel mileage for tx. If you have the best insurance, the prescription co-pays still can add up very quickly when taking cancer meds. Some pills cost $100 each without insurance. A $25 or $40 co-pay on 6 or 7 prescriptions per week for a few months can really hit you hard.

Sounds like you are worried about finances, which is understandable. Cancer sure can get expensive. Check with where she is being treated, they probably have a financial services dept who is more than willing to work with patients. With the help from the hospital and ACS it should help you at least a little.

Ask at the hospital also about visiting nurses. My hospital had a program since I had the PEG tube for a nurse to come out a couple times per week to check on me and make sure the tube was ok. I only had her once or twice per week, but could have had her 5 times a week. If you go back to work, this would really help to ease your mind.

I also had the same type tx w/ cisplatin and 35 rad. It wasnt easy at all, but it is able to be done. After my first 2 cisplatin, the third dose was cancelled. It hit me pretty hard about 2 weeks after the first dose.

Since your wife now has the peg tube, now is the time to be pushing 48 or more oz of water daily and shoot for 3000 calories of liquid nutrition per day. She needs to build up strength now to fight what is coming. Since weight loss is a concern, even going over 3000 calories shouldnt hurt. At one point after tx I had been getting at least 5000 calories per day and didnt gain any weight, this went on for 2 months. Your body burns up calories like crazy trying to recover from cancer and the tx.

Hope your wife goes thru this easily.