David,
We actually moved to Alaska from FLORIDA!!!! Now we live in NY, but he WORKS in Alaska.

Thank you guys so much. I will pass the message along. I'm still kind of shocked he's there after everything we went through. I NEVER dreamed he'd be back already.
Maria, the humidifier is a GREAT idea. We have one at home. I will send him an email tonight and suggest it. I don't know what they have there as I've never been. I'd love to go up and see the camp, but it's not allowed.
Thanks for the input guys!! Talk to ya' soon.
Kathy

Kevin found a humidifier!! Hopefully it will help!

Excellent, Kathy. If nothing else, I bet it will help him to sleep more soundly. Please send him my best wishes. Maybe he would find a little story about our experiences amusing. When my husband was using Vicodin during toward the end of his TX and for about a half a week thereafter, I drove him to work as he was pretty fuzzy on the drugs. He hated it. I can't, it seems, drive properly (not that I'm the one with accidents on my record, but what of that). So with the driving as an incentive, he dropped the vicodin entirely. Drove himself to work and back, then had withdrawal symtoms all night. He was a very sad puppy. While I wasn't terribly sympathetic at the time, it did his spirts a lot of good to drive himself.

That's funny Maria. Turns out I can't drive properly either!! But, I have NEVER had a ticket or an accident that was my fault. I have been slammed into by a woman doing who knows what and didn't see the red light, but nothing that I caused!! I'll send Kevin your best wishes.
I was wondering...will your husband have another PET soon?

Is it a chemorad thing or a boy thing re the driving? As sick as he was, my Alex nearly got himself dropped off on the side of the road quite a few times whilst I was driving him to and from appointments. The only time we had no argument about my driving (which I used to do for a living by the way) was when he was too sick to talk !

Your husband is suffering from a severe handicap - BEING MALE. This "I am the only one who can drive properly" defect doesn't have a thing to do with cancer!!

Donna

Wow! does this ring a bell with me! It's true, the "I'm the only one who can drive properly" seems to be a MALE thing. And also associated with recovery from OC. I used to drive for a living, too - as a school bus driver in Chicago. Once, on the way home from Rad Tx, all of a sudden my son shouted, Stop the Car!! Stop the Car!! We were in a residential area in a very narrow section of road - and not realizing what was wrong, I pulled over to the side. Then I heard, "No, no!! not here, up ahead by the bushes!! - where Paul opened the passenger side door, leaned over and the nausea took over, fertilizing the bushes. I happened more than once, and for the life of me I don't know why the thought never occurred to me to have a throw up bucket in the car!! (a paper towel in the bucket helps in the clean up). I had everything else - Lots of water, lots of towels, tissues, etc. but no Throw-Up bucket! Cancer takes away the control of so many things in a person's life, and for the Left brain male, being in control of something is important, so directing someone's driving becomes a small thing for the caregiver to allow him to have. I would try to find other ways Paul could be in control, like giving him choices: "Do you want chicken broth or beef broth?"; "Want a big spoon or little spoon?" "Do you want to take the expressway or the back roads to get to Rad Tx?", etc.

Anne-Marie wrote -
"Cancer takes away the control of so many things in a person's life, and for the Left brain male, being in control of something is important, so directing someone's driving becomes a small thing for the caregiver to allow him to have. "

Yes - I think that's a big part of it. A friend's husband had diabetes-related kidney failure. It was a stellar day when his and his new kidney could drive again - without her!

I'm not sure its entirely male, though - with my recent adventures in auto-immune world, my pleas for him to drive slower in the snow increase when my inflamation/anxiety level is up! My reumatologist decided yesterday that my current diagnosis is RA, not Lupus AND RA, so that's a good thing. We will see what my inflamatory markers look like when the blood work comes back.

Kathy -
not sure when/if another PET will be scheduled. He has an RO appointment next week, and an ENT visit in on Valentine's day. Will update when there is something to update.

Great advice Anne-Marie and very well said! amazing insight into how we overbearing males work, I know its true for me.

Eric