CaringWife
Member
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2013
- Messages
- 24
- Diagnosis
- 09/2010
- Country
- US
- State
- OR
- City
- Western
Hi All,
I bought the therma wrap heat wraps last night, and it helped him a lot. We have to be careful of his back because he has radiation damage to the kidney area, and the skin where he was radiated is literally paper thin. We were able to place the wrap just below the burned area. He woke up this morning, and his back feels better.
As far as him getting a cane or a walker, I know this is going to have to be his call. We haven't told anybody yet about what is going on with him except our pastor. This will be the first real proof that something is wrong when he needs some kind of an aid to walk. He will fight this because that is just the nature of his personality. He has fought disability his whole life because of his childhood cancer. Back in 1960 when he had kidney cancer (Wilm's Tumor) at the age of three, they removed his left kidney at Children's Hospital in Boston and gave him cobalt radiation treatments at the Dana Farber Cancer Insititute. He went there weekly for three years for chemo and radiation. That is just the way it was back then, very primitive cobalt radiation. (60Gy) It saved his life, but left him horribly burned both front and back in the kidney area. His ribs never grew past age 3 on the left, and he developed severe scoliosis from the radiation as well. His arms and legs grew to normal proportions, but his torso is very short. He caves in a little more each year. He used to be taller than me, but is now about 3 inches shorter. In spite of this, he started his own construction company, and goes off to work each day working right alongside his crew. He is a man's man, and never complains about anything. Because he has always walked with a bit of a loping gait due to the scoliosis, I don't think people have realized what is happening to him, so nobody has mentioned that his legs seem weak, or that he is walking funny. To me it is so obvious because I study him, and know him so very well, plus I see the atrophy in his legs when he takes his pants off. Anyway, I think the back is going to be a real problem area for him as this progresses because he has problems there to begin with. Just a little ancient history on the love of my life.
Ellen
I bought the therma wrap heat wraps last night, and it helped him a lot. We have to be careful of his back because he has radiation damage to the kidney area, and the skin where he was radiated is literally paper thin. We were able to place the wrap just below the burned area. He woke up this morning, and his back feels better.
As far as him getting a cane or a walker, I know this is going to have to be his call. We haven't told anybody yet about what is going on with him except our pastor. This will be the first real proof that something is wrong when he needs some kind of an aid to walk. He will fight this because that is just the nature of his personality. He has fought disability his whole life because of his childhood cancer. Back in 1960 when he had kidney cancer (Wilm's Tumor) at the age of three, they removed his left kidney at Children's Hospital in Boston and gave him cobalt radiation treatments at the Dana Farber Cancer Insititute. He went there weekly for three years for chemo and radiation. That is just the way it was back then, very primitive cobalt radiation. (60Gy) It saved his life, but left him horribly burned both front and back in the kidney area. His ribs never grew past age 3 on the left, and he developed severe scoliosis from the radiation as well. His arms and legs grew to normal proportions, but his torso is very short. He caves in a little more each year. He used to be taller than me, but is now about 3 inches shorter. In spite of this, he started his own construction company, and goes off to work each day working right alongside his crew. He is a man's man, and never complains about anything. Because he has always walked with a bit of a loping gait due to the scoliosis, I don't think people have realized what is happening to him, so nobody has mentioned that his legs seem weak, or that he is walking funny. To me it is so obvious because I study him, and know him so very well, plus I see the atrophy in his legs when he takes his pants off. Anyway, I think the back is going to be a real problem area for him as this progresses because he has problems there to begin with. Just a little ancient history on the love of my life.
Ellen
