Skinny as a Rail

  Visited with my folks today to deliver Mother's Day gifts to my Mom--she already declared she wanted to spend Mother's Day planting flowers in their yard (her therapy).  Dad is being cautious to go out in public for fear of getting sick before he starts his first round of chemo on Tuesday.   And he's declared he's planning on being house bound for the next six months.  He said he's had diarrhea for 30 hours straight since Friday  and almost went to the hospital last night (it was the absence of a fever that kept him at home).   Mom thinks his diarrhea struck after he started reading the 15-page cancer booklet the doctor gave him earlier in the week, chocked full of precautionary statements, side effects, and what to expect during chemo.   Understandably, that would scare the stuffing out of me too.  My poor dad is down to 150 lbs.   I'm feeling helpless.   I spend as much time a I can talking with him and trying to accompany him to doctor's appointments.  Talking about the boat, the garden, the kids, and politics, gets his mind off his problems, but that only works for a little while.   Tried to take my mom out to lunch for Mother's Day, but she wanted to stay home with my dad.    Lots of friends and family ask, "What can I do?"  Cards and prayers lift him up.  This is a big week:  the start of chemo.  He'll have to stay at the hospital for 4-6 hours after they start injecting the drugs in him to see if he's allergic to anything.   He already has a list of medicine allergies as long as his arm.  Praying for the best.