The 5 days in a row of a higher dose chemotherapy began on Monday the 31st. In the previous post I was commenting about the importance of not getting complacent as I move into this next phase of treatment. That was very true. As the week went on, my fatigue level increased, calling for more frequent naps, and my nausea increased and appetite decreased, limiting my ability to eat some foods and decreasing the quantity I could be comfortable with.
In parallel with this has been increasing discomfort/pain around one end of the incision on my head (from July/August surgeries). We saw Dr. Sloan, the surgeon, on Thursday. He examined it, and offered his view that there was a 99% chance all was fine. However, at our insistence, he moved up the date of the next MRI scan from February 4 to January 8th. The nurse also requested some additional blood work, which showed improved cell counts over the week before and nothing of serious concern. However, the swollen spot on my head changed rapidly on Friday, with a blister forming over the area by evening. By this morning, it had burst. As Susanne was cleaning it up, she observed pus coming out. We contacted the doctor and were advised to come down to the ER to be seen. Dr. Sloan’s resident-on-call indicated that it looked as if an abscess had formed around a suture (stitch) that was not smoothly dissolving from the August surgery. He was confident there did not seem to be any leaking of fluid from the brain cavity. I see it as my hard head not letting go of the sutures, as it should...need to practice some more detachment like Susanne! He prescribed antibiotics and indicated that I should Dr. Sloan on Wednesday after the MRI on Tuesday..
Also going on this week, is the deteriorating condition of my dear friend Stephanie Dornbrook. On Tuesday, her daughter, Mara, sent the following message:.
“My mother's health has been steadily decreasing over the past days. I would like to request prayers for her, as her soul prepares for its journey to the next world. I would also like to request No visits, No food, No phone calls as our family spends our moments privately with our mother. Thank you for all of your love, support and prayers. With great affection, Mara Dornbrook Fojas”
3 comments:
The rest of the story….
It’s been a calm, peaceful week. I’m still working on settling down the antibodies that are still actively attacking my left eye, but the auto-immune activity is decreasing.
I looked at the 2008 work goals I set and decided I needed to finish a project I began a year ago: reorganizing our office area to better support the current work. It has been both positive physical effort and an act of self-discipline to reorganize the filing system, box up old materials, and handle all the piles on my office floor and desktop! As I see the progress, I’m feeling more empowered with moving forward. And, I’m glad to have unearthed a few missing items!
Running in parallel with taking control of my office area has been sorting out what I have control over with Craig’s health this week and what I don’t. Changing his diet is improving his blood counts…although he continues to growse about “green gook”. The chemo this week affected what food he could tolerate and the quantity he could eat though, so each meal was an adventure in adjustment. It helped that he had minimal nausea.
Every few hours all week I checked what was happening with Craig’s head. I am glad the surgeon was willing to schedule an MRI to check more deeply what is occurring. When the blister formed, I began to imagine bad scenarios… I laid out a sterile gauze pad in case it burst. Then, I managed to pray and sleep well, trusting that we would deal with whatever occurred. It ended up bursting while we both slept unaware! While it was difficult to spend the morning at the emergency room, I’m also relieved that it appears potentially less serious than we thought it might be. A reminder once again how important it is to wait for the facts before responding.
I spent part of the afternoon doing price comparison among pharmacies, as our health insurance has changed and we will be paying cash for prescriptions until our deductible is met. I found out in the process just how expensive chemo is! For 15 pills (Craig’s dose for a week) the cost ranged from $2300 to $2700! Between that and the ER trip this morning, our deductible looks like it will be met by February!
I’m going back and forth between praying for Stephanie and her family and trying to pretend it’s not happening. Then I imagine it’s us…and go back into denial.
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Craig, thanks for your comment on my blog. Hopefully in the near future we will all understand the relationship of nutrition/supplements to our healing. It seems best to just choose a path and while we're on it, try not to see too many other choices. For me, this causes great stress, which I am trying to avoid ... but something deep inside me says: you are what you eat. Ah, I need to practice detachment too.
My prayers for you both,
susan
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