March 27

Hi,
It's been another week of doctor appointments, tests, and new prescriptions. After repeated visits to Den's doctors, a CT scan of his skull, and the usual weekly blood tests, we are pretty much at the same place as last week, only the pain in his left ear and the area around it is worse. In short, Denny has had a miserable week. The doctors all agree that the pain is probably from the shingles, although most of them on his face, in his ears, and on his head have disappeared.

Today we met with Dr. Meena and Dr. Howard at the same time. Both advised that Denny should start on a prescription for nerve pain and stop the Tylenol and Vicadin because his liver function tests are always out of whack on those drugs. Plus, because he had developed thrush in his mouth from all of the antibiotics and steroids, he had to take an anti-fungal med for that, which also had a negative impact on the liver enzymes. Hopefully, this new drug will slowly diminish the pain
over the next few days and keep it at bay for as long as it takes to go away. Until things are better the next round of chemo is on hold.

Both doctors emphasized the positive, which is that the tumor remains unchanged.
That really is good news. Neither doctor expects Denny to be selected for the Cleveland Clinic trial because the tumor is stable, but the doctors there will have all of the records should we ever have to go there. Steve (Howard) personally knows all of the radiation oncologists at CC, so there certainly is comfort in that.

There's not much else for news. Like everyone else, we are hoping that the snow that is predicted for the weekend will find its way elsewhere. I'm ready to trade shoveling for scooping up geese poop from our front yard -- I'm really sick of winter and I'm ready for the yard work. In all honesty, though, I didn't have to do all of the shoveling this year because the seniors from school came over and took care of that most of the time. What great kids. As Denny has always said, "Only at Xavier....."

Thanks for checking in. Have a good weekend!

Love,
Carla