April 22

Hi to all,

Another week, another medical report. We saw Dr. Meena today, who reported that all of Denny's blood work is perfect, which is a little surprising since he just finished a tough round of chemo and is still taking medicine for pneumonia. The nerve pain in his face is still very bad sometimes, but we have everything from pain patches to morphine to deal with that. Next week we are going to see a pain specialist, who, I hope, will have something other than oral medications to deal with this. The Tegretol takes care of the pain, but it leaves Denny weak, fatigued (even more than usual,) and somewhat confused.

We are going to make another slight adjustment to the steroid intake, now going down to 5 mg. per day. In all likelihood he will have to stay on these to keep the brain swelling from the tumor under control, but less is better, if possible. We will get another look at that tumor after the next five days of chemo next month. So far it's just staying put, which is the good news in all of this. Oh, and the other good news is that it appears that all of the blood clots in Den's legs have dissolved. So when he does get enough strength to get back to exercising, it should be more comfortable for him. He was carrying about 16 pounds of water around in those swollen legs!

Thanks, again, for connecting via the blog. We surely appreciate your comments and e-mails!

Love,
Carla

So, that's it for today.