Whew, its been a helluva 11 days - 08-22-2003 07:21 PM
Hi everyone, I hope you are all doing well. We (my Mom) just finished our third cycle of twice daily radiation therapy, leaving her with two more cycles to go! I was afraid to continue with the third cycle though considering her week off: hospitalized with dehydration, malnutrition, pneumonia, erratic heart beat, trouble breathing, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, fever, skin breakdown, halucinations, loss of continence, severe mucositis and surgery for the PEG. Fortunately things turned around and we were able to weather a very ugly storm. With the exception of having a "very angry mouth" (her doctor's words), we proceeded, using very effective pain management narcotics, and knocked out the third week. It feels good to get that under our belts. The CT scan doesn't show the tumor anymore, but the last physical exam still indicated a small mass, so I'm not exactly comfortable relying solely on a CT scan. We'll see what next week's exam shows. In any event, I look forward to having a more comfortable week off, as the last one was down right nasty. At the moment Mom is feeling great and just waiting out the final hours of her 5FU drip so that we can bring her home for a week of rest. Have a great weekend everyone. You're in my thoughts and prayers.
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