Sunday, September 25, 2011

A Difficult Morning

Meagan's knees are still pretty banged up from her falls ten days ago, and are causing a fair bit of pain. I think some of her walking this last week (we did the Greenlake loop on Wednesday, which is 2.8 miles) exacerbated the situation, so this morning we iced up the right one and she will take it easy today. But that is not the only problem. Her back is sore - we don't know if that is the result of the falls or an indicator of something else. It is not in the same location as the pain that led to the diagnosis of the spinal tumors. She also has an unusual pain and tingling and numbness in her right arm that runs from her wrist to her shoulder. This showed up a couple days ago - it's hard to believe it is fall-related. So net net, I am more than a little concerned that the spinal tumors are spreading and causing some nerve impingement leading to pain. For now, a couple ibuprofen work to ease it, but I am going to get her in to see Dr Kaplan tomorrow. It may be we have to accelerate the schedule for the spinal column CT scan.

Her tumor on her left upper arm is definitely growing again, and she wants it cut out. It is a very good indicator that the Temodar is no longer working (as if new brain tumors were not sufficient confirmation). All of this means our week ahead just got more complicated and busy - it takes two visits with the surgeon to get the tumor out (initial consult, then in-office procedure), plus Kaplan visit, likely CT scan of spine, previously scheduled Gammaknife treatment for brain tumors on Thursday, and then Kaplan will probably want to start the new chemo ASAP if we see him tomorrow.

It's no wonder she was pretty upset and teary this morning - lots of evidence of the disease impacting her life, including pain and discomfort, which until recently has largely been absent.

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