Yesterday was the regularly scheduled CT scan of my lungs and abdomen, a scan that takes place once every three months. It's meant to reveal what's happening (or not) with the primary tumor in my kidney and with other tumors, such as those on my spine, that might evidence changes.
In the two weeks between having seen Dr. Hashmi and yesterday's scans, things were generally up and down. On the one hand, the worrisome diarrhea, probably caused mainly by the Votrient, abated, in part because I took two weeks off from the Votrient for the first time (I've been back on it now for five days) and because the morphine, which I take for pain in lieu of Percocet, seems to have a strong opioid-induced constipation effect. My right leg still doesn't work very well, though there is somewhat more flexibility. Two days of leaving the house and thus doing more walking (yesterday for the scan and the day before to do some errands) seem to have left it much stiffer than it was before. I don't think that the morphine is more effective than the Percocet in controlling pain, even though the morphine is time released; I may not sleep more often now, but certainly the sleep is deeper and harder to wake from. It's discouraging to have so little energy and to ache when standing or climbing stairs or getting in or out of bed.
The CT scans take place at Stormont-Vail Hospital here, rather than at the affiliated cancer center because the machine is newer there, and Medicare demands that the newest machine in the system be used. Mohamed and I got checked in at noon, and they brought me my two large glasses of Kool-Aid flavored water. And hour later, the water sloshing around inside me, I was wheeled away for the scans. We will see Dr. Hashmi on Thursday and get the results then.
I was supposed to have an MRI on my hip and femur on Wednesday, but the hospital called yesterday to reschedule. After the claustrophobic, hour-long experience I had had with the enclosed MRI during our last visit to the ER, I had asked for an open-sided MRI at a different facility. Evidently, the stent in my heart isn't compatible with this machine, so I'll have to wait till July 15th for the MRI and then have it in the same machine from the last time. That was the first time I got panicky while having an MRI. I did manage to get through it, but there were a few unpleasant moments when I wasn't sure. This time, I'll take a Xanax just in case.
I'd hoped to have the results from both the CT scan and the MRI when we see Dr. Hashmi on Thursday, because I would like to make some decisions about what next in terms of treatment. We'll hope the CT results are sufficient.
On a side note, one of the problems of the last several weeks has been a lack of appetite and continuing nausea. A childhood friend, who follows the blog, who noted (literally) a couple of my culinary preferences, and who now lives in Seattle, had FedEx overnight me four dozen oysters from the Pike Place Market (I think I ate about 40 of them myself) and then sent two rounds of one of my very favorite (and runniest and smelliest) of all French cheese, époisses. My appetite suddenly reappeared.
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