On Occasions You Will Have to Deal With Me

Due to Judy feeling pretty ordinary over the last couple of days coupled with the fact we have had a number of appointment in the last week we felt it would be best if I got of my backside and contributed to give you all an update.

Firstly while I say that she has been ordinary she is OK but has just been spending most the time between appointments resting and then feels awful then telling everybody she has been feeling terrible. Anyway moving past that and following the trip to the cardioligist on Tuesday we went to see Palliative Care on Wednesday, what a pleasant visit. Firstly Dr Lee was on time, he grabbed us while we were still waiting to check in, he was far more personable and has a history of Judy's case, while we were probably only their for 20 mins he covered everything. We walked away thinking how great it is to have such professional help even to the point where he was solving problems other doctors should have known about, such as the happy drugs leading to an increased white blood cell count. The outcome of the visit was that he dropped the dossage of the happy drug and also felt that based on how Judy appeared and felt that we should drop the daily dossage of morphine by a third. This coupled with the increase in the dossage of the heart drug from the day before meant we had 3 drug changes all going on at once. The result of this was that Judy had her worst two days for quite some time on Thursday & Friday so we increased the morphine back to the original dossage on Friday evening and Judy has begun to feel much better over the last two days. While she feels better, she still feels tired and has lost her appetite a bit. While we can rationalise this in our heads as side effects of the dossage changes and we are happy that her test results are moving in the right direction we need to make sure she stays active. With this in mind it was great to see her spend on hour outside this evening watching the boys ride their bikes after dinner, even though she froze her backside off in the middle of summer.

Come Thursday it was time to head off for a CT scan and the joys of drinking the lovely (not) fluid before the scan. We picked up the results on Friday morning and were pleasantly surprised to find that the majority of tumors had stayed the same, some even showed minor shrinkages. The major tumor in her liver had increased slightly but considering the last cycle of chemo was about 2 months ago we saw the overall result as very positive.

Also on Friday we had an appointment with the gastroenterologist to try to find out if the ulcerative colitis was the reason behind the blood appearing on occassions when going to the loo, it may have also been a reason for the high white blood cell count. While we parted with $250 for 15 mins work we did find out that the antibiotics Judy had been taking for a month have a history of causing bowel flare ups which can result in blood. Fortunately the doctor prescribed an antibiotic that is supposed to help ease the flare up, yet another drug. Then just to add more pain to the day we stopped on the way home for the blood test from hell. I wasn't the one the nurse was jabbing with the syringe while moving it all over the place to try and get the blood flowing. As usual they tried to blame it on not drinking enough water but by the end of the second canister being filled the blood was flowing well and all the way down Judy's arm, not a good way to keep your patient calm.

So that was the end of visits for that week which was pretty full on and could also have been a reason for Judy feeling a bit off. Come the new week and we kicked it off with another visit to the cancer clinic to see if we could get chemo started. Once again while the appointment was for noon we didn't end up going in until after 1:30pm only to find that we had the same doctor from the nightmare appointment a fortnight ago. While I could go on forever about him I will only say that the appointment was a huge improvement on the last visit, it's amazing what happens when the doctor has prior knowledge of the case. The one funny piece was that when he advised us that the white blood cell count had dropped he then proceeded to tell us it was a result of the batch of antibiotics that Judy had taken since the last visit. Due to us feeling the antibiotics were causing Judy's bowels harm she didn't take the cycle of antibiotics, so it's interesting that this is what caused the drop. If they worked better as a team they may have realised that the Dex (happy drugs) can push white blood cell counts up and the reduction in the dossage probably caused the drop. Judy didn't say anything about not taking the antibiotics so I wasn't going to put my foot in it, this became our secret which Judy later shared with the community nurse. With the white blood cell count reducing they were happy to get Judy started on the oral chemo so as I type she had the first of five tablets a couple of hours ago. The other news that came out of the appointment was that when Judy's case was being reveiwed by the higher powers the felling was that if her heart continues to improve then they might be able to push for b-raf in March. It's great to potentially have that option again but we are not getting our hopes up to much in that we believe that even without b-raf we will beat this disease, all b-raf will do if that's the road we take is accelerate the time it will take to beat it.

With all the appointments and news to share on these I haven't said much else about what is going on with us but I am sure Judy will enjoy sharing thoughts on our planned trip in the camper trailer to Blue Lagoon up at Bateau Bay. We were able to organise the trip due to the fact we already have a good chunk of the house packed up. Based on our last visit it's a great place to go and it's an added bonus that Fiona, Barry and the girls and also my Aunt & Uncle will be staying in the same caravan park. Also fast approaching on the radar is Matt starting big school, we were able to tick the last item off our list on the weekend when we got him his first pair of school shoes. Now his go but she can fill you in on that next time.

For those that are with me I will go now so I can join Judy in slumberland. Take care.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP!