No "walk in the park”

Well, we thought Robin would be fairly mobile this week and able to go for walks. Instead, she has been feeling a little sicker each day. She seemed fine as today began, but then had a gagging episode that lasted several minutes, and that triggered a nose bleed which would not stop!

We were headed to the outpatient clinic anyway, we just didn't expect her to be pinching her nose shut with a kleenex for the entire taxi ride. After an hour in the doctor's office (still pinching her nose - don't they have some kind of clamp for this?) and some Afrin nasal spray, it seemed to be holding well enough to complete our two appointments. Her nose still bleeds a little now and then but at least there is no flooding! All this work tired her out so by 5pm she was in bed trying to relax and take a nap (lately she seems a bit jittery too - apparently another effect of the tumor).

The visit to the radiation folks wasn't very reassuring. Now that we're meeting with the folks who actually administer the treatments they are more specific about what to expect. There's the usual claim about how some patients have gone through this with little impact, but then they noted that getting chemo and radiation at the same time ("chemoradiotherapy") usually magnifies side effects. A "typical" patient ends up with a throat so sore that not only can they not swallow any food (they get all their nutrition through the feeding tube), but they typically end up using fentanyl patches (80 times stronger than morphine) to control the pain. They also suggested we plan to stay in New York for a few days after radiation ends - some patients go home immediately then they end up in the hospital at home with fatigue and dehydration!

Antway - we're excited that radiation is beginning because it should start to slowly decrease the tumor size, then next Monday's chemo should again help knock it down significantly. Today's size should be the largest the tumor ever gets again - from now on it's only going to get smaller!