Another Bump in the Road

Two weeks ago the doctor's office had him make an appointment with his Primary Care Physician because his blood sugar was going up, which is a side effect of prednisone.  Since he is in Maine, they made one with a Doctor of Internal Medicine right there at Moffitt.  We were there Thursday the 20th.  Blood sugar levels should be about 100, his was over 500.  I checked another blood test he had in December taken after being on prednisone and it was only 93.  So now he has to check his sugar level 4 times a day, before every meal and at bed time and give himself a shot of insulin at a dose based on his level.  This is a fast acting insulin.  At bed time he also has to give himself a shot of the slow acting insulin, so that is 5 shots a day.  Thank God it is so much easier now, no long syringe and bottles of insulin.  It's in a pen with a dial to measure your dose and the needle is only 6mm long.  The doctor told us today that he will need less insulin as his dosage of prednisone goes down.  He has 30 days left on it, after which his blood sugar should go back to normal.

It's this big vicious circle, they put you on a drug then you have to go on another to get rid of the side effects of the first, then another to get rid of the side effects of the second, and on and on and on.  It's a mess but will be well worth it if it takes care or slows down the cancer.

Two Blood Draws a Week

Not much to report, liver numbers coming down, being tested twice a week until liver is back to normal and will keep going into Dr.Weber's office every 2 weeks as scheduled but not get an infusion.  He has been able to get only 3 of the 10 infusions, it raises heck with his liver.  There is a plan B if the final results are not good, but we won't know what that is until we get the final results the beginning of April.  Wish we had more to report medically.  He is feeling lots better once he got back on the prednisone, a 50 day cycle.  He even played golf yesterday, about 11 holes.  Great improvement.

Much Better

Just brought Don home after 2 nights in the hospital.  His liver enzymes are going down to normal so he is feeling MUCH better.  He will be on prednisone for another 50 days which will bring him to the end of this 12 week cycle of the trial.  That means no more infusions.  The doctor said if these infusions are effecting the liver so adversely, think of what it's probably doing to the cancer.  I hope he's right.  His spirits are up and he's back to being very positive.  He can't wait to get back on the golf course.  Thanks for all your prayers and positive energy.

Three Steps Back

My last post was on the 27th, the next day, Tuesday the 29th, he had a pretty good day.  We sat outside visiting with friends most of the day.  In late afternoon he had to excuse himself to go lay down, he suddenly felt very tired.  Later that night he was freezing, I took his temp and it was 102.1.  He wanted to wait & keep an eye on it before calling the doctor.  By 11 p.m. it was down to 99.8.  The next morning it went to 100.2 so we called Moffitt.  Since there were no emergency beds available they had us go to Lakeland Regional Hospital to get evaluated and have the doctor there report back to Dr. Weber.  They did not find anything, no infection, lungs were OK, liver enzymes normal, kidneys OK, CT scan showed no abnormalities other than 2 spots on his liver, which we knew about.  Dr. Weber knew that a temp is a side effect of his latest infusion but since he had just had a liver biopsy he wanted to make sure there was no infection.

He has had a low grade temp since, his coughing is getting worse but nothing comes up, he has been feeling terrible and has had a very dry mouth and a terrible taste in his mouth.  He has been drinking lots of water, even during the night, but his urine was a dark orange this morning.  Dr. Weber had him go to the emergency room at Moffit this morning.  He has thrush, yeast infection in his mouth, and his liver enzymes are very high.  They have admitted him and given him a strong dose of steroids in his IV.  I seriously doubt that he will get his infusion on Wednesday and I don't know where they are going to go from here.