Cancer Diary June 2001

Wednesday, June 6

Unscheduled office visit: Before leaving for work today Neila began experiencing great distress; she was disoriented and complained of considerable female pain. Fearing a repeat of last month, I called Dr. Sharma's office. His nurse, after listening to my description of her symptoms and consulting with the doctor, recommended we bring her in. They found some urinary tract infection and gave here a new round of antibiotics and we came home.

Wednesday, June 19

Office visit: Since seeing Dr. Sharma on the 6th of this month, Neila has not really been "with it." Her mental alertness has slowed noticeably, her equilibrium is worse, she complains more of pain in the old places plus some new ones; and she is nauseated, often with vomiting, most mornings. We did an x-ray this morning, which showed a visible build-up of stool in the intestines, but there was nothing specific he could point to for the range of changes in her symptoms, and there were no noticeable change in the cancer-affected parts of her lung. During her recent hospital stay she did a battery of tests, all with negative results, and the doctor did not think there was much new to learn so soon . He prescribed a stool softener and recommended she take both Compazine and Zofran at night to preempt morning nausea. For our next Office Visit, scheduled for July 17th, he wants a new bone scan, something called a "KUB," and and x-ray of her right leg (the site of the new pain). He also told us to use two of the 25 mg/h Duragesic® patches to combat her pain but keep in touch