Mary bought fresh halibut at the market and I baked that along with cooking fresh green beans and baking potatoes. Although I found dinner quiet tasty, the fentanyl is affecting her taste buds so she didn't eat all that much. It isn't an appetite problem, its that the narcotic is affecting her taste buds and causing most foods to simply taste bad. Mary's weight is staying constant so that is good news.
Mary's daughter, Lara, called yesterday. Mary really perks up when she gets phone calls from friends and family. My guess is that being home alone all day with Idjit Dawg and the sedentary Miss Shawna is a little too quiet.
Mary is not driving because the fentanyl is a very strong narcotic and she can tell her concentration and reflexes are not 100%. Its the safe and sound thing to do--not drive.
During a phone call with her son, Tim, on Saturday, the next steps were clarified for me. I thought the IR doctors would be calling Mary in for a consult. I was wrong. Instead, the Oncologist forwarded all the tests (x-ray, PET-CT Combo scan, MRI, bone scan and blood test results) and if the IR folks thought they could be of benefit to Mary's problem, they would then ask her to come in for a consult. In other words, there is no plan for Mary to see a doctor about this back pain. If you read the links I listed previously, you know the healing cycle is 8-10 weeks. And, in the case of a compressed thoracic vertebrae, doing nothing may be just as good as doing something.
My touchstone on this was years ago while in Stockholm and broke a rib or two from falling while walking on ice. The doctor said, "I can put you in a torso cast that will totally constrain you and in 8 weeks you'll be healed. Or, we can do absolutely nothing and in two months you'll be healed. Which do you want to do?" From the reading I have done and depending on the nature of Mary's compressed vertebrae, it may be the best thing is to do nothing. We shall see!
The current plan for the doctors (assuming no request from the IR docs) is pretty straightforward. A six month checkup with the radiation doctor is set for mid-January. This is the guy who, as the surgeon put it, "cooked Mary's innards." Then another followup with the surgeon sometime in mid-February. Then the oncologist in the middle of March and that includes a scan (CT? MRI? PET&CT combo? bone? who knows?) to check for metastasizing cancer.
From time to time, Mary can still feel the back pain through the narcotic so she is not ready to give up the patch. Between what we have in our possession and the script written by the doctor on the last visit, she has almost a month's supply. That is a good chunk of the six to eight week healing period.
That is all for now! Keep the prayers and good energy coming. She has to get past this bad back thing!
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