The Visit with the Doctor

He is convinced that the source of Mary's back pain is a conventional compressed vertebra and not a metastasized cancer--x-rays, CT scans, bone scans, MRI, PET-CT scan combo plus her CA-19-9 all lead him to that conclusion. CA-19-9 is a blood test looking for markers that indicate cancer and it has been declining regularly over the past few months. As a result, he does not need to see Mary until March. No chemo, no blood tests, no nothing from the Oncology folks for three months!

As for the pain, he wrote additional script for the fentanyl patch which will carry Mary forward for a while. He is also requesting Mary have a visit with the IR (Interventional Radiology) folks to see if they can do something to help her with the pain. For example, they might be able to do a needle procedure and inject a cement to help take the pressure off the compressed vertebra so it would have a better chance of healing. (This is described in the National Institute of Health link below.)

For those who are interested, here are links to a couple of sites with information about compressed vertebrae. Click for the National Institute of Health or University of Maryland Spine Center (with pictures!) The cure tends to be simply to let it heal--about 8 to 10 weeks, apparently.

Mary was feeling a bit better last night and made dinner without my help. It seems that having her on the three quarters of an adult patch is the right amount for her back pain.

If Mary weren't hit so hard by the narcotics, this wouldn't be so bad. But we are constantly walking the fine line between the level of pain in her back versus the problem of her stomach's reaction to the narcotics.

All in all, this appears to be very good news--its basically a broken, but very painful, broken bone.