What a difference a day makes...
Or two days, in fact.
Alice seems to be improving. The steroids are working their magic and the swelling in her brain must be coming down--her speech has almost lost its hesitancy, she can walk short distances on her own, can get into bed and stand and sit by herself. The weakness on her left side is not nearly as noticeable. She moves more smoothly and naturally, smiles easily and jokes more readily. Still needs help getting in and out of Nan's new SUV/car/redthingy, still speaks softly, still tires easily but holy cow! A totally different woman than we saw Sunday and Monday.
She met with the radiation oncologist today (so did Nan and Jo and I) and decided to go ahead with radiation treatment for the brain tumours. (One tumour is very large--4.2 cm and two others are tiny--1/2 cm each. One tiny one is near the big one and the other is in another part of her head.) Had her first radiation treatment today. A long day--she was up and had a shower and breakfast. We arrived shortly after nine and she was having a meeting with the PT and the OT. Went for a short walk around the ward with them. Did well and they have prescribed a 4 wheeled walker to keep her steady as she goes. Lay down for 20 minutes and then we headed into London to meet with the radiation oncologist. Met him around 11:30 am, grabbed some lunch and then had a radiation mask fitting. They mold it to her face and head and make markings on it to pinpoint where the radiation will be aimed. The head part is for the aiming and the face part is for protection from the radiation. Had a 2.5 hour break, during which she dozed in one of the 'nap beds.' (I would like a series of 'nap beds' strategically placed all over the city. Will someone look into that for me? Thanks.) Radiation done at 4 pm and we were on the road back to Woodstock by 4:45 pm.
Backtrack: Dr. Ahmed (didn't see Dr. Reid--don't know why) prescribed 10 days of radiation, done on consecutive weekdays, He could have prescribed 5 days--but its the same amount of medication and the side effects are less if spread out over 10 days. There's a service called Voyageur Para Transit that will pick her up and return her to Woodstock Hosp (they don't have a radiation suite) each day. She'll lose her hair again--she was quite disappointed by that as her hair is only a couple of inches long, since falling out in January.
This treatment is to shrink the inflammation (beyond what the steroids can do) in the brain tissue and to hold off on the inevitable cognitive decline that occurs with brain tumours. She is not a candidate for surgery as the big tumour is too big and because they are in more than one place in her brain. Surgery would do more harm than good.
After leaving the hospital, and driving east out of London, she insisted on taking us out for dinner!! We were all flabbergasted. And tired, wanting the long day of waiting and seeing to be over. But, it seemed like the least we could do (!) so we stopped at Trissa's for dinner. Alice had the quiche, Nan had the liver, Jo had pasta carbonara and I had souvlaki. She was obviously tired but kept going. Meanwhile, the hospital had called Aunt Nan's house wondering where the hell we had gotten to, since 10 am!!!! We called back and promised to have her home by 7 pm. We squeaked in under curfew with only seconds to spare! Helped her change into her pajamas and were almost ready to tuck her into bed, when visitors arrived! She greeted nephew Rob and Lynndel warmly and chatted with life and energy in her face. We said our goodbyes and walked out with Nan, marveling at the change in two short days.
Two days ago, she couldn't rise from a chair without assistance. She had to walk with a support person on either side, could hardly respond to questions and listed to the left, noticeably. Her affect was flat and her movements were uncoordinated. Today was not perfect, but such a relief to see her functioning at a level much closer to average.
Now, I'm not getting ahead of myself. She still has all the same health risks: cancer in various places in her body, hemoglobin that won't stay up, hand tremours etc. She has yet to meet with her chemo-doc to discuss the bone marrow that doesn't seem to be doing its job. None of that has changed. Time is still relatively short. But she can think and express herself now. She can do things for herself and start to reclaim the dignity that fell away so quickly. And I don't have to worry about her every second.
So...Jo and I are home in Toronto for 2 nights. We'll be back at Nan and Chris' for the weekend, and see from there. Since we have the day off, so do you! No update tomorrow. We will be snoozing and snuggling our kitties and visiting Jo's mom and recharging. Hopefully, I will remember how to sleep now! We sat with some of the cousins last night after dinner and laughed and played pass the baby. Wonderful. It helped so much.
We love you all. Keep good thoughts. We're not out of the woods--but how nice to see the sun.
love, Robin.
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