I'm glad to say I couldn't have been more wrong about yesterday. Karen was awake and alert most of the day. I'm not sure if it's because she slept through Monday, if it's the new medication they gave her via IV, or if she's just getting use to the chemo - can you do that? She seems to be handling it much better this time around.
We were seeing her general care physician yesterday. He's been getting updates from Mayo Clinic via fax and is keeping up with everything going on. You can tell he really cares about Karen, and it's always nice to hear an outside medical opinion about her situation. It also makes it easy to get any paperwork filled out, such as return to work, or disability forms. During her visits, we have literally sit down with the doctor and his assistant - who happens to be his wife - and gone over whatever paperwork we have. When she asked about going back to work he was quick to say, "No, don't do that!" But said he'd be willing to sign a work release if that's what she really wants.
Karen has been having doubts about going back to work during her chemotherapy, especially since it's been so tough on her. I know she really likes everyone she works with and misses them, but it really seems less and less likely that she'll actually be able to work. She's been asking everyone what to do. I want her to be happy, but don't know what to suggest. She has a lot of side effects from chemo. Even if she can get around the usual nausea that bothered her almost the whole time the first two weeks, strong smells often make her nauseous. She's still on prescription pain medication. She never got over the cold sensitivity with her hands, it makes them tingle and hurt. Her white blood cell count is way down, which means she's susceptible to disease. And sometimes she just has to sleep. Staying out of work makes sense, but then what about all of her work friends? What about the satisfaction a good days work brings her? What about her job?
Karen's father came down to visit today. She figured her pump was about finished when he got here, so we went to Arizona Oncology to have it removed. We only waited 5 to 10 minutes before they took us back. There was 0.5 ml out of 100 ml left in the pump, but they disconnected it anyway. It was 99.5% finished; I guess that's good enough. We asked for some IV fluids like we had talked about with the PA, and another 5 to 10 minutes later they had it going. It's just a sterile solution of 0.9% sodium chloride, aka saline. This is suppose to help with the dehydration Karen's been experiencing, which is likely making her sleepiness and nausea worse, as those are symptoms of dehydration. It took about an hour, but Karen did feel better.
There had also been talk of receiving more of the anti nausea medication Aloxi, to be given during her return visit. But, like the saline, it didn't seem to get written down. We didn't have to twist any arms to get it, but when I asked they had to run off for a few minutes to get it approved. If I didn't think to mention it, we'd have gone without. The Aloxi is normally only given on the first day of your chemotherapy, and it stays in your system for two days. This explains why her nausea didn't really get bad last time until the pump came off, because the pump comes off after two days. Hopefully this will let us stay ahead of the nausea this time.
So far so good.
