What a difference a day makes

It's Saturday morning, and Linda is resting and recovering from a rather hectic week. The Thursday blood test showed very low hemoglobin levels, so the doctor said it was time for another blood transfusion. We were already scheduled to go to Bethesda North on Friday afternoon for another Thoracentesis, so the transfusion (which takes about 4 hrs) would have to be early in the morning. We went back over Thursday afternoon to get the blood crossmatched to save time Friday morning. In the meantime, Linda's breathing was getting worse and worse, and Thursday night was very hard for her. She wasn't able to walk into the treatment center Friday morning at 9am, so we were moving around Friday in a wheelchair. The transfusion went fine, and we got to the Thoracentesis appointment in the nick of time. Surprisingly, they drained off even more fluid (1275 ml) than they did on Wednesday. She started having some pain right away, which the doctor performing the procedure said was normal, as her lungs would be re-expanding into the area where the fluid was drained off. She was already starting to look better from the transfusion when we left the hospital at 4pm.

Last night though, even though her breathing was improving, the pain in her chest got a lot worse. Some heavy duty painkillers got her through the night, and it all seems to have subsided, at least for now. Even though she's still in bed, she looks, feels and sounds better than she has in weeks. Just in time, since Andrea is coming in later today.

Dr. Bhandari spent a lot of time with us Friday morning during the transfusion, even though we didn't have an appointment scheduled. He said he was checking with the drug manufacturer to see if there have been any other cases of low Albumin levels reported, as this is not listed as one of the side effects. He also put a call in to the doctors in Boston who treat a lot more cases to see if they've seen anything similar. In the meantime he is consulting with a Nephrologist (kidney specialist), since the Albumin is being expelled through her kidney. We'll probably have another appointment next week.

Dr. Bhandari went over the detailed radiologist report from Monday's CT scan with us, and the tumors in Linda's lungs are significantly smaller in volume, averaging around 50% smaller since the last scan only two months ago. He said he has never had a patient whose tumors responded so dramatically to this drug (Sutent), but at the same time he's never had a patient who had so many debilitating side effects either. He told Linda that she's in a war, and this was only the first battle. It's time to pull back and let your wounds from the battle heal, and then plan the next attack.

So we're officially on R&R this week. The sun's out, Andrea's on a plane on her way home, and Linda's even talking about having a glass of wine later-- so I know she must be feeling a little better.

That's all for now,

Jim