Back on Sutent

Another week of doctor's visits. Tuesday we had a stress test (Just what we need--more stress). Linda was in no shape for a treadmill, so it was a chemically induced stress test. We got the results Friday, and they were the same as the echocardiogram--Linda's heart is fine. Saturday, Sunday and Monday were a bit strange though. Linda was acting a little unusual, and we wonder if the bump on her head wasn't more severe than we first thought. This was compounded by a new prescription for sleep--Lunesta. Now I'm sure this works well for a lot of people, but it gave her the worst three nights of sleep that she's had all year. Anyway she stopped taking it and her loopiness cleared up after that. There have been no real issues with the Sutent either-- there seldom are the first week and besides, the dose is only 25mg, half of what it had been all December and January.

The biggest problem has been weight. Since recovering from the Thoracenteses, and the cancer turning back on after three weeks off of Sutent, Linda's appetite went in the crapper, and she hasn't been able to make herself eat enough to maintain her weight. It's hard to believe she could go from 142 lbs. to 117 lbs in 24 days, but a lot of the extra weight was just fluid retention to begin with. The one medication Dr. Bhandari prescribed previously also causes fluid retention, so we didn't want to go there again. It is a serious enough problem that we talked to him about a feeding tube (one that is inserted into the stomach through the abdomen, not down the throat.) But before resorting to that, he recommended we try one other medication-- Marinol. I don't know how many people have heard of this, but it's the chemical form of, well, uh.... Let's just say Linda is supposed to get the Munchies after taking it. It's also in very small doses, so you don't get the other effects normally associated with it (darn.) It's only been 2 days, but it seems to be working.

We also negotiated with Dr. Bhandari and got him to agree to let Linda go from 25 mg to 37.5 mg of Sutent, so we'll be watching for side effects in the weeks to come. Wish us luck.

Luv ya all,

Jim & Linda

p.s. Check out Tuesday's entry on Andrea and Chris' Baby Blog. It should come as no surprise that it made Linda cry.