Thursday, November 20, 2008

Doing Good

This week Andrea's main doctor was pleased that her left arm is less numb than before. He said sometimes with neuro chemo, it goes away completely and other times it does not. Her blood tests showed improvement except with her kidneys. She really needs prayers for her kidneys. They are working about 30-40% capacity. They start dialysis when patients are at about 10% capacity. Andrea is still drinking loads of water a day, and her diet was almost exactly what the kidney doctor wanted her to be eating; however, he said all of us could probably benefit if we cut down on salt intake.
Andrea sees the brain and spine doctor on Monday, but we do not anticipate any more input, so have a Happy Thanksgiving.
We all are so blessed.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Keep on keeping on

Sorry I haven't posted lately but we were waiting for test results.
Andrea's kidney levels came down close to normal so they gave her a half dose of contrast on the MRI this time. It still shows a high intensity in the medulla of the brain which they continue to attribute to chemo. They are still concerned that it may be an infection or otherwise. So they ordered a spinal tap without chemo and it came back clear, just as it has before. Plans are to continue monitoring. Her left arm has become less numb and she can write again.
Andrea had her flu shot, but she still caught some bug that made her throat feel like golf balls had lodged during Tuesday night. She got a prescription to deal with that, so hopefully she'll be okay tomorrow.
Thanks for the emails, calls and asking about Andrea. You all are a wonderful support group praying for her, and we thank you for that.