After the radiosurgery on Thursday I had less neck pain and no arm tingling on Friday, which was a great big yay. Saturday we headed down I-95 to Bridgeport, took the Ferry to Port Jefferson and drove to my aunt and uncle's house for their 50th anniversary party. The party was a blast, the food was outstanding and it was a joy seeing all the cousins and their kids, but by three hours into it my neck was screaming. We bid our farewells and headed home, where I took an early dose of Oxycontin and slept with my rigid neck collar, which gave me some relief. I called the radiation oncology resident on call the next morning and started a little bit of steroids, figuring that I was experiencing some edema from the surgery. That has helped and I would say I'm almost back to my presurgery pain level and the arm tingling has settled down. I'm off steroids and using the collar as needed.
Friday I also experienced some very sharp pain in my left calf. I called the spine surgeon to ask him to look at my most recent CT scan to see if there was anything worrisome in the lumbosacral spine. Monday I developed tingling in the back of the left leg so he ordered an MRI, which was done yesterday. It doesn't look like there's anything (tumor or degenerative disc disease, both of which are present) pressing on spinal cord or nerve roots so I'll just take the scan with me when I see the radiation oncologist next week and see if we can figure out what's up.
I still get abdominal bloating and discomfort when I eat and have low grade nausea not completely controlled by the Reglan. It's finally starting to make my drive to and from work a bit challenging. For now I can handle it and plan to just keep an eye on it. I don't particularly want Robert to have to do four hours of driving every work day to get me to and from work. I'm also very weak. Two flights of stairs completely do me in. I'm not sure what all of that's about. I'm pretty sure the abdominal symptoms are from the Navelbine, which basically just puts the brakes on the entire GI tract. I'm hoping it's also causing the weakness and that should get a little better as this week off Navelbine progresses.
We had a lovely visit with our North Carolina friends on Sunday and are now fully engaged in the planning and anticipation for our Texas trip. I'm going to cave and ask for a wheelchair for the airport activities. I just don't think I can stand long enough to make it through a security line any more.
Emma finally started at the animal hospital yesterday. It was a very slow start but when she finally got hooked up with the "upstairs techs" apparently she had a good time. It's interesting for her to see how things run at a large, multivet practice in comparison to last summer when she worked for a very busy practice where everything was OK'd by the chief vet.
Hannah has started her hospital volunteering and Philip is at band camp. We'll go up for his end of camp concert and bring him home on Friday.
Next Tuesday I follow up with the radiation oncologist (I'm expecting that it will take a couple of weeks for the post surgical inflammation to settle down before I can really see what kind of benefit I might have derived from the surgery) followed by my oncologist for Zometa and Navelbine. Quilt work continues and I can't believe it's July already!
Lisa
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