Sunday, May 14
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Monday, May 15
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Tuesday, May 16
We had an appointment with Dr. Peterson today, but we were feeling
pretty full of ourselves after last week's good news. I didn't
mind that Kendra (as we've come to call her) was double-booked and
that a student intern was sent to do the interview. I don't remember
much about this visit except that the intern asked a lot of questions
about Don's history and his current state. When Don described his
current symptoms - lack of balance, trouble with bowel control - he
asked the doctor what might be causing them.
"Could be tumor," the young doc said. Obviously, bedside manner is
an acquired skill. I much preferred Dr. Prados's "that's what I'm
trying to find out."
Kendra was equally thrilled with the results of the lastest MRI.
She, too, said we had "made her day."
We decided that, with the good news and the absence of any
swelling, Don could start tapering of Decadron. We both
saw this as good news. Neither of us liked the visible changes
it was having on his appearance, and Don was more than a little
upset that he was up to 160 pounds, the most he has ever weighed.
We worked out a schedule that would have him off the Decadron by
the time we went to Utah. I was glad of that, as the tamoxifen
and etoposide schedules were difficult enough for him to remember.
Removing one more medicine from the mix meant one less thing that
could go wrong.
I was proved wrong about this, however. Removing Decadron from
the list of medicines actually made one more thing go wrong -
disasterously so, as it turned out, though we didn't find that
out for a month.
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Wednesday, May 17
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Thursday, May 18
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Friday, May 19
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Saturday, May 20
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