Subject: Lesley Update - 12/26

Happy holidays to all!

Unfortunately, our holidays could have been better.  Lesley fell and cut
her head in the bathroom on the 24th at 2 AM.  We called 911, they came,
and she had a subsequent episode of either fainting or a partial
seizure.  Her speech was a bit slurred and she wasn't quite with it.
Against the recommendation of an ER doctor at Lahey Clinic ("put her
back in bed") we had her transported to Mass General Emergency Room (our
fourth trip in 3 months!  Fortunately/unfortunately we now have MGH ER
Elite status.  That entitles us to the concierge rooms. :-)).  We
were in the ER from about 3 AM 'til 8:30 PM (yup, that's really PM).
They checked her over (did
a CT scan and a neck X-ray) and said we could leave about 11:30 in the
morning.  When we were getting up to leave she had 2
fainting/seizure spells.  After those 2 episodes she
slept almost the entire time.  Her speech was still slurred, her
performance in the neurological tests was not good, and she couldn't
stand by herself.  She also had a 100.6 temperature and low blood
pressure (as low as 89/56).  They did an MRI that was inconclusive but
may have shown some swelling.  They decided to admit her.

I went to see her the afternoon of the 25th.  The doctors said they were
pursuing 2 possibilities - infection in the brain (hypothesis being that
the old infection was not cleared up) and swelling.  They were not sure
of either, so they started her on a broad spectrum of antibiotics and
increased her Decadron dosage and started her on our old friend,
Mannitol.  When I first saw her on the 25th, she was about the same as
the 24th - not so good.  Sleepy, slurred speech, not with it.  She
hadn't eaten much.  She took a couple of hours nap while the Mannitol
was dripping into her.

When she woke up, the change was remarkable.  She was with it and her
speech was about back to where it had been prior to the 24th.  Her
appetite was great at dinner.  I'm not a doctor, but it sure seemed like
the Mannitol did the trick.  It seems unlikely to me that the
antibiotics would work that quickly.  Today was about the same.  No
improvement over late yesterday, but still good.  Appetite was good.
They'll keep things going for the next day or two and figure out what
the next steps will be.

Since my last status report, Lesley had completed her first round of
chemo.  She tolerated it very well, but was really tired for the first
few days after her treatment ended (on December 13th).  She had been
building up her strength day-by-day after those few days and was making
pretty good progress until the 24th.  I took the kids to counseling
once, and we also went to a group support session called "Kids Count
Too!" for children or grandchildren of cancer patients.  We were able to
have Christmas morning OK since, fortunately, Santa's elves had been
wrapping prior to Christmas Eve and Santa did show up at our house.
We'll have a second Christmas when Lesley comes home from the hospital.

So that's about it for now.  Considering where we were the morning of
the 24th, I'm pleased.

Good night.
--
Dave Baldauf, h/o Lesley, gbm, dx/srg 8/99, rad 9/99, rad completed
10/99, debulk srg 10/99, bone flap removal srg due to infection 11/99,
started Temodar 12/99
mailto:dbaldauf@ultranet.com