Tuesday, March 24, 2009

03/19/09 - Intrathecal Chemo #6

My Intrathecal Chemotherapy was rescheduled to 3/19/09, due to my headaches. It went routinely, from what I could tell.


Intrathecal Chemotherapy #6

Each time I get Intrathecal Chemo, some CerebroSpinalFluid (CSF) is drawn off to make room for the chemo drug. It is examined microscopically for spread of cancer cells.


CSF sample, test results at next chemo session

03/09/09 - More Headaches

Update posted on 3/24, but initial Emergency Room (ER) admission on 3/09. Oddly enough, I posted to my blog on the morning of 3/09, not aware of the problems to come...

Once again, I felt the headache coming on and tried to sleep it off around noon. As it was Monday, Laura had gone to work, but she is able to come home from work for lunch. Well, she came home from work to find me laying in bed, with a severe headache and in coherent - unable to move or form lucid thoughts, well they made sense to me, not others...

She called my dad, and he came to possibly take me to the ER. He didn't want to move me, so he called 911. So, a fire truck and an ambulance came to my front door. In moments that I thought were clear, I tried to convey my thoughts to them. No luck. It was off to the ER again.


I was incoherent, but I did ask what the paramedic was doing...

Busy day at the ER. I literally sat in the hallway for several hours. They were able to transfer me from Morton Plant Mease ER in Dunedin to a hospital room in Moffitt that evening. That was great since Moffitt was much more familiar with my cancer history.

At Moffitt, they were able to do an MRI of my head (nothing was found wrong). They also performed an Electroencephalography (EEG, not to confused with an Electrocardiography (ECG or EKG), which is an analysis of the heart). An EEG measures brain waves, seizure events, headaches, and other information. Again, I was hooked-up to a lot of probes, but nothing conclusive was found.


EEG Probes connected to my head

I was released from Moffitt hospital on the 10th, the day of my next scheduled intrathecal chemotherapy. It was rescheduled for Thursday, 3/19/09. My drug doses were adjusted, and hopefully this will prevent future episodes. I DO NOT want to experience them!

Monday, March 23, 2009

03/23/09 - General Update

Hmmm... I try to be fairly quick at least about responding to comments or Emails. Well, I've had other things on my mind, so updates will likely follow. The titles shall be back-dated, and the comments will likely appear around when they were initially posted as well. Oh yeah, the blog updates will likely come first...