Mucositis But Not Bad

After Adrienne's radiation treatment today, she saw the radiation oncologist. He confirmed that she has mucositis in her mouth and was a bit surprised that she got it so soon. No one knows the precise cause but Adrienne's previous treatment, either radiation or chemo or a combination, must be at fault. He admitted that the TomoTherapy is relatively new and they don't yet know all the side effects. Luckily, it's not nearly as bad as the mucositis she had with her transplants or the GVHD in her mouth after her second transplant. The major problem is with spicy foods that burn and some dry mouth. She has special gum for the dry mouth and special toothpaste to protect her teeth. But, the good news is that two of the three lumps are gone and the third is much smaller and will hopefully be gone after a few more treatments.

We decided to postpone the last DLI after all. The risk of GVHD is high, and that would preclude Adrienne from the clinical trials we are discussing. The BMT doctor at Stanford thinks the other options have a higher likelihood of success. So, instead of the DLI on October 17, Adrienne gets to see her oncologist at LPCH who has cared for her since she was diagnosed nearly 9 years ago. It's hard to imagine that this has been part of our lives for so long.

Curt's birthday was yesterday, so we got away to Carmel overnight. Daniel was down south with Adrienne so we packed up the dogs and off we went. It's been such a long time since we went away by ourselves and we had a great, relaxing time.