Cardiology, Oncology, and Ortho Checkups

After a quiet couple of weeks, Adrienne fainted on Wednesday. The cause seems to be low blood pressure, especially on standing, which is called orthostatic blood pressure. There is no specific cause for this but it's something she's suffered from in the past. The solution: drink something before getting out of bed, sit up slowly, stand for a moment, and then walk. Thankfully, Adrienne didn't hit her head or hurt her hips in any way.

We arrived at the hospital at 9 am yesterday and left at 6 pm. First, Adrienne had labs drawn, which look great. Her blood counts have completely recovered from the radiation. The only concerning item is her thyroid function. She is almost guaranteed to have hypothyroidism from all the radiation she received so this is no surprise. We just need to find out if she needs to start taking a pill (synthetic thyroid hormone) now for this or if we wait until she has symptoms.

Next, Adrienne had an echo of her heart and saw the cardiologist. Her shortening fraction (SF) took another big dive (23% in October, 17% yesterday, over 30% is normal) but her ejection fraction (EF) remains steady. The doctor says that the EF is a much more accurate measurement of her cardiac function and that her heart looks essentially unchanged on the echo. He continues to think that the edema and blue tint in her toes and ankles is due to the chemos she's received that affect the peripheral nervous system and not to her cardiac function. She finds the edema very annoying but the blueness doesn't bother her.

In the afternoon, Adrienne had a pulmonary function test. We don't have results of that yet but we don't expect any significant changes since she hasn't had any treatment the last few years that would affect the lungs. The only risk is for graft-vs-host disease but that would be very unlikely this far out from transplant and she has no symptoms.

Finally, at 4 pm, Adrienne saw her oncologist. Oh, that was after waiting nearly an hour for a chest xray. The chest xray was clear and her exam was perfect.

After that, Adrienne saw the orthopedist at the adult's hospital. She had been scheduled for hip xrays but we never got there. The orthopedist is very happy with her progress and even said she didn't need to use the crutches anymore (not that she's been using them much anyways). Even the fainting from a standing position didn't harm the hips. She is supposed to take it easy for a month and then see him again for one final xray in May. Since she can do more activity than we were originally told, she might take a ballroom dancing class this semester. I wish I could take it with her but she promised to teach me a few steps.

Adrienne goes back to CMC on Sunday. She's enjoyed some time off from the pressures of college but is looking forward to being on her own again and seeing her friends.