Radiation to Start Monday

Yesterday was another one of those very long days at the hospital but we got a lot accomplished. Adrienne had her setup for radiation and will begin on Monday for 15 treatments. This area of the pelvis has never been treated before and there are no critical structures in the way so they can be very aggressive. Fertility isn't an issue since Adrienne has ovarian failure from her first transplant and they won't treat to a high enough dose to cause adhesions in the large and small intestine, the only other real risk. Adrienne has her antinausea meds just in case but they are treating low enough down on her body so that shouldn't be an issue.

The doctor did a very thorough examination of Adrienne's hip. It seems she has pain outside the area that is abnormal on the scans. Add to that, the abnormality on the PET scan doesn't align with the abnormality on the MRI. So the plan is to treat a wider area than we originally thought. It may take some time for the pain to resolve so Adrienne will continue her pain meds for as along as needed. There is still concern that there is other disease that's too small to show on the scans so we're investigating additional treatment once the radiation is complete.

For some months now, Adrienne has been having sinus trouble. Her illness of the last week has only made things worse. Yesterday, she had a head CT and saw an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Between infection and inflammation, she has very little space left in the sinus. She is starting a more aggressive antibiotic and a short course of steroids. We were concerned about the steroids because of the AVN but her oncologist says it's a short enough time (12 days) and a low enough dose that it won't cause more problems. If this doesn't resolve the problem, Adrienne will need surgery to open up the sinuses.

Adrienne finally got her immunizations yesterday too. She's had two transplants, which completely destroys whatever immunity she had. Since then, she started the shots but couldn't finish because of relapses and treatments. Since we're going abroad, we really wanted her to have the shots now while her immune system is strong. This morning, she isn't feeling great but hopefully that will pass quickly. Her white count was quite high yesterday so she might be getting sick again too. We are all looking forward to having this behind us and enjoying our trip to Spain.