Herpes Zoster????

Adrienne's pain seems to be getting worse rather than better. At the same time, her lungs sound clearer so we think that the vinblastine did something. Without anything showing on the CT and without other symptoms, the current thinking is that the pain might be nerve pain caused by herpes zoster, commonly known as shingles, but without the skin lesions. Her pain is in the area where you would get shingles and it's possible that the virus is affecting the nerves below the skin. She's starting antivirals today and we're keeping our fingers crossed that this is the problem and, overall, things are better than what they seem. Not surprisingly, Adrienne is feeling pretty down right now, tired of the pain and fatigue, and also some other unpleasant chemo side effects.

Adrienne had an aranesp shot last week but her counts are still low so she needs a blood transfusion. That'll happen either tomorrow or the next day and, hopefully, that'll perk her up a bit and make things seem more positive. In the meantime, we're holding off on treatment and focusing on making her feel better. Then we can reassess.