Sharon has spoken with her 2 local oncologists and a nurse at UAB. Swelling appears to be the culprit behind last night's seizure. That's better than at least one of the possible alternative explanations. She was told that seizures are part of her disease, this may happen again, and we shouldn't panic if it does. In particular, we probably do not need to call 911 if she seizes. Sharon is being switched to Keppra as her anti-seizure medicine and is on steroids. Hopefully those 2 moves will be very helpful.
Sharon is resting comfortably now and watching TV. She's pretty glum about the setback in general and the implications for driving her Jeep in particular (i.e., a person must be seizure-free for 6 months to drive in Alabama).
Hopefully I will have more information to post later. I want to try to learn more about what could be causing the swelling -- if this is a 'slow boil' from the radiation treatment, if it's because Sharon has been more active lately, etc. Many people get this sort of swelling soon after surgery, radiation, or both. Sharon did not, so we had been hopeful that she had avoided the whole scenario.
Update of the quick update -- I spoke to Wes Glisson, Sharon's radiation oncologist, this afternoon. He is simply a super doctor and an even better person. Wes also likes my sense of humor, which gives him an extra boost on my admiration scale.
Wes examined Sharon's scan and he does not think the tumor has grown based on the images. He does not expect us to get bad news when Sharon has an MRI next week. (An MRI is much more sophisticated than a CT.) I asked about possible causes of the seizure, and there are a bunch, including after-effects of the radiation treatment and the struggles Sharon has had with Dilantin. Seizures appear to be just part of this affliction, and we'll be better prepared to deal with them if they occur again. The switch to Keppra should help. Importantly, Wes continues to be optimistic that Sharon will live many years and with a good quality of life.
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2 comments:
What a blessing to have Wes's timely -- if not yet completely definitive -- reassurances. It's human nature for the mind too quickly to turn to "worst case scenarios" when left to its own imaginings. But given that Sharon has exceeded expectations throughout the course of treatment so far, there's no reason to think that she won't continue to be everyone's "prize" patient. Yeah, the latest seizure understandably could be scary and a little discouraging (esp. the implications for getting back behind the wheel), but I'm betting on Shar to bounce back and renew her dogged pursuit of those remaining bad cells (witness Dave's prior blog references to her tenacity). Lace up those gloves, Sis. You've got a lot of support in your corner. Love you!
You might want to find a different doctor. If he likes Dave's sense of humor, his judgment must be a little off.
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