Had a doctor's appointment with Dr. Debo this morning for a basic check-up and to make sure all was well. Since he's the ENT doctor, we talked to him about the issues I've been experiencing with my hearing. About the only symptoms I'm having now is a slight ringing in the ears. He basically looked in my ears, cleaned out some wax, and had the audiologist run a hearing test. Tests showed that my right ear is within specs, but I have a loss of high frequency in my left ear. This had already been noted when I had a hearing test done by the VA when I retired from the Navy. I'm gonna try to get the results from the test I had earlier and get them to Dr. Debo, so we can establish some kind of baseline to see what if any loss has occurred since I started the Chemo treatment.
That's about all we can do about the hearing issue right now. Not sure if I'll still get the Cisplatin on Tuesday or not.
PICC line dressing got changed this afternoon and is looking much better.
Food is tasting better and better so I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible since I only have a few more days left.
That's all for now!
Friday, December 22, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
6-3 day
Quick post tonight. I'm feeling tons better. Most of the side effects have subsided greatly. Taste buds much better and most things are tasting pretty good. Still have a slight ringing in the ears, but have an appointment with Dr. Debo on Friday, so I'll have him take a look and then whatever he says, I'll relay to Dr. Atienza so he can make a decision on whether or not to give me the Cisplatin on Tuesday.
Went to Dr. Atienza's office this morning to have his nurses look at my PICC line. They both took a look and said that it looked ok. Actually, the redness around the insertion point has subsided a little, but there is a little dried puss I can see under the bandage that was worrying me. The nurses said if the red ring got bigger and/or sore and I developed a fever, then I should have it looked at again.
So with all that, things are going good...looking forward to enjoying some Prime Rib Christmas night.
Went to Dr. Atienza's office this morning to have his nurses look at my PICC line. They both took a look and said that it looked ok. Actually, the redness around the insertion point has subsided a little, but there is a little dried puss I can see under the bandage that was worrying me. The nurses said if the red ring got bigger and/or sore and I developed a fever, then I should have it looked at again.
So with all that, things are going good...looking forward to enjoying some Prime Rib Christmas night.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
5-7 Day
It's been a few days since I posted, so I figured I'd better get this thing updated. Have been feeling pretty good for the last few days and a lot of the nasty side effects have subsided. A few are still here and bugging me.
My tastes buds seem to still be out of whack. Food is tasting better than it did a week ago, but things still aren't like they're supposed to be. Meat doesn't seem to have the nasty metallic taste, but for some reason things just taste bland and no matter what I do, I can't improve them. We bought a bag of pistachios at Costco yesterday. I ate some this afternoon and couldn't even taste the salt on them. They tasted very bland and totally unsalty. I don't what's going on...seems like I have an issue with salt and not being able to taste it for some reason.
Other issue is that it appears my PICC line is getting infected. This has been ongoing for almost a week now with no improvement. Friday night I was having a lot of pain shooting up and down my arm and around my armpit where the PICC line goes in. Seemed better Saturday so we just have been monitoring it over the weekend. I'm calling the nurse at the Oncologist tomorrow morning and hopefully they'll want me to come in and have a look at it. I've been taking antibiotics for the the last 7 days for the infection around the feeding tube, but that doesn't look any better either.
My stomach is a little sore about 6 inches all around from where the tube goes in, and that is also bothersome.
I tell you what, this stupid PICC line and Feeding tube are major pains in the a$$. This treatment can't get over soon enough for me.
Ringing in the ears have subsided a little, but it seems that instead of it coming and going with real noticeable changes, I now just have a constant, not as loud as before, but a constant ringing in the ears. I don't know what the doctors are going to do about it. I talked to Dr. Debo's (ENT doctor) nurse about it Friday and was informed that the doctor was advised, and if he wanted to see me prior to my scheduled appointment on the 22nd, they'd call me for an early appointment. So far nothings happened.
Other than that, things remain the same around here. I'm getting sick of sitting around here all day with not much to do, but whenever we go out and do something, I start to feel tired and not very good after a while, so I'm trying to keep busy here...lots of short walks with Coho I guess.
Glad to hear my buddies in Washington finally have power back after that storm. With all the fallen tress in the area, JR shouldn't have to worry about firewood for a long time.
My tastes buds seem to still be out of whack. Food is tasting better than it did a week ago, but things still aren't like they're supposed to be. Meat doesn't seem to have the nasty metallic taste, but for some reason things just taste bland and no matter what I do, I can't improve them. We bought a bag of pistachios at Costco yesterday. I ate some this afternoon and couldn't even taste the salt on them. They tasted very bland and totally unsalty. I don't what's going on...seems like I have an issue with salt and not being able to taste it for some reason.
Other issue is that it appears my PICC line is getting infected. This has been ongoing for almost a week now with no improvement. Friday night I was having a lot of pain shooting up and down my arm and around my armpit where the PICC line goes in. Seemed better Saturday so we just have been monitoring it over the weekend. I'm calling the nurse at the Oncologist tomorrow morning and hopefully they'll want me to come in and have a look at it. I've been taking antibiotics for the the last 7 days for the infection around the feeding tube, but that doesn't look any better either.
My stomach is a little sore about 6 inches all around from where the tube goes in, and that is also bothersome.
I tell you what, this stupid PICC line and Feeding tube are major pains in the a$$. This treatment can't get over soon enough for me.
Ringing in the ears have subsided a little, but it seems that instead of it coming and going with real noticeable changes, I now just have a constant, not as loud as before, but a constant ringing in the ears. I don't know what the doctors are going to do about it. I talked to Dr. Debo's (ENT doctor) nurse about it Friday and was informed that the doctor was advised, and if he wanted to see me prior to my scheduled appointment on the 22nd, they'd call me for an early appointment. So far nothings happened.
Other than that, things remain the same around here. I'm getting sick of sitting around here all day with not much to do, but whenever we go out and do something, I start to feel tired and not very good after a while, so I'm trying to keep busy here...lots of short walks with Coho I guess.
Glad to hear my buddies in Washington finally have power back after that storm. With all the fallen tress in the area, JR shouldn't have to worry about firewood for a long time.
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