Day 23 – CT Results & Migraine

Lanie had a horrible headache all day today.  When I got there this morning, she was lying in bed with a terrible, debilitating headache.  She couldn’t sit up because her mouth would begin to water as if she were going to vomit, and the pain in her head and back were unbearable.  Lying down was the only relief she felt.  It wasn’t until she had fioricet and dilaudid that she started to feel a little better.  That didn’t happen until tonight.  When it happened, she wanted to take advantage of it no matter what time it was; so she played Bananagrams and did some sculpting, which she was still doing when I left at around 11 p.m. tonight. 🙂

Bananagrams – Steven, Lanie, and Jordan

About what the doctor said today — Dr. B came around after lunch today.  She spoke with us about the CT scan results.  They were very good news for her and all of us.  Lanie’s tumor markers started in the 2100s.  They are currently in the high 400s!! That’s amazing.  The CT scan report shows there’s been an 85 to 90 percent reduction in tumors/masses.  When Dr. B said she felt that the tumor in Lanie’s back moved up between the shoulder blades, while reducing in size, that may be why Lanie’s back in that same area is really bothering her.  They put a lidocaine patch between her shoulder blades, which didn’t really work at all.

The doctor was extremely pleased with the negative results from the biopsy and tap, plus the good news with the CT scan report.  The only issue concerning her now is the headaches.  They’ve been checking for signs of meningitis because Lanie’s headaches, fevers, and neck hurting are all signs.  It could also be due to the lumbar puncture (spinal tap).  It is common for headaches to occur — really terrible headaches — a day or two after the puncture.  Her headache that is still happening now started 3 days ago.  To me, that’s pretty horrible.  She was having headaches last week, but this one is different, she said.

I asked if it was possible the negative spinal tap results could be a false negative.  Dr. Maurice stated that it is possible, but they have been checking her for meningitis, and it doesn’t seem like at all for meningitis to be a factor we should be concerned with.  She checked to see if Lanie could move her chin to her neck, and whether sitting up made her head hurt worse, and also whether she was feeling anything going down her legs.  Lanie doesn’t have any weird feelings going down her legs.  We’ll see how she does tonight.

Hope everyone is able to understand all of this.  It’s late.  I’ll come back and edit in the morning.

Thank for reading!!