Tuesday, October 20, 2009


Most of the day today has been spent at the hospital. The doctor's office called last night and said they wanted Tanner to come in for x-rays of his left tibia at 8:00 a.m. today. After that we went up to 7C and Tanner was given his Dex (steroids) via IV.

Last time he had to take 10 Dex pills orally but this time Dr. B decided that he would give it to him in an IV. The nurse told me that the patients usually have less side effects on the IV steroids than the pills. That's a good thing because the Dex made Tanner really aggressive before. After the Dex IV, we went over to the hospital and they put in his triple lumen lines.

This evening we are going to have supper with Aunt Tincey and Sarah Katherine is taking Tanner out to run around for a while. She asked if he could hang out with her on Halloween so that will be nice. At least he will have something to do.

Tomorrow morning we go in at 8:00 a.m. and Tanner will have his chemotherapy and then 24 hours later he will have his next stem cell transplant.

All the doctors over at the MIRT were going to meet today and look over Tanner's PET Scan, MRI and X-rays. I think they are pretty concerned about all the lesions. Dr. Nicholas' office called and wanted us to come on in and see the doctor tomorrow morning at 8:50 but I told them that we will be at Tanner's chemo appointment at least two hours. Dr. Nicholas only works till 10 a.m. on Wednesdays so she's going to check and see if the doctor wants to re-schedule. I hope that the leg has healed during this last month while we have been on break. It would be so helpful if Tanner could have a shorter cast.

I asked the nurse today what "Consolidation" is since we have heard many of the patients ask if Tanner has done his "consolidation" yet. She said that once the implants are over, you usually get to go home for a break and then come back and do chemo again at about 70% strength. I'm afraid that once we finish treatment this time, Tanner will still have some more chemo to go through before maintenance.

The insurance lady at MIRT told me that she has filed the appeal so now we just wait and see what they decide. Hopefully, they will decide to cover these treatments since the collection letters have already started to arrive at home. Sandra said she sent in some articles to back up the fact that this is proven treatment and is not experimental, but that the case manager at the insurance company told her not to send any more. I don't know what it will take to prove to them that this is necessary, life saving treatment and is in no way experimental.

I woke up about 2:00 a.m. and it took hours to go back to sleep. I couldn't quiet my mind. Sometimes I handle all of this okay and then other times it just overwhelms me. Maureen (the owner of my company's wife) told me when that happens to try to just empty my mind and concentrate on my breathing. I tried but I have to say, it didn't work last night. It just took hours to shut everything down. Of course, right before the alarm was set to go off, I fell deeply asleep.

We were really looking forward to seeing our friends, John and Lauren, but when we saw John at the doctor's office yesterday, his son was with him instead of Lauren. When we asked where she was, he said she was diagnosed with breast cancer last week. I couldn't beleive it! He is here dealing with his cancer treatment and she is home about to undero a mastectomy. It was one more thing I just couldn't get off my mind last night. John put her on the phone to talk to me and I told her I hadn't had a mammogram in 4-5 years. She made me promise I would make an appointment when I get back home.

If Tanner feels okay after his stem cell implant Thursday, John and his son want us to go out to eat mexican food. You know Tanner, he was all over that idea! He never turns down a chance to eat him some Tex-Mex!!

1 comment:

  1. Angie, I'll pray for you to have a peaceful nights sleep tonight. Tell Tanner he was reading my favorite kind of book and he looked like was was doing a wheely in the wheelchair.
    Love you,
    Alicia

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