The Next Mountain to Climb

I wanted to share a quick health update with you since our visit to the ER at Stanford last week. ER Visit & Headaches Last week, we ended up in the emergency room because of some intense headaches I’ve been dealing with—sharp, constant, and hard to manage. At times, they’ve come with nausea and light sensitivity, making it difficult to get through the day. The ER team was wonderful—they gave me fluids, medication, and my oncologist bumped up my dexamethasone dose. Thankfully, even though I still have mild headaches each day, they are very manageable. A few days before the ER visit, I stopped taking Cabometyx (part of the immunotherapy treatment). Since then, my headaches have improved noticeably. After discussing this with the oncologist, she is going to take me off Cabometyx for good and probably put me on something I was taking before.  ECG (electrocardiogram)  Results As part of my ER visit, I had an ECG. It showed some minor changes—low QRS voltage and nonspecific...

We promised no update unless there was an update … so … Kristi developed a very severe headache and her doctor advised us to go to the ER yesterday morning. We went to Stanford where she received IV pain meds, steroids, and electrolytes.  Doc is going to have her take a one week break from the daily pill she takes as part of her current treatment regime — that was our request. We want to know if that is the cause.  Good news: she’s a new women again today.  We hope we can continue to dial things in for best treatment and least side effects. 

Kristi and I took the grandkids for three days to Santa Cruz this week. We had a fun time and it was exhausting. Kristi did pretty well. Took a nap on the beach the first day and powered through the second full day. She was tired and had a headache on the way home. For the most part, she kept up with the busy few days — and we had fun.  We did some research on the way home and decided to change the timing of her daily meds. Since being home and the change she hasn’t had too bad of a headache. Fatigue is always an issue, but at least one that has a simple remedy, sleep. It’s to be expected — mostly side effects of the treatments and probably some from the cancer itself.  The immunotherapy treatments will continue — the doctor called it maintenance —a shot every four weeks and the daily pill. She’ll have scans again in three months. Until then, we expect and hope for no news. So, we won’t likely post unless there are any changes.  As usual we take things one day at a time, ...