Office visit 1/16

01/16 11:10
ANC 3355

A visit for counts today and some questions. All the blood levels looked good so Doc P was pleased. We talked about Alan's difficulties with pain over the weekend and Doc P gave us a prescription for Fentanyl patches so we could have them on hand if we came to the point that the Hydrocodone wasn't working anymore. The patches would go on his shoulder blade and replace the Hydrocodone elixer. On one hand we wouldn't need to be giving him liquid by mouth, but on the other hand, would he stand a patch on his shoulder?

Doc P asked how he reacted to the new chemo regimen. One of the things he asked was if Alan had a rash, which he didn't. That is, he didn't until after we left the office. *sigh* We gave him some Benedryl tonight to help with the itching and the allergies, but we'll call the office in the morning to make sure that's all we can/need to do.

We also talked about our options for radiation therapy. We were concerned if the tumor didn't respond to this chemo and the pain management was getting beyond what we could do at home we might need to look at radiation sooner rather than later. At the suggestion of a friend, we asked Doc P for a referral to one of the radiologists at the CTRC here at the Medical Center, so we could have some thoughts lined up for making the decision where to have the treatment done if Alan is not a candidate for Proton therapy. Doc P thought that was a good idea and set the arrangements in motion.

Since it was a day off school and his counts were so good we went to Chuck E. Cheese after the appointment. Who knows how many more days there will be that Alan can go for the near term. He had a blast, enjoying a car racing game sitting in Daddy's lap. He fed the ticket muncher then looked longingly at the Ticket Blaster. Then it was home for speech therapy. A productive day!