Diabetes Doc

Today was Diabetes Doc time for Sandi. Things went okay. She wants the cancer doctor  to run some blood tests for her, but that is a fairly routine occurrence. She has concerns, as she always does, and said to double check with her on whatever chemo is developed so that she can advise how to best handle things from her perspective. All in all, no surprises as things went as expected.

In other news---no word yet on the biopsy plan. We are still scheduled to see the cancer folks Wednesday for the doctor visit, lab work, and IVIG infusion.

Diabetes Doc Day

Early this morning Sandi had an appointment with the diabetes doc. All in all, the diabetes doc thinks that things are good. She wants the folks at the oncologist office to do a couple of very specific blood tests to check a couple of things, but this happens frequently.

Next visit will be Feb 13 so now you know when DFW will have a "winter weather precipitation event."

Diabetes Doc Visit

Sandi had an appointment with her endocrinologist this morning. She is concerned about a couple of things, but not anything that has not been dealt with before. Overall, she thinks Sandi is doing pretty well. She plans on some tests the middle of next month as the radiation should have cleared her by then. She wants some things checked before the chemo starts again.

So, all in all, everything is in good shape right now.

Diabetes Doc Update

Everything is fine and the endocrinologist--who was running over an hour behind-- is pleased how well she is doing despite the cancer and other issues.

Had to make an emergency medicine run for my Mom so that is why the update is so late. We just got here.

Diabetes Doc Day

Later this morning Sandi has a visit with her diabetes doc down at the hospital. This most likely will take awhile as Sandi's cancer and that treatment has caused a fresh wave of issues for the diabetes doctor. I will update when I get back.

Diabetes Doc Visit

Sandi had her every three months or so visit with the endocrinologist down at the hospital today. Things are as good as they could be with the cancer situation. Her insulin dosage is to remain the same.

Chemo tomorrow for the day.

Scheduled to see the endocrinologist next in mid February.

Endocrinologist

Endocrinologist felt that Sandi was doing "okay" today. The doctor was somewhat encouraged that Sandi was doing okay despite the increasing number of issues confronting her. She has a couple of tests she would like the cancer folks to run on Thursday when we are in over there, but other than that the doctor left everything alone.

Assuming nothing hideous happens and nothing major turns up on her tests, Sandi is supposed to see her next in the middle of November.

Sandi's Diabetes

is relatively stable despite everything being done to her according to the endocrinologist. She will continue to work with Sandi's cancer folks to minimize the blood draws during testing while getting the numbers she needs. She made a couple of minor suggestions to Sandi how to handle the huge spike she gets from the second day of chemo which contains massive amounts of steroids along with the other stuff.

So, all in all, she thinks the numbers are good--all things considered--and will wait three months to see Sandi again. As it happens it will be our anniversary that day so we will mark thirty years of marriage at the hospital with a doctor appointment.

It isn't like we are already scheduled to go dancing on the French Riviera ......

Sandi Hospitalized

I just got home from the hospital. Sandi has been admitted to Medical City Dallas Hospital in order to fight the infection and additional leg swelling as her leg is now nearly three times bigger than it should be and is massively discolored. They also will be running a new ultrasound and most likely an MRI at the very least.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers if you would. There is no timetable at this point for her release.


9:30 PM UPDATE---Patient is extremely unhappy as, according to her, there have been numerous medication errors involving her insulin, blood pressure drugs, and other medications. Because the nurses would not listen to her she notified the emergency services of both the endocrinologist and the cancer doctor as to the issues.

She is currently receiving her second bag of antibiotic IV through her port. They have done an ultrasound and according to the tech the pictures were in pretty bad shape due to the fluid in her leg. The tech thinks the leg will have to be drained and then they can try again, but stresses that is the call of the doctor.

I am hoping that things will settle down soon and she can get some sleep. She never got her multi hour afternoon nap today so I am sure that is not helping things tonight. Somehow Sandi is still up and going after being awake since 7 am. If I didn't know better I would think she was back on the high dose steroids.

Sandi's Leg-- A Update

Back home from the doctor. The second culture swab--the one from last week--came back showing the infection they thought it was. Apparently, while the antibiotic sort of slowed it down, it did not stop it. So, a new more powerful antibiotic has been prescribed which she will start as soon as they get the prescription filled.

Her kidneys are not doing well so she stays off the diuretic with the hope being that once the infection starts clearing the massive swelling will start going away.

Back next Wednesday to do all this again.

Back To The Doc

We go back to the hospital this morning so they can check Sandi's leg. Seems to be nearly the same to us though the weeping from the wound site may have stopped. If so, that would be a good sign.

Back Home

Things were chaotic there today, but we are finally home. Because her blood work for the most part seems to indicate stability it was decided to cut the dosage on a couple of things as of today. On Christmas Day she is also supposed to stop taking her steroid. Then we watch and see how her lungs do.

Assuming they don't suddenly get worse she might be able to stop the steroids for a little while. That would help her kidney function as well as her blood sugars which have stared going haywire yet again.

We see the endocrinologist on Monday and expect her to adjust the insulin shot dosage.

Assuming nothing wacky happens we go back to Texas Oncology in a month on January 9.

Back Home

Back home from the hospital as Sandi had an appointment with her endocrinologist today. While better than she was, Sandi is still nowhere near where she needs to be numbers wise not just for her health but the long delayed Pet Scan.The overall trend of her blood sugar numbers lowering seems to have basically leveled out as we thought. So, the insulin dosage is being raised a little more, but Sandi is having weigh gain and other issues related to the insulin.

Under consideration is the idea of adding some new medications to the mix in the hopes of lowering her numbers. However, that is being delayed for now as Sandi has an IVIG infusion Friday and a ton of blood work as the cancer docs plan on doing the tests to see if the IVIG is working. There were concerns that adding new drugs to her cocktail could throw off those results.

So, for now, she keeps doing what she is doing and fingers crossed that the downward numbers trend will start again.

Sandi and her Diabetes

Well, we are finally back home and the doctor has adjusted her insulin dosage levels as expected. What was not expected was the fact that we had to stay there this morning while they gave her two different insulin injections and monitored her numbers until such time they felt she was safe to leave. That took quite some time.

The doctor may or may not make some additional medications to her depending on the blood work from last Thursday that she asked for Texas Oncology to run that had not come back yet as of this morning. We hope that she won't have to add anything to Sandi's regimen, but kind of expect that she will get something else added.

Assuming no unpleasant surprises Sandi goes back to her endocrinologist the first Monday in August.

Back Home From The Cancer Doctor

It was a zoo out there, but we are finally back home. The 30 minute blood tests all came back with their usual numbers. Now we await news on the ones that take several days even if there isn't a holiday. Everything looks about the same as last time so they went ahead and gave her the last round of childhood immunizations for now. Assuming things work right, her next round of those shots will be at 24 months post stem cell transplant which works out to next May.

In the meantime, we can't do the PET SCAN she needs to asses her cancer situation as her blood sugar numbers are too high. The max for such a test is 200 though they really prefer 180. She is seeing numbers between 300 and 550 which are very bad numbers.

Which is why she has a new endocrinologist and now is on insulin shots. As expected, the shots have made her way worse on her blood sugar numbers than the oral medications, but we are told to wait and be patient as the right dosage has to be found for her so they can work her numbers down.

As it stands now, she is back in bed having been worn out by all this today. We go back down there Monday for the endocrinologist appointment. Then, barring anything else, three weeks from tomorrow she will have another multi hour IVIG infusion.

Finally Home From The Endocrinologist......Updated

And the news was not good. They are putting her on insulin effective immediately and adjusting some of her diabetic meds. They will be running lots of blood tests.

7 pm update----We just heard from the oncology folks and she has significant bone loss in both hips and is at high risk for a break. Not that much a surprise as she has been on steroids as well as everything else.  New drug will be started for that.