Drugs are Delightful! Scary Test Results.

Drugs rule! At least the right ones do. The vicadin that the radiation doctor had prescribed for Graham didn't do squat for his back pain. But Dr. Advani prescribed him some slow release morphine today that really helped. Yay!!!!

The idea is to maintain a steady dose of morphine throughout the day so the pain never gets out of control, and if it "breaks through," take a little more morphine and it should respond right away. And that's exactly what happened tonight. It is so good to know that Graham has something now that can very quickly take away his pain.

TEST RESULTS

The scan results were mixed. The MRI of the brain showed that the radiation treatment helped reduce the cancer in the brain. That's the good news.

The bad news is the PET-CT scan showed that in the past 3 weeks, the cancer spread tremendously throughout the rest of his body, including more of his bones, which is the probable cause of his back pain. The doctor actually used the phrase "riddled with cancer." There were so many new cancer spots to report, that the scan people hadn't even been able to finish typing the report in time for our appointment. We'll learn all the details on Friday when we can see a copy of the report.

The doctor advised against any further treatment, because she didn't think the small potential benefit outweighed the pain and discomfort involved. But Graham wants to fight to the end, to stay with us as long as possible, just in case some new drug or treatment might come along in the nick of time.

So Dr. Advani agreed to let him try a chemo combo that he hadn't tried before, and to try to do it weekly. But, further bad news...today's blood test revealed his white blood cell neutrophil count (not sure if I have that right) is scary low, 300, so he's not even able to have the first part of the chemo treatment, because it would completely wipe out his white cells. But he was able to have the second part.

Starting tomorrow, he will get Neupogen shots for 5 days, to encourage his white blood cells to grow. And if they reach 1000 by Wednesday, he'll get the other part of the chemo combo then.

Graham and Micki are snoozing away right now, hopefully having some sweet dreams.