Our 20th anniversary landed on Yom Kippur this year, so we were going to celebrate our 20 years of happiness by fasting and repenting. :-) But instead, Graham ended up going straight from the doctor's office on Wednesday morning, back to the hospital.
The results from Monday's PET scan showed that the lump in the chest was no big deal, but that serious problems were developing in Graham's brain. It was lucky that the little soft tissue lump in the chest popped up, because it compelled us to do the scan, and made us aware that we need to keep careful check on the brain.
Another good thing is that the chemo combo that the doctor had already planned to do is one that gets through the blood-brain barrier, so there's a chance that it will get rid of the cancer in the brain.
On Wednesday, Graham got the methotrexate, a day earlier than planned. On Thursday, Gary and Forsan came to visit with us in the hospital, and we had a lovely day. Gary even brought a fantastic cheesecake to break (his) fast with, and it was very festive. We didn't have any plates, so we piled the cheesecake into little hospital Dixie cups and toasted each other. I read to Graham all the thoughtful emails and cards that y'all have sent to us recently. Thank you!!
At midnight, they gave Graham the second part of his chemo combo - cytarabine. And around 3 in the morning, Graham suddenly got up out of a sound sleep and started talking gibberish. It was very freaky. He had no clue where he was or what was going on. He had aphasia and was making totally wild but fascinating word choices.
I ran to get the nurse and she explained that unfortunately, drugs that cross the blood-brain barrier can mess with the brain and cause confusion. She paged the doctor. There was discussion about whether the mental confusion was from the brain tumors, the methotrexate or the cytarabine, or some of each. It was decided not to continue with the cytarabine.
I asked if Graham would snap out of it once the drug cleared his system, and the doctors weren't sure, which was so NOT comforting. But thankfully, within 12 hours, Graham's wonderful brain reasserted itself!!!!!!!! You can imagine my relief. That was probably the worst 12 hours of my life. My heart goes out to people who have loved ones with Alzheimers or brain injuries. I don't know how they deal with it day in and day out. It's a total heartbreaker.
Even when Graham was extremely disoriented and thought he was in the Sahara Hotel and didn't have any idea that he was being treated for cancer, he was still super sweet. Of all the diagnostic questions he was asked, the one he got right, other than his own name, was my name. He still knew I was his wife, Lee.
The nurse said that his answers showed what a generally happy person he was, because when in doubt, he assumed he was in a lovely place with his wife. She noted that some confused patients assume they are in jail or some horrible nightmare location.
Dr. Advani had already ordered that an MRI of the brain be done, and those results came in on Friday morning, and they showed that he has cancer spots in 5 places in his brain, including the part that controls critical life support functions. Amazingly, within 3 hours, they arranged for emergency radiation. So he's already had two rounds of radiation and will be continuing with that for a while.
We came back home from the hospital this afternoon, Saturday, and he is feeling pretty decent. It's good to be home with my wonderful husband who remembers not just my name but all the years we've been together!
I'm taking a leave of absence from work so I can focus completely on Graham. My boss and everyone else at work have been absolutely the best, very supportive and helpful whenever I needed time off for Graham's many medical appointments and hospital stays. I love my job and think it's very important to hold the press accountable when they report the news unfairly or inaccurately, but I just want to spend as much time as I can with Graham.
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