Dear Sylvia,
I was so shocked to read your post about Lizabeth. She is very blessed to have you for a friend! I don't blame you for being angry at the doctor!!!! Maybe if you have Mike ask the doctors about the meds you will have better results. Brain mets should be seen on a head CT, make sure they do it without iv contrast first then with iv contrast. Her confusion is probable a combination of everything, i.e.. low potassium, no thyroid meds, not eating. I will pray for Lizabeth.
Take care
Gail E.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sylvia Boehme <sboehme@hondo.k12.tx.us>
To: mol <mol-cancer@lists.meds.com>
Date: Monday, October 12, 1998 1:15 PM
Subject: [MOL] Prayers for Lizabeth
>Dear ones,
>I am running on two hours of sleep since Saturday afternoon, so if this
>doesn't track or make too much sense, just consider the source.
>Lizabeth was hospitalized on Friday morning. She was incoherent,
>rambling and unable to walk. Evidently for the past two weeks she had
>pretty much stopped taking her steroids, antidepressants, etc. She had
>been sleeping 20 our of 24 hours a day and not eating. In the past week
>her nausea was so bad that even water made her gag and she refused to
>eat. She has lost 60 pounds since May. On Tuesday of last week she saw
>her onc and her daughter-in-law and sister-in-law told him that she
>wasn't eating and was sleeping all day and he said that it was the chemo
>and that he was going to stop the chemo for four weeks and let her body
>rest. He did not seem terribly concerned about the weight loss, or
>the loss of appetite. The family was very concerned and made an
>appointment with her endocrinologist who promptly ordered a CAT scan and
>chest (X-rays). (For those of you new to MOL, Lizabeth was diagnosed
>with adrenalcortical in December of this year...very, very rare
>cancer...so rare there are no clinical studies being done). She has
>been on Midotane with Cisplacin (sp) and then a host of other drugs
>including thyroid medication, antidepressant, nausea, etc.etc.etc.
>Basically she just stopped eating and started sleeping.
> I was in Houston for a meeting on Saturday and got into San Antonio
>at 5:00 and went straight to the hospital. I came home this morning
>(Monday) at 7:30 and went to work. But with the help of prayers and a
>lot of determination she is doing better.
> She calls me her "Food Nazi" because I make her eat. I have taken
>the food that the hospital gives her and put it on tiny little saucers
>so the amounts aren't so overwhelming. It took her an hour and a half
>(10:00-11:30 last night) to eat 1/4 cup green beans, 1/2 cup spaghetti,
>l/2 cup Jell-O and 2 small pear halves. But you would have thought she
>walked on the moon when she finished because I was so excited. Her
>night (our night) was interrupted it seemed every hour to be "weighed"
>(3:00 a.m of all things), blood pressure, temp, iv changes, etc. She is
>receiving IV Potassium Chloride and was receiving hydrocortisone iv,
>but, since she hasn't thrown anything up since Saturday morning, they
>are d/c'ing the cort by IV and starting oral cort. Her electrolytes
>were totally whacked and of course her cort levels were destroyed. On
>Saturday when they gave her the cortisone she became extremely agitated
>and they came in and gave her ativan by iv....she zonked out and became
>pretty "out there" talking about people being in the room that weren't
>there, asking one question five or six times, etc. She sounded like she
>was on the last leg of a five day drunk...slurring words, etc. I was so
>worried because it seemed that the meds they gave her to counteract the
>effects of the steroids were causing more trouble. At 7:00 a.m. this
>morning the second "substitute" doctor for her endocrinologist came
>bouncing into the room "how are you today Mrs. Tschirhart?', everything
>O.K. ? Of course Lizabeth didn't have a clue who he was and what he was
>doing there. I had made up a list of questions that her husband and I
>had regarding medication and when he started to leave I said "wait, I
>have some questions"...no sooner than I finished a question, he answered
>and changed the medication I had questioned...either d/c'ing, changing
>to oral, adding or changing to "as needed". This blew me out of the
>water because he never once asked who I was and what my connection to
>Lizabeth was...for all he knew I could have been a goofball that preyed
>on sick individuals...I am so angry and frustrated I could throw him
>across the room...anyway he was there a total of four minutes and
>waltzed out and told me her "'real" endocrinologist will be back in town
>on Wednesday and the rest of my questions would have to be answered by
>the oncologist and he didn't know when he was coming.
> It is 3:00 p.m. Monday, Texas time, and I am going to run by my
>house, pick up a change of clothes and head on in to the hospital to
>relieve Mike. My questions to my friends on MOL:
> 1) could this dementia like behavior be caused by the lack of level
>of her electrolytes and the dehydration? and if so, since she is
>receiving iv potassium and voiding, shouldn't it be better?
> 2) could the slurring of words continue for a length of time after
>the med (ativan) was discontinued and supposedly out of her system.
> 3) will a CAT scan show if the cancer has spread to the brain.
>I ask each of you to pray even harder for Lizabeth and I promise I will
>check the line tomorrow.
>With love to you all,
>Sylvia-Lizabeth's friend
>
>
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