| Sunday June 27, 2004 It's been a rough couple of days for Paige. By the time we went in for the blood transfusion of Friday she had a small amount of facial swelling, mostly in her eyes. When Dr. Inoue and Mary saw the swelling they thought it would be a good idea to check with the radiation-oncologist to see if another radiation treatment could help. So, right after we finished the blood transfusion (hemoglobin 3.9) we headed over to the Genesys-Hurley Cancer Institute where they radiated the forehead area. Back in May when the decision for hospice was made she had a similar episode of facial swelling that completely responded to radiation within 48 hours. Unfortunately, this treatment didn't help as much. By this morning she could only open her left eye slightly and her face was so swollen that if you didn't know it was Paige you probably wouldn't recognize her. Because of the swelling in the jaw area she had a hard time opening her mouth and chewing food. Her pain seems to be controlled with the morphine infusing at 25mg an hour, but of course she's sleeping a lot. Because of the difficulty swallowing and possible airway obstruction we called Dr. Inoue and Dr. Arif (radiation-oncologist). Long story short, we took her to Hurley for a CT of head, neck and chest this afternoon. They will use the information from the CT films to pin point the exact areas to radiate tomorrow. Since the regular radiation-oncologist, Dr. Akl, is out of town on vacation we are so grateful that Dr. Arif is willing to take the extra step with trying to control Paige's pain. Also, thanks to everyone at Hurley for getting us in so quickly for the scans. Even though Paige wasn't feeling the best, she did speak up on the way home to request a cappuccino :) We will update soon Love, Andy, Sandi & Paige |