Set backs

Sicknesses continued to plague our immediate and extended family through the rest of Dave’s treatment. Seth got over whatever asthma thing he had only to get pink eye twice, and Dax ended up with some slight flu and pink eye as well. In addition to our family sicknesses, our extended family had to be voluntarily quarantined twice for two different illnesses, one lung related the other chicken pox.

Yes, I did indicate chicken pox. Our youngest niece and her grandfather ended up with it. Young one is under the age of one and Apo is considered a senior. They have been out of contact for about a week now as this happened right as Dave’s treatment came to a close.

I am hopeful that we have now seen the last of these illnesses and can focus on getting Dave better and through the next stage of treatment.

However, we’ve had a bit of a set back with Dave. Everything was going just fine with treatment ending on November 26 where he rang the bell signalling that he was done with radiation and chemotherapy combination. He was excited to be done with that phase of things and had big plans for the weekend to go out hunting (try to get a deer) and finish setting up the Christmas decorations.

Christmas decorations started going up and the tree was brought out of storage again. I couldn’t remember how to plug the thing in so it wasn’t working for me. Dave had been out hunting that weekend and was able to fix it when he got home. However, I noticed that his face was starting to droop again.

He divulged that he hadn’t slept good over the weekend and that maybe he just needed a good night sleep. He also was going to then call the doc in the morning to see what he thought should be done as a result of the new droop. He was just about to end the taper from the steroid and though that maybe he needed to up the dose again to deal with this, which I agreed with.

The Doctor did not however, and told him to stop the steroid right away and to see what would happen next. (I am currently sitting here typing shaking my head and rolling my eyes in frustration over this decision). We had been told that we would see side effects for up to two weeks. Following doctors orders Dave stopped the steroid.

Less than two days later, just over a week from the end of the radiation treatment, we had the set back. Not just the facial droop that wouldn’t go away, but a major set back in his recovery and along the path of him being able to get back to normal life, which included driving.

On Wednesday December 3 Dave was taken by ambulance to Foothills Hospital with uncontrolled focal seizures. We had a few of these in a fashion before surgery, but not a one since.

On Wednesday, December 3, at 3:30pm Dave was taken by ambulance to Foothills Hospital due to a extreme focal seizure. I am glad he wasn’t home at the time, but it scared his step dad very badly as it wouldn’t stop and was causing Dave a lot of pain.

The paramedics were able to aid in reducing the severity of the seizure, but not get it to stop entirely on the way to Emergency. Once there he was rushed to a Trauma unit where I met him and proceeded to relay what I new of the story, which was fairly limited, but apparently fairly detailed, that I had received from my step-father-in-law prior to me giving him the task of going to get the children from school.

A CT Scan and multiple different tests later he was moved into emergency holding to await a consult with neurosurgery and neurology. During this time I overheard (I have really good ears) comments about tumor regrowth, swelling, and other things that weren’t very good to hear. I don’t panic in those situations. I go into being very calm and listening to as much as I can hear about what is happening. Meaning that even though I may not remember the Doctor’s names, I remember what is being said about what they are trying to do.

I do recall a neurology resident, Ben (last name is not sticking), he is a wonderful resident, very forthcoming and shared the plan clearly and in a way that was understood, clarified when I need. I very much thought that he was through his specialty training as he was very professional, yet personable and set me at ease. The doc on the other hand, didn’t do that as much. Still good and personable, but really felt he was unsure of what needed to be done.

Then again, so would lots of doctors in this situation as nothing had really helped yet to reduce the seizures, which were now almost continual, but not as powerful as the first.

The neurosurgeon that was on-call was also wonderful, yep I don’t remember his name either. Got Dave up and walking a bit as part of his assessment to check balance and other things. With all of this the only thing that was really of a concern was the weakness in the right arm and the facial twitch that didn’t seem to want to go away.

More drugs later and finally things had seemed to settle down.

I can’t even remember what all they gave him, but finally something worked to calm down everything, this lasted about 3 hours. During this time he was transferred up to the Neurology ward for observation and to try to keep figuring out what might work to stop the seizures.

Nothing really seemed to work to help control the seizures and facial twitch. Further consulting was done with neuroradiology, neurology and neurosurgery around the initial MRI to see if they needed to go in and do any remedial surgery, exploratory or otherwise.

At this time, our surgeon’s nurse found the consult request in queue and came to see us. Story told again to her along with my frustration and anger at Dave being told to stop the steroid that we knew would aid in reducing swelling. I am still angry about this.

Dr. Kelly came to see us later that day after he was able to review the MRI and confirmed that there wasn’t much to see other than a bunch of irritation that was likely causing the issue and that surgery wouldn’t be needed. There was still the issue of the pocket (puddle) of fluid that docs couldn’t figure out, but that it was best to wait and see what the drugs would do rather than prematurely perform surgery.

For the next few days I watched and waited for something to work to control the seizures. These were very slowly becoming less intense and less frequent, but some of the other symptoms were persisting.

For the next few days I watched and waited for something to work to control the seizures. These were very slowly becoming less intense and less frequent, but some of the other symptoms were persisting. The slurred speech, weakness in the right arm and the droop on the right side of his face.

By Sunday, we were seeing improvement in the time between the episodes, but they were still occurring. Interestingly, Dave was starting to be able to somewhat predict when they would occur. He was also able to respond to questions, turn off what he was watching and make eye contact during many of the episodes.

Monday, December 9 has seen another improvement in the frequency of the seizures. Docs have scheduled another MRI for Tuesday to see what they can see, likely not a lot, but they still want to perform the scan.

It’s again one day at a time, focusing on the facts we know, which are few. He is doing better every day and hopefully will be out of hospital soon.

As he is in hospital for the next while he is also not able to contribute to the family income. This is causing a great deal of stress on him. To help with this a gofundme has been set up to help cover household expenses while he is not being a financial contributor. The name of the campaign is Dave Adams Brian Cancer Journey.

If you want to contribute in a different way please message me.