Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Neuro-oncologist Visit

I got the 8th cycle prescription for Chemo today. I am excited to only have four months to go after this. Four months. I told him the Provigil stopped working, he doubled the dose to 200mg/day. Had a couple questions for the NO:
  1. Should I be taking Decadron and Provigil at the same time? No. 
  2. Can the increased blood pressure pointed out in the MRI be the cause of my headaches and eye pain? Probably not. The pressure increase is around the surgery site, and is probably caused by blood vessels cauterized during the surgery. Doubtful that that pressure would make it all the way to the eye.
  3. Would blood pressure medication to help with my headaches? No, this  would probably cause more issues.
  4. Ginseng to increase energy? Got typical western medicine response. You can try it if you want, but can't recommend dose because he is not sure what the active ingredient is, if it has one ;( I guess I'll give it a try. 
A lot of digging to try to get some sort of relief on the continuous headache. The NO is NO help. He seems to have the attitude that this is par for the course and there is nothing I can do about it (Man up!). That sucks. This guy is an expert in brain tumors. Any BT patients out there please chime in if you found anything, other than narcotics, that helps.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 26, 2011 at 6:23 PM

    http://www.cancernetwork.com/integrative-oncology/content/article/10165/1844607
    This is an article worth reading regarding ginseng and fatigue. The article mentions that a larger study was due out this summer but doesn't look like it has been published yet. The only thing I can say is that my husband did have less fatigue this time with the chemo. He only took the 500 mg once a day but also he takes 300 mg of Temodar. I think that 500 mg of ginseng twice a day (like in the study) would have more effect but we will try the 500 mg once a day again next week when he starts on his 6th cycle. I will let you know how he does.

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  2. Carolyn LeechNovember 2, 2011 at 12:57 PM

    Ed,
    You are still welcome at weekly FREE yoga classes - Tuesdays at 5:30pm at RCH and Thursdays at 6pm at Edward (Cancer center building lobby).

    ReplyDelete

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