Abdominal X-ray and 2 CT Scans

            David had an x-ray and two CT scans today. His abdomen is distended and they think it might be air in the cavity or an abscess caused by leaking of the small intestine. We’ll have the results tomorrow.

            I had a bit of a panic this morning, when the oncologist mentioned “surgery coming up today.” I may have blanched; I said I hadn’t heard about more surgery. No, no, he quickly assured me, he meant that the surgery team would be visiting.

            Jim travelled all night on Megabus, and enjoyed 2 whole seats from Baltimore to Union Station in D.C. He arrived about 9 a.m., after David’s visit to x-ray (transferring from his bed to the wheelchair was very painful. He’d woken with pain several times during the night, hence the x-ray and CT scans.).Our escort, HN Campbell, is from Worcester. He misses Massachusetts; and the fall colors: his parents and most of his siblings still live there.

            “Neurology” came in for the daily pushing and pulling. They hope the slurred speech is a side effect of one of the antibiotics, Flagyl. They discontinued it a week ago, but we have to wait up to three weeks for results. They’ve ruled out stroke, although they ask him to smile each day: always re-checking, lots of redundancy.

            David’s last solid food was oatmeal and cream of wheat, on Friday, May 2. He has had “clear liquids”, like jello and broth. Today he’s had nothing, waiting for the results of the first CT scan (which was a request for a second scan), and then drinking more contrast for the second scan, which happened about 9 p.m. We’ll hear the results tomorrow.

            David’s complete blood counts were low, so he had more blood products by IV, irradiated (what a sensible form of sterilization, wish more food were treated that way), with the white blood cells removed. His white blood cell count is above of the range where there is concern about spontaneous infection. Neutropenia shouldn’t be an issue until he has more chemotherapy, in preparation for the bone marrow transplant. The chemo can’t start until David recovers from the abdominal surgery. As Captain McDuffee, the oncology fellow for this month told David, “Your job is to get stronger.”