Your understanding has increased!

Many thanks to those who e-mailed, commented, and chatted with me. Every little note really helps. :)

Going in to this morning, Jaime and I had a working theory about what was going on with him derived from an article in Blood about patients undergoing basically the same treatment as him - Hyper CVAD with prophylactic intrathecal Depocyt. What this boils down to is some pretty rough chemo (they tested to make sure his heart could handle it before starting him with this regimen) and extra chemo injected into his spine to prevent the lymphoma from jumping in there and spreading to his brain. The extra chemo in question, Cytarabine (hence Depocyt), can cause headaches and is part of the Hyper CVAD already. So, he was getting IV Cytarabine during the Arm B's, plus Cytarabine directly in his CSF on top of that. AND the Depocyt is lipid-encapsulated for slow release, so it was hanging around even longer than usual.

The article I mentioned earlier noted that five of the patients were unable to complete the study for various reasons. One guy started having seizures. Another developed Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, the condition I linked to in the entry before this. It's pretty much what it sounds like; for an unknown reason (idiopathic), the pressure of the CSF (fluid in the spine and around the brain - intracranial) becomes elevated (hypertension). Looking at the Wikipedia page, a lot of it sounded eerily familiar. "The main symptoms are headache, nausea and vomiting as well as pulsatile tinnitus (buzzing in the ears), double vision and visual symptoms." He's had all of those.

To make a moderately lengthy story short, he had a lumbar puncture today to get fluid for testing, and we theorized that it might help with his headaches. It did. Jaime came back reporting that he didn't have pain at all. He did mention a headache at one point, but that was after he coughed - an action known to raise intracranial pressure - and it seems like it went away. Of course, no doctors have been in to see him since, so we don't know if they're as giddy as I am about this development, but I'm not about to let that kill my buzz. He was up near the top of the pain scale last night and on three or four different medicines at any given time that were barely controlling it, and in comparision to that, today is fucking gold. No, platinum. TITANIUM. It rocks.

And I even managed to get a decent amount of sleep last night!

Your understanding has increased!

Many thanks to those who e-mailed, commented, and chatted with me. Every little note really helps. :)

Going in to this morning, Jaime and I had a working theory about what was going on with him derived from an article in Blood about patients undergoing basically the same treatment as him - Hyper CVAD with prophylactic intrathecal Depocyt. What this boils down to is some pretty rough chemo (they tested to make sure his heart could handle it before starting him with this regimen) and extra chemo injected into his spine to prevent the lymphoma from jumping in there and spreading to his brain. The extra chemo in question, Cytarabine (hence Depocyt), can cause headaches and is part of the Hyper CVAD already. So, he was getting IV Cytarabine during the Arm B's, plus Cytarabine directly in his CSF on top of that. AND the Depocyt is lipid-encapsulated for slow release, so it was hanging around even longer than usual.

The article I mentioned earlier noted that five of the patients were unable to complete the study for various reasons. One guy started having seizures. Another developed Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, the condition I linked to in the entry before this. It's pretty much what it sounds like; for an unknown reason (idiopathic), the pressure of the CSF (fluid in the spine and around the brain - intracranial) becomes elevated (hypertension). Looking at the Wikipedia page, a lot of it sounded eerily familiar. "The main symptoms are headache, nausea and vomiting as well as pulsatile tinnitus (buzzing in the ears), double vision and visual symptoms." He's had all of those.

To make a moderately lengthy story short, he had a lumbar puncture today to get fluid for testing, and we theorized that it might help with his headaches. It did. Jaime came back reporting that he didn't have pain at all. He did mention a headache at one point, but that was after he coughed - an action known to raise intracranial pressure - and it seems like it went away. Of course, no doctors have been in to see him since, so we don't know if they're as giddy as I am about this development, but I'm not about to let that kill my buzz. He was up near the top of the pain scale last night and on three or four different medicines at any given time that were barely controlling it, and in comparision to that, today is fucking gold. No, platinum. TITANIUM. It rocks.

And I even managed to get a decent amount of sleep last night!

One more tasty tidbit.

On my way to grab lunch just now, Serena told me they didn't find anything in the fluid. Meaning the lymphoma has NOT spread into his brain. Fuck. YES.

... The chick in front of me in line at the grill asked for just a large box of crispy fries. As the guy was serving it up, she hollered, "Are they crispy?!" Yes, ma'am. *eyeroll*

One more tasty tidbit.

On my way to grab lunch just now, Serena told me they didn't find anything in the fluid. Meaning the lymphoma has NOT spread into his brain. Fuck. YES.

... The chick in front of me in line at the grill asked for just a large box of crispy fries. As the guy was serving it up, she hollered, "Are they crispy?!" Yes, ma'am. *eyeroll*

Red pill, blue pill?

Oh man, I wish I could take pictures of this. Jaime's getting prepped for an EEG, which consists of cleaning his head and then sticking a couple dozen wires to it. It looks freaky. And kind of awesome. So many weird medical things I'm learning about...

Oh! By the way! Normal human pressure of the CSF is about 20 mm Hg. The patient in that study who was diagnosed with IIH was just over 40 mm Hg. Jaime's reading at the lumbar puncture today? 70 mm Hg. For crying out loud. His headaches have come back some since then, but they switched him over to Tramadol, and it seems to be doing the trick at the moment. Hooray!

... Pfffft, rainbow wires all over his head. This is great.

Red pill, blue pill?

Oh man, I wish I could take pictures of this. Jaime's getting prepped for an EEG, which consists of cleaning his head and then sticking a couple dozen wires to it. It looks freaky. And kind of awesome. So many weird medical things I'm learning about...

Oh! By the way! Normal human pressure of the CSF is about 20 mm Hg. The patient in that study who was diagnosed with IIH was just over 40 mm Hg. Jaime's reading at the lumbar puncture today? 70 mm Hg. For crying out loud. His headaches have come back some since then, but they switched him over to Tramadol, and it seems to be doing the trick at the moment. Hooray!

... Pfffft, rainbow wires all over his head. This is great.

Those poor, poor lice.

Jaime's comment here reminded me that I really need to post the Persona 4 opening misheard lyrics video. For reference, here's the regular opening:

Aaaaand here's the misheard lyrics version:

So. Much. Love.

Those poor, poor lice.

Jaime's comment here reminded me that I really need to post the Persona 4 opening misheard lyrics video. For reference, here's the regular opening:

Aaaaand here's the misheard lyrics version:

So. Much. Love.