Jeanine comes home

Thursday Jeanine came home from the hospital after a roller coaster day. For the first time during her stay, her oncologist came in to see her. We know that he had been in communication with the other doctors because they had mentioned it and yet, Jeanine took great comfort when he came in. He is extremely intelligent and wants to try everything he can to help her. We are told that he remembers each patient and their treatment history. He also remembers the various treatments that are available without needing to look them up.

He gave her some options. First he told her that they might be able to implant radiation pellets in the liver that would deliver a powerful punch to the cancer, they could use radiation to decrease the tumor in the liver, they could go ahead and do the drains, then deliver targeted therapy to the liver. The decision was made and Jeanine was sent to the intervention radiologist to have a drain installed. It was a horrible experience for her. He could not get the drains to go in. According to the radiologist and his assistant, he tried it from many angles and pushed and shoved. When I imagine it, I imagine her insides looking like swiss cheese when he was done (though with much smaller holes.) They said she would be very, very sore and she definitely is.

After she recouped somewhat from the procedure, she was allowed to return home. She was so, so grateful to get back to familiar surroundings and to the relative quiet of home so she could get some rest.

Now the interesting part, there is no doubt that she is very, very sore in her abdominal area because of the fruitless procedure she went through yesterday. Yet, she has not thrown up once since she returned home. She is eating more, though still not much. She is more alert. She even thinks she might be a little less yellow. I am not sure that is true, but I do know that she is not acting as sick as she was. During the entire time she was at the hospital, the only things done that were different than what she does at home are..

1. They gave her some saline intravenously.
2. They did an unsuccessful procedure on her liver.

Whatever the reason, we are glad for the respite.

She has an appointment with her oncologist on Monday to find out the best course of action to follow at this point.