April 16

It was a long night, but Madelyn did just fine with no more Benadryl.  She was awake a lot though due to belly and throat pain.  She also had a long and very painful BM.  I finally put it all together this morning when I decided to try giving her pain medicine and she felt better.  I called the the on-call Oncology doctor confirmed it.  She (most likely) has mucositis of the GI track.  A common side effect of chemotherapy, especially the Doxorubicion.  Mucositis is tiny ulcers (soars) along her digestive track and are painful.  It is one of those side effects you can only wait to resolve itself and if she has a low ANC (which she probably does right now) it will take longer.  This is probably why all she has been wanting to eat is cold corn and hasn't been drinking well.


The medicine has been working for the pain today, but she is obviously drugged.  I much prefer this though to the total disconnection she had from us yesterday.  It was scary.  Today MJ has slow, slurred speech... but a lot of speech.  She can't stop talking.  Talking about lots of happy things in a slow, monotone manner.   It is hilarious.


We went to my sisters this morning.  She sat with Aunt Jen and "had a good chat" (direct quote from MJ).  Jen made lunch for us and she sat at the kitchen table and talked with her - continuously.  (I played with Sophia, Soren and Wyatt - my nephews - love those two funny boys). Madelyn wanted to come back to the apartment to take a nap and was laying her head down on the kitchen table. But she didn't want to leave until 12:30pm so she could show Auntie how she swallowed pills.  Madelyn explained to her, in great detail, exactly how its done.  It was probably a two paragraph description.


She is also having a lot of trouble walking now.  The Peripheral Neuropathy plus dizziness from drugs are requiring her to have a hand to hold whenever she walks.  She can't go up or down stairs without assistance.


Luckily all three of us were able to take a nap this afternoon.  I had approximately four hours sleep between midnight and 7am last night so I was bushed by the afternoon.  Peter went home last night and will be in Anacortes until Sunday morning.  We have a doctor's visit on Monday morning and then he will be back in Anacortes that evening.  Luckily Madelyn has a rest week coming up.  No chemotherapy to get her counts recovered and her body recovered before the really big two weeks starting April 25.