Friday, September 25, 2009

the state she's in

I mentioned in the previous post that Mom seems to be stronger than she was a few days ago. On the down side, she's also been somewhat less verbal and has been exhibiting some of her old perseverative behavior. But in the evening, after she was home from her Avastin infusion session and her walk in the park, Mom seemed a bit more talkative and coherent. While I seriously doubt that her renewed vigor and alertness were the result of the Avastin, the improvement was a happy occurrence all the same.

The nurse, Gail, told us during the Avastin session that Mom might need to drink more. This was astounding to me, seeing as Mom has a huge plastic mug filled-- and refilled-- with water next to her all day long. Gail mentioned this because she'd been having difficulty finding a vein in Mom's left arm for the IV. "When you press them down, they should bounce right back," she said. That apparently wasn't happening for Gail, and it's true that Mom has been continuing to lose weight.

The most important thing, though, is whether the Avastin is doing anything to the tumors. We won't know until Mom gets her next MRI in six weeks, so keep those fingers crossed.


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