NO CHEMO -- (SABE?)

We visited the oncologist today prior to scheduled chemotherapy, and he suggested that we wait a week and do another scan before doing another round of chemo. His thinking is that if it is not working, it might be doing some harm. It might be contributing to Judith's bloated abdomen and possibly making the wound worse and more painful. (He says her various doctors disagree on this, but no one knows for sure -- "we haven't done double blind studies on this")

Because Judith's abdomen is increasing again and she's in pain, at our request he sent us over to the hospital for another "tap". Upon examining her the interventional radiologist said that there wasn't fluid to do the tap, so we returned home.

Judith appears to have an infection at the wound site, and we have started round-the-clock injections of antibiotics. With all this experience, my nursing degree must the coming in the mail any day now.

We have enlisted the assistance of my new best friend, the UCLA home infusion pharmacist in controlling her pain, and he's been very helpful. I can't say enough good things about this man, Stan Kitazawa, who is helpful, interested and informative. He's even given me his personal cell number and tells me I can call him in the middle of the night if necessary -- which I've done three times already!

It was another tough day, but by late afternoon Judith was much more comfortable. Jim and Noleen Feld visited from "the O.C." and her psychologist dropped by tonight for a long visit.

We're watching movies, having some laughs, hearing from dear friends and trying to make sense of it all.

WES (aka R.N. (Real Nightowl))