Friday, August 8th

Hello there - Since I last wrote, we have had another roller coaster ride. Glenna came home from Boston last Friday, feeling fine and expecting to feel the affects of the radiation, but otherwise rest and feel better daily. She started sometime on Sunday to get very lethargic and started slurring her words alot. Then it got worse and she actually had trouble walking and staying awake. By Monday, if you saw her, you would have thought she was drunk. At first we attributed it to her being on all the meds - they had added a new, stronger anti-seizure medication to her now growing drug collection. They also upped her dose of steroids and was having her take Ativan round the clock. It was quite unnerving to see her in such a drugged out state. Then on Tuesday morning, she was running a slight fever, so Bob called her doctor at MGH and he said he wanted her to come up right away so he could evaluate her. Bob, Jeanne & Glenna went up and say Dr. Lawrence, who immediately admitted her and they started the process of figuring out what was going on with her. I joined them on Tuesday night. She was definitely dehidrated and very weak, so they started giving her lots of fluids and blood to boost her back up. She was scheduled for an MRI and an EEG to see if there was something going on in her brain. But after much deliberation, they concluded that she had been taking a much too high dose of the new anti-seizure drug, Dilantin. The appropriate level for her body weight was 20 - and they said she was at 42 when she came in! They, of course, immediately stopped it, and her levels began to fall. It turns out she did not have to go through the scans, but they wanted her to stay up there a second night until her level was safe. So we all stayed with her. They put her up in the Phillips House on the 20th floor, which if any of you know this floor, it's like being in a nice hotel room. Lots of room and pull out couch for guests. She even got the side with the river view. Thank God for small miracles (I think Dr. Lawrence had something to do with that). So by mid day on Thursday, her levels had dropped enough to come home. She is going this morning to have blood work done to see if she is back to 20 yet. Once she is, she has to go back on the Dilantin, but at a much lower dose. All in all, we were very happy that this was a mishap that could be easily fixed, and not a new cog in the wheel.

So she is home now and feeling a whole lot better. She has a visiting nurse and a physical therapist coming today to evaluate her. It was amazing in only two days the transformation that happened to her. She is now speaking fine and still a bit weak in the knees, but getting better all the time. So that's the news of the day. Always something, eh? Whew! Until next time.....Love you, MK