Radiation and Chemo Effects

On the positive, Janette's leg and back pain is much better and her coughing is daily but infrequent. Less pain is very, very positive. On the negative, the side effects have arrived. She doesn't want to eat. The smell of food (particularly, not her food) is making her nauseous in a strange way. The radiation has somehow caused her to breathe more shallowly and feel short of breath. Fortunately, she is not nauseous on eating and can eat. She's sleeping in the sewing room away from the kitchen and can escape the smells. And she really isn't short of breath and has very good oxygen saturation.

I haven't been to a regular American doctor in 10 years. Well, last year we had an immediate care center visit for a very high fever. The quality of care seemed much higher than I remembered. Has there been a change in health care philosophy in the U.S. or was I just gone so long that I forgot?

My point of all this is the level of concern and care from all the doctors, nurses, aides and technicians Janette sees is wonderful. Today at radiation, I stopped the radiation nurse in the hall to talk about those side effects. She immediately had time for us, did tests, consulted with the chemo nurses in another part of the building, called the doctor at the other office (who then consulted on the phone with the lung doctor, who was home sick with the flu), and then spent more time talking and listening to me while Janette received her radiation treatment. After the treatment, Janette was a little dizzy. So the nurse got a wheelchair, wheeled us over to the chemo room and nurses, stayed with us to talk about Janette's nausea, got us samples of anti-nausea medication (meanwhile the chemo nurse is automatically calling in a prescription to our pharmacy because they already have the number on file,) and then wheeled us out the door all the way to the car, the whole time with the patience and calmness and focus as if we were her only patient (we weren't).

And then the lung doctor: he's home with the flu, but he consults with the radiation doctor and decides he wants to see Janette as soon as possible. When I called his office, his schedule is packed and we're a bit concerned about the flu and chemo. So, they text-message him at home and he calls them back and we have a Thursday morning appointment. We could have had tomorrow, he would have come in to see her then, but with the flu we put it off a few days.

It's just that everyone seems to truly care about her health and put all his effort into getting her the best care possible. I am very grateful and Janette spends a relatively short amount of time in physical distress.

The anti-nausea medication seems to be working. We got a pressed Cuban sandwich to go after radiation and she just came out of her room to eat more of the leftovers. Great news!