Last week Sybil started experiencing severe pain in her side. We took her to the hospital where she received a CAT scan and had blood work done. The CAT scan wasn't very illuminating. For the most part, her liver tumors were all about the same size, which is good news but didn't help us much with the pain. Basically, after being examined by many doctors, they all kind of shrugged their shoulders and suggested pain medication. Sybil's very reluctant to take these, so we've been using ice on her side, which seems to help a lot. Since then, she's had several bad pain episodes, but she's managing and seems to be improving. After several days of being in bed, she's able to get up now.

We didn't get out of the hospital right away though. Her blood count was critically low (down to 5.3 at one point) so she needed another transfusion. They kept her in overnight after she developed a high fever. Since then, she's had a few fevers, but they do seem to go down quickly. It's amazing that she was able to move around so well with her counts so low. Sybil was fainting and extremely lethargic before her first transfusion and her counts were higher than they were this time.

Today, she still has liver pain but it is manageable. She's drinking a lot of water and eating dulse to keep her minerals balanced. She's eating a fairly bland, easily digestible diet that emphasizes carbohydrates. She was having a problem with acid stomach but that also seems to be improving.

Right now she's off the Dexamethasone. She's back to taking her usual Celebrex and Cytoxan dosage. While in the hospital she was on a liquid diet with no meds.

Matt Donath

Mdonath@yahoo.com