Not Doing So Well

I’ve had a few concerned calls and E-mails this past week.  All were eager to get my opinion of our most recent Oncologist appointment.  Since breaking the news of Satomi’s worsening cancer, traffic to this blog has more than tripled so I know everyone wants to know what’s really going on.  

Satomi’s not doing so well. 

She’s now completely deaf in both ears.  It’s really hard to grasp that she can’t even hear herself speak.  Hearing aides haven’t helped because the damage is to her auditory nerve, not the ear itself.  Her lip-reading was really the only thing that allowed any normal conversation.  But now she can’t lip read either.  She has almost continuous double-vision now either because the dizziness triggers her nystagmus (eye twitching) or the tumor growth has caused further nerve damage.  She passes the time watching television  wearing an eye patch and reading the closed captioning.  The dizziness is worse too.  She described it to me as “bad as it’s ever been” and that’s saying something.  She is far from comfortable.

As I’m sure I’ve described before, our Oncologist is positive but she chooses her words very carefully when discussing important topics.  It’s obvious that things are more serious now than ever.  The doctor is a clear proponent of whole brain radiation as the next step in Satomi’s treatment.  The truth is that the drugs were ineffective and the tumor isn’t operable so at this point, there just aren’t any other options for us.