We went to see Dr. Nicholas at the U of C today, and he sent Paul for a CT scan to see if there was any bleeding from the tumor as a result of the bicycle accident. There was none. That was a big relief.
Those U of C doctors are really great. I had sent email yesterday to both Dr. Nicholas (the neuro-oncologist) and Dr. Roach (Paul's primary physician there) saying that Paul seemed to be having slurred speech, which he hadn't had before, and was it something I should be concerned about?
Dr. Nicholas wrote back that I could bring Paul to the clinic today, and Dr. Roach called to say that he thought I should take Paul in. We spent most of the day there, but it was worth it to know that there's no bleeding going on. Dr. Nicholas said he thought Paul's speech was worse than it was when we were in last week, but he said that's probably caused by swelling from the jolt of the fall and it should subside.
We did have one piece of bad news - the vision problems that Paul is having (basically no vision in upper right quadrant) is not going to improve because it's caused by the tumor location, not by swelling. The other good news is that Dr. Nicholas doesn't see any reason why Paul shouldn't have surgery on his shoulder, and he's calling the doctors here to recommend that they go ahead.
We gave Dr. Nicholas the forms to fill out for Paul's medical leave and long term disability while we were there, so that process has started.
Continue to: Aug. 11, 1998
Return to: Diary of a Brain Tumor Patient's Wife
Created and maintained by Renette Davis. Send comments to Renette by clicking here.
Created: May 31, 1999
Last updated: July 18, 2010