The last week and a half has been quite a roller-coaster. Susie was a bit bummed because she was not attending the Callahan Girls Weekend, where a bunch of her aunts, sisters, cousins, nieces and so on get together once a year. Since our time in the UK, this was the first time she has missed the reunion event. Fortunately, she was able to spend quality time with both of her sisters.
During the Girls weekend, we visited with friends in town and even took in a few hours at Austin’s Hope Farmers Market. We like this Farmers Market. It is not too crowded and has live music every Sunday early afternoon. Pearl and I took turns shopping. We got some great veggies, yaupon tea, cabrito/ goat and rabbit. It was a magical day.
Beginning of the week, Susie’s eldest sister stayed with us. We had a nice Sunday evening and Monday morning with her. I noticed on Monday afternoon Susie’s walking down stairs was more challenged. By Tuesday afternoon, her right leg’s movement was more labored. Also, she was numbness in right foot’s toes and having more trouble with word finding/ comprehension. Her HBOT doctor ordered an MRI. Come Wednesday morning, the MRI was still not approved by insurance. After talking with insurance, it seemed like the approval was going to be up to another day. By this point, Susie was quite unsteady and could not go down stairs without assistance. I talked with her HBOT doctor and he suggested she go to the ER.
Susie spent Wednesday afternoon through the rest of the week at Brackenridge Hospital. Her MRI showed she suffered a stroke in the pons region of her brain stem. The area affected is adjacent to her surgical resection cavity/ radiation treatment zone. As it is clear both Aspirin and Plavix are not fully effective at preventing clots associated with blood vessels impaired from Susie’s cancer treatments, the hospital neurologist team is investigating coagulating factors to determine if a more targeted approach is feasible.
At this moment, we’ve made some slight adjustments to her meds and she will be beginning outpatient physical and speech therapy. Her next neuro-oncology appointment is at MD Anderson in the middle of May. Hopefully, we will have more data for discussing and better planning our next steps.
