Troublesome chemo, hopeful vision therapy

Sun 03/30/08
Susan will begin her 7th month of temodar chemotherapy tonight. She’s been tolerating it well all along, so it’s become a routine event for five days each month. We continue to trust and ask God for healing from cancer and restoration of sight. Susan’s poor vision is her most troubling issue. Our help is in the name of the Lord.

Tue 04/01/08
So much for chemo being a routine event. Susan was out of it this morning. What began as an easy day yesterday became more difficult as she felt worse throughout the afternoon and evening. She had a restless and uncomfortable night with nausea, disorientation and feeling plain lousy, worse than she has in months. She’s really tired today. She said everything’s tilted and makes her dizzy. I cleared my day to observe her out of concern we might be seeing an infection get out of control, and was relieved that she felt better as the day went on. She did not have a fever. It’s odd that the temodar would make her feel this way after just one or two days. Perhaps she was readjusting to lower altitude after being in Mammoth or reacting to being back on the steroid Decadron for a week. Anyway, she’s better now.

Wed 04/02/08
Addressing a major need, today we had another visit with Dr Ikeda, the Bellflower optometrist who specializes in neuro-optometry and rehabilitation for patients recovering from stroke and brain injury. What a gift. He did a brief exam to make sure her new glasses have the right prescriptions and confirmed that Susan’s eyes are fine. There’s nothing mechanically wrong with them. The problem is cognitive or brain-oriented. He then described what her visual experience is like with eloquence and technical accuracy that completely matched what she’s been saying in her own words – dim light, spottiness, trouble focusing, blurred and double images, etc.
Susan felt relieved that someone actually understands what her vision is like. And it’s truly encouraging because there’s no fix without knowing the problem; and he knows the problem. So the next step is visual rehabilitation, a multi-sensory behavioral approach that will help with techniques for adapting and allowing the brain to build new pathways. He says it will be hard work. Susan will start in three weeks. Meanwhile, I’ll try to work out the insurance support. We are grateful to have his help.