What a difference a week makes!! He was discharged last Sunday, May 6, after seeing Dr. Tang and Dr. Valazquez, an internist. Dr. Tang told us there were a few results pending from his spinal tap and they would probably take a couple of weeks. Since it was "diagnostic exclusion" she's treating him for Hashimoto's Encephalopathy. She said we could leave after his IV of steroids. Christy, the nurse, couldn't get a good vein probably because they'd been draining him of blood!!! I told her he had a port and she tried to access it but couldn't get a "blood return." She injected a clot buster and after an hour of percolating, she was successful. We got home a little after three o'clock. I got him settled in with his TV and went to pick up the prescriptions.
The change in him is quite dramatic. He KNOWS this is home and he said he "loves" our home. His paranoia is gone! He's more upbeat than in a very long time and is jabbering about our trip to Carmel and points north.
We see Dr. Tang on May 21 and Dr. Haq or May 23. At some point we'll probably see Dr. Flippo but we've not heard - I'll probably call on Monday to get him set up. We need to find out if he can have his port removed as we're just not going to do any more chemo.
I'm hopeful and have been reading so much about Hashimoto's Encephalopathy. Most likely he'll be gradually taken off the steroids and historically, the disease can go into remission and stay there for years!
We've been out to dinner a couple of times and he seems to be enjoying life much more than in the last several months. What a blessing it is that we had such a diligent team of doctors trying to get to the bottom of his massive brain mess.
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