Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again

With Dad's visit over, Henry and Mama are back into what passes for routine at St. Jude. At the end of every day they get a printout of their schedule for the next day. Fifteen minutes before their first appointment they check in; Henry gets a wrist band, gets weighed, BP check, temperature and sometimes blood work. They also get a new printout of the daily schedule which, as often as not, has been revised since yesterday. While every day is different, there is a level of predictability:

• Occupational and Physical Therapy, usually three days a week in the morning,
• Speech Therapy, sporadically scheduled one to three days a week,
• School, usually afternoon, three days a week,
• Radiation, five days a week, usually afternoon,
• Other spontaneous exams.

Henry has been doing well on all fronts. He has shown few side effects to the radiation, although he is losing some of his new (darker) hair at the target areas around the head. He takes Zofran three times a day and so far does not suffer from any nausea.

He has had a few tests to determine his neurological damage and progress. We have learned, sadly, that the damage to the left auditory nerve is total and permanent. We also found that the left vocal fold is completely paralyzed. This, however, has a 80%-90% chance of full recovery, but recovery will take at least a year to eighteen months. This condition also contributes to swallowing difficulties, but for the most part Henry's swallowing is quite good and, with care, he can pretty much eat what he wants (see Eating Our Way Through Memphis, below).

Henry is to receive 33 radiation treatments so, depending on delays, holidays or other setbacks, he should be getting his last treatment on or around March 23.

Counting the days...