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My Husband's journey with Glioblastoma

Brain Tumor | Last Active: Oct 21 5:20pm | Replies (174)

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@vijo

Oh geeze! about your wife's weight loss, sorry to hear. My husband was prescribed only 4 mg of ondansetron once a day which caused his terrible constipation. Grateful he tolerated the Temodar 140 mg without it!! I can't imagine being on 8 mg 2-3x a day!! Wowzer. There's other stuff she could take to stimulate her appetite that wouldn't constipate her, but I'll refrain from suggesting what :o). My husband continues on his DAILY Bactrim DS - which I think his Med Onc doc said he wants him to continue for about 6 months after chemo is finished :o(. Egads!! I don't agree with taking it like this BUT I'm not a doctor. He is also weaning down off the steroid.
He tried transitioning from Keppra to lacosamide (supposed to be gentler) BUT couldn't tolerate it at all after 2 weeks. We were warned due to his low heart rate, stays around 50-55 (used to run HS track and jog into his 30s) that we knew this could possibly happen, but doctor still couldn't believe he couldn't tolerate it. So, now he's one month in on trying Trileptal, which was going okay until Tues, when he became a zombie even on the lowest dose of 150 mg 2x/day. I cut the daytime dose in half without permission, which has helped! His local neurologist has not responded to my vmail on Wed nor my message I sent via the pt portal!! He is way over sedated, very unsteady on his feet, walks with a walker for safety bc his right foot is affected. He has had two nasty falls while on Trileptal. Appt with Neurology on 10/10 at least.
His main tumor is in his left parietal lobe, your language/learning center, therefore he has aphasia, can read but barely can write, no math skills, and very difficult to process what people are saying. Basically, word salad going on in his head. He had an awake craniotomy but didn't tolerate the anesthesia very well while awake, squirmed around, had to be held down, so they only debulked about 70%. We were told anything between 70-100% is a "good" thing. We're still grateful though! He has a second pea-size tumor "more anteriorly." He has to be "coached" through all his daily tasks because he no longer has the know-how to do anything, but we're grateful he's still talking and walking, although difficult. I am a fulltime caregiver and grateful I am currently able to, but I am checking into Home Health and assisted-living options for the future. His MRI is now scheduled on 10/20, results with Rad Onc on 10/24. We shall keep on keeping on in the meantime. MANY PRAYERS for y'all!

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Replies to "Oh geeze! about your wife's weight loss, sorry to hear. My husband was prescribed only 4..."

How did the latest MRI go, and what is the treatment plan going forward? My wife had her first post radiation, chemo MRI on Oct 18. We were relieved with the finding of "no obvious tumor progression". We met with the oncologist on 10-19 and she will go on the 5 days of 220 mg temodar and 23 days off for the first two cycles. After this and the next MRI they want to increase the temodar to 300 mg doses. MRI,s every other month for a year with chemo cycles on going during that time. My wife, Anne, still has relatively good mobility although she loses her balance from time to time as today when she fell in a parking lot, but is ok. She has brain fog that the oncologist said may lessen as she gets to 90 days removed from radiation. While she has been on the chemo holiday of about 4 weeks she actually started eating a bit more and has enjoyed some meals. Her sleep is also better. About three weeks ago she developed a pain in her neck, (not me) which she attributed to sleeping on it wrong. She has used over the counter meds and now has an rx muscle relaxer that helps moderately. Her attitude continues to be good. Prayers with you and all of those in this situation now or in the past.
Dan