Pity Party

Today, I threw a big party. A pity party, that is. First, for Mike and all that he endlessly has to endure. Then, and I am ashamed to admit this, for myself. To my own defense, Mike's party was bigger and lasted all day.

The medication that Mike started taking in preparation for his brain radiation (a heavy steroid called Decadron) has given him a full-body rash. At least that's the Liz and Mike medical diagnosis. He is so incredibly uncomfortable that last night, he spent half the night in the bathtub with his new girlfriend, Aveeno Oatmeal Powder. But even Aveeno wasn't really helping. Since there was nothing I could do to help, I lay in bed half the night angry that this is what my poor Mike has to go through. I woke up with a pounding headache. Apparently, so did Mike.

We headed to Penn in the morning so that Mike could get measured for his radiation mask. The process took a while because they took a whole bunch of x-rays. At the end of the appointment, we met with a young doctor who examined Mike's rash. He could not offer an explanation, though he was pretty sure that the rash could not have been caused by any of the meds that Mike has started taking. To be cautious, he switched Mike to a different drug (another heavy duty steroid), but he had no idea when and how the rash could go away.

I paged Mike's oncologist in the afternoon, and he could not offer an explanation for the rash either. Since tomorrow is the first radiation session, we will check with the doctors again tomorrow.

Later in the evening, the rash started getting worse. Another sleepless night on deck. The pity party continues . . .