So, looks like we licked it this time. Might have it prefect in time for the last round!
Because Dad was so completely out of it the last two rounds we had already upped the daily dose of dex to 2mg and decided to try upping to 4mg for the 5 days of treatment and 5 days after.
This seems to have totally worked....or there was something else going on that's now stopped! We were aware of other side effects this time, he felt the nausea more, he was aware of how tired he was, but we're pretty sure that he was like that the last two times but didn't notice because he was so space cadet.
This time round he's not lost his marbles at all really. We did notice that the word displacement increased a bit but it does that when he's tired anyway.
The only downside that we've seen is that he's had fluid retention in his lower limbs. This started about 7 days after upping the dose. I'm thinking that next time we'll just do the extra dex for 7 days instead to get him through it.
So what does this mean? I don't understand why the extra dex is needed. I think that either the killing off of additional healthy brain and/or tumour progression has to be the reason but I don't know. 3 months on is there still continuing post radiotherapy effects and why are they magnified by the chemo? Answer on a postcard!
Dad isn't the same man he was before this. He isn't the same man he was post surgery, pre treatment. Honestly if I was in the same position now I think I'd take the surgery, settle my affairs and live out my days. I feel like the radiotherapy killed good bits as well as bad. Maybe I'll feel differently later with a little more time and a better view of the good that its done.
