St Croix River Road Ramblings

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Friday, February 8, 2013

Margo feeling better



Margo undergoes home surgery


After 16 chemotherapy sessions, Margo has until March 11th to recover before surgery.  Her hair is showing signs of growing back--bristles like a two day beard.   Biggest problem now is a swollen left arm and hand that needs wrapping, massage and light therapy--daily trips to Mayo for a few weeks.  That is her maple sap pail carrying arm--so have to get it in shape!   I do the wrappings--and studied up on Egyptian Mummy wrapping techniques to get good at it.

Finally got the test results back from Margo's arm that is swollen. High level of gadolinium is present. That means when they injected the MRI contrast fluid and missed the vein 6 months ago, it caused her arm to swell and that is still a problem. 1 of 500 MRI contrast injections have "extravasation" -- meaning the injected fluid goes into the tissue instead of the vein. The gadolinium seems to stay there causing problems. Next week we hope to find out what can be done--if anything. With surgery coming in 4 weeks, that will take lymph nodes away, the swelling is likely to get worse. She has had it wrapped continuously for the past 6 months -- so it is more than a nuisance.