Monday, August 31, 2009

Bill is now about 2 1/2 weeks post op. It was sort of been up and down for awhile after getting home. Things seem to have evened out now. He did an 8 a.m. blood draw at a week & a half post op. He’d withheld hydro for 48 hours and his cortisol was still at 22.1. Normal is 4-22. It probably shouldn’t be that high this soon after surgery.

He has had relief of some symptoms but I wonder how long that will last.

The other night he asked Jess to fill his pill box for him as it can really take some concentration. There are several different meds, some to be taken more than once a day and at certain times. When she came to the hydro she asked if she should put it in with his bp meds. I said I’d ask him to be sure I knew how much he was taking. I forgot to ask. So he hasn’t had any hydro since Saturday around noon. I don’t think he really could tell a difference. When we figured it out tonight, we talked about it and he decided that for now he’s not going to take any. If he feels like he needs it, there’s plenty here.

I’ve always kind of hoped that he wouldn’t have his numbers drop too low for too long. We know he has a tumor on his left (I believe) adrenal and the other secretes extra aldosterone. A few months ago when I asked Dr. F how soon Bill could have a BLA after his pituitary surgery, he said that he’d be having a unilateral. But what made me nervous was that he couldn’t tell me which adrenal would be the one to come out. If there is no cure from the pit surgery then a BLA for him would be the next obvious step.

I’m really afraid if he just has a unilateral adrenalectomy, that he would end up back in surgery a few months later to have the other adrenal gland removed. That would be a real waste of time I think. Not to mention it would be an additional surgery and additional time off work, etc.

1 comment:

Hi, I'm Rene said...

Not exactly sure if this is good news or bad. I can't imagine that Dr. F will give you a hard time moving on to BLA (as opposed to ULA)if cortisol continues to be high.