24 September 2018 - Room 11 Radiotherapy Department, Cancer Centre, QEH

The start of Deb's second week of radiotherapy. She has declined markedly over the last few weeks. In particular she has muscle weakness. This is more pronounced on her left side and in her upper legs. She has great difficulty getting up and down stairs, (after the escalator incident I get very worried about her falling), can not get out of the chair unaided, struggles getting in and out of bed and whenever sitting slumps to her left hand side. I do not think the decline is due to the radiotherapy but rather the tumour progression affecting the brain. (The tumour is in the RHS frontal lobe - the RHS of the brain controls the LHS of the body). Her cognitive function is also more impaired. (Deb doesn't know what day of the week it is, cannot do simple sums etc).

During the week, after discussion with Fred Berki, Deb's steroid dose was increased from 4 to 8 mg per day. This made her brighter and more alert but did little to improve her muscle weakness.

Today we struggled into RT, we took the wheelchair but in the end Deb thought she could walk with just the use of her stick and afterwards saw Dr Sanghera and Claire. This was the first time Dr Sanghera had seen Deb since her escalator fall and he was concerned to discover why that had happened. We discussed Deb's condition. Dr Sanghera said that one of the effects of increasing the steroid dose could be muscle weakness and suggested we slowly reduced the dose back to 4mg. Deb might be more tired but she may have better mobility (Deb is also showing some signs of face swelling (moon face) which is a side effect of steroid usage.) We will keep the steroid dose under review and may need to increase again if Deb starts having headaches or other symptoms caused by the tumour. We will see Dr S again in a week's time.

I have also contacted Birmingham City Council and arranged for them to carry out a social care assessment. Hopefully they will be coming later this week.

17 September 2018 - Room 11, Radiotherapy Department, Cancer Centre, QEH

Radiotherapy treatment room

Deb's first radiotherapy treatment was scheduled for 2 pm this afternoon. We first saw a senior technician who took us into a side room to explain what was going to happen. He said the whole process would only take about 5 minutes. Deb would first be scanned by a CT scanner (built into the machine) and the results would be compared to the scan used when preparing the mask to ensure Deb was accurately positioned on the table.The radiography would then be carried out to a preplanned schedule during which the head of the machine would rotate around Deb on the table. This would take 3 or 4 minutes.  

The equipment in the treatment room was ultra modern and looked liked something out of Star Trek. The room was bathed in a soft blue light and crisscrossed by bright green lasers to provide accurate positioning.I left then before they switched on the radiation beams.

Deb said she noticed no ill effects from the treatment but I suppose it is early days yet. We return tomorrow at 9.00 in the morning.

06 September 2018 - At Home

Deb in bed this morning showing off her black eye

Yesterday Deb and I were in Sutton Coldfield shopping. Whilst riding up the escalator in M&S Deb lost her balance and fell. She went head over heels before sliding face down on the moving escalator. We spent the rest of the day  at Good Hope Hospital A&E. Fortunately Deb did not break anything but suffered extensive cuts and bruising to her face, body and legs. We got home about 10.30 last night. This morning she is stiff and tired and has spent most of the day in bed. It was a shocking accident to witness and we are extremely lucky that she did not have any major injuries. We are going to use the lift in future.