Late in the day on Saturday Marshall developed what he called a strange feeling, kind of dizzy, and he had diarrhea for hours, as well as nausea. This went on for a few hours and then he said he felt numb in his groin area and he hadn't urinated in a long time.
So I called the radiation oncologist on duty and he said to bring Marshall to the University Hospital's emergency room, which I did. The diarrhea continued and the nausea continued until you wonder how he could possibly have anything left in him.
They did an MRI and an x-ray and lab work. Then he was finally admitted around 4:30AM. By the time we got settled in the room it was around 5:30AM so we went right to sleep.
Sunday morning they said that the MRI did not show anything unusual. And neither did the x-ray. All lab work was within normal ranges. It is possible that the radiation caused a bit of swelling which could have caused the numbness. So they gave him steroids to try to calm that down. The diarrhea finally calmed down and so did the nausea. They say Marshall should be on anti-nausea medication twice a day now.
They also speculated that the diarrhea may have been caused by the assortment of stool softeners he'd been put on, so we are going to adjust that.
Well, from my perspective things are going along pretty good. The MRI didn't show anything and neither did the x-rays. They are thinking that there was perhaps some swelling that may or may not have been caused by the radiation that pressed against some nerves that caused the numbness in the groin and they gave him steroids for that. That appears to be getting a little bit better.
And he doesn't have much pain at the moment (although they have decided to keep him on a morphine schedule for now).
But, he has fallen into a worse depression than I've ever seen. It breaks my heart and throws me into a depression.
They are not sure if they will release him tomorrow or not, but if they don't release him, they will be sure he gets his second radiation treatment.
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