Outpatient Appointments with Dentist and Supportive Care Team

Thursday, November 3, 2016: Outpatient appointments at MD Anderson, Houston, TX

Two appointments. One discouraging and one encouraging. The dentist appointment was supposed to be to receive dental clearance for the transplant. Unfortunately the dentist found that Todd's wisdom teeth need to come out or he needs to have two root canals prior to the bone marrow transplant. We knew this and tried to get them taken out in the summer but his platelets started declining after we waited the 6 months for the insurance to cover it. His platelets are still way too low to do any procedures!  I can't see them going up anytime soon. So all the doctors are going to talk and get a game plan together. In the meantime they are giving him headaches and jaw pain.

The second appointment was with the "Supportive Care" team. They will now be in charge of his symptom management: pain, physical therapy, fatigue, and nausea. The doctor was able to give him some medicine to stimulate his appetite called Reglan or Metoclopramide. So I'm hoping this will help with his cachexia and catabolic wasting. We spoke with a counselor and he is going to check in with me from time to time to see how I am coping.  The doctor thought it was best to keep Todd on a low-dose pain medication around the clock instead of just taking something fast-acting that won't last long.  This also means he will need to be on Senna-S to counteract the pain medications causing constipation. 


Cachexia ad Catabolic Wasting:  http://www.lifeextension.com/Protocols/Health-Concerns/Catabolic-Wasting/Page-01

Medication prescribed to increase appetite. 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metoclopramide