New plan

I saw Dr G today and he has come up with a new plan while I am still dealing with shingles. First he told me he'd read about a woman who developed shingles during her cancer treatment. She had chemo and the shingles spread and basically killed her. So our new plan takes things easy.

1) Increase the Fentanyl patch to 50 mcg to get better pain management.

2) Stop the Gabapentin and start taking Lyrica (pregabalin). Like Gabapentin, it's used to fight neurologic pain. As I heal from the shingles, I'm told I can expect to continue to have pain.

3) Use up to three lidocaine patches if I need more pain control.

4) Book an appointment to see Dr Martin Siegel, the infectious disease specialist who basically saved my life in 1999 by diagnosing Toxic Shock Syndrome after my original breast lumpectomy. He did the same again a couple of years ago when I was hospitalized with an unknown infection for 13 nights. He's part of my terrific care team and I look forward to seeing him next week. His job is to decide when the shingles has gone away and I can have chemo again.

Tomorrow morning we see Dr Sandra Vermeulen, the radiation oncologist who will talk about gamma knife vs. whole brain radiation vs. cyber knife to deal with my three brain mets. Bet you thought we'd forgotten about them! No, I'm sure they're still hanging out. More news tomorrow.