I can hear you, I'm just not listening!We are monitoring Gianni's hearing on a monthly basis because one of the chemotherapy drugs (cisplatin) has hearing loss side effects. Her audiology tests show that her ability to hear the higher pitches is consistently dropping - the right ear is worse than the left. Trish (our super oncologist) is trying to avoid any severe hearing damage and has decided to drop the offending drug for this round to see how she does. Now this is the same offending drug that they halved in cycle 4 and we noticed a significant improvement in Gianni's energy level and overall well being this month (even with the F&N admit) so we are hopeful for a strong cycle.
The audiology test (listening game) has been a "fun" part of Gianni's treatment in that there are no owies and Dr. Davis conducts the test more like a game than a procedure. Gianni is set up in a sound proof room with a set of (huge!) ear phones and a pile of blocks; even though the sounds are coming from the earphones, Dr. Davis has told Gianni to place the block next to her ear and when she hears the sound she is to put the block into its “spot” (a board with different sized shapes and holes). Funny Gianni is entirely neurotic – all the colors and sizes have to be organized just right; she’ll take an extra 2 or 3 minutes moving things around after she’s “heard” the block just so that all the greens are together or all the blocks go from shortest to tallest in the same row. The most recent trip, Tony and I were able to take her together – when we got there she decided she didn’t want one of us to sit with her in the little room, she wanted to do it all by herself – big girl style . . .
April Fools was fun, I got the kids (and my mom) with the ole’, “It snowed last night, look out the window!”(only funny because it rarely, if ever snows in the Bay Area). Bruno got Gianni, and a few of the dad’s doing drop off at his school with the old stand by (spoken to someone wearing either no shoes or slip on shoes), “Hey your shoes are untied….”
