Diagnosis: Leukemia; May 16, 1988

I woke up at nine o’clock. Alex was just waking up, his face is still swollen. He said his jaw was hurting again. I gave him Tempra and got him his breakfast.

After breakfast I phoned the hospital. I talked to Heather and she said I should take Alex to the family doctor. She didn’t think it was from the Vincristine. I told her Alex never had any jaw pain from it before. Heather said to phone back if the doctor found anything wrong with Alex.

I phoned and made an appointment with Dr. W. I had to tell the receptionist that Alex has Leukemia and that his face was swollen before I could get an appointment. She had said he was fully booked which is usually the case.

I had a shower and got dressed. We left at eleven thirty.

Dr. W said he had received a letter from the hospital. He said the letter stated that Alex was doing good on his treatment. I gave Dr. W the latest blood counts.

I told Dr. W that Alex’s face was swollen. He checked him but he said he couldn’t find anything wrong with him. Dr. W said we would have to wait and see but there was no ear infection or gland problem. He said sometimes when you have chemotherapy a patient can experience swelling in the glands.

I said to him I hear your leaving. He said let’s sit down and talk about it. Dr. W said after a lot of deliberation he had decided to take the offer from the College. He said he had worked there at the college during the year for a few weeks.

He said when he thought of patients like Alex it was a hard decision. He talked about all Alex’s problems and how strong he was through it all.

Dr. W said he was leaving at the end of June and that Dr. C would be taking over his practise in July. He said she worked in the clinic last summer and the other doctors were surprised at the amount of medical knowledge she had. Dr. W said he wanted someone he could recommend well to his patients. He asked me what I was going to do I said the only doctor I saw was Dr. B and I felt he was quite good. Dr. W said he was a very good doctor.

We came home and had lunch afterwards we watched Annie.

Charlie came home at four o’clock. We had dinner at five thirty. After dinner we watched TV.

I got Alex ready for bed at eight thirty. At nine o’clock Alex said he couldn’t sleep. He had a nap this afternoon. He finally went to sleep when I did at eleven o’clock.

No tests

Medicine

Bactrim 9:00 a.m. ------ 5:00 p.m.
Mercaptopurine ------ ------ 5:00 p.m.
Methotrexiate ------- ------ 5:00 p.m.

Temperature 36.56C 9:00 a.m. 37.07C 5:00 p.m.