Off the study...new treatment

Since our last post much has happened. We took mom in for her next treatment of Chemotherapy (Avastin and Gemzar) on the 17th, when we were taken to see the Dr. first. We knew she didn't have an appointment with the dr so we were a little curious as to what was going on. Well since starting the treatment a new lesion grew. This made it so she couldn't be on the study (the gemzar and avastin). Even though the others were shrinking one still grew.

She also had an x-ray to make sure everything is still the same. This month she hasn't been feeling too good. Well the x-ray came back that she had pneumonia sometime this month. That probably explains the fevers she was having.

We attempted to get her on another drug that is in pill form, we found this to be too expensive. (Xeloda) So today (Dec 31) she started up another IV drug. I believe the name is Carboplatin. This affects her white blood counts so she will be susceptible to infections. She will need to stay away from those who are sick. She will get treatments every 3 weeks.

Pictures of the Port-a-cath

Karie already told you about the port-a-cath being put in again today. I took some pictures of what the port looks like before they put it in. These pictures were taken during the first surgery.

This is all right under her skin. The tube part is in her central venous. The purple heart looking part is right under her skin. The nurses feel for 3 bumps on in the circle and then they can stick a needle right through that. They numb the skin first so that it wont hurt as much going in.

This is what the outside would look like accessed.

Mom

My mom and me (Teresa)

Taken in Sept of 2009

Port-a-cath is in.

Mom is out of surgery. They put the port in the other side and placed a little lower(hopefully less noticeable). They were going to put it in the same side but this Dr felt they shouldn't because of the infection. She wasn't knocked out for the procedure. Mom says she was awake but very relaxed through the whole thing.

She is in recovery and will go home in about 45 mins.

New Port

Teresa is taking mom in this morning to get a new port. We didn't expect them to want to put it back in so quickly. However, after last Wednesday's chemo burning and stinging mom's arm, it probably the best. Her veins are really used up and inaccessible. We as a family, and especially my mom will need to become experts in procedure for accessing the port. It is now OUR job to make sure that the port does NOT get infected again. The nurses may not like us telling them what to do but at this point they don't get an opinion. We won't risk loosing our mom to an infection.


I will update when I have more info.

**Karie**

Chemo Info.

When they put the Gemstar through mom's IV line today. It burned and stung really bad. The nurse slowed the flow to help but it was almost too much for mom to handle. We put hot packs on her arm to help and it made it bearable. The nurse said that it can happen when you have an IV instead of a port. The veins are just smaller in the arm so it hurts more. The new port will be a good thing, even if we are scared of infection again. Mom got a copy of her CT scans. It was interesting to compare the 2. We still have some questions on the results but it was nice for her to have a copy for future use.

Chemo Round 5

Mom was able to have chemo today. This is her 5th treatment. They didn't do the avastin this time due to the fact that she will have the port put back in next Monday. Avastin can lead to slow or imcomplete healing of wounds. Then she will be on schedule to have chemo on the 17th and 31st.

Chemo Tomorrow.

Well, we aren't excited about resuming chemo. Mom really isn't. We know that she needs to resume the treatment plan, it's just hard when she has been knocked down every time. Mom will go in tomorrow at 9:00am (uggh, she has a hard time getting up before 11am or she is just wiped out the entire day) they will do some blood tests to make sure everything is okay first. Cross your fingers all goes well.

**Karie**