Cancer is "well controlled"

I had a CT scan on the 7th and found out the results yesterday. The doctor said my cancer is "well controlled" now. I have two very small tumors in my lung that are now smaller than in the last scan. I will have another CT scan in January and hopefully it will be great news again. It looks like I get to have a great holiday season this year -- no chemo!!! Yay. I am walking in the clouds (but not too close - don't want to get to the other side yet).

Thank you everyone for your concern and prayers. It really means a lot to me.

Best News Ever!!!

I went to the doctor today and he said my cancer is in remission. So I get the summer off from chemo, and hopefully longer. My next CT scan isn't until September, so I will just enjoy the summer and not think about it any longer. I want to thank everyone for their prayers and love. I am so blessed.

Waiting on pins and needles for the news.

I had another CT scan on Tuesday the 8th. My appointment with the doctor isn't until Monday the 14th. It's so hard waiting for what he'll say. I'll update everyone when I find out. Until then, let's keep hoping and praying.

Only one more chemo left

I haven't been keeping you up to date, but there wasn't really anything to report. Sooooo......I had chemo four weeks ago and everything went fine. Just the usual tiredness, etc. I went in last week to have chemo but my plateletts were too low (36 - with a usual of 360). It was postponed to this week and I did have it today. However, my plateletts were up, but only 130. They decreased the chemo 25% so I'm hoping that helps. I usually start the chemo with higher numbers. I feel pretty good today, but by Sunday, I'm sure I'll be in bed all day. My next chemo will be in five weeks so I can participate in the two concerts my singing group has on the 8th and 15th. I'm sure everything will work out. I'm hoping I'll get a break for awhile. Keep up the faith. I am.

Good - no GREAT news!!

I went to the doctor today and there are no new tumors, some of the tumors have disappeared and the others are shrinking. Wayne, my daughters (Teresa & Karie), and my sister-in-law, Nilda all went with me so they can be there for the results. We were soooo excited. This means the chemo I'm on is working and perhaps I can get a resst from chemo for awhile. In the meantime, I couldn't get chemo today because my platelets were too low. I have to wait a week to get them back up again. I will have three more chemo treatments and then another CT scan. But I'm not thinking about that today. Today I am just very happy about the news today and want to wallow in it for awhile. By the way, thank you everyone who crossed their fingers and said a prayer or two on my behalf. I'm sure that's why everything is going well.

Tomorrow is the day I get the CT scan. We are hopeful that we will get good results. I need your prayers. Thank you everyone for your concern and love.

I was able to get chemo yesterday. All my blood count numbers were up except the white blood count. They still gave me chemo, but today I had to go in to get a shot of Neulasta. Neulasta helps your white blood cells increase. The only problem with this medicine is it works on your bone marrow so your large bones (legs especially) may have pain. I remember getting this in 2007 and my legs ached a lot. I'll get through this too. I have a CT scan scheduled for the 8th of March. So everyone cross your fingers that the cancer is reducing and NO MORE NEW LESIONS.

I went in Thursday to get another round of chemo, but alas, it was not to be. My blood count numbers were too low. For instance, my platelets the end of December was 360. Each time they took blood, the number went down. This time it was only 36. They want it to be over 100 before getting chemo. All my other numbers were low as well, so no chemo. I was wondering why I felt so week, light headed, and just an all around feeling ill. They scheduled me to have chemo next Thursday, the 18th (happy birthday Wayne). All will depend on if my blood work comes back ok. I asked what the remedy would be to get my numbers up, and they said just time. If my hematocrit is low again next week, then they can give me blood. Hopefully that won't be necessary.

I asked Dr. Litton how many treatments I will have of this drug (carboplatin). He said the protocol is 6 and hopefully that will stop the cancer from growing and I'll be in remission. That's what we are all hoping and praying for.

2nd Round of newest Chemo

It's been awhile since we have updated.. Which is actually great because usually "no news" is good news. In this case it is. Mom did really well with the first round. It was no picnic in the park but she was mostly fatigued, sleeping a better part of 18 hours every day for a good week or so. As far as potential side effects I think we will take this one! She had a 2nd round last thursday the 21st of January. She is set to have another on Feb 11 and then do another CT scan to see how well this treatment is working.
Teresa

Side Effects with new Chemo Drug

Mom is feeling very tired with this drug. She has also felt nauseous. She has to eat or she gets sick. Mom says knowing that is half the battle. She had an uneventful New Years with Dad at home. She has been sleeping quite a bit. Last night she wasn't feeling very well so she went to bed at 6pm woke up today at noon, showered dressed and went back to sleep until 3pm. She said the bed just looked so inviting. It's good she is getting the rest she needs. Dad takes good care of her! Since this is the first round with this new drug we don't really know how long she will feel so exhausted. But with 3 weeks in between treatments we are hopeful that she will have more good days than bad.

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**

Home

Home from the hospital today. All is well. Have to have IV Antibiotics until Wed. from home health care. Sure is better than being in the hospital. Thanks for everyone's love and concern for me.

Infection

Mom's white blood count is coming down. On Monday it was at 17 and Wednesday morning it was coming down to 10.7 (3-10 is normal range). Then on Wednesday after they accessed her port her count was back up to 17. This is proof to me that the infection was somewhere in or around the port. Today her blood count is down to 11. She has several gram negative bacteria's in her blood.

The doctor thinks they will be able to send her home tomorrow. She is doing really well. She rested most of the day today.

Teresa