Wednesday, November 29, 2017
SEVEN!
7 down! ONE more to go!! 💃💃💃💃💃
Mom had the first ultrasound that she's had since before she started chemotherapy. They don't see any reason to be concerned that it's reached the lymph nodes, so that's great news! 🎉 They also located the known tumor and measured it. The chemo appears to have shrunk it in half! 🙌 Dr. Alvarez is hoping that the last 2 treatments will shrink it further. He said best case scenario is obviously that there's nothing left after the last treatment, and they just scoop out where the tumor once was. Then still do the planned radiation for 6 weeks.
Her levels and blood counts looked much better than last time (we assume it's thanks to the neulasta shot that was distributed in the little patch that she wore home). She has it again so that's staying the same. The only level that they said wasn't great was her iron, but it wasn't enough to warrant a blood transfusion. So, basically all good news! She received chemo this morning and we are heading back to Wilmington on a 7pm flight.
Her nausea is still the biggest concern. The body aches and pains aren't nearly as bad, and neither is the neuropathy. She has less energy though, and the nausea is on and off basically all the time. She is able to take nausea medications, which will cause it to subside long enough to be able to get something to eat, but it always comes back. We missed her at Thanksgiving, but she was still able to go with Grandmama to Aunt Claudia's house and be with some of the family since she wasn't able to come to Raleigh. She liked having the option to be able to just drive 5 minutes home in case she didn't feel good. We offered to come to her house and have the dinner there, but I know that would've been a house full with nowhere to really retreat to if she didn't feel well. Plus, my kids are like bloodhounds when it comes to AnnaAnna and would have a hard time understanding why they couldn't crawl all over her like they normally do. 👦👧
All in all, it has been a pretty smooth trip. No surprises, no problems. She didn't feel well yesterday, but she rebounded today. Hopefully once we get home, the chemo doesn't make her feel too awful. She is certainly dreading when it "hits". Until next time... (and thanks for reading, and for all the thoughts and prayers!) 🙏💞
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Almost SIX
🎤 "SIX foot, seven foot, eight foot BUNCH!"
(Yes, those are the words - I had to google them, because I definitely thought it was "punch" and not "bunch"... but then I started thinking... what in the world is this song about anyway? Kind of interesting. By the way, I love Beetlejuice.)
Anywho.
So, we are working on mom's chemo treatment #6, but we are at a stalling point. They draw blood every time before her oncologist appointment, which also precedes the chemo appointment and that's when they go over her labs with regard to blood cell count, different levels, etc. Well, today they were not so good, so they will not let mom have chemo therapy today. The main concern was the ANC.
The absolute neutrophil count is commonly called the ANC. Like I said, it was low, which means her immune system is weak. They gave her a shot of Neupogen, which will stimulate healthy neutrophil growth and hopefully raise her ANC level to the appropriate mark (to where it is safe to administer chemo tomorrow). If it doesn't work, they will try another shot, wait another 24 hours, do more blood labs, rinse and repeat until they get it right.
That's where we are for now. The new drugs that she started last treatment have been very different for her in terms of side effects. Basically ongoing nausea for the first 10ish days post-treatment (fortunately it never reached vomiting status, but I think she felt pretty awful a couple times), followed by intermittent nausea on and off with help of anti-nausea meds, very limited appetite, watery eyes, mild neuropathy in her fingers and toes, and random achy teeth. When I would check in on her, she said she would feel ok until she tries to eat something and then she almost immediately feels queasy. She said she is really careful about what she eats as well because if she eats anything remotely sweet, it makes her feel worse (although it doesn't keep her from craving a krispy kreme doughnut! 🍩🍩🍩)
We are actually kind of relieved that she will be able to get chemo and leave on the same day. Mainly due to last time when we woke up the next morning after chemo, she didn't even want to get out of bed due a terrible combination of a headache and nausea. We will cross our fingers and hope her levels get to a safe level to receive chemo and we can get #6 behind us. We are already looking ahead to surgery in January (likely the week of Jan 15), and we have an ultrasound scheduled for the next visit to see what is left of the tumor. There is already some debate about whether the tumor is metaplastic or not, due to how [seemingly] well the tumor has reacted to the chemo. Originally we thought that since it was diagnosed as metaplastic, that the chemo would have a very limited effect on the tumor. However, since it seems like ever since the 1st treatment, we've been unable to find it via physical examination, maybe it wasn't metaplastic after all (per the surgical oncologist). The surgery procedure will tell us a lot so we are anxiously awaiting more information at that time.
Until then, we are chugging along (at a snail's pace today, but nonetheless at a pace). 🐌🐌🐌
(Yes, those are the words - I had to google them, because I definitely thought it was "punch" and not "bunch"... but then I started thinking... what in the world is this song about anyway? Kind of interesting. By the way, I love Beetlejuice.)
Anywho.
So, we are working on mom's chemo treatment #6, but we are at a stalling point. They draw blood every time before her oncologist appointment, which also precedes the chemo appointment and that's when they go over her labs with regard to blood cell count, different levels, etc. Well, today they were not so good, so they will not let mom have chemo therapy today. The main concern was the ANC.
The absolute neutrophil count is commonly called the ANC. Like I said, it was low, which means her immune system is weak. They gave her a shot of Neupogen, which will stimulate healthy neutrophil growth and hopefully raise her ANC level to the appropriate mark (to where it is safe to administer chemo tomorrow). If it doesn't work, they will try another shot, wait another 24 hours, do more blood labs, rinse and repeat until they get it right.
That's where we are for now. The new drugs that she started last treatment have been very different for her in terms of side effects. Basically ongoing nausea for the first 10ish days post-treatment (fortunately it never reached vomiting status, but I think she felt pretty awful a couple times), followed by intermittent nausea on and off with help of anti-nausea meds, very limited appetite, watery eyes, mild neuropathy in her fingers and toes, and random achy teeth. When I would check in on her, she said she would feel ok until she tries to eat something and then she almost immediately feels queasy. She said she is really careful about what she eats as well because if she eats anything remotely sweet, it makes her feel worse (although it doesn't keep her from craving a krispy kreme doughnut! 🍩🍩🍩)
We are actually kind of relieved that she will be able to get chemo and leave on the same day. Mainly due to last time when we woke up the next morning after chemo, she didn't even want to get out of bed due a terrible combination of a headache and nausea. We will cross our fingers and hope her levels get to a safe level to receive chemo and we can get #6 behind us. We are already looking ahead to surgery in January (likely the week of Jan 15), and we have an ultrasound scheduled for the next visit to see what is left of the tumor. There is already some debate about whether the tumor is metaplastic or not, due to how [seemingly] well the tumor has reacted to the chemo. Originally we thought that since it was diagnosed as metaplastic, that the chemo would have a very limited effect on the tumor. However, since it seems like ever since the 1st treatment, we've been unable to find it via physical examination, maybe it wasn't metaplastic after all (per the surgical oncologist). The surgery procedure will tell us a lot so we are anxiously awaiting more information at that time.
Until then, we are chugging along (at a snail's pace today, but nonetheless at a pace). 🐌🐌🐌
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