Hello

Today's Agenda:

Dr. appt. with medical oncologist-$$$$$$
Lab Work-$$$$$
Chemotherapy-$$$$$$
Radiation Rx -$$$$$$$
Dr. appt. with radiation oncologist-$$$$$$
Lunch at Tanner's- $30.00
Getting to Kara's on time to get Karlynn off the bus-PRICELESS!!!!!!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


Feeling good today-Hooray for pharmaceuticals!   Linda

Not such a good week

Hi Everyone. Sorry about the lapse in the blog. It's safe to say when I don't come on here for days, I'm not having a very good week. Mon. & Tues. were ok. By Wednesday, I was needing fluids again. I slept all day Wed. & Thurs., like a zombie. Friday, after radiation, I stopped in at chemo & they gave me IV fluids, an IV drip of Kytril (for nausea), an IV drip of steroids, and IV push of Ativan (for nausea). I was there for four hours. (Thanks, Debbie, I owe you BIG TIME! We did have a great conversation.) Afterwards, I must say I felt better. Debbie stopped at Mcdonald's on the way home & pulled a cagey little trick with the french fries! I was just glad I was able to eat. Dehydration occurs very quickly when you don't eat or drink. The oncology nurses are funny. They were telling me it was important to get feeling better before the weekend, because it was going to be a long weekend. Now, I know, I'm not that out of it. I'm trying to think up holidays that I'm missing for the weekend. They just meant they wouldn't be around on the weekend and feeling lousy all weekend long could make 2 days seem like 17 days. That's for sure!  Anyway, today seems good. I slept well, ate, & I am sitting upright. Ahhh, the little things in life that mean so much! HAHAHA. Have a good weekend-enjoy your days. Linda

The Countdown Begins

Well, I now have 13 more radiation treatments and 2 more chemotherapy treatments. I'm half-way there. This is the first one of the two weeks we were supposed to be in Florida. So, instead of walking along the water in the beautiful, white sand...I'm here, walking down the halls of UPMC Cancer Center. Instead of eating fabulous seafood, I'm having Ensure & protein shakes. Instead of lying on a beach chair in the fabulous sun, I'm lying in a recliner watching my chemo dripping into my body. But, that's O.K. because I have all this to look forward to in the future. The trip, I mean, (but also the chemo because I get to have more after the surgery..Yippeeee!)  Anyway, this was a bad weekend-lots of stomach pain. We got it all straightened out though. Three more new meds. One is a preventive medication so I don't get a yeast infection of the esophagus. Sounds nasty and is quite painful, I understand. The other soothes and coats my esophagus & stomach, and the third helps empty my stomach. I was having this phenomenon of eating or drinking 1/2  ounce of anything and I was totally full & unable to eat/drink any more. That definitely wasn't working out while trying to maintain my weight. So, between the stomach meds, cough meds, anti-nausea meds, pain meds, and anti-reflux meds., I am doing my part to keep the pharmaceutical business hopping. At chemo today, because of my prior weekend, I got an extra bag of fluids again and some extra anti-emetics. I think I'll get another bolus toward the end of the week. Shawn, Jen, & Cooper are on the way home to North Carolina  :(  He was able to take me to chemo, radiation, & Dr. visit today :) We're going to try to go to Kara & Donny's for dinner tonight :)  Alan will get a break from kitchen duty. Hope this catches everyone up. What a loyal bunch of friends you are. My good friend said it best when she got sick, "Angels came out of the woodwork." ..........and they have!   Love, Linda

Bad day today (written by Shawn)

Hey everyone, this is Shawn.  Jen & I came home from Charlotte for a long weekend to help out with mom.  Today I drove her UPMC for radiation therapy, met Bob the therapist and he gave me a tour of the Linear Accelerator.  That is some amazing equipment and I can see why everyone says how far medical technology has come in the past 10 years.  After therapy I tried to take her to lunch but she was not feeling up to it at all.   Drove through McDonalds for a shake, but she couldn't even eat that.  It got progressively worse throughout the day.   She couldn't eat anything much all day.  She has stomach pain directly related to the radiation.  At about 8:00 pm, I ended up just calling her radiation oncologist directly on his cell phone to ask if he could get a prescription ASAP to help with her stomach.  Not only did he get one, I ended up with three meds.  I can't believe this guy - after hours, on his personal cell phone, and I had prescriptions within 15 minutes at walgreens.  I didn't like the answers I got at walgreens so I called the doctor again to ask about dosage and he was more than happy to answer my call.  Now that is service.  She is now loaded up on her meds, and we are determined to get her feeling better tomorrow and get her through all of this (which we WILL).   HANG IN THERE MOM!  We all love you and you know everyone is thinking of you. 

I spoke too soon

I  was feeling pretty good and then last evening  I started getting very bad stomach pains, chills during the night and got up at 5:00 a.m. deathly ill. I was sick for hours and this time the Zofran was not working it's magic. Kara came over & Alan came home from work to find me lying on the bathroom floor. Kara called the oncologist and they said to bring me in. "Oh sure, this is going to be possible," I thought to myself! They threw some clothes on me, no make-up, no jewelry, NO LIP GLOSS, and threw me lying down into the back seat of the car. As soon as we got to UPMC, Alan checked me in as I continued to be sick in the bathroom. The Dr. examines me, blood is drawn, fluids are ordered and then more anti-emetics for the pre-chemo RX. As I reclined in a chair for the next three and a half hours, covered with warm blankets and getting IV's (through my fantastic new mediport), I began to feel human again. Next some more saline IV boluses to flush out all the chemo and they kept giving me fluids until radiation was ready for me. Radiation then took about 30 minutes because once or twice a week, all landmarks are re-x-rayed and re-simmed. Then we shot at those nasty tumors and 4 hours later from when we arrived, it was off to home. Yippee! So at this moment in time, for right now, I feel good. Linda

Chemo tomorrow

Third round of chemo tomorrow, followed by radiation Rx. I get blood drawn first to make sure the counts are compatible with chemo.  I'll meet with medical oncologist tomorrrow. I met with radiation oncologist today. Once again, he emphasized rest & eating. I only lost 2 # from last week which is great. Basically, he does not want me to do anything. That is very much of a change in my lifestyle. However, the concurrent chemo and 3 sites being irradiated make it very easy for me to do nothing. Since this stuff has a cumulative effect, I can't even imagine the fatigue level that lies ahead. The Zofran is working out nicely for the nausea. Tylenol Extra Strength helps the aches & pains. As far as the fatigue, lying in bed or on the couch helps that. My workout is walking from the bed to the couch. I keep telling myself , "This is only temporary." I hope to come on here tomorrow and tell you that  everything was uneventful. Have a good night, Linda

1/4 of the way there!

I am officially 1/4 of the way done with chemo & radiation. Week #2 of 7 1/2 weeks is over. Yay! I am beginning to see a pattern emerging here. The day of chemo and first day post-chemo are not too bad. I am so full of the premedications & steroids, I feel ok. This is when I go shopping, out to lunch, visiting, etc. (Well, not any more-my oncologist said shopping , etc. is off limits.) However, the second day post-chemo is HORRIBLE...overwhelming nausea, impossible fatigue. My friend, Sue who is a CRNA drove me to radiation Thursday. I was a very poor traveling companion, (Sorry, Sue.) Anyway, once again, the staff took one look at me and said I needed to see the Dr. Sue was talking to him about anti-emetics as I sat with my head against the wall just trying to not be ill. Anyway, they decided upon Zofran ODT, which dissolves on the tongue. It has been a lifesaver. I take it every eight hours. I will be taking it round the clock day 2-5. The fatigue is helped by lying in bed approximately 18-20 hours. Now, that those minor details are worked out, things will hopefully be better next week. (Always a solution, we just have to keep searching.) For those of you who visited & sent me the birthday cards and gifts, you are some very special people in my life. The afternoon shift from Northside Surgery that called Friday night and sang Happy Birthday sounded like a chorus of angels! Debbie, thank you for handling the sandwich ring meltdown. I just knew I didn't have the energy to deal with that! No more jokes about it, either. So, it really wasn't how I would have ever planned to celebrate my birthday. Lying in that linear accelerator is not really what we would ever think our day would include. However, the caring & compassionate people in my life make it all bearable. As I sat in the waiting room, the entire staff, including my radiation oncologist came out with a little cake and sang "Happy Birthday." People are just good-life is good. Thanks, everyone, for your unwavering support. Love, Linda

*Posted by Kara* Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!

Hi Everyone......I'm back!

Wow, Labor Day weekend was not so good this year. No Canfield Fair, lots of fatigue, Friday was full of nausea/vomiting, aches, pains-yuk! After spending about 24 hours in bed, I started to regain some strength. Yay! This morning, I woke up at 4:00 a.m. coughing up blood. Alan, who is now my nurse (how's that for role reversal?), brought me some cough medicine, told me to relax, take deep breaths, and propped me up on several pillows. I got a bit of sleep, then we had to be back at UPMC Cancer Center before 8:00. (My second home.) A hugely busy day for them as they had to fit all of Monday's patients in today since they were closed on Labor Day. I was apprehensive about my new port, but my beautiful nurses took my hand and held it, said take a deep breath, you'll feel a pinch and they were in! Yes! God bless Dr. Smith! They drew the blood work from the mediport, the counts were fine, I got my pre-medication, got my chemo, saline flush, and I was done. Now, it was off to radiation, into the linear accelerator where they resimmed images and whatever else they did, zapped the nasties and then I had an appointment with my radiation oncologist. We had a good appointment although I think the Dr. was fishing around trying to see if I went to the Fair. I said, "Of course not, I am a very compliant patient!" He just looked at me and laughed. Now, Alan & I were on this high that occcurs when days kinda work out. That doesn't happen too often. I had lost more weight which they monitor intensely. I was actually feeling hungry. Alan stopped to get me a milkshake at McDonald's and his burger smelled good so he went back in & got me a cheeseburger & fries. (There's some healthy eating for ya'. I haven't had fast food in 10 years.) Then we surprised Kara at preschool -meeting up with her to see how Mackenzie's first day of school went. I went shopping with her to Kohl's. I think she was quite happy-a bit of normalcy in a life gone wild. Now, I'm just hanging out on the couch. Kara brought over dinner-she's an angel. Thank you all for your continuous support & concern. What a bunch of beautiful people I have in my life. I am so lucky, Linda

*Update by Kara*

Mom is still trying to recuperate from last week. It has been a rough weekend and she asked me to update her blog. She is starting to regain some energy, but is trying to conserve it for tomorrow. Up next: UPMC in New Castle before 8 a.m. for bloodwork. The numbers will determine if she can have chemo. After chemo, she'll go to radiation therapy, where she will be re-simulated, have her markings checked and all computerized images re-checked by the doctor. Once these are precise, the three areas will then be radiated. After that, she'll have a visit with the radiation oncologist. As you can see, it will be a big day, which is why she is saving every bit of strength. She said to tell you all that she enjoys reading all your comments and thanks you all very much. Happy Labor Day!

EXHAUSTION Sets In *Update from Kara*

Hello everyone, my mom asked me to blog for her today. She just is not up to it. I think everything has finally caught up with her.

Yesterday she underwent her third surgery in 30 days. Her power port was removed and a medi-port was inserted. The operation went very smoothly and quickly. Her surgeon had a cancellation, so she was called into the hospital earlier than planned.

We started off the day with radiation. She wasn't feeling well – probably a combination of side effects from her treatments, thirst/hunger from being NPO, exhaustion from not sleeping the previous night, and nerves/anxiety about the surgery. We arrived home from radiation to find a message from Northside asking her to come in earlier. So we turned around and headed right back out. Mom was exhausted and had been looking forward to an hour nap before going in, but that didn't happen.

After she was discharged, she went home and slept for about 5 hours or so. She got up, ate some chicken soup my dad had made (yum) and took one of her pain meds and fell asleep again for the rest of the night.

Today it was back to radiation at 9:15. Of course, there were delays and she had to wait. Then she started feeling very nauseated, tired, and started coughing. Her doctor said no Canfield Fair for her this year. He wants her to spend the next 4 days recovering and getting her body stronger before chemo again on Tuesday. Of course she is disappointed, but understands that she must rest and recover.

So at the moment she is at home in bed, feeling an overwhelming exhaustion and fatigue and fighting nausea. She is also in a little pain at the site of the mediport insertion. The plan is for her to stay home and rest until Tuesday.

Please continue to send positive, healing thoughts and prayers to my mom.

All Around Town

Today should have been uneventful. A quick trip to radiation Rx-a nice rest in the linear accelerator, and on my way home. Well, we are starting to realize things are just not that easy for me. I have been complaining of severe pain from this port since insertion. I knew I had to address it today. After radiation, Kara, Karlynn, Kenzie, & I took a chance and drove down to the lung center at Jameson. Of course, it was closed today, but as we wandered around, we met the surgery supervisor-a real stroke of luck. She checked my port for me and we became more convinced, it was not right. She tried to call a few general surgeeons to take a look, but they were all in surgery. She said she would put me on the schedule immediately, working around my radiation times. She was wonderful, but I had other plans. I wanted to come back home to Northside for this intervention. I had to drive back to cancer care to check with oncologist if power port could be replaced with a mediport. Then, I had to go to radiation oncologist to see if any problems with placement so as not to interfere with radiation. They were emphatic about not removing any markings, so whoever my hike nurse is....look out on the prep! Next, a call to the original surgeon in Pittsburgh. Then I called NSH surgery, they hooked me up with Dr. Smith, off to his office to fill out paperwork, and be examined. So, guess what, yet another surgery this Thursday for repositioning of port ,or removal of and insertion mediport, and probably evacuation of hematoma. Dr. Smith is graciously working around my radiation schedule. So,Thursday morning, up & out of the house, get irradiated, off to NSH for a little surgery. No Canfield Fair Thursday night. My fair-going is getting seriously curtailed this year. But, I did get the OK to go from both oncologists as my counts are good and I am staying strong. As I said before, just another bump (inconvenience.) These little things can't be allowed to win & get me down. I'm stronger than that. Linda