Monday's News

The weekend started out nicely. We made it to Whitehouse on Saturday, kids took a pony ride, ate a donut, bought pumpkins, etc. Saturday, I was feeling good. Sunday, was another story. Weak, sick, stomach pain, dehydrating before my very eyes. I woke up very sick today, but off to chemoland. Amazing, how those girls can fix you up. I had a bit of a scare because my platelets were only 85,000 and they like a minimum of 100,000 for administration of chemo. The Dr. okayed treatment today due to the fact this is my last treatment and my other counts were reasonable. They gave me extra fluids until it was time for radiation at 11:00. As I walked into that office, the radiation therapist was waiting for me to tell me the linear accelerator was having some problems and I would have to come back later. I then met with the radiation oncologist who seems quite happy with my progress, my physical condition (I haven't "crumbled & deteriorated"), and my mental spirit. He feels we have the mediastinal tumor "on the run". We are very focused on the mediastinum and bronchus right now. These last few days of treatment are not even focusing on the lung as that tumor must be resected out anyway.  I do know I have had response to treatment. My breathing is quiet. The wheezing, whistling sound and constricted feeling is gone. The shortness of breath has improved and the cough has improved. They felt that tumor in the windpipe near the carina was encroaching on and irritating the windpipe and causing a cough. So, as soon as we got back to Poland, the Cancer Center called and said the accelerator was fixed and they needed to get me treated. It is a priority when you have chemo that day as the chemo is radiosensitive. Some of the patients did not get treated today, but I was priority #1. Lucky Me! Back to UPMC in New Castle and zapped. Today, they attached monitors to my chest and side to monitor radiation as this is now becoming intense. Three more days! Yay! We (my family) are all learning a lot about oncology. The nurses want me to be an oncology nurse with them...they also said they don't want to release me from Rx. We'll see about that. I am going to rest for a bit now. I have been on the run since 8:00 a.m. and it is time to conserve some energy. Take care, Linda