Some updates on the current sitch. My mom came home from the hospital on Monday afternoon. We got her settled in at home – they gave her antibiotics and a breathing treatment and exercises to do at the house. She was still short of breath and fatigued and a bit bummed about the whole thing, but was making great efforts to do what she could. On Wednesday, she went back.. Read More
Unfortunately I am writing this note at the hospital. My mom had chemo last Wednesday and Jesse and I got in that night. On Thursday we went to several doctors appointments and she was doing ok. Then Friday, chemo symptoms started kicking in and she had a fair amount of nausea in the morning. By the late morning she woke up from a nap and had a slight fever of.. Read More
Last Thursday my mom had a brain MRI to see how well the radiation worked. She saw her radiation oncologist on Friday and he said he was really pleased with the results. 🙂 Though the spot on her brain is still visible, there is no growth and no swelling. He said the spot that’s still visible could be scar tissue as well. So some great news. 🙂 Her next follow up for.. Read More
As you may have guessed from the title of this post, the insurance company denied coverage for the chemo drug the doctor wanted. So she started on Taxotere today. She will go weekly for the foreseeable future. They will, obviously, monitor her to make sure her body is handling it well. Not a whole lot more to say on that. She will lose her hair and has already taken control.. Read More
Hey everyone – We just got a new update from the doctor. Last Friday, my mom had a PET scan to see if her current chemo drug, Gemzar, is working. She saw the doctor today and he said that although there is some sign of reduction in her cervical spine, there are 3 new spots – 2 spots in the left upper paratracheal lymph node (8 mm and 1.2 cm).. Read More
Ok medical professionals – we need some advice on anemia. My mom has always had some issues with anemia at certain points of her life and now its rearing its ugly head again. She dealt with a little anemia a few months back, but was able to bring those levels back up soon after. Now today’s blood results showed that she was back to being slightly anemic. I thought I would throw.. Read More
Chemo is scheduled for today. They are down in Deerfield and she is just starting bloodwork now. She has a sore throat from the radiation treatments and ran a fever after last weeks chemo, but it looks like they are giving her the go-ahead, pending blood work results. UPDATE: She is in the chemo chair now.
Sorry I didn’t update last week. A big meeting and a slew of new grants at work last week kind of took a lot of extra time. So my mom had chemo last Wednesday. Because of some not so greatblood tests results, they had to reduce the strength of the chemo medication. Unfortunately, even though the meds weren’t as strong, she had a “real rough post chemo this time”. On top.. Read More
She’s going in for radiation to the cervical spine at 2:15pm ET. Send lots of love out!
The last email update I sent (on October 9th), we found out that the cancer had spread to the brain. The spot was small and she went in for cyberknife radiation on October 15th to try to reduce the size. She then had chemo on October 16th and 22nd. On the 21st she had an MRI of the cervical spine to try to figure out what has been causing the extreme.. Read More