Doing great

Her liver function is BETTER, she is no longer retaining water, and she is feeling pretty good.  She has made leaps and bounds in her recovery and continues to amaze her Doctor and the rest of us.  

She is gearing up for a busy Christmas along with the wedding of Zak and Katie taking place on the 28th.  It is going to be a busy rest of the year, but she will do great!

Merry Christmas!

19 pounds lighter.

After getting her abdomen drained, the holes sometimes fail to heal for a while.  So, with an open hole in your abdomen, you are going to have some fluid loss.  This week she had 19 pounds of it!  Her belly is defiantly wanting to get all of that extra fluid out and so it has a steady drip at all times.  Messy and annoying, but her belly is looking small and feeling soft.  A welcomed change!  We are thinking she is going to look pretty good at the wedding in just 29 days!!

Today the doctor said that her counts were still a little low, but her liver function is looking better which is what we want.  She chose to skip chemo again this week but should have it next week.

Giving Thanks!

The whole family together for Thanksgiving!

Treatment.

We went to the doctor yesterday and they told us that she is doing about the same.  Not better, not worse.  She was able to get her chemo, just in a lower dose.  She is giving her lasixs (water pills) to hopefully drain more of the fluid that she is retaining.  We are hoping it helps because all of the fluid is making her pretty uncomfortable.

She also got a new recliner to sleep in and lay in to make her more comfortable at night.  She is WAY excited!

Mondays doctor appointment went pretty much as expected.  She is still doing about the same.  She was not able to get treatment because her counts were too low, and will likely be going in for a blood transfusion next week.  Her biggest complaint right now is all of the extra water that her body is retaining.  She went in Wednesday and got another 4 liters drained, but there is still a lot more in there.  Her legs are very large and swollen making it hard and painful to walk around.  

She will go back in on Monday and hopefully be able to get treatment at that time.

On a good note, she is feeling much more energetic and doesn't even take naps anymore, and huge difference from a few months back when she slept 20 plus hours a day!

Feeling better

She is starting to feel a lot better and is feeling like she is re-cooperating from her weekend.  She is continuing to take her anti-biotics and is resting up.

Doctor again on Monday.

ER visit

Thursday we went and had 4.4 more liters drained.  She felt so much better afterwards.

Friday she was really sick all day long and wasn't sure what was wrong.  By Saturday she had a fever and was throwing up and ill.  She went to the ER where they ran tons of tests on her.  They think she may have an infection from the drainage and had IV anti-biotics.  They wanted to keep her overnight and give her red blood cells because she was so low but she choose to go home instead.

Today, she is feeling a lot better.   I will post an update tomorrow.

Results

Doctor said that he tumor marker has gone down (which is good), although it may not be accurate.  Her liver function has gotten worse.  Not the best news or what we had hoped for, but she seems to be doing better, and that counts for a lot.

Another round of chemo.

Today she was able to do chemo, and she is still improving everyday.  Not much else to report...  I will update later.

Doctor Today!

Well, it wasn't the best visit (but for sure not the worst).  Her white blood count was back down to .03 so that means no chemo today.  They had a really had time getting blood out of her... heparin, more heparin, and more and then finally blood only to find that chemo wasn't going to happen.

So she got the shot to help boost her white blood count, which will be followed by another shot tomorrow, and then she will go in on Monday to see if her body is ready for the chemo.

On a happier note, the DOC said that her eyes look less yellow than they did last week, which hopefully means that liver is starting to function better.

And the fight continues...

Lunch and Shopping

Today Mom, me, Coren, and Carson enjoyed a yummy lunch AT Pei Wei, and then went shopping at Smiths Grocery Store.  OK, so it might not seem like much but it was FOR HER and she was amazed that she was actually AT the grocery store again after such a rough couple of months.

Soon, she might even drive herself to the store and shop... wouldn't that be something?

NO chemo this week.  They are going to do every other week just to keep her feeling as good as possible.  She is swollen again and so she is going to get her abdomen drained today.

The doctor is unsure of what the future holds, but says that if you would have told him that she would be where she is today, he wouldn't have believed it!  He said she is a very strong person.. but we knew that.

Getting stronger everyday and wondering, "Where did September go?"

CHEMO TOMORROW!!!

YEAH!!!!!  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???

Her levels are all looking so good that they are bringing her in TOMORROW for chemo again.  We are all SO SO SO excited to get her back to getting treated, and she is pretty happy (sorta) herself!  It is bitter sweet, mostly because she is starting to feel so great, but she knows that she needs to get her tumors under control again.

Man, what an amazing body she has!  She cannot be beaten!  

Doctor

A great visit.  The doctor could tell that she was doing tons better and said that we could hopefully start a low dose of chemo on Monday.  They checked her counts and her white blood count was normal.  Not chemo normal, but normal!!!  AMAZING!!  Wednesday we will get the rest of the results and make sure that she can start on Monday, but that is the plan for now.  Keep your fingers crossed for her.

In the meantime, we are going in tomorrow to get her abdomen drained again, it is getting a little bit tight and enlarged.

I will update once we know what is going on treatment wise.

(... a wise man)

A wise man knows his woman.  When others said she needs "this", he knew that she didn't.  Thanks to my Dad not listening to what everyone else thought should be happening, and doing what he KNEW his wife needed.  Because of his decisions we are getting her back.

Doctor again on Monday.  Pray that she is well enough to begin treatment... because now she is walking on her own again, eating more, and sleeping less!  She is proving the doctors wrong!  See hospice, we don't need YOU!

...and for lunch

Today for breakfast she requested a cinnabon bar slightly warm.  THEN... she ate almost all of it.  When she finished she said.....

"Let's get Firehouse Pizzeria for lunch.  I will have the Monteray Salad with two blue cheese dressings, breadsticks with dip, and the cinnamon struessel dessert pizza."

She ate some salad and said that she will finish up later.  This time I actually believe her.

HORRAY FOR FOOD!!!

The latest.

.watching the kids perform.

Sunday was a very bad day.  She seemed to have lost something and was wanting to give up.  We were all very worried.  We did manage to get her outside to watch the Grandkids put on a show for her, but that was it!  She loved the show, but as soon as it was over she was back to bed for the day.

.posing for the paparazzi.

Today however she woke up a new person.  She was full of life and was up and at it most of the day.  Wow, what a ROLLER COASTER.  We are hoping that this will be the new norm and that she is ready to rock and roll her way to getting better.

We went to the doctor and he was excited about how well she was doing.  She even asked if he would prescribe a cruise for her and come over for some brownies. ;)  She left there re-charged, and so did we.  Each day is a new day.  We do however prefer the good ones.

Now, we wait until next week and hope that she is strong enough for chemo.   GO CHRISSY!!!

JoYrIdEr

Today we (Brooke) made a major breakthrough.  After weeks of trying to get her out of the house, she actually ventured out and went for a drive.  She loved it!  She seems a little better because she is off of all medication (she doesn't know that) and is able to speak more.  We are a little worried because her tummy is growing right before our eyes, but we are happy to have her a little more "with it."

Her eating is back to minimal.  We need this woman to EAT!  Her throat is the only part of her that hurts... which is not helping.

Doctor again on Monday, will update then.

Thank you

To all of you good people who care:  Thank you for everything!

(click here) A thank you note... sort of.

Food?

Yes!  She is eating!  It may not sound like much to some people, but this morning she ate a whopping 10 bites of oatmeal, 5 bites of yogurt, and some Ensure drink.  For her this was a feast.  This food was followed by many many hours of sleep, but I am sure as usual she will be up all night! 

We are very hopeful that once she starts eating more regularly she will perk up enough to start the long journey of getting better.

Low, Low, Low!

I have been to many bad Doctor appointments. Ones where they told me that they would have to cut my children open in order to fix their ailments. Not a good thing to hear, and very scary for a Mother. But nothing was worse then hearing a doctor say that they could do nothing. Nothing.

Her counts were all dangerously low. She is very suseptable to any sickness, and her body is weak. The doctor said that in her current condition he cannot give her any further chemo therapy. He said that she is weak, thin, and not the same person as before. It was a bad moment.

Her counts are as follows
White Blood count was 16.8 NOW .9
Hermatacrit was 36.1 NOW 29.8
Platlet was 128 NOW 37
Red Blood Count was 14 NOW .1

She also has a severe yeast infection in her throat which is causing her to have bad pain when she swallows. She is now on medication for that, and we are hoping if it clears up she will start to eat again. She needs food.

She wanted to go home and straight to bed. She said this morning that she was up in the night and has repented from her bad attitude. She said that she is going to fight and not give up. She isn't sure why she let her self think that way and she is going get better. She seems determinded. It is great to see that fight back in her. She needs that.

Her feet are also better due to her new $66 compression socks. Worth every penny!

Counts...

Just spoke to the nurse about her painful swollen feet.  While on the phone I asked for her counts.  These numbers give an overall idea of how she is doing.

Tumor Marker.  Should be at zero.

Previous: 2161

Current: 1789

Good Sign that the chemo is already working!

Kidney Function: 18 This is a little high but they are still functioning ok.

Liver: One function has gotten higher, but the other two have gotten lower.  We would like them all to be getting lower... so hopefully next time.

Overall, this was very encouraging.

Getting stronger

It seems like today and yesterday she has been stronger.  Yesterday she was up most of the day and even ate a good amount.  Today she got up at 7am and was even making herself some toast when I got there.

She is still having a terrible time swallowing, saying that it feels like there is a big air bubble in her chest.  But, she is getting her appetite back, which is a good thing.

She is having some wild nights.  Sadly, she gets up in the night and gets lost.  Sometimes in the closet, and other times just stuck in rooms and cannot find her way out.  Last night she got up and cleaned out the fridge in the middle of the night.

Everyday is an adventure!

Right now I can see that she is getting a little stronger everyday.  Let's pray that she keeps it up!

Chemo

Todays appointment was long.  4 hours long.  The office was very busy because of the holiday weekend.  They were able to give her chemo, but we didn't get any numbers as far as tumor marker, or liver function.  They did say that her liver appears to be doing better.  

After treatment she came home and actually ate more than she has eaten in a long time.  She also seemed to have more energy.  She now has a break from chemo, so she will not have it for two more weeks.  She is very excited about that!

We go back to the doctor on Monday and we should get more information then.  

Bad Weekend

This weekend was a rough one.  At the doctor on Friday, we discovered that she had a temperature of 101.  The doctor was very concerned.  With her blood count being so low she is at high risk for infection.  An infection at this point is extremely dangerous.

Her fever came down but Saturday it got very high again.  She was struggling both mentally and physically.  She gave my Dad a good scare and had a pretty scary panic attack.

Her temperature was not coming down, so @10pm on Saturday night I called the doctor on call.  They told us to take her to the Emergency Room if her temperature stayed that high.  Finally by 2am her temperature was back down to normal.

We spent Sunday at her house watching her closely and working on getting her to eat and drink.  It is hard work.  She is not eating well or drinking because she has a sore throat, but by the end of the evening she ate some dinner, sipped on a Jamba Juice, drank and started to perk up.  She got a call from Zak telling her that he proposed to Katie and she got really happy.  It really helped her.

Overall, she seems to be out of the woods with the fever.  Tomorrow is chemo again.  Hopefully her blood count will be up so that she can receive it.  After that treatment she would have a much needed week off.

9/4

Today was a better day.  She had a good night last night and actually got up at 9:30.  She hadn't taken a ton of pain meds in the night, so she was a little more with it.  We even went out to lunch!

She is going to get her third shot today and hopefully this will get her blood count where it needs to be for treatment on Tuesday.

The abdomen swelling seems to be decreasing which is a great sign.  She is complaining of a sore throat, so we are having them look at it at the doctor today.

Overall she did well today, and we will know more on Tuesday.

Comments?

Want to send a message her way?  Just leave it as a comment and I will make sure that it gets to her!

Currently...

Hi everyone,

I figured this would be the best way to let everyone know how she is doing.  I will keep it updated regulary so that everyone knows what is going on.

As of today:

Her liver has been causing lots of problems.  Her doctor at Huntsman was not as helpful as we had hoped, so we are not really sure what is going on with her liver and neither is he.  It is either really damaged from chemo which may have caused permanant damage, may or may not be full of tumor on the entire left side, and might just have a problem that is so rare that they will never know what is going on with it.  Reguardless, it is not fully functioning, which is causing lots of pain, and tons of fluid build up in her abdomen.  They were going to try to treat her liver with direct radiation, but due to not knowing what is going on with it, the doctor taking too long to get things rolling, and the cancer spreading, she has been placed back on chemo.  The chemo will be the most effective treatment for now to try to treat all of the tumors.  Once the other tumors have shrunk, they will biopsy her liver to see what is going on.

As of now she has tumors in her abdomen, lungs and possibly the tissue around the lungs, likely in the liver, and tumors other places.  She has fluid in her chest and abdomen.  The fluid in her abdomen is testing positive for cancer, however the fluid in her chest is not.  She goes in weekly or as needed right now to get this fluid drained.  We went in today and they drained 1.4 liters from her abdomen.  This helps relieve the pressure, but anytime they take that much fluid out of you, your body kind of freaks out with all of the empty space, and it can cause some pretty bad pain.

She has now completed two rounds of chemo therapy.  This is a chemo that she has responded very well to in the past, so we are hoping that it can shrink the tumors and give her some pain relief.  Right now pain is the biggest issue.  She is awake most nights with extreme pain.

She is scheduled for another chemo treatment on Tuesday, however her blood count is very low, so she is receiving daily shots to try to get her strong enough to do that treatment.  Not sure what the shots are... but they usually help.  They do cause really bad bone pain, but right now she needs all of the chemo she can get.

I will keep this blog updated on a regular basis.  If you have any questions, you can call me at 801-446-2488 or on my cell 801-608-6804.  It is hard to reach her directly right now because she is sleeping a lot, but I can pass along messages and have her call people back when she is up to it.

She knows that everyone is praying for her and thinking of her, and it means a lot.