Memorial Day

Mom has actually been feeling a little better the past two weeks.  She has been driving a little - a quick trip to the store and back.  She hardly ever coughs or wheezes.  She has a little more energy and her color looks good.  

I invited her to come out to our Church picnic and she and Charles met us at the park.

She looked super cute in her hat don't you think?

Check out my girlies...

Ella's summer fare.  Fruit with fruit on the side.

Usually not much of a meatasauros, but who can pass up a delicious burger

cooked by your bishop who just happens to work for Hardees?

Chemo - Cycle 3

This week, mom started Cycle 3 of Chemotherapy.  We didn't start on a Monday as usual because it was a holiday here (Memorial Day)  Tuesday was her long day.  We got to the center at 9am and didn't leave till about 2 pm. 

Tuesday was the first time using the new access Port.  It looks great and seems to be healing just fine, but it had not been quite two weeks from the surgery and as you can probably imagine, still a little tender.  Mom was a little nervous to be jabbed with a needle in the chest.   The nurse showed up with her medications that they give her before chemo (fluids, steroids etc) and a massive looking needle.  Because there is still some swelling, she was having some trouble locating where the entry point to the port was.  She stuck her twice without success.

At this point, mom started getting even more anxious.  Especially since one of the main "selling points" of the Port was that she wasn't going to have to be repeatedly jabbed over and over again.  She started to look a little pale and sick to her stomach, so the nurse reclined her chair and gave her a minute to relax.

A second nurse came over.  This one is apparently very experienced with Access Ports.  She got the needle in with the first attempt.  She did mention that she thought next time, they should use a longer needle.  A one and half inch.  (Gasp!  Those suckers are pretty thick too)

So sigh of relief and the drugs start dripping.  Next thing you know, the nurse walks by and says "Oh oh.  Looks like you stopped dripping.  I was worried that needle wasn't quite long enough"  The look on poor mom's face!!  She thought she was going to have to be jabbed again!  The nurse started checking the connection and the lines and realized there was a kink in the line that was stopping the flow of fluids.  Yea!  No need to stick her again!

A sweet older man sitting in the chair next to her's, was very quiet the whole time.  He was very pleasant, and smiled and at everyone, but he pretty much kept to himself.  He leaned over to mom and said "I was praying to Jesus that there would be an easy fix, and they wouldn't have to stick you again"  I replied to him "Thank you.  Obviously he was listening to you"

Mom was thumbing through some magazines and was looking at different recipes.   This made her hungry for soup.  So I ran over to Olive Garden which is a few minutes away from the hospital and got her soup and breadsticks and a sandwich for me.  Even though we are at Chemotherapy - it was still fun for us to hang out and eat lunch together and chat for hours.  Maybe mom is getting tired of my constant chattering though - she said she was envious of all the people who could just lay back and sleep the whole time!!


Wednesday morning, mom convinced me take out her stitches for her.  The nurse at chemo said they were ready to come out, but the doctor couldn't see her till next Tuesday.  The stitches were driving her crazy, itching and pulling.  The nurse couldn't do it for her because of liability issues since she doesn't work for the doctor, but told me exactly how to do it.  No biggie.  Cut the knots and pull them out with tweezers.  I'm not a doctor, but I play one at home!!

Chemo Wednesday and Thursday went smoothly.  She actually seemed to have less side effects this round.  Other than extreme sleepiness - she could barely keep her eyes open in the car on the way home.

Friday, I picked her up and she said she was feeling out of sorts.  I told her she was entitled to.  She had her Neulasta shot.  All the nurses came up and hugged her and told her they would miss her and good look in Las Vegas.  So round three is officially over.  Halfway done!

Brain Radiation is done!

Yesterday was mom's last day of radiation on her brain.  Yea!  16 treatments completed.  A little break and then Cycle 3 of Chemo starts next Tuesday.

We were sitting in the waiting room after she was done, waiting for some medical records we had ordered.  We were talking about smoking and how you would think the cost of the darn things would be enough of an incentive for people to quit.  I was trying to figure out what an average pack of cigarettes would cost if purchased everyday for a year.  Mom provided the answer while I was still doing a mental calculation.  Then she joked that they must not have fried all her brain cells cause she could still do multiplication!!!

She has been feeling pretty good the last couple of days.  She is still extremely fatigued but it's nice when it's not coupled with a slew of other symptoms like nausea, heartburn, stomach problems etc.  On Sunday, she went out to a Buffet and to Grafton to have a walk around.  She had fun being out of the house, but it tends to wear her out and she is really tired the next day.

I have to say she has been looking especially pretty the last few days.  She has been wearing some of those cute summer dresses and looks just adorable.  Even some of the patients that come and go at the radiation center commented to me how pretty she is and what great skin she has.  That's my mama!

So in our "down" time, we are now getting things ready for the big move to Vegas.  We have found a doctor in Las Vegas and made an appointment and are working on getting medical records transferred.  Charlotte took mom's dog Oscar, to North Caroline with her.   The plan is, that after a week or so to recoup from Cycle 3, Mom and Charles will fly out to Vegas and live with Danielle and her family for the time being.  Danielle is flying out here to St Louis, we will load up the moving truck and Chris will be helping her drive to Las Vegas.  It's 25 hours of driving so it will take them about three days to make the trip.  Let's just say we have bought a lot of one way plane tickets!!

 Chris will fly home from Las Vegas and have a few days before we have to hit the road ourselves and make the two day drive to Florida. 

So that's it for now.  The kids are out of school tomorrow, summer will officially start for us and we all keep plugging away one day at a time.

Thank you again to everyone who continues to pray and send positive thoughts this way.  We really do appreciate everyone's support.  Love to you all.

Life is just crazy busy!

Sorry I haven't updated in a while.  It has literally been crazy around here.  And busy.  Crazy busy!!

In case you haven't checked in for a while, I'll try and give you a quick recap.

• Chris' company was bought out by Web.com, a company based out of Jacksonville.   They have closed the St Louis area office.  We have to relocate to Jacksonville no later than June 31st.
• We went to Jacksonville over spring break.  After an exhaustive online search, being outbid on an offer on a house and seeing six million houses in person, we went with a new build.  Our house should be finished this week.
• We got back from Jacksonville and Mom had to go in for a biopsy.  We feared Lymphoma.  Two days later she was diagnosed with Small Cell Lung Cancer.  Just when we got over our initial shock, we found out that her cancer has spread to her brain.  We go to the hospital every single day.  Either for Chemotherapy or Radiation.
• Mom is moving to Las Vegas to live with Danielle.  Danielle came out here two weeks ago, and in a marathon session we packed almost the entire house.  We somehow have to coordinate the move with her treatment schedule.
• Chris is out of town, more than he is home at the moment.  As much as I am panicked about moving in 30 days, I am looking forward to him actually living with us again, instead of dropping in for clean laundry on the weekends.
• Did I mention that our current home is practically unsellable in this market?  Can't wait to have 2 mortgage payments!  (*sarcasm*)

So here's whats going on with mom.

April 24th - Mom was supposed to get a port inserted today but was feeling way too sick.  She will decide later if she wants to reschedule or continue having IV's inserted each time she has treatment.

April 28th - Danielle and Kenzi arrived from Las Vegas and Charlotte arrived from North Carolina.  She knew Charlotte was coming, but Danielle and Kenzi were a total surprise.  Thanks Dad for flying them in!

May 2nd - After a few days of radiation, mom's hair started falling out in big clumps.  Strangely enough, it apparently hurts when your hair falls out.  So Danielle, Charlotte and I went with mom to a wig shop.  She bought a real hair wig similar in style to her own hair.  The next day she decided to cut off all her hair.  Although it it obviously a very big change, she at least felt like she had some control over the situation.

May 7th -  She started her second round of Chemo.   This round really kicked her butt.  Maybe because she was also having radiation at the same time?  Or maybe because they say each round of chemo hits you harder.  She has had a very hard time staying hydrated.  Her taste buds are definitely changing and she has an aversion to drinking water now.  Her poor veins are pretty shot and getting a port is becoming a necessity. 

May 11th - Made it through the week of Chemo but she is exhausted.  We saw the radiation doctor today.  Dr D.  They decided to give her Monday and Tuesday off from radiation to give her a little rest.  On Tuesday she will be having her port inserted. 

May 15th - A long day at the hospital for a half hour procedure but the port is inserted!  All went well and thankfully the pain is not too bad.  (Easy for me to say right?)   They used sedation rather than general anesthesia and that was much easier on her. The staff at the surgery center took wonderful care of her.  Her primary nurse was a breast cancer survivor and was super attentive and compassionate.  The radiation nurse called us and told us to come in on Thursday and that would give mom an extra day to recover from the surgery.

May 16th - Mom called me at 10 o'clock to see where I was.  We are so used to going up to the hospital every single day, that she forgot she had the day off!

May 17th - She resumed radiation today.   Her radiation up to this point has been a more broad type of radiation that targets a perimeter around the existing cancer cells.  The idea is, that is will prevent any more cancer from forming and killing off anything that is too small for them to see.  Today they switched her to Tomotherapy.  This is a more targeted form of the radiation.  The has three more days of this, so there is an end in sight as far as brain radiation goes.

Next cycle of chemo is May 29th.  She is very much dreading it as the second cycle hit her so hard.  Thankfully she does have the port now so it won't require multiple sticks to get an IV in.  After the third cycle is complete she will have an MRI and PET Scan to see how she is responding.

She is doing a great job of trying to take this all day by day.  Forgive her if you call and she doesn't answer.  The fatigue is pretty overwhelming right now.  If you would like to send a card or a message (she really appreciates hearing from everyone) just send me a message and I will send you her address.

So that's it for today - and we'll do it all over again tomorrow!

Finally - a lost tooth....and another!

Ella was starting to think she would never lose a tooth.  I think she was the only kid in her kindergarten class that didn't have her name up on the "Lost Tooth" chart.

She finally got a wiggly tooth and that thing was just holding on for dear life.  Today she came home from school and was super excited to show us a little baggy holding the tiniest baby tooth.

Ten minutes later, Ciara showed up from school and wouldn't you know it, she lost a molar!

Sure hope the tooth fairy has some cash handy!

Radiation - Day One

The radiation center actually called us last night and asked us to come in this morning for mom's first treatment.  I just want to say how incredible the staff there are.  Everyone is always so kind, they greet the patients by their name when they walk in and always have a nice smile and kind word.  They have a great system set up in the office.  Patients have a swipe card, similar to a credit card.  When you arrive in the office, you swipe the card and it alerts the radiation tech that you are there.  That way if the receptionist is busy helping someone else or away from her desk, you don't have to wait to check in.

The treatment was pretty uneventful.  We were in and out of the office in 20 minutes.  From now on, she has a set appointment at 9:45am every day Monday through Friday.

No glowing, super powers or spidey sense to report so far. 

One treatment down, Fifteen to go!

Consult with Radiation Doc

Unfortunately the weekend wasn't great.  It started on Friday.  We found out that the cancer has spread to mom's brain.  Once again, we knew this was a strong possibility but it's still very shocking and disappointing to hear the actual words.  We were hoping and praying that the results would show that the cancer hadn't spread.   I think we were all feeling a little negative, it just kinda felt like we aren't catching any breaks here!

Saturday, Sunday and Monday, mom was not feeling well at all.  Low blood pressure, extreme fatigue and nausea.  She felt so bad that she cancelled the procedure to have the access port put in.

On Monday night she started to feel better and developed a craving for Chinese Food.  On Tuesday she felt a little better still.  Her blood pressure came back up and she was able to be up and about a little more.  Tuesday night she had a hankering for Taco Bell.  I'm sensing I might be making a few food runs in the near future!  The thing with Chemo is, that some days you might not be able to eat at all and other days you will want to eat everything in sight.  You have to make the best of the good days after all!

Today, we met with Dr. D., the radiation doc.  Obviously the news that the cancer has spread to the news is not good but he still feels optimistic that the cancer will respond to treatment.  There is not really a cure for this type of cancer - treatment is meant as a way to prolong life.  He did not want to go into specifics as far as expected life expectancy because he said that every patient responds differently.   He said the average is about 18 months.

Although we all know that anything can happen at anytime, it's very shocking to hear a time limit put on someone's life.  Especially someone you love. Mom has handled the news with a lot of dignity and grace.  She is amazingly strong.

So the plan at the moment is to continue chemotherapy as scheduled.  She will start radiation to the brain in the next day or two.  They don't like to do radiation on two areas at once, so since the chemo is treating her lungs, they are postponing radiation to the lungs for the time being.  This course of radiation will be approximately three weeks.

Our day ended on a good note though.  It was a beautiful day today!  Mom had mentioned that she thought her nails looked bad because she hadn't filed or painted them in a while.  I drove her to a local nail salon and treated her to a manicure and pedicure.  She had never had a pedicure before and LOVED it!  This particular salon has massage chairs, so she got a nice back massage while she got her feet done.  ( I may have created a monster with this whole pedicure thing!)

So keep praying and keep sending those positive thoughts her way.  And if you would like to drop her a card in the mail, that would totally make her day!