First off Mom is awesome, she is the strongest woman I know, and I look up to her so much. I am so proud of her for being so positive, and not letting this get her down. She is doing so well at listening to her body. Even with one of the most difficult journies she has ever faced, she knows she is not doing it alone, and that we are on this journey back to strength as a family. You might read the title of this blog and think, Mom is physically weak right now because she is sick, and that this is all about her getting better; to this I say, you are right, but it goes much deeper than that. When Mom was diagnosed, we were all in a state of grief, despair, worry, confusion and even anger. We, as a family were weakened. It is on this journey that we have each other, together. As Mom gets stronger and healthier by the week, We get stronger and healthier as a family. This journey is going to bring us closer as a family than ever before. We are in this together and this is why we are all still able to remain our quirky, goofy selves together. Every day is another day we get to be strong, not only for ourselves, but for Mom. We will always be there to carry each other in times of need. That is why we are a family, we were given to each other because we would never abandon one another.
Mom went in for her fourth chemotherapy treatment this passed Thursday, when she went in for her blood work they found that her white blood cell count was unusually low, even for someone on chemo. Although they gave her the treatment, they told her that she will have to return the following day to get a shot to boost her white blood cells so that she can receive her following treatments. She returned the next day, and they told her that the shot (not sure of the name) she got was going to give her flu-like symptoms.
Now normally, the first week and a half after her treatment, Mom needs to recover and rebuild her strength until she gets her next one; usually she gets extremely tired because she is on additional medications. So this time she has been feeling even worse. She is not supposed to be around anyone either, the doctors do not want to risk her getting sick. So I have been trying my very best to try and stay away from sick people and stay healthy as well as everyone else in the house. Hopefully in a few more days she will be feeling better. On the bright side, her throat is feeling much better, she finally got her Italian Sub she wanted so badly! Unfortunately, she may have to undergo more radiation, this time on her hips, not sure when though.
Mom's next CT Scan is in two more weeks, this scan will tell us the update on her cancer's growth or shrinkage. We are praying for shrinkage! However, the concerned area is the tumor on her L-5 (lower spine), the doctors said that they cannot be sure right now whether it got bigger or if it had just stabilized because it does look bigger than her first set of scans she had done before she started all her treatments, but there was a five to six week period between her testing and her first treatment. We will know for sure when she gets this next scan because they will compare her second scan with this new one to see how the tumor on her spine is handling the treatment. Again, we are praying for shrinkage. We are praying that Mom handles these treatments very well, which she has, and that she goes into remission sooner rather than later, so that she may get to live in comfort again, and live her days normally again. Please.
That's all for now! Will update again after we get the CT Scan results in a couple of weeks!
Sorry I haven't really kept up with this, things have been very busy!
Mom had her CT Scan done two weeks ago, last Thursday we went to hear the results and get her on her third treatment of chemotherapy. As we were listening to what the doctors had to say, we found out that the lesion on Mom's L-5 (lower back) either stabilized or got bigger. The other lesions stabilized while the tumor in her lung actually got smaller. Dr. Karp informed us that she is adding a third drug to the chemo treatment; this will starve the tumor by cutting off the blood supply and keep the veins from feeding the tumor. Because the added drug will also add another hour and a half to her treatment, she had to go back Friday. So far she is handling the effects very well, she's just been very tired. No nausea at all! However, her throat still hurts from the radiation, but is definitely getting better. All in all, things are largely going the way we want them to. So it was more good news than bad, but I guess you could say it was good news with caution. They will do another treatment and get another CT Scan to be able to compare the growth of the lesion on Mom's L-5, the doctors are not sure because there was a five to six week period between the tests/scans and the start of the treatment, so it's hard to compare. They are going to keep an eye on this area of concern but everything else is responding extremely well.
Well there is good news and there is bad news, but as usual, I will start with the bad news. Mom has started feeling the effects of the chemo yesterday. We also think they may have to check her throat to see why she is still experiencing that raw soreness she's had since the radiation. The doctor said it should be clearing up, but it's not. Today she is I believe in the thick of the effects. She's dealing with what we all think is the worst of it for this time. Hopefully she will be back to "good" in a couple days. Now for the good news, well it's day 3 so we know she was going to experience SOME effects. In the next few days the chemo will be out of her system, she has NOT been nauseous which is extremely good. Mom has really just been completely wiped out. Today she spent most of it sleeping, and she was napping yesterday too. In a few days she will be feeling well again and from here I think I can tell that New Hampshire will be a go. I'm glad she will be able to go because it makes her happy, and she needs to be as happy as ever right now, especially since it's going to be Labor Day weekend. I'm sure she can't wait!
Mom just had her second chemo treatment yesterday, and she was afraid how she was going to react since she was so sick last time. There's no other way to say this but she feels great!!!! Slept all night without waking up, came down this morning made coffee for Dad and her own oatmeal, she didn't feel the need to wake me up. She took her own medicine, and she has energy to boot!
During the last couple of weeks Leslie Sam and their dog Jasmine have spent time with us, they were helping out here and we enjoyed our time with them. Leslie dedicated most of her stay preparing delicious meals that we could freeze and pull out when ever we needed to. It has really been much easier around here not worrying about what we should make for dinner. Since Mom has that awful pain in her throat, Leslie has packed our freezer with Pastina with the egg, a soup that my mom has been able to eat with ease. Mom also got a beautiful mani pedi from Sam, which the nurse complimented on today! They left this passed Monday morning and I just want to send a BIG THANK YOU to both of them!
Today Mom and I went into Boston for her second treatment of Chemotherapy. Dr. Huberman was out on vacation so we had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Goldstein, we also saw Dr. Karp who is one of Dr. Huberman's fellows. They were very nice, though we already knew Dr. Karp from previous appointments. Anyway, Mom brought it to Dr. Goldstein's attention as well as Dr. Karp's that she is still suffering from the sore throat that was a result from the radiation. They said that the soreness in her throat should be going away gradually by now, but Mom has noticed nothing. They think she may have a fungal infection going on there. This sometimes happens after radiation. If there is an infection the medicine she got today should make it go away relieving her soreness. Mom is instructed to take it 3 times daily. Dr. Karp said we should notice a difference in a day or two. After speaking to Dr. Goldstein and Dr. Karp it was time for Mom to get set up with chemo. She is a little nervous about how her body is going to handle the second treatment, as you all know last time was very difficult for her since she got really sick. This time, however, we are hopeful that she will have an easier experience with the chemo spreading throughout her system. This time we are more prepared and we have an idea about what's next and what to do to minimize the nausea as much as possible so she can feel as good as she does right now much sooner! Our next move after this is a CT Scan in two weeks to see if there is any shrinkage, they will continue the chemo treatments. The doctors are estimating about six to eight treatments in total, once every three weeks. Mom wants to make a trip to New Hampshire next weekend granted she is feeling well enough! So here's hoping!!!
First off Mom is awesome, she is the strongest woman I know, and I look up to her so much. I am so proud of her for being so positive, and not letting this get her down. She is doing so well at listening to her body. Even with one of the most difficult journies she has ever faced, she knows she is not doing it alone, and that we are on this journey back to strength as a family. You might read the title of this blog and think, Mom is physically weak right now because she is sick, and that this is all about her getting better; to this I say, you are right, but it goes much deeper than that. When Mom was diagnosed, we were all in a state of grief, despair, worry, confusion and even anger. We, as a family were weakened. It is on this journey that we have each other, together. As Mom gets stronger and healthier by the week, We get stronger and healthier as a family. This journey is going to bring us closer as a family than ever before. We are in this together and this is why we are all still able to remain our quirky, goofy selves together. Every day is another day we get to be strong, not only for ourselves, but for Mom. We will always be there to carry each other in times of need. That is why we are a family, we were given to each other because we would never abandon one another. 
