Feeling Well!

Hey, mom is telling me again that it is time to update. I keep thinking about it but then I get busy do so many other things. It is that time of year. Cole started baseball practice last week. Carter hasn't been called yet for a team. Kamden was going to do soccer but we haven't heard from them yet. This is the busiest season from now until summer. I love the warmer weather and all the activities. Not that we have warmer weather right know.

Anyway about what is going on. After the first round (816) of chemo my CA 2729 number dropped to 600 and something. The swelling start to go away and so did the pain. So I went off my pain meds cold turkey. I found out that is not the way you are to go off pain meds. Oh, well now I know if I every have to do it again I will not go off the right way. I survived with just a few not so good side effects from just stopping.

So this week I saw Dr. here. Just started third round of chemo pill and Herceptin infusion. My numbers before we started third round are down to 268. Is that awesome or what. Hopefully this round will knock the numbers back to normal. Then we can do three more rounds to make sure it is gone. We will see what time brings.

I am doing really well. The only side effects the last two weeks has been the hand and foot. They have been very red and hot. So really I am doing really good. Oh, and I still have my hair.

The only bad news is I recently found out I only get 4 scans a year with my insurance and I have already used 3. Two of the scans were for the appendix and one for the cancer.

New NUMBERS

Have some time today so I thought I would update. Jillian you asked about the interesting pain management dr. No we didn't see him again and no he isn't going to manage my pain. He didn't figure out a good schedule either.

Since I have been home I have seen Dr. Kris and Dr. Rado. There are a few new things. I will come back here for treatment after my second around of treatment in Phoenix. On Monday it will be the end of the first two weeks of Xeloda. Definitely more tired with this chemo or maybe just worn down because of the pain. I think Dr. Rado helped us figure out a good pain schedule for the drugs. It seems to be working and keeping the pain gone. Dr.Kris is giving me some new pills to help with all the swelling I have been having.

And last but not least my numbers as of Monday were 816. That is the highest they have ever been. When I was first diagnosed that number was in the 700's. So I hope this chemo does it job well.

Last update for this Trip to Pheonix

Please forgive me.... with my messy writing.... incomplete sentences... and very bad spelling. The Dr. changed my pain meds and I seem to be more tired and loopy. So I am going to try to sum up the rest of what happened this week. Ryan and I were trained on how to take care of my nephrostamy tube. We learned new things each day this week. We also meet with a very interesting man about managing my pain. I also visited the hospital here in CTCA. They had to give me some more pain meds because the pain got out of control again last night like on Monday. We stayed busy this week. Not like two weeks ago where I got to rest a little more. Oh and guess what .....last Saturday my hair started to fall out again. I little more each day. Haven had to cut it yet.

Last update for the day!

O.k. one more post for today. I saw the Dr. Malad. We are going to wait and see about the swelling. He thinks it has to do with the kidney and that the cancer in the lymph nods are causing the sever swelling and the pain. So he put me on some better pain meds. We will see how they work. I am hoping they work better than what I have been on. Tomorrow I will start Herceptin again which is an infusion once every three weeks and I have gone to a chemo therapy pill called Xeloda which I will take 3 Tabs twice a day for two weeks then off a week and repeat two weeks on one week off. I think I will be doing all that at home except this first round. That is as long as Rado is o.k. with this plan. Then I will go to CTCA Phoenix once a month or once every couple of months we will just play it by ear. Watch the CT2729 numbers.

Another update from Phoenix

I saw Dr. Smith last Monday. He is the Dr. that took out my appendix. He sent my appendix to the lab. The report came back that the reason my appendix looked so different was because it was full of cancer. He said he has never seen that before. I am not saying that never happens he just said he had never seen that before.

Sunday night Ryan and I fly out here to Phoenix again. At 7am this morning I went in for surgery. I had a Nephrostomy Tube put in my kidney It takes the fluid out of my kidney and into a bag I carry on my side. The surgery went really well. I was up within an hour.

So I will see the doctors in about an hour.

I am still having a lot of pain around the pelvic area and I am swelling really bad in funny places. So hopefully they will have some answers for me. We will also see what they are going to do about the raising tumor marker. My CA2729 was over 450.

Update from Pheonix

O.k. I am with you guys I love pictures but I am not at my computer today so no pictures. Sorry. Lots of update. Let's see where to start. I think I told you I had my fifth round of chemo in December. In Jan saw the doctor she decided even though numbers were up we would still do this last round to helpfully keep them from really jumping higher. I think the CA 2729 on Jan 15 was 365 or so. On Fri the 15th I had my 6th and last round of chemo and was giving orders to go a get a CT/PET.

I wasn't able to make that appoint yet. I had been having very bad pain for about two weeks before treatment and had started to take some high doses of pain meds. While on Sunday nigh after treatment on Friday I started throwing up and coming out the other end and lots of pain. So Ryan took my to the hospital. The did a CT scan and thought it look like it was probably the appendix. They decided to put us in a more comfy room upstairs about 4 am. I didn't see the doctor until about 3:45 on Monday he said let go. So 15 mins later I was being prepared for surgery. Everything went well. He did say he had never seen anything like it and didn't know why it hadn't ruptured. So I left the oh so lovely hospital around 11pm that night.

Well we decided to go back down to CTCA and see what they think of numbers being high just to look at everything. In the mean time I am in still in quite a bit a pain. CTCA got me a flight and an appointment the following Tuesday or yesterday a week after surgery.

I thought I had done such a good job collecting all the information they would need here. Long story short we didn't have everything we needed to make any decisions yesterday. They did a CT and I saw the doctor but apparently they have stop doing there own blood work for the CA2729 numbers so we are still waiting on those they take three days before we really decided what chemo to put me back on. He said there is still cancer but it doesn't seem to look as bad and there isn't any in the lungs like they thought there maybe. So he decided to check out the pain I am still having. So he sent my for an ultra sound this morning. The lady showed my what pictures she took. She showed me my right kidney it looked prefect she said then she showed the left. She said that it didn't' look normal. There were 5 black holes that is what she called them. So I will see a doc tomorrow at 2pm. Unless I hear from my doctor soon. So we are hoping thing will be all summed up by Thur Night. We shall see. I guess I am on vacation. I can't say it has been a very pain free vacation and I miss my family already. I know Ryan is taking good care of the kids.

So so long and not pictures but I did update!

2010 Last update

Here are just a few pictures from 2010. We had a great year together as a family this year. We hope everyone else had a great year too.

I started the year on chemo then was able to stop have surgery go back on maintances chemo and then back to chemo treatment a new kind.

Currently I had my 5th round of chemo on Dec 17th. I have had a few reactions...rashes, bumps, aching hips and back, and a few unmentionables. Nothing that hasn't been managable. My last treatment for the set is the week of my birthday. Luckily not on my birthday. Then in Jan I will have a PET scan to see what is going on. I had a CT scan in Nov. It said that my lymphnods are stil swollen and there was something in my liver. So we will know more in Jan/Feb.

I just want to say thank you for all the kindness our family has received over the last three years. I don't think I can say that enough THANK YOU. Again hope everyone had a great year.