rEAliZe

O.k. so I didn't realize how long it has been since I have updated. Sorry! I just started round 6 on Monday. I will be going to CTCA soon to have scans, hopefully remove the tube in my back before summer hits, possible do more chemo or maybe done. We will see. I am getting more tired. I had a blood transfusion at the beginning of the fifth round. It gave me more color and a little more energy. I am still a little tired. Numbers have gone from over 800 to 4th round 77, 5th round 78. It didn't drop we think because of the Procret shots which are for helping your red blood cells. So no more Procret shot. The blood transfusion hopefully took care of bring up my counts on the red blood cell count. So I am hopeing this round will put me at 0. We will know in a few weeks. I am doing well just tired.

Still hoping for warmer weather!

What's the number

It is time again to update. I have hand and foot syndrome it has gotten worse. My hands and feet are very sore and at night it tends to get a little worse. I saw the doctor this week and she said it isn't bad enough to stop treatment. Plus it seems to be working really well the chemo Xeloda. We assume this from my new CA2729 number which is now 100 and some. I can't remember if it is 150 or 113 either way this is awesome. Normal is 0-40. I have had it as low as 24 and as high as 818. So this is great news. I still have three more rounds of chemo. I am so excited numbers haven't done this well in a long while.

Just a shout out to Great Grandma Basset thank you so much for your cards you send every week. What a blessing you have been in my life. I hope you are getting better. Not saying that I haven't appreciated all the other cards, dinners, babysitting and house cleaning and even just the how are u's and the hello's, the comments on the blog they all mean a lot. They seem to always come at a good time and are very much appreciated. I haven't said that in a while so thank you so much.

I hope we see some warmer weather soon. We went to Cal. to visit Ryan's grandma she had a stroke. The weather was beautiful it was in the 70's and 80's while we were there. Apparently they had a lot of rain lately so much the farms were still flood a little. So I am looking forward to the 70's and 80's. It seems the last two spring/summer it goes 50's low 60's to 90's no in between. I would like a some spring weather.

One more thing, I know that not everyone that reads this blog is LDS but I still feel the need to bear my testimony of the truthfulness of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that God I know with out the Savior and the knowledge of the gospel I would not be here today. I have a strong testimony that there is a true and living prophet on the earth today. Who I love for his great example of Service and his leadership. That the gospel of Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. That Joesph Smith translate the Book of Mormon and that he was a prophet of God. I know that without the priesthood and worth priesthood holders here on the earth today and that I would not have received so many blessing surviving this cancer I have. I love my Savior and all the many, many blessings he has given to me. I also know that the temple is the house of our Heavenly Father. I have a testimony of this. I am thankful for the temple and for the bless of being able to have an eternal family.

Again thanks for all those who still read and comment.

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.