Another check up in Portland

Tuesday was time again to go up to Portland to meet with the doctor there. He was very pleased with her progress. Her blood counts are steadily moving up even though her platelets are still pretty low at about 29. I asked what he said about the infections and he just kind of shrugged his shoulders and said some people end up in the hospital every time and some don't ever get an infection. So he wasn't concerned about it. He said that Mom could go back in for the last chemo anytime in August but I think we are sticking with sometime around the 15th of August. We'll see what Dr. Lee says after getting this doctor's assessment back.
Her next appointment in Portland is September 28th. This is when they'll do the bone marrow biopsy and we'll know if she's done with treatment. That is assuming that all goes well between now and then. So, we can see the finish line just have a few more hurdles to jump first.

Mom is really feeling much better. She took the kids to town yesterday for lunch and to do a little shopping. After they came back out to our house and did a little swimming...she was still here when I got home from work. They all had a really good time.

On the way up!

Yesterday Mom headed back over for blood tests at Dr. Lee's office. She is doing really well now. Her WBC was over 3.0. Her platelets are still low at 21 but are at least on their way up.
This morning Mom and Dad ran some errands, had breakfast out and even went to the farmers' market. They bought fresh fruit and veggies...then this afternoon we went over there and had bbq burgers and potato salad and fresh green salad. She said it was yummy! Dad said she finished her whole plate at breakfast and he thought it was just because she was so excited to eat something besides his cooking or packaged food. :)

She goes back to Portland on Tuesday for a check up and then shouldn't have to go back to the doctor until the 13th of August provided everything goes smoothly between now and then. It's looking like the 15th of August or so for the last round of chemo.

We giggled over her hair today - she's got just a little bit of white, white stubble now. Not sure if its going to stay or fall out again...she was just getting enough eyelashes back to actually see them again but she said they are starting to fall out now. She said there were 2 women in the infusion room yesterday that are on their last rounds of chemo (for different types of cancer) and they both had at least an inch or so of hair...Mom is just hoping she has enough for family pictures this fall but I said it didn't matter, hats are cute!

She's home again!

I keep forgetting to update this for some reason...she got home Tuesday afternoon. She said Dr. Lee was so excited for her to go home, told the nurses to hurry up and get the paperwork done so Mom could leave. :)
Her WBC was at .9 on Tuesday so she is still on a restricted diet and not going out in public yet, but at least we are on the way back up!
She was feeling pretty good last night, had done a little cleaning in the kitchen, but is still really tired and can only be up and about for 10-15 minutes at a time...but this is the cycle we go through each time.

Thank you to those who have sent books for her to read, she should be good for a little while now. :)

I took Kasey and Rachel over to see Mom this afternoon...Kasey brought "Guess Who" with him so they played that while she ate lunch. She is doing really good! One of the infections doctors stopped in while we were there and said that her infection is gone and they are just waiting on her WBC to come up. It had marginally improved but is still basically at 0.00 He is thinking that Dr. Lee will probably want to give her some sort of shot that boosts bone marrow production to try to give her body a little help in getting those counts up. She is on a liquid diet and doing pretty well in keeping things down now. We're just in a holding pattern for now, until she can get to producing those white cells again...

She's had a few visitors over the last few days and has really enjoyed that. Makes the days go by a little faster for her...she says she's really tired of talk shows and re-runs. :) If anyone has some new movies I bet she'd enjoy borrowing those too...

Just saw this article on Yahoo and thought I'd share it...oh how I wish that no one would have to go through this!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100718/ap_en_ot/us_broadway_child_actor_leukemia

Today

Well, the fever did not stay gone and she is pretty darn worn out but she is still hanging in there. She sounded a little "down" today, more so than yesterday, but I take that as a good sign - at least she cares she's in there now, before she was so sick she didn't care where she was. The doctors say the infection is gone and she won't have to have any other blood cultures. She's still on antibiotics and was receiving a bag of platelets when I talked to her tonight. I think that makes 5 bags of red blood and 3 platelets now.
She's still hoping she'll be out of there before the weekend is over; I think it'll be closer to Monday or Tuesday but we'll see.

The latest...

I talked with Mom last night after work and she was doing a little better. Her fever had come back strong yesterday afternoon but then it seemed to break and was down to 97.9 around 5pm. They have taken her off one of the antibiotics as they don't think she needs both, her blood culture from the day before seems to have come back clear and they think the infection is about gone. Her WBC is still at 0.00 so she won't be getting out of the hospital any time too soon but I think we are again on the way up.

She is in need of some different books to read so if anyone has a few they'd be willing to share please either call me or drop some off at my house or their house. :)

Thanks for the support and prayers, we love you!

Today's update

Well lets see what I know now...
Mom said she took her temp on Sunday night before bed and it was about 99.4 but she went to bed and slept all night. When she woke up in the morning she had the chills and a temp of 101something. They were over to the hospital a little after 6 and in ICU by 9. She said she didn't know where she was yesterday until they told her today.

Dad went to see her this morning and she was still in ICU. He didn't know a whole lot more than yesterday but she DOES have an infection and is on oxygen.
I called at 11:00 and she had been moved from ICU to another floor but I wasn't able to talk to the nurses as they were just getting her settled into her room and were busy. I was able to get off work at 4 and headed over to the hospital. I called on my way to get a room number and found out she had been moved again. Back to "our" wing in 2SW where she usually stays while in the hospital. She is a bit more stable now than yesterday. She was asleep when I got there but was able to sit and stay awake for the 45 minutes I was there.

I walked out about 5:15 and was talking with the nurse when Dad walked by me and headed to her room...So the nurses tell us that she has an infection and they think it is the same type she had last time and they are fighting it with the same meds. Her fever is still running pretty rampant, was up to 104.8 during the day today and is still up around 102.5 late this afternoon. She has received 4 units of blood and 1 unit of platelets. The nurse was waiting for a call back from Dr. Lee to see if they should give her another platelet tonight or wait until tomorrow morning. They did an EKG today but looks like it came back normal so that is good.
Her arm looks like hell. With the lack of platelets she bruises easily and they bruised the living crap out of her arm...it is about the worst bruise I've ever seen. I took a picture on my cell phone of it, it's really bad! I guess Dr. Lee got very upset about it and yelled at the nurses in ICU, good for her!
She'll be in the hospital probably for at least a week. They can't let her out until her fever is gone for at least 24 hours without meds, and they won't let her out until her WBC and neutrophils are up to safe levels again.
She is on oxygen and is having a hard time breathing and is on liquid potassium, saline and antibiotics. But all in all, I think she is doing ok. She seemed ok and I feel better having been able to go see her today.

Keep praying for her!

Cancer sucks!

Chemo is the worst means to an end that I can possibly think of. It isn't fair that the medicine that can save you can be the worst part of the illness. I can't begin to scream out how much I despise what this chemo is doing to her.

Mom is back in the hospital. Dad took her in about 6 this morning with a 102.3 fever. By 9am she had been admitted to ICU with a blood pressure of 87/31. Things have been a roller coaster today. She has received 2 (or maybe 3 now) units of whole blood, 1 unit of platelets, 4 different types of antibiotics and at least 2 bags of saline. They don't believe she has an infection, although they have taken blood samples for testing but instead think that her blood counts dropped too low over the weekend. She got a unit of platelets last Thursday(Kam spent that day with her at the infusion room) but wasn't scheduled to go back in for more blood tests until today. You would think that by now they would know that she can't go 4 days without blood but what do I know...
Anyway, we'll know more tomorrow but for now she is mostly sleeping and trying to fight to get the fever under control. When I talked to Dad about 6:15 her blood pressure was up to 104/45 and her fever was down to just over 100.

So tonight we'll pray again for healing for Mom and knowledge for the doctors and nurses and other teams taking care of her.

Independence Day!

Yesterday really was independence day for Mom. She was able to leave the hospital yesterday morning and we went over and spent several hours at lunch time. We ate lunch and sat on the back porch and enjoyed the great weather.
She is really pretty good, much better so far than last time. But the doctor says this may be the longest recovery time and it's possible that it may be the end of August before we can even do the next treatment. That would push the bone marrow biopsy to the end of September. So we'll just have to play it day by day and see how the month goes.
For now she's at home resting and enjoying this sunshine(finally).

So much better this time around!

Well it's Friday already. This week has flown by for me. For Mom I think the week has dragged by but she is doing really well. Wednesday she was fighting nausea but they changed her meds a little and it has really helped keep it under control. The girls and I went over to see her after work tonight and she is looking really good. I told her that she looks so much better this Friday than the Friday from the last round...so now we all need to get together and remind her to STAY AT HOME for the first 2 weeks after treatment. She thinks as long as she's feeling ok she should be able to go out and about...ugh!

Anyway, she should be out of the hospital on Sunday morning sometime and Cale's family and my family are headed over there for a BBQ in the afternoon as long as she continues to feel well and none of us get sick between now and then.

Chemo round four

Well, this is the 2nd to the last round. She got there this morning and they started chemo about noon today. She'll be there until Saturday night/Sunday morning.
She's currently in room 2403 which is a private room, but who knows if she'll get to stay there all week or not.
So far she's doing ok, said she had some back spasms and leg pain today but they gave her "something" and it was feeling better. Not sure what happened but hoping its just a one time thing.

A few questions answered, I hope. :)

I've been asked a few times now - whats in fruit and veggies and flowers that she can't have. The answer is not what's IN them but whats ON them. Bacteria collects on them and when she touches them she can get sick. She "could" eat a banana or other fruit that has a hard skin but cannot touch the food until it has been washed with anti bacterial soap and peeled by someone else. Yeast and mold and other bacteria can grow in the dirt of flowers or in the water in vases and become airborn and make her sick.

The second question I get alot is what do the blood count numbers mean...
A normal person has a white blood count of between 4500 -10,000 (or 4.5 to 10.0). When mom first went to OHSU her WBC was in the 40,000 to 50,000 range because that is where the leukemia cells grow.
White blood cells are made up of several types of cells with the largest percentage being neutrophils and lymphocytes.
Neutrophils are the first response team - they do the actual work of fighting infection, they are the first to arrive on scene. In a normal person the range is between 2500 to 7000 (or 2.5 to 7.0).
Lymphocytes also help fight infection and range from 1700-3500(1.7 to 3.5) in a normal person.

Chemotherapy drugs kill blood cells to give the body a chance to create new healthy cells instead of the sick ones. Chemo cannot differentiate between the healthy cells and the sick ones so it kills them all. The body produces new cells all the time which is why they can give chemo to you and it doesn't kill you (as long as it is given in the correct dosage).
What this means is that temporarily the blood cell levels get down to dangerous levels until the body has a chance to recover. With Mom's first infection her WBC was down to .2 (or 200) and her neutrophils were at .00.

Platelets (what helps the body clot blood) are the final key indicator...in a normal person levels range from 150,000 to 450,000. After chemo Mom's levels have gotten down to 6000, anything below 10,000 and you can bleed out and die. This is why we don't leave the infusion room without finding out if she needs platelets and why Dr. Lee fights so hard with the blood bank to get them for her.

So hopefully that gives some perception on those things.

Back for more chemo

Mom had another blood draw this morning. Her numbers are moving up steadily now and her platelets are over 100. This means that she is well enough to have chemo on Monday, so she'll be headed back to Corvallis for treatment again. Another 6 days of chemo, 2x a day, stuck in the hospital again. At least this moves us one step closer to being done with this process...

new photos

I uploaded some new pictures today. For some reason the slideshow isn't working right so here is a link to them on flickr...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7288844@N08/sets/72157624306365800/

Phew, what a month this has been...I started my new job at Allied Waste on the 8th (which is going good, very busy and lots to learn but I'm getting there). We've had 3 birthdays (Rachel turned 12 on the 8th, Kam turned 36 on the 13th and Jessika turned 14 on the 14th), an 8th grade graduation and this week is the first of four weeks of interviews for our church Pastor (I've been on the Call Committee since last September and we're finally to the interview stage). Jessika leaves for Washington DC on Sunday and Kam starts school on Monday...busy, busy, busy! Mom has been doing really well - going to church, coming to the birthday parties and just enjoying being able to go out and about a little.

Mom had another blood test on Monday, her platelets were still on the low side at 78 so Dr. Lee has decided not to do chemo next week. Instead she'll be going in on the 28th. We're headed to the Relay for Life event at West Albany High School tonight to see all the luminaries, hopefully I can get some good pictures.

I pray daily for comfort and healing and strength for everyone who has this horrible journey to take. For our friends Renee and Jon and for the Rupperts who have recently lost their loved ones to cancer, I pray for you to find comfort and joy in life, to remember the good times and not the bad. Love to you all! Amie

OHSU appointment

Yesterday was Mom's check up with the doctor at OHSU. She had blood drawn again and her numbers are improving but slowly. Her neutrophil # is 1.65 and should be at least 1.8 for her to eat and move about freely...her platelets are now at 51, they want at least 80 before the next round of chemo. Her WBC is 3.1 which is up substantially...Dr. Lee had called last week and let him know that we wanted to postpone chemo until after the 16th, which he said wasn't a problem, in fact she probably wouldn't have been ready for it by the 14th anyway. It's looking like it will probably be the 21st when she goes back in. I asked if he was mad about the infection and he just said well, most people end up back in the hospital 3 out of the 4 consolidation therapy rounds so we'll just hope that it's only 2 out of 4...

Otherwise she is doing really well...feeling good but tired still. She said she is tired of being tired. :) So, she's up for visitors now as long as you are healthy...just give her a call before stopping by.

Rachel's birthday

Tuesday is Rachel's birthday and Mom has been upset about not being able to participate in the party festivities this year. (Kam and Jessika's birthdays are the 13th and 14th too). So Mom talked Dad into bringing her out to the house tonight for a little while to visit and watch Rachel open her presents during her birthday party. We had a fire going in the backyard and the kids were all playing outside with the unexpected good weather. It was so nice to sit out there and visit with Mom and see her laugh at Jessika and Madison being teenage girls and Rachel and her friends playing volleyball and Kasey and his friend playing in the pool...finally a moment of normality.
She was only able to stay about 45 minutes before she had enough and needed to go home, but it was so nice...in fact, it was the first time that Jessika and Kasey have seen her since Joyce was here at the end of April...

Doing better

Mom has been doing well the last couple of days. She is very, very tired but that is expected after what she went through last week. I took her to the doctor's today. Her blood counts are increasing. WBC was 1.5, neutrophils at .9 and platelets at 15. Dr. Lee decided not to give her any blood products and believes she is past the worst of it for this round. She's still on antibiotics and potassium but that's it for now. She goes back to OHSU next Tuesday to see Dr. Fleming again. Then back to the lab on Monday the 14th for blood work again...depending on her counts that day either she'll go back on the 18th and then in for chemo again on the 21st OR she'll go back for blood tests on the 23rd and in for chemo on the 28th.
She was very excited to hear that she'll be able to go to Jessika's promotion ceremony and have some time to be around the kids again. She's feeling very down in the dumps right now, not depressed but sad about how much she's missed this spring. I've been taking lots of video but its just not the same. So hopefully we'll get a little break and get to enjoy spending some time together, not just talking about chemo and cancer and blood and insurance...

SHE'S HOME!!!

She was able to go home this morning. Dad left work and went to pick her up so she has been relaxing and enjoying being at home this afternoon. She is doing pretty well, Cale and Rheanna and Gary are over there now helping keep her company while Dad is at work. They were even able to get her to eat a little soup.
Not sure what the plan is from here, we've got to wait until tomorrow to talk with Dr. Lee. We're hoping that they won't want to start her next chemo until around the 20th of June, to give her a good long time to heal. (and so she can go to Jessika's 8th grade graduation ceremony on the 16th).

Finally some better news

Friday I talked to Mom in the morning and they had decided that they were going to go ahead and remove the port just in case as they really couldn't find anything else that could be causing the fever and infection to keep returning. So they were trying to get a team together (on a holiday weekend) to do the surgery yesterday. In the meantime, Rachel and Dad headed over there to spend some time with her in the afternoon. Apparently, Dr. Lee finally got Mom's blood tests results for Saturday back and was frantically calling the hospital/nurses/surgeons to cancel the surgery as her numbers are finally starting to rise to safe levels...she even called Mom's cell phone to tell her to NOT let them wheel her in for surgery, just in case she couldn't get ahold of the right people to get it canceled in time...so anyway, they have decided that it isn't necessary to remove the port and her fever has now been gone for about 48 hours and her platelets, WBC and RBC numbers are moving in the right direction and she seems to be getting better finally.
Today she is feeling a bit better, just having a hard time with eating as nothing tastes good and is hard to force down.
We are hoping that they may let her out of the hospital tomorrow, or possibly on Tuesday...she is so ready to be home again.