Author: althea

October 18: I’m happy to report that Mom’s chemotherapy and radiation treatments ended last Wednesday (the 12th), and she’s now done for at least the next three weeks.  Her body will get a good hiatus to rest and recuperate, and hopefully she’ll be feeling better and better.  The chest pain problems she was having have begun to subside.  It sounded pretty painful, but the doctors ran all sorts of scans and couldn’t find anything wrong with her.  So we’re guessing that the pain could be related to the fact that her chemo port is in her upper chest and maybe having continuous infusion of nasty drugs for six weeks irritated blood vessels in her upper chest.
As of Monday, Mom said that she is still experiencing some nausea and malaise, and she is sticking pretty close to home.
The next step (after three more weeks of recovery) is to get a CAT Scan on November 8.   Check out this site for a fun explanation of how CAT scans work.  On the 8th, they’ll be looking to see how much the tumor has changed.  Our fervent hope is that the treatments that were so hard on Mom’s systems were also really hard on the tumor and it has shrunk to the point that it is removable with surgery.  As a reminder, the primary reason that the tumor could not be removed in June was because it  involves about three centimeters of the superior mesenteric vein.  Here’s a site that talks about the Whipple Procedure, the surgery Mom will have if the tumor has shrunk enough that it is not surrounding her superior mesenteric vein.  Here’s a 9-page PDF for those who really want to learn more about the surgery.  The superior mesenteric vein drains blood from the small intestine, and because it is such a vital and delicate vein, it is very difficult to operate on.   Hence, we really want the tumor to BACK AWAY from the vein.
So that’s the current update.  Should be quiet for a while!
~Althea

Oct. 10 afternoon:
The doctors did a series of tests and weren’t able to determine the cause of Mom’s chest pain.  She’s going to be taking 800 mg of Ibuprofen (which can cause nausea…great), and she went home this afternoon.  I found a website that has some info on the connection between chemo and chest pain (chemocare.com).
Oct. 10: Mom went to the hospital this morning because she’s been experiencing chest pain over the last 12 hours or so.  As of 9 am, the doctors have done an EKG and ruled out a heart attack, but they’re doing tests to check for fluid around the heart sack and blood clots.  I talked to Mom on the phone this morning, and she said she’d been uncomfortable if she moved in certain ways, and she spent the second half of the night sitting up.  They gave her a couple baby aspirin, and she said that helped.  “Just another bump in the road,” she said.  I’ll give more updates as I hear them.
Oct 9: Four days left!
Mom started up on her chemo treatments again on Tuesday last week, and she only has (I think) four treatments left this week until she’s done with this round.  They decreased the chemo dosage, so hopefully that will help her avoid getting as sick as she wraps up.  Then we wait four weeks or so before they scan to see how much poco the tumor has shrunk.
That’s the update for now!

Oct 3:  Sorry to be belated in posting this…I tried last week and had technical difficulties…  Mom is feeling better and came home from the hospital on Friday afternoon.  Healing is always somewhat slow, but she’s on the mend.  That Fluorouracil is just a pretty nasty drug.  Mom has an appointment with Dr. Diggs (her oncologist) this afternoon, so she’ll find out then when she’ll resume her treatment (she has about a week and a half left of radiation with continuous infusinon of Fluorouracil).  That’s the update for now!

It seems like every time Mom goes in to the hospital that she stays quite a bit longer than we expect.  This time is no exception.  Mom checked herself into St. Mary’s on Wednesday the 21 because the chemotherapy and radiation were having such nasty effects on her systems.  She was feeling better at first, but then over the weekend she took a step or two back, and her digestive system still hasn’t calmed down enough to allow her to go home.
Fortunately she has a lovely view of Lake Wingra and the sunset from her hospital room, and she has as many visitors as she wants.
Chemotherapy and radiation treatments have been postponed until she’s back up and running, and unfortunately, since she has over a week left of treatments, she’ll probably start to get sick again once those start.
Since she’s been off chemotherapy, her hands and feet are hurting her less and her mouth sores are healing.  So that’s been nice.  The down-side is that the radiation has caused some abdominal pain (zapping your gut doesn’t occur without some side-effects) and her alimentary canal is still very much out of wack.
So that’s the update for today.  Mom is still in good spirits (if a little tired sometimes).  She has a room full of flowers and sometimes family and friends, and all these conditions are caused by the treatment, which is hopefully leading us toward the removal of that pernicious tumor.

September 22:  Mom checked in to St. Mary’s hospital yesterday so she can get continuous infusion of iv fluids to help her body recuperate from the nasty chemo side-effects.  She’s been feeling side-effects for the last week, but in the past several days the nausea didn’t allow her to keep down any nutrition.  Early in the week she went into the clinic to get fluids, and they stopped her continuous infusion of the 5-FU chemo drug that she’s been on since Aug. 23.
She did radiation on Monday (and I think on Tuesday), but then on Wednesday she was just feeling so bad that they decided she’s be best off in the hospital for a few days.
The doctor said that she’d made it further on this treatment than anyone else who he had treated had, so that just goes to show how nasty these drugs are on a person’s system.  She’s going to be sleeping lots and regaining her health over the next couple days.  I’m out of town until Monday, but I’ll put up another update then.  Mom is still in good spirits, and I don’t think there’s anything she really needs right now except to rest and get those drugs flushed out of her system.  Let’s hope the 5-FU was as nasty to the tumor as it has been the rest of her systems!

Mom has completed three weeks out of the six weeks of radiation/continuous chemo infusion.  She goes into the clinic each morning for a dose of radiation and some time putting together the puzzle in the waiting room.  On Monday mornings, she also gets her chemo pump refilled for the week.  It’s stored in a little case that she caries around her waist.
Mom and Joey took Maretta up to college over Labor Day weekend, and Joe started school again as well (he’s a senior this year!).
The radiation and chemo are starting to demonstrate some of the side effects that we were warned about.  Mom is starting to feel more fatigued, she has some hand and foot pain, and the mouth sores are coming back (she jokes that she has hoof and mouth disease).  But she still describes these side effects as tolerable (which is good since there are still a few weeks to go).  She has a great attitude.  Her doctor said he wishes he could bottle it.