Category: Mom’s health chronicles

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.

After three weeks of “recovery time” from the second round of chemotherapy, Mom started radiation on Monday.  She’ll be going in for a quick radiation treatment five days a week for the next six weeks.  Sounds like she experienced some nausea after the first day’s treatment, but a miracle anti-nausea drug did the trick.
In general, she’s feeling good and is enjoying a fun-filled August.  It’s been a lot of fun to be off on maternity leave and spending lots of time together.  Maretta goes back to college on Labor Day weekend, and the Babler household will go back down to one kid again.  Joey is going to be visiting colleges this fall.
Hard to believe!

We’re all really enjoying these days.  Mom’s last round of chemo went really smoothly, and she’s been feeling like herself.
It’s a relief to be well-past the treatment decision-making, so we’re in a comfortable place where we’re just ignoring the fact that she’s sick (because she sure doesn’t seem sick), and we’re all just going about our day-to-day activities and enjoying spending time together.  Speaking of which, it’s been great to be home this summer!  I get to hang out with Mom quite a bit, and we always have a good time together.  They get to watch April while Bryan, Andrew, and I go to Wichita for the weekend.
The next treatment step is radiation and continuous chemotherapy.
That starts on Monday, August 22 and runs for six weeks.  The main side-effect they warn of is fatigue, which increases over the course of the treatment.  More details when we start that adventure!

Mom finished her second round of chemotherapy on Friday (July 29).  She went into the clinic every morning for 2-4 hours of infusion.  They decreased the concentration of the chemo drugs from the first round, and that’s meant that this week the side-effects are much less debilitating than they were for round one.  She’s been experiencing some nausea and fatigue, but those effects seem quite manageable.  Mon-Wed. this week she went into the clinic for infusions of saline to help her body flush the chemo drugs and help her feel perkier.
She’s up and about and is planning on participating in our annual pilgrimage out to Jack’s house on the Wisconsin River this weekend.  I’m sure to have lots of photos from that trip sometime next week.
Mom has a break from her treatments until August 22.  Then she starts radiation in combination with continuous infusion of chemo.  That takes place daily for six weeks (through September).  More details to come on that new adventure as we get closer.  In the meantime, Mom should be feeling increasingly better.  Just in time to enjoy these last lovely weeks of pure summer.

Hello everyone.  This is Joe, Althea’s youngest brother.
Since those reading this website have recently been touched by my mother’s illness, I thought you might be the people to ask for some help.  On August 12, the American Cancer Society is holding a large fundraiser at my high school’s track.  The Relay for Life is an 18 hour event where team members walk around the track from 6 pm to noon the following day.  The community comes together to hold candle light vigils, celebrations for survivors, and other activities in memory or support of someone with cancer.  This year, I joined our National Honors Society’s Relay for Life team.  As a group, we raise money, which we then donate to the American Cancer Society.  This is where you come in.

Donations of 10 or 20 dollars would be greatly appreciated.
Checks can be made out to the American Cancer Society.  Please send whatever you’re willing to give to this address:

Joseph Babler
4575 Dennis Drive
Madison, WI 53704

For more information on Relay for Life, go to  www.cancer.org/Relayonline.

This event takes place on August 12th, and thank you in advance for your support.
~Joe Babler

Mom started her second round of chemo on Monday.  Her dosage was decreased this week, so we’re hoping that the side effects (which should really start manifesting themselves this weekend) will be less severe.  She’s going in to the clinic every morning for 2-3 hours of infusions.  Then she has a little machine she carries around with her that gives her a continuous infusion all week.

She continues to feel good this week, and after her final treatment on Friday, she has three weeks off before she begins six weeks of radiation combined with continuous infusion of the 5-FU chemo drug.  Her brother came up from Texas to visit, and they had a fun time traveling around to neighborhoods where they grew up together.  That’s the update for now!