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Lori's
Journal
By Lori's Husband - Jimxing mpeg player download free
Main Page - Journal Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11xing mpeg player download free
xing mpeg player download free
May 2, 2006 The chemo combination they started yesterday is experimental, there is even a clinical trial going on for it at a hospital here in town. She qualifies for the trial, but the problem is that in a trial you never know if they are giving you the experimental treatment or a standard treatment. So Lori's doc is giving her the experimental combination himself, of Carboplatin and Taxol (Paclitaxil), outside of the trial. There have been some positive results at MD Anderson in Houston using this combination, the trial is being done here in town to try and determine the real efficacy of it.xing mpeg player download free The main worry with using this combination is that both drugs tend to really knock down platelets and white blood cells, so used together they could be more dangerous. And Lori has had a real problem with low counts from chemo already; her bone marrow is getting delicate. There are other alternatives if this fails, one we are looking at is called Antiangiogenesis, it supposedly blocks blood flow to the cancer cells so they never grow bigger than the eye of a needle. There is a clinical trial going on for it too, but her doc says it's too experimental and the side effects are unknown, he doesn't feel we are desperate enough to try it yet, but possibly in the future if this treatment fails. One other problem is that her insurance company feels it's too experimental and won't pay for the treatment (around $30,000).xing mpeg player download free One unfortunate thing, not that the Mayo clinic isn't a great facility, but her cancer is so rare none of the docs there focus on this disease. They may see one case a year, so her oncologist is not always up on the latest advances being made in this area. We have to do some of the research ourselves, but the things he recommends are from studies being done by those who are on top of it like MD Anderson in Houston. We are considering going for a consultation to Houston or Dr Loehrer in Indiana (he's the leading authority on Thymic Carcinoma).xing mpeg player download free
Lori's blood platelets
dropped way down last week. She started chemo with over 230,000 3 weeks
ago and the other day it had dropped to only 46,000. Today's chemo was
going to be postponed until her blood count could come back up but we
went in this morning for a blood count and luckily it had rebounded
to over 100,000 so she was able to get her second round. The doc had
to reduce this dose though, so we'll see what happens. Yesterday was supposed to be Lori's last chemo treatment, but when we got to the Mayo clinic her blood counts were too low and they couldn't give it to her. Her red blood cells and her platelets were so low she had to go to the hospital for a few hours to get a blood transfusion. They'll check it again on Thursday, and if it has improved they will check it again on Monday. If it's still going well at that point she'll be able to get her last chemo treatment. She's doing well at the moment, still a bit tired so we're going to enjoy the holiday by hanging out around the house and cooking something out.xing mpeg player download free ________________________________________________ We woke up early yesterday, 5 am (after I had laid awake all night), just to arrive at the clinic and find out they had rescheduled her chemo for today. xing mpeg player download free We don't think she'll get it today though because she's still losing blood to her skin and bruising easy so apparently her platelets are still very low. And she's still feeling tired and cold so her red blood counts are probably down as well. They will likely send her for a transfusion today if her counts are down. She's been lucky so far that her white blood counts have been up or else they would consider putting her back in the hospital. She's had 10 chemo treatments so far and I think her bone marrow is having a hard time recovering from it all. It will be a long day; we'll be at the clinic or hospital from 7:30am until possibly around 5pm this evening.xing mpeg player download free _________________________________________ The chemo was a no go today, her platelets were too low. But not so low that they want to give her a transfusion so we're going to wait a week to see if it comes back on its own. If not then they probably won't be able to give her any more chemo. Guess we'll know more in a week.xing mpeg player download free _________________________________________ Lori was finally able to get chemo yesterday! Whoohoo!! We arrived at the clinic just after 7am, made a payment, then had her blood checked. They always route us to the "financial dept" first these days, I guess we still owe quite a bit but they've been paid around a half a million by our insurance company and we send them a check every month. Her red count was up nicely, white count was down but high enough to get chemo, and her platelets were at 115k which is just over the threshold of 100k for chemo. It was a long day. We arrived back home at 6:30pm after spending 11 hours at the clinic. So that takes care of the last cycle of chemo in this round. They reduced the dose by 30% so maybe it won't affect her blood counts this time. We go back in a month for a blood count check and then they will do a scan in 3 months (October I'm guessing) to see how she's doing.xing mpeg player download free _________________________________________ Our friends called today to ask if we wanted to go on a cruise with them. Lori and I celebrate our 25th anniversary in October and have always anticipated renewing our vows and doing something big for a second honeymoon, we never really got a first one. We've always talked about our 25th anniversary, ever since our first year of marriage. We considered it to be a great milestone for us. After finding out two years ago that she had cancer, that it was so rare and so advanced, we were starting to think our 25th anniversary would never come. Now, we are just a couple of months away. We always dreamed of going to Europe for our second honeymoon, I was born and grew up there and I so much want to take Lori. And after 25 years of hearing me talk about it she really wants to go, but unfortunately our finances are such that we can't afford it. There's no way we could afford to go on a cruise either, or do anything else really for a second honeymoon. Medical expenses and Lori being on disability for so long has wiped out our savings and ruined our credit. So our friends offered to buy Lori's cruise ticket, all we would need to come up with are funds for my ticket and some spending money. We ran it by our parents and they thought it was a great idea and are preparing to help raise the funds we'll need. I don't know where Lori and I would be today without our family and friends.xing mpeg player download free _________________________________________ We went to see the Oncologist yesterday, he gave Lori a thumbs up for taking the cruise, he said she needs a break and the cruise should be great for her...it's time she try and get back to living a normal life.xing mpeg player download free We got some very scary news today. The doctor has scheduled her next scan for mid-November. He says that if she shows any signs of cancer at that time we will probably move into a "management mode" of treatment, as opposed to a curative one. And they will then do their best to manage her cancer and extend her life as long as possible through chemotherapy. This was very upsetting for both of us. It means she's running out of treatment options, and after having a recurrence her chances are much greater now that she will have more recurrences. However, if she shows no signs then they will monitor her every 3 months for the next couple of years, then every 6 months until 5 years is up.xing mpeg player download free The next couple of months will be a bit hard, waiting for the scan, but we plan to relax and enjoy life as much as we can and try not to think about it too much.xing mpeg player download free __________________________________________ We are back from the 5 day cruise and we both had the time of our lives. It was a perfect way to spend an early second honeymoon. It's been a long time since I've seen Lori so happy, so full of life. We are so glad she was feeling good enough to go, and that her treatments had finished in time. It's been an incredibly difficult 2 years, filled with pain, sorrow, anxiety, anticipation, fear, depression, a roller coaster ride of emotional ups and downs. Those 5 days allowed us to get far away from it all, to get the break we so desperately needed. Whatever the future holds, the memories we created on that cruise will never be taken away.xing mpeg player download free __________________________________________ Lori and I renewed
our vows yesterday. I can't believe we finally made it, 25 years. It
was such a nice ceremony, simple and casual. We did the formal thing
back in 1981 and this time we wanted it to be casual. We had much of
our family and friends there, my dad grilled hamburgers and hotdogs
afterward for everyone. My parents rented a secluded community center
on a small lake for the event, as an anniversary present to us. It was
a great location and everyone seemed to have a really good time. Later
that night we went out on the town with some of our closest friends,
to seal the celebration. For me, it was such a relief to finally make
it to the date. After her diagnosis it was all up in the air. And these
days 25 years is a long marriage, most of our friends have either gotten
divorced or are still together (for the kids) but fight all the time.
Lori and I are the only ones I know of that get along today as well
as we did on our original wedding day. She's my best friend in this
world and I would marry her again every October for as long as she would
have me. |
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