Lori's
Journal
By Lori's Husband - Jimtorrent n gage fifa 2005
Main Page - Journal Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11torrent n gage fifa 2005
Aug. 17, 2004 Lori has begun to suffer some side effects of the chemo. She's had some nausea, got sick a couple of times, we're not sure if it's from chemo or the pain meds though. Her mouth is getting tender and she has a constant sore throat that keeps her off solid foods, she can only take in liquids like Ensure. She longs for solid food. The doctor will prescribe some medicated mouth wash if it doesn't clear up today.torrent n gage fifa 2005 She starts her second round of chemo next Monday.torrent n gage fifa 2005 ________________________________________________ Lori started her second round of chemo yesterday. Those who enjoy having hair find the side effect of losing it very difficult. It's starting to come out in strands quite a bit, she's considering cutting it all off rather than fight with cleaning up hair everywhere over the next couple of weeks. She's bought a cool hat and a wig that closely matches her own hair.torrent n gage fifa 2005 A little background on chemotherapy: There are many different chemo drugs and they each have differing side effects...and they affect people differently as well. The idea behind chemo is to stop the fast growing cancer cells from multiplying and to cause them to die off. However, to kill those cells means having to kill the good fast growing cells as well. People have fast growing cells in their mouth and throat, bone marrow and hair follicles. The method is to kill all fast growing cells then take a break, allowing the good fast growing cells (which multiply faster than cancer cells) to grow back. Then the regimen starts again until the cancer is diminished or driven into remission. The effect on fast growing cells is why some cancer patients lose their hair, get sores in their mouths as the cells die, and they tend to stay tired and become susceptible to infections as their blood count drops (red & white blood cells and platelets) from effects on their bone marrow.torrent n gage fifa 2005 Lori has yet to feel many effects of a low blood count, the Oncologist told us yesterday to expect more of them soon. They hooked her up to the 24 hour pump again yesterday, she hates trying to sleep with it and not being able to shower.torrent n gage fifa 2005 The chemo drugs are very strong, especially the Adriamycin. It's not easy convincing yourself that you want them in your body. So when she started chemo we came up with an idea to help her cope with it and to give the drugs their best fighting chance. We gave them Warner Brothers cartoon identities. The Cytoxin is Marvin the Martian, her favorite character. He goes in with his "Illudium Q36 Explosive Space Modulator" and blasts the cancer cells to oblivion. Then comes Cisplatin, or the Tasmanian Devil, he goes is spinning like a tornado and wreaking havoc on the live cancer cells. Then the 3 day regimen of Adriamycin starts, or as we call it Yosemite Sam and he comes in blasting...guns blazing and cancer cells disappearing. They are quite a trio!torrent n gage fifa 2005 Anyway, it has helped her quite a lot to think of it this way. We leave in about 15 minutes for day 2 of this round of chemo.torrent n gage fifa 2005 The doctor says there are some good signs in her recent tests.torrent n gage fifa 2005 ________________________________________________ Hurricane Frances chased us away from home as we wanted to be sure to be near a cancer center for Lori's next treatment, also both of my parents are handicapped and had to evacuate Gainesville and needed help while on the road. We traveled as a caravan along with our daughter and her boyfriend. torrent n gage fifa 2005 We received GREAT news on Monday. Last Wednesday, Lori went in for a CT scan to evaluate progress of the chemo treatments. She had a scheduled appointment with the Oncologist on Monday to go over the results. The chemo seems to be working as the tumor has been shrinking very well and is MUCH smaller!! She no longer has fluid in her lung or congestion in her liver. They are both gone!! Although the mass still compresses her main blood vessels, it is no longer distorting them, which means her blood flow is back to near normal. The Dr lowered her blood thinner to 1mg per day, down from 3mg. Her blood count (white & red blood cells, and platlets) are VERY good, near normal. The Oncologist says her tumor is near an operable stage now, they would just like to shrink it off of her arteries first, so they've ordered 1 more round of chemo after this one...making a total of four. Then they'll discuss surgery. torrent n gage fifa 2005 She's been feeling SO much better the last few days, better than she has in years. She's able to eat foods that would have sent her into a painful attack just a month ago. We are both so happy we don't know whether to cry or scream in joy, we were prepared to do cartwheels out of the doctor's office.torrent n gage fifa 2005 The hurricane evacuation was a little rough. The chemo really gives her a lot of mouth and throat pain. Middle way through each treatment, for a few days, she can only swallow liquids. Nothing solid, even the smallest solid foods are like little razors. We were in Dothan Alabama, evacuating the hurricane, and it became so bad she could not swallow her meds. The Dr called in a prescription for Miracle Mouthwash (Lidocaine, Maalox & Benadryl) and an antibiotic. It really helped her mouth, similar to using Novacaine, but did little for her throat. It all eventually healed, but now she just started her 3rd round of chemo on Monday and we expect it to be worse this time. The Dr prescribed her a new med for her mouth called "Gel Claire" and a different pain med, Oxycontin. She was getting a lot of nausea from the Morphine.torrent n gage fifa 2005 ________________________________________________torrent n gage fifa 2005 Sep. 25, 2004torrent n gage fifa 2005 Lori has had a bad week, the last chemo treatment knocked her down pretty well, she hasn't had any energy all week...she falls asleep several times during the day. And she had to deal with a stomach virus on top of that this week, which she probably caught from me.torrent n gage fifa 2005 She's spent most of the week in bed. We are starting to prepare for hurricane Jeanne, it's due here tomorrow. We've loaded up with supplies and will try to ride out the storm...her next treatment is a week away and we're hoping the clinic will be open by then and the streets cleared.torrent n gage fifa 2005 ________________________________________________ We ran into a bit of a setback yesterday. torrent n gage fifa 2005 Lori got very sick and very weak, and was unable to eat much of anything for several days which caused her to lose 12 lbs in one week. They did a blood count yesterday and her counts were very low. I took her to St Luke's hospital for a blood transfusion (platelets), and she's going in this morning for a red blood cell transfusion as well. The doc also put her on an antibiotic (just in case) and potassium tabs...her phosphorous and potassium levels are way low. They are doing tests on her blood to find what type of virus she has so they'll know how it might affect her and if it's treatable.torrent n gage fifa 2005 She is actually feeling a little better than she has in recent days. Saturday, she was so weak she was unable to get out of bed by herself.torrent n gage fifa 2005 ________________________________________________ |
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