Lori's
Journal
By Lori's Husband - JimVue Demo crack
Main Page - Journal Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11Vue Demo crack
May 22, 2005 At this point, we just sit and wait....she has a few appointments between now and July, but we won't know if she has gone completely into remission until after a CT scan is done in July. Hopefully, she can get back to her "normal" life soon. She will be on Prednisone and an anti-biotic until July, and then she hopes to get into an exercise routine after that, and to return to work soon. ________________________________________________ Lori has done very well this cycle, if she continues doing well through the next week she should be in the clear as far as chemo sickness goes. She'll get a CT scan and see the docs again next month, and then we'll know for sure what the cancer is doing.Vue Demo crack She's down to taking only 10mg of Prednisone now, she'll stay at this level until we see the lung doc again, then he'll probably take her off of it to see if the radiation pneumonitis returns. Her blood counts have been pretty good, but I think they've dropped slightly over the last couple of days. She's been developing bruising spots (probably from low platlets) and she gets tired a little easier…although we did go for a long walk yesterday and she did well.Vue Demo crack ________________________________________________Vue Demo crack
Lori had a visit with the nurse last week since the doctor is doing his time at the hospital. She said her blood work looks really good. She is still a bit anemic, so the nurse sent her for an Aranesp shot for her red blood cells. She asked the nurse if it would be possible to start doing some light exercise, like slow treadmill, yoga, tai-chi...she was concerned because her weight is picking up, but she has a rather high heart rate (about 100-120 not moving). The nurse said she would talk to the doctors and get back to us.Vue Demo crack Friday the nurse called and gave us the good news....the doctors said that would be great for her to start light exercising, but to be very careful and called in a prescription for Atenolol (a beta-blocker to slow the heart rate). She started on the treadmill right away, and she's going to get some yoga and tai-chi DVDs.Vue Demo crack ________________________________________________ Well, it's been almost a year since she was diagnosed. The protocol she is on calls for an evaluation about a year after treatment begins, she'll get a CT scan on Friday and it should tell the tale. We see the lung specialist on Friday to see if she can be taken off Prednisone, we are hoping she can. We won't see the Oncologist until the 12th of July, the lung doctor may be able to give us some info but we probably won't know the results of the scan until the 12th. On that day we expect the doctor to say either she is in remission or there is still work to do. We are so hoping that she'll be in remission, but if not we'll continue working with the Mayo Clinic to cure her, whatever it takes.Vue Demo crack ________________________________________________ OK, here's what we know so far....I think its good news for now. Vue Demo crack The pulmonary doctor said that her lungs sound clear as a bell, and that she can go ahead and stop taking the anti-biotic and that she could start taking just a half (5 mgs) of Prednisone everyday for the next two weeks, then she can stop taking them - as long as she has no problems with shortness of breath or fever.Vue Demo crack He said the CT scan showed all the "cloudiness" that was in her lungs is gone, so she is celebrating getting off those meds for now. Vue Demo crack ________________________________________________ Today is the big day and I suppose we'll know the scoop by about 10am. It's been such a long year. This time last year she was in so much pain that it was very rare to see her want to do anything. But today she is happy and full of life again, doing the things she loves to do.Vue Demo crack We've been preparing ourselves for whatever the doc has to say. Of course, we would give anything for him to say she is in remission, and if he does we will be celebrating for years to come...but if by chance she is not yet in remission, then we will continue to battle the beast with traditional treatments and begin looking into alternative treatments as well.Vue Demo crack ________________________________________________ We're back from the clinic, and as always seems to be the case, the results are a bit mixed. The latest CT scan shows that the mass is slightly larger than the last time, but the oncologist said he was not impressed by that because she has a lot of scar tissue and it could just be some inflammation...which stands to reason, she was on high doses of Prednisone during the last scan which reduced the inflammation. She is on a much smaller dose now so the increase in size could possibly be inflammation.Vue Demo crack He's unable to tell us at this point whether the scar tissue is completely dead or whether it still contains live cancer cells, only time will tell. I asked what it would take for him to tell her she is in remission; he said "lots of time". Because he believes the mass may have been a very slow growing one, if there is no growth for 5 years he'll declare her in remission.Vue Demo crack So, for now, we have decided to assume she IS in remission until we hear otherwise.Vue Demo crack She has to go once a month to have her port flushed. She'll probably keep her port installed for the next 5 years. She will have to get a CT scan every 3 months for at least the next 3 years as well as a PET scan on her next visit. The PET scan will scan her entire body for cancer cells. Then she'll start getting CT scans every 6 months, and if all still goes well she'll only have to go once a year.Vue Demo crack She can go back to work and return to her normal lifestyle now with the exception that she stills needs to be very conscious of viral infections, mainly because of the scar tissue and the possibility that it could trigger the radiation pneumonitis to return.Vue Demo crack We are taking it all as great news. When she started treatment she only had a 50/50 chance that it would even work.Vue Demo crack She is still trying to contact her boss who has failed to return the last 3 calls Lori has made to her. We received a letter the other day saying if she didn't return to work by July 22 she would be terminated. She plans to return to work on Monday the 18th, so hopefully she still has a job, guess we'll know shortly.Vue Demo crack ________________________________________________ Today is the long awaited day, as well as our anniversary. Lori will get lots of tests done and tomorrow we'll get the results. These tests will determine whether she still needs more treatment.Vue Demo crack ________________________________________________ The PET scan (which was miserable for her) was negative for cancer cells YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!! The CT scan showed no change and what it did show is either a swollen lymph node or scar tissue. Either way, no change is a lot better news than if its size had increased. Vue Demo crack In short, she has the all clear to proceed with normal activities. It's late so I'll write more after celebrations slow down.Vue Demo crack ________________________________________________ Today is Lori's birthday and we are in FULL celebration mode!Vue Demo crack What a HUGE relief!! We were anticipating her test results day with a lot of mixed feelings. The surgery wasn't as successful as we'd hoped, leaving a lot of residual cancer cells. That has always been in the back of our minds since her type of cancer is pretty hard to beat, so as much as we looked forward to finding out whether the treatments were working, we were dreading it as well. The news could not have been much better and I was in tears before we even got out of the doctors office.Vue Demo crack On Friday they drew 8 vials of blood, enough to test just about everything I guess. On Monday, they did an echocardiogram to check her heart, a CT scan and a PET scan (which checks the entire body for live cancer cells). On Tuesday we went in to get the results.Vue Demo crack The doc came in, picked up some charts and said "everything looks good". We weren't quite sure what he meant by that, assuming that he must be talking about her blood counts. Then he picked up another chart and said the magic words "the PET Scan came out negative". We looked at each other in disbelief. Did he just say it was negative? No live cancer cells were found in her body???Vue Demo crack He went on to say that the CT scan had not changed over the three month period; the masses that were left had not grown. There was still one swollen lymph node near the center of her chest, but it too had not changed since the last scan. He said he believes the mass is scar tissue but is not sure why the lymph node is swollen. She is slightly anemic, but that runs in her family, she has always been slightly anemic. He did find some enzymes in her liver and said it was either from a change in meds (which there has been none) or Hepatitis A. He asked if we go out to eat a lot, we do about 3 times a week, and if we ate salads. Lori has been eating more salads when we go out, trying to eat healthier. He said getting Hepatitis A from poorly washed lettuce is pretty common and will test her again soon to see if that is the problem.Vue Demo crack As you can probably imagine we were in highly elevated spirits when we left the clinic. My parents were in the waiting room to hear the news. I could hardly compose my voice enough to get it out. We all went out to eat and celebrated. I spent all of that night making reservations and getting things lined up for a few days of fun in the sun down in Orlando.Vue Demo crack We went down and the weather was perfect the whole time we were there. We went to Universal Theme Park and Islands of Adventure, a very costly attraction with not enough to offer in our belated opinion. But we had a lot of fun nonetheless. I nearly got sick, ever since I spun for hours in my front yard at 7 years old I've become very affected by motion sickness, it mainly happens when my eyes see one thing but my body feels something different, like trying to read while riding in a car. We mistakenly got on the "Back to the Future Ride", two more minutes of that ride and I'd have spilled lunch all over those in the front seat of the DeLorean. My equilibrium was off for the rest of that day and most of the next. Every ride we came to warned those affected by motion sickness, so we spent the rest of the day sightseeing around the park. I felt bad for Lori because she can handle the rides but didn't want to go without me, and there was no way I could go. We lounged around the next day hanging out at a park near where I used to live some 35 years ago and had a very nice dinner with her dad's family where they showered Lori with presents.Vue Demo crack It's been a great
week, celebrating our 24th anniversary, getting the best possible news,
vacationing, and now celebrating Lori's birthday and the huge Florida/Georgia
Day football celebration that turns this town into the biggest outdoor
cocktail party in the world. What a week!! |
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This story was originally posted on April 5, 2007. Email lorijimh at comcast.net
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