Kris, Dave and the lumps: Chemo #3, week 3

Sorry for being remiss... to catch up:

Thursday, 26-June-2008:
Saw a new PA for Dr. Moran. Since Kris' hands are still a bit red and certainly sore, not to mention that she's only mostly regular, the decision was to not restart Xeloda. Of more concern was the fact that her white blood cell count was down to about 500. Somewhere in the ballpark of 10,000 is normal. Based on that, her temperature being about 95.7 and the fact that the port wound still hasn't closed, they put her on another antibiotic course (Levaquin this time). We will see them again next Tuesday (July 1st) and get an update at that point. Based on the timing, we don't expect to do Xeloda at all during this cycle.

Friday, 27-June-2008:
Kris went and saw the surgeons PA for her wound again... as before, they were rather ho-hum about it as there really isn't anything they can do but watch and react if she gets an infection... so, we will see them again in two weeks... since the following Friday is the 4th.

Kris' spirits are more 'up' than they have been. The Xeloda is really that taxing for her and being off of it is really that much of a relief.

Kris, Dave and the Lumps: Chemo #3, week 2

Ok, I've been a slugabed and haven't posted. Here's my chance to catch up.

Friday 23-June-2008
Kris went to see the Surgeon and got the expected news: yep, still needs to heal, looks pretty good otherwise, see you next week.

Sunday 25-June-2008
I was still being a slugabed so Kris went to the store and when she got home she was bringing in the groceries... why is this significant? Up until now she would make me bring them in as carrying in the bags hurt her hands. Her hands still hurt, btw, but, are markedly better and not nearly as red (though stil not quite the right color). Oh... we've noted that her hair has stopped falling out and we're thinking it's because we stopped the Xeloda... while it could be argued that we were a bit premature in getting a buzz, I'd argue that it's still better than mourning each and every lost hair on her pillow, on her shoulders, in various drains... in the car... on the cats... and generally everywhere you can think of. Bonus: she looks great. :)

Kris, Dave and the Lumps: Chemo #3, first week...

Generally speaking, the past week has been an improvement. Kris was able
to eat real food. We've not only gotten her a burger, but, we went out for
dinner on two occasions and she's been able to eat a wider variety of foods
without 'dire' consequences. Not out of the woods yet, her hands are still
a bit red and, oddly, her feet and hands are more sore now than they were
when we first stopped the Xeloda. Somewhere over the weekend, Kris noted
that the skin of her fingers is peeling, we're confident that this is a
side effect of the Xeloda.

Tuesday 17-June-2008
Saw Dr. Moran prior to Kris infusion of Taxotere and Herceptin. He wants
us to stay off of Xeloda for one more week. We'll see an assistant, as
he'll be away from the office, next week. Unfortunately, the best
appointment we could get was Thursday. Infusion went without incident.

Wednesday 18-June-2008
Taxotere and Herceptin are kicking in. She didn't sleep well but, she's in
good spirits. Hands and feet still sore and a bit red.

Thursday 19-June-2008
Kris slept well, which is always good, but, the Taxotere has her feeling
like she's got a cold. No real fever but, achy and run down.

Spirits are good... amazing what a good meal can do on that front. Note
that I haven't been able to switch over to the blog yet... we have an
appointment with Dr Jones tomorrow and I hope to make note of that in the
Blog. If I can transition to making daily comments there, then I will make
comments on this list at something like weekly intervals (much like it is
now) but, it may well be longer intervals. Oh, I'm getting a lot of
comments and updates by anonymous... which is fine. I understand all too
well wanting to not sign up for yet more spam. For the record, I've gotten
no new influx of spam that I can associate with blogger.com. Having said
that, those who want to remain anonymous to the web site, it would be nice
if you put some form of name or moniker in the post so that I can figure
out who said it. Truly this isn't important but, it'd be nice. :)

Many thanks again for all the well wishes!

Kris, Dave and the Lumps: BRAT diet... what is that?

Ok, got a couple of questions on the BRAT diet and reviewed my notes... as
an example of missing details, I thought I'd given the definition on the
June 4th update but did not. Michelle had prescribed a BRAT diet to help
Kris get regular and here is what it is:

BRAT = Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast

Makes for a boring, bland diet. The foods are considered constipatory or
anti-diarrheal. Since they are simple foods, they tend to also reduce
nausea affects. This is a diet that you usually see prescribed for
children but, works fine for adults too... so, many of you probably already
know this diet if you have kids, just not necessarily by the name 'BRAT'...
and now you know why Kris is desperate for something more substantial to
eat.

This should answer the question "is this some sort of Chicago diet
consisting of Brats and Beer?" :)

Kris, Dave and the Lumps: End of Chemo round 2

First a newsflash, I've started a rudimentary blog which likely won't get
any less rudimentary but, will have more content as time goes on. The URL
for the blog is: http://krisanddavehart.blogspot.com/ feel free to go there
and post comments. My hope with the blog is that I will get in the habit
of using it like a kind of journal, posting on a near daily basis my
observations of what's going on. This will lend itself to more accuracy
versus the current method. What is the current method you ask? Well,
since I don't want to hit folks with daily emails, I wait a few days,
nearly a week, and then try to remember what happened nearly a week ago,
usually getting the facts right from a high level point of view, but, not
quite right. This way, I can post on a daily basis to the blog, and then
post to this list once a week. For this note, I have it set up in revers,
one of the recipients of this email is the blog in question which should
automatically post this very note as the inaugural message.

Thursday, 5-June-2008
Got home and Kris was asleep... what y'all don't know is that Kris is a
very light sleeper so this worried me. Turns out she wasn't feeling good
(mostly nausea) so she took a Adavan, which is a variation on Valium, which
basically knocked her out... the downside is that she felt the need to take
it, the upside is that she got lots of rest for taking the Adavan.

Friday, 6-June-2008
Went to see the Surgeon. The wound is no better, no worse: his
observation. Which, considering we are going through chemotherapy is not
bad. So, we'll see him again next Friday. Kris is doing ok but, her hands
are still a bit pink.

Saturday, 7-June-2008
Felt good enough to go out for... Chicken Noodle soup at Perkins. Odd what
you can get excited about. Went to the store afterwords to pick up some
supplies and Kris got cold... very cold... and disoriented, while we were
in the store. We're still not sure what happened, but, we hurried home and
got her warmed up. It was in the 70s out, and we drove home with the seat
heater on and the car heater on high! Hands are still pink but, again
not... really... sore. One thing of note is that her face feels, in her
words, sunburnt. Kris has been applying moisturizer to her skin three
times a day to combat the problems brought on by the Xeloda. When she put
moisturizer on her face, it 'stung' like it was a sun burn... and trust me,
she's not been in the sun!

Sunday, 8-June-2008
Kris took her last dose of Antibiotics today and was feeling quite a bit
better... good enough that she had a Microwave dinner: chicken and rice!
What a treat (yes, she's very bored with what she can eat). Note that all
of this time she's still not... well, regular, but, things seem to be
improving on that... um... end (pun unintended, but, kind of unavoidable).
Hands are red... and a bit more sore. We are concerned but since she's
only got one more day of Xeloda, decided to watch and wait.

Monday, 9-June-2008
Feeling good enough for Chicken and Rice, this time home made... did not go
over well. Not sure why the other went over ok. Good news is that Monday
night was Kris' last dose of Xeloda for this round.

Tuesday, 10-June-2008
Saw Dr. Moran today and he said that we are going to stop the Xeloda for
now. Kris' hands were red today... really red. However, they are still
not as red as the Friday when she couldn't open a car door for the pain in
her hands. Again, they are not as sore as before either. She's also had
diarrhea pretty much the whole time of her chemotherapy this round... even
including the time she was on the BRAT diet. Dr. Moran wants us to be off
of the Xeloda until she is regular and her skin is cleared up. Once she's
recovered, then he'll put her back on Xeloda but, we'll do it in reverse of
the norm: start low, and work our way up to tolerance. Because of this:
Kris is looking forward to a big juicy burger come Friday... or something
with lots of flavor and comfort. :)

Test for Kris, Dave and the Lumps

This is a test of a new blog site for me to post updates on my wifes progress with her Breast Cancer... if I like it, it might grow into more.