2009-Oct-9 Friday
Went down to Boulder, by way of the Original Pancake House, for chemotherapy. We also stopped by the book store to pick up some Sudoku books. Ours were getting old and we've made friends with a gal, I think her name is Edina, who was interested in Sudoku but we didn't have anything but my iTouch to demonstrate/teach it on and she does not like the iTouch interface.
When we got there I asked if it was ok if I stuck around. I caught some weird sort of cold about the time of the last Chemotherapy session. Just a tickle in the back of my nose, then a bonafide sore throat but, it wasn't very sore at all. Finally it moved back into my sinuses as 'pressure' but not true blockage. Now it's migrated into my chest for vacation and apparently it's enjoying the place 'cause I can't seem to shake it. No fever, no chills, no aches, nothing but this 'pressure' and a cough for trying to clear my lungs. I've been very concerned about passing this to Kris and thus have gone well above and beyond the call of duty trying to NOT spread it. Kris did complain about a mildly sore throat but she must've beaten it back since she got no other symptoms
So, we headed back to the infusion room where they gave her the anti-nausea medicine in a drip to avoid giving her nausea like it did last time. Yes, that is the definition of Irony. We settled in and played Cribbage throughout the day. Unlike normal, we managed to spill the cards twice and the cribbage board three times... this is a record for us! The most spectacular of which happened when Kris dropped a card down in her chart... now these are comfortable chairs but, they are on the cheap so the space between the arm and cushion goes straight through. We've dropped cards down that way several times and the cards have always appeared on the floor below that side of the chair. Imagine our surprise when she dropped and ace and nothing showed up! I got down on the floor to look as close as I could... no card. While I wasn't watching, Kris, IV tube and all, got down on the floor to look with me. I stood up, saw her craning her neck laying on the ground with an IV tube reaching up to the IV pump and said 'something is wrong with the picture of you laying on the ground searching for cards while getting Chemotherapy.' Just at that point, one of the nurses walked up with a panicked look at which point Kris broke out into peels of laughter at the situation! So, we all had a good laugh (including the other patients).
The short of it is that the infusion was uneventful. Now we have to weather the next 4 days of achiness and pain as the drugs work their magic.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Kris, Dave and the Lumps: Round three, Chemo #2
2009-Sep-17, Thursday
Kris' scalp/hair has been more and more irritated as time goes on. We discussed cutting her hair off in the near future, sometime fairly soon after Chemo Friday.
2009-Sep-18, Friday
Chemo. Appointment is 1045 and will take about 6 hours, so we got breakfast at the Original Pancake House then headed out to the clinic. Kris' I & R is 2.4 which is perfect so we're leaving her Warfarin dosage alone. Met an interesting soul at the clinic during infusion who likes Irish folk, as well as other more eclectic music, as much as we do. One point of note is that the nurse 'pushed' one of the anti-nausea drugs rather than administering it by drip. Ironically this has the effect of making Kris quite nauseous as it was too rapid a delivery. Other than this, things went quite a bit better this time than last time.
2009-Sep-19, Saturday
Kris decided that we'd do the buzz today. This time we handled it ourselves. Took us a bit to get our clippers to work the way we wanted, and we decided to go so far as to shave but, in the end everything looks great! Yes, that's right, I have no problems at all with bald women. :)
2009-Sep-20, Sunday
Towards the afternoon, Kris began feeling a bit run down. This is early but in keeping with normal Chemo reactions.
2009-Sep-21, Monday
Kris is still run down and starting to feel achy. Enough that she waited long enough to take the Darvocet she has for pain. Other than this her spirit is up and she even worked a bit today. Note: I am very appreciative of her work support structure for helping her through times like these. I can't go into detail but her manager, among others, have done a lot to help Kris work through this with minimal stress and I wanted to say thank you to those co-workers for doing so.
Kris' scalp/hair has been more and more irritated as time goes on. We discussed cutting her hair off in the near future, sometime fairly soon after Chemo Friday.
2009-Sep-18, Friday
Chemo. Appointment is 1045 and will take about 6 hours, so we got breakfast at the Original Pancake House then headed out to the clinic. Kris' I & R is 2.4 which is perfect so we're leaving her Warfarin dosage alone. Met an interesting soul at the clinic during infusion who likes Irish folk, as well as other more eclectic music, as much as we do. One point of note is that the nurse 'pushed' one of the anti-nausea drugs rather than administering it by drip. Ironically this has the effect of making Kris quite nauseous as it was too rapid a delivery. Other than this, things went quite a bit better this time than last time.
2009-Sep-19, Saturday
Kris decided that we'd do the buzz today. This time we handled it ourselves. Took us a bit to get our clippers to work the way we wanted, and we decided to go so far as to shave but, in the end everything looks great! Yes, that's right, I have no problems at all with bald women. :)
2009-Sep-20, Sunday
Towards the afternoon, Kris began feeling a bit run down. This is early but in keeping with normal Chemo reactions.
2009-Sep-21, Monday
Kris is still run down and starting to feel achy. Enough that she waited long enough to take the Darvocet she has for pain. Other than this her spirit is up and she even worked a bit today. Note: I am very appreciative of her work support structure for helping her through times like these. I can't go into detail but her manager, among others, have done a lot to help Kris work through this with minimal stress and I wanted to say thank you to those co-workers for doing so.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Kris, Dave and the Lumps: Round 3, Followup with Dr. Moran for Chemo #1
2009-Sep-8, Tuesday
Met with Dr. Moran. We catalogued the issues we saw with the first round of Chemo: Headache and tiredness the day of, Achy (pain) and run down 3-5 days later, buzzing in fingertips, white tongue 2 days later (Kris noticed this because she had an odd taste in her mouth, when she looked in the mirror, her tongue was sort of 'white' and she was able to brush off what was apparently dead skin), and most recently some minor sores on her tongue. For the sores he gave us a prescription for a mouth wash that helps with them. He said that for the achiness 3-5 days after the infusion, it was ok for her to take the Darvocet she was prescribed for pain after surgery. The rest is pretty much expected or understood (the problems the day of we think were just heat from sitting directly in the sunlight from the window during the 6 hour infusion). Kris' I&R was 3.0 today after they adjusted the dose to 3.5 mg of Warfarin each day. He wants her to go back to 3 mg each day to try and titrate it back to 2-ish (it was 1.4 the last time). Long and short is that things are proceeding nicely, or at least 'as expected' and we will just keep on keeping on.
Met with Dr. Moran. We catalogued the issues we saw with the first round of Chemo: Headache and tiredness the day of, Achy (pain) and run down 3-5 days later, buzzing in fingertips, white tongue 2 days later (Kris noticed this because she had an odd taste in her mouth, when she looked in the mirror, her tongue was sort of 'white' and she was able to brush off what was apparently dead skin), and most recently some minor sores on her tongue. For the sores he gave us a prescription for a mouth wash that helps with them. He said that for the achiness 3-5 days after the infusion, it was ok for her to take the Darvocet she was prescribed for pain after surgery. The rest is pretty much expected or understood (the problems the day of we think were just heat from sitting directly in the sunlight from the window during the 6 hour infusion). Kris' I&R was 3.0 today after they adjusted the dose to 3.5 mg of Warfarin each day. He wants her to go back to 3 mg each day to try and titrate it back to 2-ish (it was 1.4 the last time). Long and short is that things are proceeding nicely, or at least 'as expected' and we will just keep on keeping on.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Kris, Dave and the Lumps: Round 3, post Chemo 1
2009-Aug-31, Monday
Kris was back at work and things were ok over the weekend. However, towards the end of the day she started feeling achy, rundown and had a headache. Her chemotherapy drugs do advertise that you may get flu like symptoms about 3 days after the infusion so, this was expected, though not this late.
2009-Sep-1, Tuesday
Achy and rundown feelings are worse and she can barely wait long enough to take her Tylenol for her headaches. She's only allowed the Tylenol as the other medicines thin blood and she's on blood thinners for her port. When she went to bed, she decided to take a Darvocet left over from her surgery to help with the pain and allow her to sleep.
2009-Sep-2, Wednesday
Pain is still there but much reduced. She was not nearly as... closed is the best description I can give. That look folks get when they are in pain and trying to function, brow furrowed, etc. She was in brighter spirits and able to go longer without the Tylenol. Looks like we are on the mend.
Dave Hart
BCRS support for pSeries and iSeries
Dept. HJ3A
Nextel Mobile: 303-472-8826
Anything might be accomplished with the will to do so . . .
. . . nothing will be accomplished without it.
A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking - Anon
...or where you ran out of options - K. Carson 1999
"...the blank sheets are IBM property, but they do serve the purpose of keeping execs busy trying to understand them." - Kilroy
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Kris, Dave and the Lumps: Round 3, Chemo #1
2009-Aug-28, Friday
Went in for Chemo, 10 am Appointment. Saw Dr. Moran and he upped our dosage of blood thinners as Kris was at a 1.4 where they want her at a about a 2 for I and R (clotting factor).
When we got to an infusion station, the nurse asked us if we know about the ins and outs of the drugs we were to receive: Avastin and Ixempra. Kris explained that one worked in a similar fashion as Herceptin and the other worked similar to Taxotere. The nurse indicated that was all wrong and went off to get paperwork and a consent form. She came back with paperwork saying that Avastin attacks blood cells that 'feed' a tumor. This causes the tumor to, essentially, starve and die. It's a targeted therapy and thus the nurse had a better understanding of why Dr. Moran described it as being 'like' Herceptin since Herceptin is a targeted therapy. Ixempra is not a targeted therapy and has the side effects we don't want: hair loss, sensitivity in hands and feet, sores can show up in the mouth, headaches, etc. It is also in the same family of drugs as Taxotere and the side effects put it in a similar enough category that the nurse again understood why Dr. Moran described it as similar to Taxotere (score two for Kris!).
The one big surprise was that the infusion took something less than 6 hours. We didn't leave until 4 pm. Now, we did expect the first infusion to be slow since they like to monitor for allergic reactions but, this seemed a long time to us.
While there Kris talked with a gentleman who has reoccurring Lymphoma. The treatment is a protein which feeds the Lymphoma. The twist is that they give him a protein from mice, twice a year. The cancer jumps on, and eats, this protein like a cat jumping on a saucer of fresh cream. However, once the cancer eats this protein the body rejects the cancer as it's now got appearances of being from a mouse!
We also saw a young man, about 17 give or take a year, who was being treated with Gemzar which we recognized as a cancer drug Kris had used in Round 1. Not sure what he has but it was sad to see someone so young with cancer. That said, he looked to be quite fit and was well supported by what looked like a father and girl friend (sisters just aren't that affectionate... or at least, I hope they are normally not that affectionate). Because of this, I don't doubt he will recovery quickly and do well in the long run!
After the treatment we were suitably hungry. Oh, I should note that early in the treatment Kris was cold (even before the infusion started). So, I grabbed a couple of blankets for her. She cast them off as the sun Westered since the center is a room with one wall of glass facing the mountains and the room got to be quite warm. When we left, it was 90 degrees outside. As we were heading to the restaurant we'd chosen, she complained of being achy (one of the side effects) but, it seemed to her to be far too early for side effects. She decided that maybe it was the heat. So, we headed home instead. Oddly, she felt better as we were driving home and other than being a bit tired, she seems fine.
Next appointment is Monday with the Surgeon in follow up of the Port installation. Then it's Dr. Moran a week from this coming Tuesday. And three weeks from now for the next Chemo treatment.
Went in for Chemo, 10 am Appointment. Saw Dr. Moran and he upped our dosage of blood thinners as Kris was at a 1.4 where they want her at a about a 2 for I and R (clotting factor).
When we got to an infusion station, the nurse asked us if we know about the ins and outs of the drugs we were to receive: Avastin and Ixempra. Kris explained that one worked in a similar fashion as Herceptin and the other worked similar to Taxotere. The nurse indicated that was all wrong and went off to get paperwork and a consent form. She came back with paperwork saying that Avastin attacks blood cells that 'feed' a tumor. This causes the tumor to, essentially, starve and die. It's a targeted therapy and thus the nurse had a better understanding of why Dr. Moran described it as being 'like' Herceptin since Herceptin is a targeted therapy. Ixempra is not a targeted therapy and has the side effects we don't want: hair loss, sensitivity in hands and feet, sores can show up in the mouth, headaches, etc. It is also in the same family of drugs as Taxotere and the side effects put it in a similar enough category that the nurse again understood why Dr. Moran described it as similar to Taxotere (score two for Kris!).
The one big surprise was that the infusion took something less than 6 hours. We didn't leave until 4 pm. Now, we did expect the first infusion to be slow since they like to monitor for allergic reactions but, this seemed a long time to us.
While there Kris talked with a gentleman who has reoccurring Lymphoma. The treatment is a protein which feeds the Lymphoma. The twist is that they give him a protein from mice, twice a year. The cancer jumps on, and eats, this protein like a cat jumping on a saucer of fresh cream. However, once the cancer eats this protein the body rejects the cancer as it's now got appearances of being from a mouse!
We also saw a young man, about 17 give or take a year, who was being treated with Gemzar which we recognized as a cancer drug Kris had used in Round 1. Not sure what he has but it was sad to see someone so young with cancer. That said, he looked to be quite fit and was well supported by what looked like a father and girl friend (sisters just aren't that affectionate... or at least, I hope they are normally not that affectionate). Because of this, I don't doubt he will recovery quickly and do well in the long run!
After the treatment we were suitably hungry. Oh, I should note that early in the treatment Kris was cold (even before the infusion started). So, I grabbed a couple of blankets for her. She cast them off as the sun Westered since the center is a room with one wall of glass facing the mountains and the room got to be quite warm. When we left, it was 90 degrees outside. As we were heading to the restaurant we'd chosen, she complained of being achy (one of the side effects) but, it seemed to her to be far too early for side effects. She decided that maybe it was the heat. So, we headed home instead. Oddly, she felt better as we were driving home and other than being a bit tired, she seems fine.
Next appointment is Monday with the Surgeon in follow up of the Port installation. Then it's Dr. Moran a week from this coming Tuesday. And three weeks from now for the next Chemo treatment.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Kris, Dave and the Lumps: Port installation #3
Friday, 14-August-2009
On Tuesday Kris pointed out that she had a very minor infection on one of her fingers. Dr. Moran hemmed and hawed over it and decided to write out a prescription for antibiotics. If the infection didn't go away Thursday, fill it and start it. So, Friday... we filled it and started the course of Anti-B's. In no small part because we had surgery coming up and figured it'd be a good idea to be on them prior to the surgery.
Monday, 17-August-2009
We took Kris in at 10 AM for the surgery to install her newest port for the Chemo Therapy and everything was quite boring, which in surgery speak means things went incredibly well!
Tuesday, 18-August-2009
Kris is doing well. Well enough to do some work which made her a wee bit tired so she knocked off a little bit early... it's not like she'd had surgery recently or anything. Things seem peachy though. Now it's time to heal up from the surgery and wait until Chemo on the 28th.
On Tuesday Kris pointed out that she had a very minor infection on one of her fingers. Dr. Moran hemmed and hawed over it and decided to write out a prescription for antibiotics. If the infection didn't go away Thursday, fill it and start it. So, Friday... we filled it and started the course of Anti-B's. In no small part because we had surgery coming up and figured it'd be a good idea to be on them prior to the surgery.
Monday, 17-August-2009
We took Kris in at 10 AM for the surgery to install her newest port for the Chemo Therapy and everything was quite boring, which in surgery speak means things went incredibly well!
Tuesday, 18-August-2009
Kris is doing well. Well enough to do some work which made her a wee bit tired so she knocked off a little bit early... it's not like she'd had surgery recently or anything. Things seem peachy though. Now it's time to heal up from the surgery and wait until Chemo on the 28th.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Kris, Dave and the Lumps: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Prequel:
Kris saw Dr. Jones last Thursday as a follow up to her biopsy surgery... he was 'ho hum' about things as her recovery from the surgery is going fine.
The Good:
Saw Dr. Moran (Oncologist) yesterday afternoon. Once again he was... guarded but, in my opinion, not as much as last time. The thing I was most worried about was the brain scan as it had implications I didn't even want to consider. Dr. Moran talked about everything throughout the conversation except the Brain scan... finally, at the end, I asked him if his lack of talk about the Brain scan meant that it was clear and he confirmed that there was nothing on the Brain scan... well, there was evidence of the usual stuff, just nothing tumor like.
The Bad:
He's decided on two drugs. One was Avastin and he described this drug as being about as difficult to tolerate as the Herceptin, which Kris took totally in stride. The other is in the Taxol/Taxotere family of drugs and it will mean that she will lose her hair, again. She's decided she's only allowed to have hair about 2" in length! :) The down side is that this means she'll have to have another port installed. This will happen in the next two weeks followed fairly immediately by her first treatment.
The Ugly:
To be honest, the Ugly we already know about. It's what we don't know. Basically the cancer is being more tenacious than we'd all like and we are, to a certain extent, shooting in the dark. They don't have a tumor to aim at, and thus they don't have a lot of material to experiment with to come up with a good solid plan of attack. The current plan is to basically hit the system with the options we have left in hopes that it will kill the cancer. The only other option is to just sit back and wait for it to express itself in another tumor. Which runs the very real risk of waiting for it to metastasize, which it has not done. I asked and he agreed that it's entirely possible that the Herceptin was keeping the cancer at bay but, it's obviously not killing it so he doesn't seem to be enthused about using that drug again.
Kris saw Dr. Jones last Thursday as a follow up to her biopsy surgery... he was 'ho hum' about things as her recovery from the surgery is going fine.
The Good:
Saw Dr. Moran (Oncologist) yesterday afternoon. Once again he was... guarded but, in my opinion, not as much as last time. The thing I was most worried about was the brain scan as it had implications I didn't even want to consider. Dr. Moran talked about everything throughout the conversation except the Brain scan... finally, at the end, I asked him if his lack of talk about the Brain scan meant that it was clear and he confirmed that there was nothing on the Brain scan... well, there was evidence of the usual stuff, just nothing tumor like.
The Bad:
He's decided on two drugs. One was Avastin and he described this drug as being about as difficult to tolerate as the Herceptin, which Kris took totally in stride. The other is in the Taxol/Taxotere family of drugs and it will mean that she will lose her hair, again. She's decided she's only allowed to have hair about 2" in length! :) The down side is that this means she'll have to have another port installed. This will happen in the next two weeks followed fairly immediately by her first treatment.
The Ugly:
To be honest, the Ugly we already know about. It's what we don't know. Basically the cancer is being more tenacious than we'd all like and we are, to a certain extent, shooting in the dark. They don't have a tumor to aim at, and thus they don't have a lot of material to experiment with to come up with a good solid plan of attack. The current plan is to basically hit the system with the options we have left in hopes that it will kill the cancer. The only other option is to just sit back and wait for it to express itself in another tumor. Which runs the very real risk of waiting for it to metastasize, which it has not done. I asked and he agreed that it's entirely possible that the Herceptin was keeping the cancer at bay but, it's obviously not killing it so he doesn't seem to be enthused about using that drug again.
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