First missed Chemo

Well, mom went in to get her chemo treatment today only to find out that her blood counts, specifically her white cell count, were too low for her to receive any chemo. They made an appointment for next week to get her next chemo, with four more to go before she gets her next PET scan. They said not too worry because most patients cell counts do drop low from time to time during treatment. What has surprised them is that her cell counts have stayed high for so long, most patients do not make it this far without having skipped a treatment. So, on the bright side it is good she has done as well as she has thus far.
Also, she was told that her blood labs have shown a consistent downward trend in her tumor marking blood level. This is great news and also very optimistic news to know that her body is fighting the cancer and trying to work with the chemo at the same time. We are very optimistic and trying to stay positive as usual. Mom is always in our prayers and looks forward every day to visitors and friends to come by. Mom as usual has good days and days that are aren't her best, but she still stays her positive self throughout most of the trials.
We continue forward on this journey trying to give love, help and support to mom as we go forward with her.

GREAT NEWS!!!

Well, we officially got the news today that moms PET scan showed that her cancer was decreasing in size/number. Mom went in yesterday for her second PET scan to look and see at where her cancer was at after five chemo treatments and she met today with the doctors to discuss the results. Natalie was able to be at the appointment with mom and hear the great news for herself. Natalie said that the nurse, Pam, who reguarly works with Dr.Ward, came in the room and said, "so are you ready to do the Happy Dance," boy are we! These have been some tough five weeks, not only dealing with all the side effects the chemo causes, but also mentally not knowing if the chemo was even helping to get rid of the cancer.
Mom of course was so happy, just like the rest of us. She is making so much progress in the past month. Her weight is trying to stabilize and she is making more effort to eat by mouth and use her feeding tube less and less. She is looking better also. Her hair hasn't fallen out and from what the nurses are telling us it most likely won't with her type of chemo treatments, it just gets really thin.
We wanted to thank all of the family and friends who have been able to come by and visit mom during the past five weeks. Her brother Allen has been able to fly out twice to spend time with her...and it has been so nice for mom to have family and get some more support.

Lets keep up the progress.

Hopeful News

Hello All,

Well Mom has been in for a total of four chemo treatments and has battled through all of them. As with most Cancer patients who are under-going chemo treatments she fights with the unwanted side effects..the nausea, vomitting and diarrhea that are never ending for a good 4-5 days after the session. Mom is doing well and has even started eating a little more, even though it is a battle many times to get her to eat (she has lost nearly 40 lbs now), but the tube feedings have been a saving grace for her.
Mom was able to have a port device surgically placed a few weeks ago which is how she will receive her chemo treatments from her on out. Her last visit to the doctors showed her blood lab values were so good that the physician extended her PET scan for another 8 weeks and said that her chemo treatments were now going to go for another 6 months. I know that mom was not very happy about having chemo treatments for so long, but very optimistic that the physician said 'it looks like you are reacting well to the chemo and making progress.' We too were excited to hear the news that she was doing well.
I know that more chemo sessions isn't something that sounds fun, but if the chemo is killing the cancer and your body is dealing with it well and you are able to gain more years of your life then the trade off is minimal. Mom is still fighting and will continue throught the summer, we just hope she will continue to get well enough to get out and going on some trips with us.

Tiers

Two Chemo treatments behind us

Last week was moms second chemo treatment and it went much better than the first. Her side effects seemed to be a bit more controlled than last time and her mouth sores were not as over-whelming this time. She is still pushing through each day and trying to overcome her health set backs. We as the family members have been so thankful for wonderful friends who have come over to offer their time and services to sit with mom and give us a break and help brighten up the day for mom. New faces are always nice to help over come the same old routines.

Another appointment behind us

Thanks to great help from Mindy and Brett today, Mom was able to have two people with her for the follow up surgical appointment. We've been having numerous problems with her feeding tube leaking this past week and the problem was hopefully going to be resolved today by taking it out and inserting a new one. It looks like the old feeding tube had a leak which didn't allow the tube to completely seal to the side of her intestines causing a lot of leaking problems for Her and us. We were also able to address some more of the infection which had become localized in what seemed to be an abscess located right next to her feeding tube. The physician was able to drain it and treat it right there. Mom still isn't able to take in large amounts of food through her mouth, so until she can do that, the feeding tube needs to stay in. But believe you me, we are fighting tooth and nail to force more food in her. We use to give her a hard time about how much tarter sauce she would put on her salmon or the copious amounts of butter on her bread, but now we can't get her to use enough.
Most of us throughout our lives have problems with eating too much food. But now Mom is on the total opposite spectrum where she can't seem to eat ENOUGH... and as wonderful as that all sounds to us its not great for her right now. We are working on getting her strength back up, helping her eat more and get moving more. Her surgeons cleared her for chemo and said that her care will be moved over to Dr.Ward, her oncologist, and that she should just need a few more follow up appointments with them. We are still continuing forward with progress, just a step at a time.

Oncology visit

We were able to meet with Moms oncologist, Dr. John Ward, who happens to be good friends with a childhood friend of Dads, The Platts. He and his team met with us and gave us the plan for the next few weeks. We are still on the 'healing' phase of things and will be for another two weeks, but after that we will be able to begin Moms chemo treatments. In two weeks Mom will go in for what is called a PET scan. This is a specific scan which will cover her entire body, head to toe, seeking out all of the cancer cells in her body to let them know what they are starting with. Then after her 1st round of Chemo they will repeat her scan to see if the treatments are working. Right now Dr. Ward said her chemo treatments will be on an out patient basis unless something changes after Her PET scan. Her physician was very honest and positive at the same time. He let Mom know that this type of cancer is extremely rare, with less than 7000 cases last year. He also let Her know that this type of cancer was not acquired via something she did or didn't do with her diet or lifestyle. This type of cancer is also not hereditary, or genetic. So, we are now going to go forward with this and help Mom out as she heals.

The Story - Until Now

The past couple of months Mom had been suffering a lot of pain.  After a lot of waiting and going from doctor to doctor and diagnosis to diagnosis, she was ultimately told that she had a non-cancerous cyst on her small intestine.  She needed to have it removed, and then things would get back to normal. 

On February 7, Mom went into surgery to have the non-cancerous cyst removed from her small intestine. Before the surgery was over, though, the surgeon met with us in a conference room to break the news: What they thought was a non-cancerous cyst turned out to be Stage IV Duodenal Cancer - an inoperable tumor in her small intestine, with the cancer spreading to a couple spots on her liver.  The surgeon did what she could to deaden the nerves around the tumor to ease the pain Mom had been feeling the past couple of months, and then closed things up.  While the surgeon didn't have all the answers we were looking for, she gave us a plan:  Get Mom healed from surgery, and then tackle the cancer with chemotherapy. 

We are presently working on the "get Mom healed" part of the plan.  She was released from the hospital after 1 1/2 weeks, but after a few days at home, she had a surgery-related infection, and so has been back in the hospital for the past few days to get the infection under control. 

We are still waiting to receive results from the pathology tests to know exactly what Mom has on her plate.  In the meantime, we are doing all that we can to let Mom know how much we love and appreciate her.  She has done everything for everyone her whole life.  Now it's her turn to let us help her!