Update

Hey everyone,

So sorry for no recent posts!  Mom has been doing so great lately!  She has been working and feeling pretty good.  She fights exhaustion a little but you'd never know if she didn't tell you so.

This Thursday is mom's last infusion of round 2.  This time, she broke out the infusions to be 3 sessions, rather than all at one time.  It was much better for her.  The first infusion has the medication that makes her feel the worst, so she spent the first day of that (it's 48 hours after the infusion) just napping and fighting a little nausea.  But the infusion last week was just fine.

I'm so proud of mom.  She has been so brave and strong through all of this.  She is confident and a hard worker.  She even plans on a half marathon in the spring!

Keep praying for mom as she finishes up this round and that she continues to heal up.  She had a HUGE milestone this morning even - she wore pants!  This doesn't seem huge but for her, it's been a goal.  The incision (though still partly open) is almost healed up and the sensitivity has been really hard for her so she has been wearing dresses 24/7 since July 2nd.  With Fall coming upon us, it's good she can start working some pants into the mix.

Working Hair

Mom has had a great few weeks.  After the sickness subsided from the first few days at the beach, she rebounded quickly and felt great the rest of the time.  She had long walks on the beach, ate A LOT of food (according to her) and generally feeling good, very good.

She headed home on Tuesday afternoon last week and spent Wednesday through Friday WORKING! She loved being back to work and interacting with people and moving and just generally feeling normal - as normal as possible.  She would crash at the end of the day (or middle depending on the day).  What a huge milestone for her to hit!

During her beach time, she mentioned that she started to lose her hair.  By the time she got home, it was coming out in clumps.  Within a few short days, she lost about half of it.  The part is quite large now as it's super thin.  She has made the decision to shave it on Tuesday evening. Until then, she is trying out hats and scarves.  She will be learning on Monday night how to tie scarves so that will help her.  She also will be receiving a few wigs from her sister's friend.  Here is a text I got this morning with the caption: "Waddya think? I feel a little like a gypsy!"

Mom's sister comes back to help her through round 2 of chemo.  She arrives on Wednesday evening and will stay for a week.  Mom's next chemo is on Thursday, September 11th.  This time, she is going to take 3 weeks to get through the treatment, rather than doing it all on one day.  She is going to see if that isn't so hard on her.  The first week she'll do 2 hours, one of not-so-bad med and one hour of yucky-sicky med.  Then next week, just 1 hour of not-so-bad, the week after that 1 hour of not-so-bad.

Pray for mom for this next round!  And if you are able and willing, mom could use some new scarves!  That would be a nice gift if you are thinking of one to send her!

The Beach

Mom is doing better.  She has had some bad days/nights and good days/nights.  She was feeling bad and a little better then bad again.  On Tuesday, she had a blood test done and they determined that she was dehydrated so she got two bags of fluids.  By the time she left, she was feeling much better.  We went back to her house and got her packed up for her trip, then spent the night at my house (after eating a piece of fried chicken and cole slaw!).  I dropped her off at the airport on Wednesday morning.

Luckily she was able to use the wheelchair service to help her through the airport.  I got this picture texted to me later that day...

She said that night was a pretty bad one, sick from either chemo, travel or food, but her stomach was pretty upset.  Mom also said that her hair is already starting to fall out. She spent the day watching the huge waves from a Mexican hurricane and resting.

Yesterday mom said she got sick in the afternoon again, but had a better night.  Hopefully the worst is over and she can relax the rest of the vacation.

Next chemo is planned for September 11th I believe.

The Weekend

Mom finished up her first chemo treatment around 2pm or so on Friday afternoon.  While in the treatment, she had a decent sized lunch and said that she felt just fine!  She met a few people around her and that was encouraging to her.  She went home and said she felt just fine.  The rest of us went camping but I checked in on mom several times a day over the weekend and I just kept getting texts back that went like this "feeling fine!", "stay as long as you want, I'm good!", and "I went out to dinner with a friend, feel great".  So when I was leaving Sunday afternoon, I checked in to say we were on our way home and did she want to go out to dinner.  She responded "sick hit".  So we rushed home and she was pretty out of it, tired, nauseated and feeling pretty bad.  I got her a little bit of soup and a nausea med.  She ended up throwing up the soup but she said that it actually made her feel better.  I got her ready for bed and out she went.  

She is still feeling a bit yucky today, hopefully it starts getting better soon.  But crazy how for 48 hours she felt just fine, like pretty much normal, then boom.  So we'll see how long it lasts.  Chemo is a crazy ride!

Keep praying for mom as she tries to get as good as she can before she heads to California on Wednesday morning. 

Finally In

It's been a long road to get to this, but she is finally on her first treatment of chemo as we speak!  Obviously this is a little bit of a good thing and a little bit of a bad thing, but hopefully this is the beginning of the road to complete recovery.

Pray for mom today and for the next several days as she deals with the side effects of a brutal four hour chemo infusion.

This is starting to get frustrating

So mom arrived at the hospital ready to roll, with a chemo appointment and they informed her that she needs to take a med 24 hours before she actually starts.  So they gave her the med, did a few tests and some blood work and are sending her on her way (2 hours later!).

All that and she still hasn't started chemo!  Tomorrow is apparently the day but until it's flowing in her, I won't believe it!

Keep praying for her, it's starting to cut close to her trip...

Today

Good morning,

I hope lots of you are reading this morning!  Mom starts chemo today at 10am Mountain Time and will likely be done around 2pm.  If you think of her during this time, please say a prayer for her.  She has a lot of anxiety about this first treatment, how she will respond to it and the unknowns of her recovery from it.  Please pray that the chemicals kill only the bad stuff and that she feels great afterward!  Pray that her body responds to treatment in the best possible way.

If anyone in Utah area is available the following times to check on mom, please let me know!

Friday from 4-9pm
Saturday from noon on
Sunday morning to mid afternoon

Any part of these times would be much appreciated to help mom through possible sickness.  She may not need someone there at all times, but a call person would be great.

Thanks so much everyone for prayers and thoughts and help, we all really appreciate it!