Trisha Faggiolly Barrett

happy summer...

2010-07-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

hey everyone, just wanted to check in and let everyone know things are going great.

the summer is flying by, and have been enjoying it as much as we can.
trish was busy shuttling caden to three different birthday parties this weekend, and this coming week is caden's last of his summer preschool class.

we have been busy bbq'ing, working on the house and taking little trips here and there.
a couple weeks ago we drove down to LA to visit family, friends and of course mickey and minnie, and we have another big multi-family camping trip planned for later in august.

trish has been doing awesome. she is feeling and looking great and is swearing by her daily juicing and vegetarian diet (which leaves more bbq tri-trip for caden and i ;)

we do have our regularly scheduled checkup with dr. carlson this tuesday, july 27th, and expect everything to go smoothly.

trish is getting the itch to go back to work, so she has been prepping herself for interviews. last week she was fortunate to have interviews with two different pharma companies. both went well and, and she was told she would be getting call back for both.

so i just wanted to update the blog and let everyone know things are great, we are all healthy, happy and enjoying the summer.

thanks for checking in

the weekend update...

2010-04-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

trish woke up this morning feeling pretty good.
there is definitely soreness, but she can move around on her own just fine.

she didn't have a great nights sleep, but she has been up and about this morning.
walking around outside, chatting with the neighbors, picking up caden's toys, etc..

she will be able to shower and take off her bandages on sunday morning, and next friday we have a follow up appointment with dr. lee..

thanks for checking in

surgery update...

2010-04-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

2:30pm update (that came at 10:00pm)

we got home at 2:30pm... trish is doing awesome. a little groggy as expected, but doing really well...

by the evening time, she was up walking around and getting some food in her.

trish got into bed by herself, and we both looked at each other, because she has not been able to do that in surgeries past...

things are good...

thanks for all the well wishes everyone..

ill give another update tomorrow evening..

12:30pm update

dr. lee came out at 12:25pm and let us know that he was all done, and trish did great. she is in recovery now, and hopefully we can see her in the next couple hours...

12:00pm update

trish's surgery officially began at 11:00am this morning, and is scheduled for two hours.

after surgery, she will be in recovery for ~2 hours, and then we will be able to bring her home.

so im hoping by 4pm today, we will be on the road back to our house, but things never seem to be on time around here, so im not holding my breath.

trish, ria and i arrived at stanford this morning at 7:45am. they got trish checked in, and prepped to be prepped shortly thereafter. ria and i were able to visit with trish from 8:40am to 10:20am when they brought her to the OR.

during those 100 minutes, dr. lee came in to visit with trish and to literally draw up the game plan on trish's front side. trish's nurses and anesthesiologist visited as well, and got trish prepped and the IV flowing.

at 10:20am they the anesthesiologist gave trish a little cocktail, and off she went to the OR and lala-land..

so about another hour to go in surgery, and then dr. lee will come out and give us the update..

stay tuned..

the last surgery... april 22nd

2010-04-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

sometime tomorrow trish will go in for her final reconstructive surgery.

we will receive a call sometime today from stanford letting us know if we have the morning slot, or the afternoon slot.

either way, dr. lee said it will be a short 2 hour surgery, and trish will be coming home the same day.

we can expect her to be sore for a few days, but this surgery will be nowhere as intrusive as the previous two. basically the tissue expanders will be replaced with trish's final silicone implants.

dr. lee will also remove the healed up incision scars that have been radiated and stretched with the tissue expanders, and do his artistry by stitching trish up in a way that will reduce the visible scarring.

trish is ready physically and emotionally, and compared to everything else she has gone through, this will be easy. no drains, no deep wounds, easy recovery.

ill keep the blog updated throughout the day tomorrow for anyone peaking in..

evening update: surgery is scheduled for 9:30am, with us checking in 2 hours prior..

our angel...

2010-04-17T06:08:00.000-07:00

two years...

2010-04-07T06:12:00.000-07:00

wow...

two years ago today we received the results of trish's biopsy.

its baffles me how two years can pass by so quickly, and at times crawl to a snails pace.

things are good. things are different.

we had a small scare a few weeks ago, trish found a lump in her neck and worried it might be an abnormal lymphnode.
on march 23rd, trish and i headed down to the stanford cancer center for the first time since november 16th so dr. robert carlson could take a look.

a place we had spent so much time at, it was odd (and good) we hadn't been there in over 4 months.

but the trip was stressful. emotions and worries we have pushed down over the past two years began creeping back to the surface.

the 2 hour wait to see dr. carlson didn't help either.

when we finally did see dr. carlson and nurse jan, they were really happy to see how well trish was doing and how long her hair was.
i think dr. carlson even smiled when he felt trish's lump, because he knew it wasn't a lymphnode.

doc carlson assured us there was nothing to worry about.
trish's lump was a swollen salivary gland, probably due to her recent sinus infection.
he wants to continue to see trish every three months just on a checkup basis.
this is good... it will give us a piece of mind that trish will have some trained eyes on her every few months.

and like the days of old... we stopped at the dutch goose on the way home for some lunch..

so yesterday, april 6th, trish and i were back at the cancer center, but this time we met for a pre-operation visit with dr. gordon lee, trish's plastic surgeon.

trish's final phase of reconstructive surgery will be on thursday april 22nd, and yesterday's visit was to chalk up the game plan.
the surgery will be a couple hours long, to swap out trish's tissue expanders with silcon implants.

trish will get to go home the same day, and not need to stay overnight at stanford.
dr. lee says this will be the easiest surgery to date for trish, and trish should be feeling good a couple days after.

anyhow, thats the update from here.

thanks for checking in...

a quick update

2010-02-25T22:37:00.000-08:00

hi all,

its been a while since we posted anything, but just wanted to assure everyone that everything here is great, and Trish, Caden and I are all healthy and happy.

trish has been enjoying life, and has her final reconstructive surgery scheduled for this april.

caden is growing everyday, and really enjoying his 3's nursery school class.

ive been back to work for a little over 3 months, and its been really exciting. we have added ~ 15 employees since i began working, so its great to be with a company that is growing and not shrinking

both trish and i have been spending a lot of time getting ready for an upcoming fundraiser at caden's school.

its the 15th Annual Redwood Parents Nursery School Janet Cocconi Dinner & Auction.
Janet was the Director and a Teacher at RPNS years ago, who unfortunately passed away from breast cancer. Janet's daughter, Jeannie, has been a close friend of trish's for 20+ years and is also a mother of two children at RPNS. Jeannie is the chairperson for the auction this year, so we have been doing everything we can to help make it a success.

10% of the proceeds of the fundraiser go to the Janet Cocconi Memorial Fund through Breast Cancer Connections in Palo Alto.

If you are interested in purchasing raffle tickets, making prize donations for the auction, or attending the dinner and auction event, more info can be found here on the RPNS website:

http://www.rpns.org/auction.html

thanks for checking in... all is great here...

happy holidays...

2009-12-21T22:16:00.000-08:00

happy holidays to you all.. we hope everyone enjoying the holiday season.

i apologize for not updating the blog in a while, so i will try and get everyone caught up on the last couple months of our lives.

on november 16th trish went in for her 3rd round of expansion, and everthing went smoothly.
trish's 4th and final expansion was december 7th, and we can now happily say she is done with this phase of reconstruction.

the next phase will be surgery in ~6 months to replace the expanders with regular implants.

trish is continuing to do great, and is 100% healthy and cancer free.

on december 2nd, caden's class from Redwood Parents Nursery School took a field trip to Hillsdale Mall to decorate a christmas tree for the holidays.
this is something teacher kathy and her class has been doing for years, and all the other classes at the school pitch in by making ornaments for the themed tree.
this year the teachers at RPNS decided to decorate the tree in a breast cancer awareness theme, to honor the families at RPNS who have been affected by breast cancer.
obviouslly this is a cause close to our hearts, and it was a lot of fun to see 24 three year olds running around hanging ornamnents on a christmas tree.

i believe the trees will be on display through the new year... so if you find yourself on the second floor of hillsdale by mrs fields cookies, take a look at the pink tree that the kids from RPNS decorated.

on sunday dec. 20th, trish and i attended the FamiliesCAN christmas party in portola valley.
it was a dinner for the families who have been helped by FamiliesCAN. It was great seeing Jackie and Eduarda (founder and director), as well as our social worker from stanford, Bea Bravo.
We also had the opportunity to meet and thank Jackie's father, Ron Whittier, who provides funding so FamiliesCAN can help families affected by cancer.

in a small bit of irony, we were seated at the same table as the Musladin family.
Scott, Candy and their two daughters Lindsey and Madison were the other family featured in the september article in san jose mercury news article about FamiliesCAN.
they are great family dealing with a lot of simlar things we have gone through over the last 20 months.

on november 16th, i began my new job at Greenplum.
can't believe its been 6 weeks already, but the company is small and dynamic (and growing) with a lot of great people and energy in the building.
im really enjoying it here.

and with the new job, came new medical benefits for the whole family on december 1st :)

so thats about it from here... everything is going well, and aside from caden's little cold, we are all healthy.

we wish everyone a great holiday season, and a terrific new year to come...

thanks for checking in

The RPNS christmas tree at Hillsdale

expansion, part 2

2009-11-02T19:23:00.000-08:00

trish, ria and i headed over to stanford today for trish's second round of expansion.

we met with nurse kathy, and now that we know the procedure, it only took a few minutes to complete. we spend more time in the waiting room than we do in the exam room.

during surgery, dr. lee initially filled trish's expanders with 200 cc's of saline.

last week nurse kathy added 50 cc's on the right side and 100 cc's on the left.

today, kathy added 75 to the right and 100 to the left.

so the current tally is:

left: 400 cc's

right: 325 cc's

the right side is the cancer/radiation/lat flap side, so they are expanding this side a little slower than the left side. trish really felt all 75 cc's in her right side today. its an odd pressure that is hard to explain, but it is discomforting enough for her to take a vicodin for the first time in a couple weeks.

all in all trish is continuing to do great. she is feeling better with each day, and aside from lifting heavy things and overreaching for something, she is pretty close to normal. she is back to taking caden to school by herself, and later in the week she has a third interview with Myriad for a sales position handling the BRACAnalysis breast cancer genetic test product.

trish's next expansion will be monday, november 16th.

thanks for checking in...

follow up with dr. j, a new lump and some relief...

2009-10-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

trish has been doing really great with her recovery. with each day, she is becoming less sore and more active. for the first time since surgery, trish was able to bring caden to his nursery school by herself this morning.

i think it was a big mental boost for both trish and the little guy. she is able to do more independently each day, and for caden to see his mama at school really made his day and he seemed a little bit more chipper today than he has over the past few weeks. after school the three of us hit up the newly remodeled costco in redwood city, and then it was time for trish and i to head back to the stanford cancer center.

today we had a follow up appointment with trish's surgical oncologist, dr. stephanie jeffrey. dr. j was very pleased and surprised at how quickly trish is healing up. the incisions have all closed up nicely, and we took the last of trish's tape sutures off a few days ago. dr. jeffrey also had some good news for us, the final pathology of trish's mastectomy was back, and there was no signs of cancer (not that we expected any different, but its always nice to get some good news).

so... earlier in the week trish discovered a new lump in her abdomen.

trish asked dr. jeffrey to have a feel to see what she thought. after examining trish, dr. jeffrey believed the lump to probably be a lipoma (benign fatty tissue). but dr. j then said, with trish's history of cancer, she wanted to order an immediate biopsy.

back on the emotional roller coaster we go...

as we were waiting for the biopsy team to arrive, trish and i somewhat joked about our lives and if things aren't hectic, they aren't normal. but the reality of it, the waiting, the wondering... its stressful and wears on you.
you wonder how a body that has been hammered by months of chemo and radiation could produce a new lump. and you wait some more.

you try not to worry about anything until there is something to worry about. this sounds great on paper, but its much easier said than done. luckily for us today the wait was minimal. it wasn't an over the weekend wait like trish's first biopsy last year. the biopsy team arrived about 10 minutes after dr. j. called them. the team of three quickly set up and took two needle aspiration biopsies of trish's lump, and told us they would be back in 5 minutes with the preliminary results as soon as they took a gander of the specimen cells under a microscope.

so... we waited and we wondered.

it was only a few minutes, but it felt like a few hours. the biopsy team arrived back with the news...

everything looked normal.

they believed it was a lipoma, just had dr. jeffrey initially thought. the biopsy team took one more needle biopsy (third overall) to be sent off to the lab for final pathology, but from what they saw in the first two samples, all signs pointed to benign fatty tissue (not that we expected any different, but its always nice to get some good news).

just another hectic (normal) day... thanks for checking in

a, b, cc's...

2009-10-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

back to stanford we go to see trish' plastic surgeon nurse, kathy...

kathy removed trish's final drain, but was gracious enough to give back more than she had taketh..

kathy is the nurse that will be filling trish's tissue expanders over the next month or two.

kathy brought in a demo expander for us to take a look at, and if you have ever have seen an implant, its basically the same thing, but with a "medi-port" built in to receive a needle full of saline.

kathy marked each boobie with the location of the port, gave trish some local anesthetic, put a needle into each port and injected them with saline (50 cc's on the right, 100 cc's on the left)
it wasn't enough fluid to actually see trish visually expanding like a water balloon, but trish felt the added pressure internally.
nurse kathy said trish (depending on the final size she chooses) will be back roughly 5 times (every 7-10 days) for these expansion sessions.

the highlight of the day wasn't trish kicking ass once again in the doc's office, but seeing christine leaving the plastic surgeon's office.

christine is Survivor buddy christine, formerly known as chemo buddy christine and radiation buddy christine.

christine was leaving the office after a session with nurse kathy finalizing her reconstruction, and she is now DONE with everything! congrats christine, your cancer "to do" list is now all checked off. `

so, trish continues to do great, and she really enjoyed getting caught up with christine for a few minutes.
the docs still want her to take it easy lifting heavy things, but she has been trying to stay as active as possible without overdoing it.
all her bandages are ready to come off, and everything is healing up nicely. now with her drains out, she can shower normally without worrying about getting anything wet.

trish goes back Nov. 2 for her next expansion session, and will get an additional 100 cc's on each side.

thanks for checking in..

checkup with dr. lee...

2009-10-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

its been 9 days since surgery, so it was time to head back to stanford to see trish's plastic surgeon, dr. lee.

dr. lee and his staff examined trish, and felt she was healing up perfectly, there are no signs of infection and overall they are very pleased with her progress.

trish came home from the hospital with five (three on her right side, two on her left side) subdermal fluid drains. these are rubber tubes inside trish's body draining any excess fluid in her chest and back areas. there is a small incision under each of trish's armpits where the drains exit her body. these drains typically stay in 7-14 days post surgery.

the drains are bulky, and hard to make comfortable with while sitting, laying down and walking. she basically has five pieces of two foot long rubber tube hanging out of her, each will a rubber bulb attached on the end. even though she has a special tank top with internal pockets to hold the drains, they are still a pain in the ass (and the side... and the back)...

dr. lee felt trish was doing well enough not to warrant all the drains, so he removed four of the five. immediately trish felt more comfortable. the drain bothering her the most was the one placed in her back, once it was removed, trish had a much easier and comfy time sitting.

trish's next appointment is wednesday 10/21, and dr. lee will remove her last drain, and begin the expansion process of filling up trish's tissue expanders with saline.

the pain is slowly going away, and with four drains out, it should be much easier for her to sleep and get around. each day she gets a little quicker at getting up and moving around, and by this time next week she should be feeling great.

trish is resting up right now, but later this afternoon trish has a second job interview with Myriad, the company who makes the breast cancer genetic test, BRACAnalysis, trish took last year. trish looks forward to going back to work, but she has been very particular with the type of company she wants to work for. when this opening came up she was quick to apply for it, as she feels she can be very successful selling this product... hopefully Myriad will feel the same.

trish and i would to thank everyone that has dropped off food, flowers, cards, etc... it really has been appreciated, and has made it a lot easier around here the past week

one last note...
many of you know, after 10 years with HP i was laid off in late april, and spent the summer actively interviewing.

its ironic how life chooses to time things...

while i was in the waiting room during trish's surgery, i received a call from a company i've recently interviewed with, and they gave me a verbal offer!
i signed the written offer on tuesday, and will begin work at Greenplum (a small database startup) on november 16th.

talk about an emotional swing...
sitting there worried about trish in surgery, and i get a call that i dont need to stress over trying to find a job anymore. im really looking forward to starting next month, and who knows... maybe both of us will be employed by years end...

thanks for checking in..

home sweet home...

2009-10-10T11:45:00.000-07:00

trish is home :)

after meeting with dr. lee this morning, she got the ok to get out and head home.. a couple hours later we were on our way out of stanford.

we walked through our front doors at 11:45am this morning.

trish continues to do really well.. still sore as expected, but dr. lee thought all her wounds are healing nicely and had no overall concerns.

trish's left arm had been hurting her ever since she got out of surgery, and to rule out a blood clot or infection, an ultrasound was performed... the ultrasound showed nothing out of the ordinary and it was deemed that a leaky IV was the cause of the swelling.

basically the IV needle was either was not fully inside trish's vein, or it penetrated through the other side of her vein, allowing the saline to essentially puddle in her arm. its harmless but uncomfortable, but does take a day or two for the saline to be naturally absorbed by the body...

so the pain has gone away and the swelling of her arm has subsided and things are basically normal. trish is napping in her own bed now, and caden is very happy to have his mama home..

thanks for checking in...

surgery... part deux

2009-10-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

the night after update, 8:45pm

i just got home from the hospital and trish is doing great. she is asleep now, but she has been up and about during the afternoon. shes been walking the hallways, using the bathroom (no more catheter :) ) on her own.

both dr. lee and dr. jeffrey visited with her earlier today, and are happy with the results of the surgery and how trish is recovering..

we are hoping she gets released to come home tomorrow, but ya never know.. its up to the docs tomorrow, and we will see what they have to say

the morning after update, 8:00am

trish slept decently throughout the night..
the meds kicked in and helped with the pain, but the nurses were in every couple of hours so it made it tough to sleep.

dr. lee's four residents came in this morning at 6:30am to check on trish, and they said she was looking good. dr. lee is will stop by sometime in the morning to check on trish as well, but the plan is to get trish up and walking around this afternoon.

10:30pm update

trish is sleeping like a baby:)

trish has two great nurses, sofia and kristen, and they got trish all settled in (drained her drains, set up her IV's, got her some juice/blankets/etc.. ) to her private room overlooking the courtyard below.

trish is pretty groggy (she says feels pretty buzzed, but not drunk enough to dance... i call BS, she will dance anytime) but she is pretty sharp and not out of it, just sleepy.

she is really sore, and likens the pain to that of an elephant sitting on top of her, but i think the meds are finally kicking in and doing their job.

trish is hooked up to two different pain medications..
1. is dripping in the the IV they placed near her spinal cord for the paravertebral block... im guessing its on the weak side, as its a continuous drip

2. is the good stuff.. the kind they give you a button for, but you can only hit the button once every ten minutes... it must be really good, cause they literally have it under lock and key on the IV machine so you cant up your dose..

its been a long day, and as expected, she got through it without any problems.
im spending the night with her to keep her company throughout the night.

thanks again for all the thoughts, wishes, mojo and prayers...

we both really do appreciate it.

good night (once all this coffee wears off)

8:45pm update

just got out of recovery and headed to her room...

5:45pm update

dr. lee just called me, and they are done with surgery! trish is doing great, and they are putting the final bandages on her. no surprises during surgery, and everything went smoothly.

trish will be in recovery for the next 60-120 minutes, and then will be transferred to her hospital room. once she is in her room, i will be able to see her.

its been a long day, but i knew she had great doctors who have performed these surgeries thousands of times...

very capable hands for a very capable girl..

2:45pm update

i just spoke with dr. jeffrey... the mastectomy and port removal went perfectly. trish is doing great, and her vitals are strong and normal.

surgery began late, around 1:00pm and finished up around 2:15pm.

trish is now in the hands of dr. lee, and he will begin the reconstruction portion of surgery, which includes a technique called a latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flap (some graphic content). dr. lee will basically take skin from trish's back, and rotate it around to her right breast area (the previously cancerous side) to provide better (softer, thicker, more elastic) skin to work with.

since trish's right side chest skin underwent radiation, it left her with skin that isn't as thick and elastic as normal skin. by borrowing skin from her back, this will eleviate any potential issues of the tissue expanders breaking through her weak skin.

since her left side wasn't exposed to the radiation, her skin is fine on that side, and doesn't need any extra care.

anyhow, dr. jeffrey said everything went well.. trish should be out in another 4 hours or so.. (~ 6:30pm) we may get to see her in about 5 hours, after she comes out of recovery and wakes up..

all is well here.. thanks everyone for the phone calls, texts, emails, comments on the blog, facebook, etc...

12:00pm update

surgery has begun...

11:30am update

ria and i just left trish in the fine hands of the docs here at stanford. dr. lee, trish's plastic surgeon, came in went over the process again, and marked trish up with a game plan of where the incisions will be and whats going where...

the anesthesiologists came in to give trish her paravertebral blocks, a type of local anesthesia near the spinal cord that will numb the surrounding nerves in her back and up through to her chest..

so everything is pretty much on schedule.. the waiting game begins...

the next update will probably be in a few hours after dr. jeffrey has completed the mastectomy...

trish appreciates all the thoughts and prayers, thanks everyone

10:30am update

trish went in with the nurse at 10:30am to get changed, and prepped for her surgery.

she is a little nervous (cmon, who likes surgery?), but she is feisty and ready to go..

on the drive to stanford this morning, we were heading down 280 and there was a truck swerving across the second lane, slow lane and onto the shoulder. trish got on the horn and called 911 to report a possible drunk driver...

needless to say she has her game face on, theres no screwing around today.

ria and i will get to see her again in about 30 minutes before they take her to the operating room

8:30am update

hi everyone,

when we had our pre-op appointment yesterday, the doctors informed us surgery wouldn't be until 11:40am today, and we need to arrive at 9:40am.

this is much better than getting there around 5am, and it allowed us to sleep in a bit..

so trish is in the shower, caden is eating breakfast and getting ready for school.. another normal morning around here...

so far.

more updates later

uno mas tectomy...

2009-10-06T08:33:00.000-07:00

trish and her gang of ladies finished up the 3 Day walk on sunday. the closing ceremonies on marina green were emotional and inspiring as 1500+ women and men paraded into the final celebration of the weekend. the san francisco walk raised millions of dollars towards breast cancer research, and the 16 girls of trisha's trailblazers account for nearly $39,000 of that total.

trish walked all 20 miles on the first day, and averaged 12-15 miles each of the last two days. she had a great time with her teammates and all the other walkers she met along the way. trish is proud of herself, and so am i.

tomorrow morning, 10/7/2009, we will get to the stanford cancer at at 5am to check in for trish's surgery. trish is nervous, but is comforted by the fact that is is essentially elective proactive surgery, and not reactive to cancer. trish had a mammogram two weeks ago just so the surgeons knew what they were getting into. just as we had expected, the mammogram confirmed no signs of cancer in trish's left breast. its always nice to have reaffirmation, even when you are pretty damn sure of something.

today we will head to the cancer center at 1:30pm for a pre-op appointment with the anesthesiologist just to run some checks to make sure trish is healthy enough for surgery. considering she just walked nearly 60 miles, im sure she will have no issues passing the tests.

we expect trish to spend two nights in the hospital (wednesday and thursday) and return home on friday. there is a chance she will be released on thursday depending on how she is doing, but we are expecting the former, but will be pleasantly surprised if the later holds true.

so if dr. jeffrey and dr. lee are reading this blog post, make sure you two get a good nights rest. i dont want to hear the two of you comparing notes on tonight's episode of sons of anarchy, because that's way past your bedtime... you have an important patient coming in on the morning, and we need you to bring your A game. ;)

ill keep everyone posted throughout the day tomorrow.

thanks for checking in...

the difference a year makes...

2009-10-02T18:09:00.000-07:00

caden and i received a call from trish at 4:30pm today, and she successfully completed Day 1 of the Breast Cancer 3 Day walk and has the blisters to prove it.

20 miles down, 40 to go.

trish is looking forward to relaxing at the tent city set up on san francisco's marina green, and hanging out with the girls tonight. while she does plan on walking the next two days, it is not her goal to complete the 20 miles each day.

with surgery only five days away, she does need to conserve some energy for surgery and the subsequent recovery. needless to say, trish was determined to complete Day One of the 3 Day, and she did!

to everyone who was involved today, you should be congratulated...

the difference a year makes...

2008 3 Day Walk, a spectator

2009 3 Day Walk, a participant

the coming week...

2009-10-01T07:06:00.000-07:00

sooo... since hectic/busy/crazy is basically normal around here, i guess we will continue on that way

on wednesday, october 7th, trish will undergo her next surgery. as mentioned in earlier blog posts, this surgery will include a prophylactic (preventative) mastectomy on her left side, and tissue expanders inserted in both sides. she is expected to spend two nights in the hospital, and will be in recovering mode for a couple weeks after that.

so.. before trish is cooped up in bed recovering, she is gonna for a little walk with some friends..

on friday morning, october 2nd, trish and her team of 16 friends & family, will begin the Susan G Komen 3 Day Walk in San Francisco. over the course of friday, saturday and sunday the walkers will cover 20 miles a day for a total of 60 miles through san francisco and marin counties.

Trish received a lot of support and motivation from watching the girls last year, and she was determined to participate this year. the girls have raised nearly $35,000 so far. They are currently at 70% of their team fund raising goal, so if you are interested in contributing to breast cancer research, please donate to one of The Trisha's Trailblazers teammates who have not yet reached their goal.

Trisha's Trailblazers 3 Day Website

i wish all the girls luck and hope they have a great time. caden and i will be heading up to san francisco's marina green on sunday for the closing ceremonies, feel free to join us if you like. (here are some pictures i took from last years closing ceremonies)

Good luck to the Trailblazers!

Trisha Faggiolly
Racquele Welsh
Kim Abbott
Kim Balsama
Amy Bloom
Ria Faggiolly
Rachelle Fochetti
Annamarie Franceschi
Felicia Hall
Jane Knynenburg
Ginger Mallas
Aimee Patten
Angel Salazar-Brooks
Judy Spooner
Stacie Starr
Vicki Webb

You were sent as an angel...

2009-09-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

Double whammy: Losing a job and getting cancer at the same time

2009-09-08T07:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_13288266

extra, extra...

2009-09-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

so i just got off the phone with michelle, an editor with the san jose mercury news.

she called to clear up some last minutes details, and said the article featuring how FamiliesCAN helps families such as ours, will be on the newsstands tomorrow morning.

in a post two weeks ago, i wrote about how trish and i were interviewed by joe rodriguez of the san jose merc.
joe, and photo journalist nhat v. meyer, joined us at the stanford university medical center while trish was undergoing a bone scan.

i look forward to reading the article over a nice cup of coffee in the morning....

i will post a link to the article when it is published to the mercury website, but i urge everyone to go out and support the local newspaper and buy a copy or two.

thanks for checking in, hope you had a nice long weekend..

bone density study at UCSF...

2009-09-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

trish returned to UCSF for the first time since we received our second opinion from dr. alvarado in April of 2008.

fortunately, this time trish didn't not go up there for a diagnosis. trish was asked to be a part of a bone density research study being performed at UCSF. so this morning she headed up to the city for the test. unfortunately, they could not give her the test because she took the bone scan test last week at stanford, and the radioactive dye she was injected with can screw with the results of the bone density test at UCSF...

sooo... they took trish's blood and did a few other tests, but will reschedule the actual bone density test in a few weeks, after the dye has worked itself out of trish's body completely.

its a really nice change to be able to contribute to research, and not be a part of the treatment...

consultation with dr. lee, plastic surgeon...

2009-09-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

this morning we met with dr. gordon lee, the surgeon who will be performing trish's reconstruction.

we met with dr. lee in october of last year and learned of our choices, so today was more a refresher for us, but more importantly for dr. lee to examine trish and check out the canvas he has to work with.

during the upcoming surgery, dr. lee will follow dr. jeffrey's mastectomy and insert tissue expanders on both sides of trish. the tissue expanders are the first step of the reconstruction process, and will be later swapped out for implants months down the road.

expanders are basically implants that have the ability to be filled on the weekly basis. they are inserted behind the muscle and filled up with saline to a volume that the skin can handle. every week or two, trish will return to the dr. lee's office so the expanders can be filled more, thus expanding the skin even more.

the whole point is to stretch/expand the skin to the point of final implant size. depending on the final size desired, this is a process that can take weeks or months.

once the expanders are filled to the desired size, they are left alone for the body to adjust to the final size and a final surgery is scheduled to remove the expander and replace them with implants. we anticipate the second surgery to be somewhere in the May 2010 time frame.

as for this upcoming surgery, we are hoping for it to be during the week of Oct 5th. trish doesn't want to be in recovering mode for caden's 3rd birthday that is coming up at the end of september. but ultimately we are at the mercy of dr. jeffrey and dr. lee coordinating their schedules, and since trish is no longer "cancerous", she slides down the totem pole a bit..

thanks for checking in...

consultation with dr. jeffrey, surgical oncologist...

2009-08-31T15:12:00.000-07:00

today we met with trish's surgical oncologist, dr. stephanie jeffrey. dr. jeffrey is the surgeon that performed trish's first mastectomy back in november, and she will perform trish's second surgery as well.

the visit today was just a consultation to go over what will happen during surgery. since we have been through this once before, we have a pretty good idea of whats to come.

the differences this time around are several:
- no lymphnode removal (trish had 18 removed during the last rodeo)
- less skin removed, since its not a cancerous area, the removal will not be as eloborate
- reconstruction will immediately follow on both sides, by Dr. Gordon Lee
- dr. jeffrey will also remove trish's medi-port, the device implanted in her chest so she could receive chemo (trish could have removed this earlier, but it would have resulted in another, seperate surgery... this way, its all done at the same time)

its was great to see dr. jeffrey, as we have not seen her since the removal of trish's drain tubes months and months ago.

tommorrow we will be back at the cancer center to have a consultation with trish's plastic surgeon, dr. lee.

thanks for checking in...

cancers a beach...

2009-08-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

trish had the opportunity to attend a luncheon today down at the Seascape Resort in Aptos. the event was hosted by Jackie Whittier Kubicka, the founder of FamiliesCAN.

Jackie and Eduarda, the Director of FamiliesCAN, brought together a dozen or so women who have battled cancer recently. trish had a really nice time meeting others who have gone through similar situations, and hearing everyone's individual story.

the weather has been really hot around here, so caden and i took the drive down to the seaside with trish. while trish was at the resort enjoying an nice lunch with the ladies, caden and i hit up the local farmers market and then went down to the beach to find some shells and build sand castles.

it was a great afternoon on the beach...

the bone scan results...

2009-08-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

we received the results of trish's bone scan from last monday, and she continues to be 100% cancer FREE... :)

this gives trish the piece of mind she was looking for.

the summer wrap up....

2009-08-25T19:20:00.000-07:00

i hope everyone is enjoying their summer. i apologize for not posting in a while, but ill try and get you up to date in this post...

i think the best way is to go with a reverse chronological order, starting with our trip to stanford today to get trish a bone scan.

trish has experienced some soreness in her lower back over the past several months, so for some piece of mind to make sure there is no cancer floating around in her bones, she decided to have another bone scan performed. we headed over to stanford at 9:30am this morning so trish could get part 1 of the scan, a shot of radioactive solution injected into her arm... the fluid circulates through trish's body and coats her bones and the scan later in the day will create a picture showing the density of her bones. so... we then went home for a few hours and returned at 3pm for part 2 of the procedure, the scan itself...

trish and i we were joined by three people today:

- Eduarda Francisco, the Director of familiesCAN. familiesCAN was founded in 2000 by Jackie Whittier Kubicka and helps families affected by cancer with financial support.

- Joe Rodriguez, a columnist with the San Jose Mercury News

- Nhat V. Meyer, a photojournalist with the San Jose Mercury News

Joe is writing an article for the SJ Mercury News about families who've been helped by familiesCAN, and Eduarda asked us if we would like to contribute to the article.

this summer we have continued on the crazy ride that began back in 2008. in april, after nearly 10 years with HP, i was laid off. (if you know of a company looking for a Sales Engineer, let me know...;)

in the second week of june, we were informed that trish's long term disability insurnace was cancelled, effective two weeks earlier... even though trish has several surgeries and recovery periods ahead of her, she was deemed non disabled thus eliminating not only her, but caden's medical benefits as well.

so... it was a interesting few months to say the least. even in this crappy economy, getting laid off came as a surprise... but losing trish and caden's health benefits was the most stressful point in the summer, at least for myself.

not really knowing what our options were, we met with Beatriz Bravo, an oncology social worker at the stanford cancer center. Bea has helped us tremendously, and introduced us to Eduarda and the familesCAN organization, Bea also helped us get trish enrolled in the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program offered by Medi-Cal.

so the good news is trish now has medical coverage for all things breast cancer related... the bad news is that anything "un" cancer related, including caden, is not covered.

to get caden medical coverage until i find a new job, we applied for the Healthy Families Program in june. i spoke with a manager there last week, and they are so far behind with paperwork that they just began processing applications submitted in may. sooo... another stress point.

Eduarda and fine folks at familesCAN helped us out with our mortgage payment, and for that we are very grateful. the help of familiesCAN has made the summer a little less stressful. it is a great organization funded by the The Ronald Whittier Family Foundation and has helped hundreds of families in santa clara and san mateo counties.
trish will be attending a ladies retreat hosted by familiesCAN on sunday down in Seascape.

Bone scan aside, today was an enjoyable day. we talked with Joe, Nhat and Eduarda during trish's bone scan (they were in the room with trish and i and watched the scan), and afterward we grabbed something to drink in the cafeteria and had a nice conversation covering the last 16 months of our lives.

the article will be published in the San Jose Mercury News sometime in the next couple of weeks, and i will be sure to let everyone know so they can go out and grab a copy.

sooo.... while this summer has been somewhat stressful with job interviews, dealing with medical insurance, etc... overall, it has been a nice one.

my mini sabbatical has given me a chance to hang out more with trish and caden and get some stuff done around the house (albeit, not as much as trish would like :).
i was able to dust off the woodworking tools and build caden a train table for all his toys (and hopefully keep the coffee table cleaner). i also built a chicken coop for the three new additions to our household... yep... trish came home with a few baby chicks from caden's nursery school, and now they have grown to the point where we are expecting them to lay eggs very soon.

we enrolled caden in a summer session at his nursery school, and that gave him a good chance to hang out with kids both older and younger than him. he will be in the three's class when school starts back up in september.

trish, caden and i took a nice little trip up to pt. reyes for the weekend, and to escape the headaches that awaited us at home... it was a great little getaway, and we had the chance to stop at places along the way that we have driven by for years, but never took the time to stop at..

i started playing softball again, after taking last year off to take care of trish... ive played for the past 12 years, so i missed it. we won the championship, so that was icing on the cake.

trish's sister yvonne, and our niece and nephew, amber and marijn, flew out from the netherlands to spent 5 weeks here in california. caden loved getting to know his cousins and looked forward to playing with them everyday.

the san francisco 3 Day Walk is coming up on October 2 - 4, 2009, and trish and her team of 15 other girls have been actively training and raising funds towards their team goal of $50,000. trish is over 100% of her fund raising goal, but if you are interested in donating to the team, please choose a member who is not yet at 100%.

so all in all, its been a really nice summer. we are getting use to dealing with crap around here, so its actually been pretty normal. i dont think anything really surprises us anymore, but i gotta say the camping trips, trips to the beach, bbq's and parties with friends and family have made the crappy stuff easier to deal with.

trish, caden and i are all doing really well, feeling great and 100% healthy and cancer free...

not sure if caden is growing quicker than trish's hair or if its the other way around, but they are both growing quickly.

we are getting closer to trish's next surgery, so i will continue to update the blog as we get closer. there isn't a confirmed date yet, but we will be meeting with her plastic surgeon soon for another round of consultations.

check back soon for more information on the upcoming article in the SJ Merc...

thanks for checking in...

trish and caden at the marin headlands...

caden trying to catch his chickens...

caden and trish catching butterflies...

caden and i at pt. reyes...

relay for life @ paly...

2009-08-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

trish's healing touch partner, chanda, put together a team for the 2009 American Cancer Society's Relay For Life at Palo Alto High School.

chanda has been leading her team, The Hamsters, for many years, but this year she invited trish to come and walk with "Survivor Lap" during the opening ceremonies.

trish, ria, caden and i headed to paly this morning and joined in the festivities. after the intial survivor lap, caden wanted to walk a lap... so trish and caden took another trip around the track.

¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS!

2009-06-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

happy birthday trish!
love caden & oak

relay for life @ sequoia

2009-05-30T23:38:00.000-07:00

a friend of trish's, andriana gasparini helped organize a group of girls to participate in this years American Cancer Society's Relay For Life at Sequoia High School.

andriana's team, Team Pink - Woodside High School & Alums, raised a lot of money for cancer research and programs. andriana asked trish if she would like to come and walk during the "lighting of the luminaries". this is the time at sundown when the path that the walk took place on is lined with candle luminaries dedicated to those who have been touched by cancer.

it was a pretty emotional sight. nightime on the sequoia high school campus, hundreds of luminaries lit the path that meandered in and out of the redwood grove adjacent to the football field.

the girls of Team Pink were nice enough to dedicate one of the luminaries to trish, so trish, ria, jane, caden and myself made the trip over there to walk for a bit.

congrats to the girls of Team Pink for being on of the top fundraisers for the redwood city event.

herceptin today, gone tommorrow...

2009-05-19T09:18:00.001-07:00

today is trish's last herceptin infusion!!!

on 5/20/2008, trish began her year long course of herceptin treatments, and today, 365 days later, she is taking her final exam.

we arrived at the stanford cancer center at 9:15am, and got settled into the almost window seat of B6. her typical trifecta of premeds (benadryl, pepcid and decadron) will be dripping soon.

trish has really built up a nice friendship with a lot of the nurses in the infusion treatment area, so she decided to bake her butt off last night and bring in a huge basket of goodies... peanut butter bars, wine cake, brownies, cupcakes and cookies.

so... aside from a little bit of a cold over the weekend, trish's is doing really, really well.

trisha held a fundraiser last friday night for the 3 Day Walk and raised a few hundred dollars towards her fund raising goal.

the 2009 San Francisco Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk will be he held October 2 - 4, 2009

trish's is currently at 25% of her personal fund raising goal of $3000

as a team, the 13 ladies on Trisha's Trailblazers have raised over $7000 so far this year.

if you are interested in joining trish and the rest of the girls in this years walk, please contact Trisha to find out how you can register, its not too late.

if you would like to help in trisha's fund raising efforts, donations can be made through trisha's personal 3 Day page

well, its a another great day here. another milestone reached. another step closer to normalcy.

congrats trish, i love you.

thanks all for checking in, and the support you have given us over the past year

a short video of trish's unshort hair..
taken this morning at the cancer center

vote for trish for SF Giants Bat Girl

2009-04-26T20:56:00.000-07:00

MLB (major league baseball) and the susan g. komen foundation have teamed up to promote breast cancer awareness.

each team will have an honorary bat girl during the mother's day game, in trish's case she has chosen the hometown SF Giants.

to vote, please visit the mlb's webpage.

trish's nickname is "0h, say it aint so"
(the "O" is actually a zero, if you search for it)

she is currently listed on the third page

thanks a lot

http://mlb.mlb.com/sponsors/komen/index.jsp

our angel...

2009-04-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

http://trishafaggiolly.blogspot.com/2008/04/you-were-sent-as-angel.html

1 year and a leap day ago...

2009-04-07T05:30:00.000-07:00

a handful of dates will forever be etched into my mind, today is one of those dates.

april 7th, 2008 is the day trish's biopsy results came back.

april 7th, 2008 is the day in which the anxiety from the biopsy became a reality.

april 7th, 2008 is the day trish was diagnosed with breast cancer.

for me, it was a day that began at the SF Giants Opening Day game and ended with an emotional night of wondering how the hell my 32 year old pregnant wife could have cancer. shock, disbelief, anger, helplessness... it was all there.

today, out of pure coincidence, we are heading to the stanford cancer center for trish's 9 week ROUTINE checkup with dr. carlson. afterwards trish and her mom will head upstairs to the infusion treatment area for her tri-weekly dose of herceptin.

this past year brought many sleepless nights full of sadness and angst, but ultimately happiness revealed itself. Happiness when i was able to read these words, the post-surgery biopsy report, to trish on November 21, 2008:

No residual carcinoma is seen in the right mastectomy specimen. No tumor is seen in eighteen total lymph nodes (0/18)

cancer free.

both of us know how fortunate we are to have the caring friends, family and strangers who helped us get through this past year. the groceries, the dinners, the cards, the emails, the blog notes, the flowers, the healing touch, the walks, the rides, the babysitting, the hugs, the tears, the thoughts, the mojo and prayers allowed us to focus on what mattered most, trisha.... and it worked.

thank you again.

when trish was newly diagnosed, she quickly learned how helpful it was to talk with cancer veterans, women who previously ventured down the same path. it helped trish, IT HELPED US, better understand the road ahead. its a time of many questions, not enough answers, difficult choices, worry and sacrifices.

trish knows the importance of having someone who can relate on the same level, and now she is paying this forward. lately she has been given the opportunity to talk with others who themselves are recently diagnosed. trish has always seemed to play "counselor" to friends and family, but i think she may have found her specialty.

life has been good.

trish continues to do tremendously well and today's checkup is just that, a checkup. the herceptin will go smoothly (but groggy) as it always does. caden is 2 years, 7 months old now, seems to grow and inch a day and wakes up each morning with new words in his vocabulary (most real, some we aren't quite sure of). he knows his abc's, is doing well counting and learning his numbers and he is beginning to use his potty chair.

recently, caden saw a wedding picture of trish with her longer hair, and without skipping a beat he pointed and said "momma". as trish's hair continues to grow back, even caden knows things are closer to getting back to normal.

myself, i will be accompanying my beautiful wife to dr. carlson's at 9am, and then i am hopping the train in palo alto to head up to the SF Giants Opening Day game... this year knowing trish is 100% cancer free.

:)

thanks for checking in.. and thanks again for the generous support over the past 366 days.

tahoe, march 2009

a year ago, today...

2009-04-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

a lump was found and the journey began... no fooling.

http://trishafaggiolly.blogspot.com/2008/04/lump.html

happy st. patricia's day...

2009-03-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

years back we may have awoken at the crack of dawn and headed to the local pub for some green beer... needless to say, times have changed a bit.

it wasn't the wee hours of the morning, but st. patty and i headed to stanford this morning for a few shots and thee ole pint of herceptin...
(trish hates being called patty/pat and this will probably result in a kick to my crotch later)

the jameson, bushmills and baileys have been swapped out for pepcid, decadron and benadryl...
and that green beer chaser has been traded in for the herceptin.

im not saying the nurses woke up early to sling a few back, but things are running a little slow around here today... we arrived around 9:40am and the herecptin didn't get going till 11:30am-ish. if there is any luck of the trish on our side, we will be heading out of here around 1pm today.

trish did get a nice surprise today, as the cancer center nurses were walking around and handing out green vases full of daffodils to all the Survivors.

trish is doing great. she is recovering very well from the radiation. all the blisters have dried up and gone away, and her skin has shed that winter coat to reveal some nice new (albeit tender) skin. the new baby skin is a little itchy, but nothing comparable to what she dealt with during the 6 weeks of radiation.

trish's next herceptin appointment, and visit with doc o'carlson will be three weeks from today... April 7th, 2009.

this is a pretty significant date, as it is 366 days after trish was first diagnosed on April 7th, 2008.

anyhow... thanks for checking in.
here are a couple pics from today, i didn't have the real camera with me, so the crappy blackberry pics will have to do for now.

who needs green beer when ya have green herceptin...

Survivor daffodils

No Mas

2009-03-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

trish graduated from radiation today.. and she has a diploma to prove it (seriously)...

her last dose went smoothly, and her radiation team congratulated her on finishing up.

dr. horst met with us and basically said to relax and she will see us in a coupla/few months..

we met with the nurse to go over some skin care procedures for trish's blisters, but other than that... its the last time we need to go downstairs!

so whats on tap...

trish continues on her tri-weekly herceptin for a another couple of months. we aren't exactly sure the end date, but its 2-3 months away..

we will continue our visits with dr. carlson every 9 weeks.

trish next surgery (left side mastectomy, and tissue expanders in both sides) will be no sooner than 6 months away. they want trish's body to heal up, and her skin go back to normal before they do anything else..

after that surgery, trish will keep the expanders in for probably at least 6 months before having the final reconstructive surgery...

so.. another two surgeries in the coming year, but beginning around october.. caden's birthday is in september, and she doesn't want to be recovering during that time... herceptin is coming to an end here soon, and radiation is a thing of the past.

slowly but surely we are getting things crossed off the To Do list..

trish is feeling good physically, excited emotionally, and right now is hosting the library moms & kids over for a play date.

thanks for checking in

¡ Una Mas !

2009-03-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

back at the radiation factory today..

fresh off the 1 week vacation prescribed by dr. horst, trish was able to get a taste of the linear accelerator today.

doc horst took a gander at trish's blisters, and since they are pretty much dried up, decided to proceed with the radiation treatment..

tomorrow will be trish's 28th and final dose of radiation!

three three shall set her free

as much fun as radiation is, the highlight of the day goes to running into trish's (former chemo) buddy, christine, who was at the radiation joint for a checkup.

christine, who finished chemo in september and radiation in december, looks great and has a nice lush head of hair.

trish and christine haven't seen each other in while (although they have talked on the phone), so it was good to see the ladies yapping away, comparing hair and getting caught up..

thats it from here... thanks for checking in

still 2 2 go

2009-02-24T11:09:00.000-08:00

soooo.. trish headed off to her second to last radiation treatment yesterday, so we thought.

dr. horst took a look at trish's blistering skin and decided to give trish a week off from radiation rather than irritate her skin even more, and possibly pop the blisters.

there is maybe a 1/2 dozen blisters, and they are pretty small.. id say about 1/4 the size of an eraser on the end of a pencil, but they are annoying...
especially when trish's skin is really itchy (poison oak like she says), and she cant really scratch much without popping a blister

so the good news... no radiation for 7 days

the bad news... still two more sessions to go

the gooder news..

we are back at the cancer center today for trish's tri-weekly herceptin, and that means trish wont have to double dip the radiation and herceptin today..

we got her about 9:30am and got to the window seat around 10am.
nurse bev is working with trish today and she got trish's pre-med cocktails flowing.

the herceptin will hopefully begin before noon, and we should be home around 2pm

thanks for checking in

2 2 go

2009-02-20T15:58:00.000-08:00

trish finished up the week with her third to last radiation treatment today...

she will be completely finished with her radiation this coming tuesday, the 24th.
(intially i thought it would be monday, but due to the presidents day holiday this week, she got an extra day off)

tuesday is also another herceptin day, so even though she is graduating from radiation it will be another long day at the office. she doesn't meet with dr. carlson next week, so that should speed up the day a little.
nonetheless, it will probably be another 5 hour day.

her skin is getting redder and redder, and tenderer and tenderer but she is dealing well with it. the itchiness bugs her a lot, but i think the sticky clothes is on top of the "what pisses me off" list.
trish lathers herself up with plenty of Medline Remedy lotion and aloe, and because of that, her clothing likes to stick to her skin when its all lubed up..

other than that, she is hanging in there and doing really well.

trish went to her first 3 Day Walk meeting last night down in sunnyvale. the walk isnt till the end of summer, but this was one of the first organizational meetings.

when the folks at the meeting found out she is a Survivor, they gave her a standing ovation. several people even came up to trish to chat, not because they know her, but because they recognized trish from last years walk, when she was on the sidewalk cheering people on just after the opening ceremonies...

trish is excited for this years walk.. last year she had nearly 20 women (and man) walking in her honor... she vowed she would walk this year, and she is gonna do it..

thanks for checking in.. have a good weekend

trish cheering on the walkers @ The SF 3 Day 2008

17 down, 11 to go

2009-02-08T16:10:00.000-08:00

hi everyone, sorry for not posting for a while.

trish is well past the 1/2 point of her radiation treatment, and looks like she will be finishing up on monday february 23rd. that means she has 11 more appointments to go.

redness:
------------------------------
her skin is been holding up pretty well. she is getting pink, but not really sunburn red, at least not yet. she is a little itchy, but has been applying plenty of lotion and aloe every day and that seems to be helping. she will probably toss in hydro-cortisone cream this week for the itchiness, but so far so decent.

fatigue:
-------------------------------
trish thinks the radiation is slowing her down a bit, but lately she has had her hands full. my work sent me to the east coast for two weeks, so trish has been juggling a lot the last 14 days. she had help from our families and friends, but some early mornings and late nights can make for really long days. toss in some preschool, some art classes, story times, radiation everyday, etc.. and it can tire anyone out.

hopefully now that im back, she can get caught up on some sleep (as she is doing right now), and finish up the last 11 days of radiation strong.

nausea:
--------------------------------
she has quezy for a couple weeks, and it might be a variety of things. the radiation oncologist said trish may get some nauseousness from radiation, but due to the radiations location its not likely. it may be be a combination of being sick.. tired.. fatigued... and i was sick prior to leaving.
trish stopped using a new face lotion, and seems to be feeling better.. so who knows, but she is feeling better.

trish did have her tri-weekly dose of herceptin this past tuesday, the 2nd. unfortunately i wasn't able to be there with her, but trish's mom was there to join on a very long day.

- she met with dr. carlson for the first time in 9 weeks in the morning.
- her herceptin infusion was in the afternoon
- radiation was at 3:15pm, albeit trish was a little late to radiation because the herceptin ran longer than planned.
- and the day was capped of with bring caden to a play date

thanks for checking in... trish is doing well, and i have no doubt she will finish up these next 11 radiation appointments strongly.

5 down, 23 to go

2009-01-21T16:45:00.000-08:00

trish had her 5th radiation session today.

so far her skin is doing fine, no redness or irritation yet.. but we expect it to catch up with her about 1/2 way through the remaining sessions.

it looks like from here on out, her appointments will be at 3:15pm which works out really good. caden begins nursery school next week, and as with his other classes (art, gym, etc) everything is in the morning...
so 3:15pm will allow trish to do caden fun time in the morning and radiation fun time in the afternoon while caden is down for his nap.

each appointment has been very quick, in and out in about 15 minutes.. a real nice change from the typical doctor appointments.

so far so good.. thanks for checking in

1 down, 27 to go

2009-01-14T21:04:00.000-08:00

this evening was trish's first encounter with radiation...

we got to stanford around 5:30pm for trish's 5:45pm appointment.

at 5:40pm, trish's radiation specialist brought her to linear accelerator #11 to get her positioned and ready to.

i think it was 5:46pm when trish was done and heading back to the locker room to change.

we knew it would be relatively quick, but i think we were surprised at just how quick with went..

so far so good.. we picked up some of the recommended soap and lotion from the pharmacy on the way out, and headed back to our little guy that continues to leave his cookies laying around the house... several times.

trish is feeling a little better but not totally normal.
hopefully both of them will be soon.

thanks for checking in

more, more, more radiation planning... and toss in a dash of herceptin while you're at it

2009-01-13T09:55:00.000-08:00

so yesterday, monday jan 12th, trish and i headed back to the folks downstairs for a follow up (3rd) radiation planning session..

basically the session was to double check the measurements and the plan they crafted last week.

trish was put under a machine that is similar to the radiation machine, but this was an x-ray machine... they check the measurements, double checked, and had dr. horst come in to sign off on everything. at the end, the radiation specialist, kerry, gave trish her third tattoo...

the tattoo trifecta is now in play.

trish woke up early yesterday morning feeling really crappy...
a little fever, sore throat, achy.. typical flu stuff.. so the planning session yesterday was pretty much a struggle for her, but she got through it. she rested up yesterday afternoon/evening and began feeling better.

she has been doing a lot lately, and i think bringing caden to birthday parties, art classes, gym classes, etc.. landed her with a little bit of the flu.

so we both went to sleep early last night to get caught up on some rest... then around 2am caden decided to start tossing his cookies.. so we got him out of his crib, and brought him in with us... an hour later, he was tossing again... all in all, we saw some cookies 4 times last night, in about a 5 hour span.
for good measure he tossed em again right before we left the house this morning to go back to stanford. so we got a sick little guy on our hands as well.

soo.. that brings us to today...
trish is feeling better than yesterday, but i think she would be feeling much, much better if she got even a little bit of sleep last night.

today is her standard 'every three week' dose of herceptin... to make it even more exciting, we have yet another, another, another, another radiation planning session today during the middle of the infusions. we arrived at stanford this morning at 9am for her infusion. she is currently hooked up to her typical pre-drugs, and when they are done, we need to head down to radiation at 10:30am for the final planning session.

todays session is basically to double check what they did yesterday.
yesterdays session was to double check what they did last week..

so its makes it a little better knowing that so much precaution is taken to make sure everything is perfect.

the first part of the double checking should take 30 minutes, and the next 30 minutes will be spent with the nurses going over skin care, diet, etc... that trish should abide to during the radiation treatment...

so hopefully that will be done by 11:30am, so we can get back upstairs to the infusion lab to start the herceptin infusion...

we had hoped they could start trish's herceptin, and we could go down to the radiation with trish's IV of herceptin in tow... but i guess the hospital has some crazy rule about walking around unattended with some crazy, powerful, toxic drugs hanging off of ya, so that plan was shot down quickly..

so...
its pre-drugs for now...
in about 1/2 hour we will head down to radiation...
about an hour after that we will head back up for herceptin..

another crazy day, but we are use to them...

more updates later

10:40am update:
-----------------------

part 1 of the radiation planning is done... trish got on the machine, got some xrays and met the team she will work with everyday... claire, elaine & kevin.

we just received the schedule for this week's radiation treatments...
wed: 5:45pm
thurs: 5:45pm
fri: 5:00pm

trish prefers an appointment around 1pm, but as things open up, our times will be shifted. as long as the appointments are in the afternoon, trish will be open in the mornings to bring caden to gym, art and preschool when it starts in a couple weeks.

we are now waiting to meet with the nurses to go over skin care, etc...

11:15am update:
----------------------
all done downstairs. we met with the nurse to go over some skin care soaps, lotions, deodorants, etc..
and now we are back in the ITA for trish's herceptin infusion. that should get going shortly, and we should be outta here in about 90 minutes..

1:00pm update:

-----------------------
all done, and we are home... trish is resting, and we will be back tommorrow at 5:45pm for trish's first encounter with the linear accelerator..

here is a link to stanford's radiation oncology site

below is a link to a video of what radiation "looks like"...
its like a big ol x-ray machine that hovers around you and stops at exact points to deliver the radiation. trish will be exposed to the radiation for less than a minute, the rest of the time is getting trish setup on the machine and properly placed.

http://cancer.stanfordhospital.com/forPatients/services/radiationTherapy/linearAccelerator/default?showVideo=fullsize

more radiation planning...

2009-01-05T20:39:00.001-08:00

trish and i took our first trip of the new year over to stanford this morning.

for the first time we took the stairs... down...

the lower level of the cancer center is where the radiation department is located, and today was an appointment for a CT-scan and to get trish prepped for the radiation that will begin probably next wednesday.

jackie, one of the radiation specialists, brought trish in for a CT-scan of her torso. the CT-scan itself only took a few minutes, but jackie took some time to get trish 'fitted' for radiation. she had trish lay down on a bag of liquid styrofoam that slowly hardened to conform to trish's body. this mold will be used by trish for all her radiation treatments, and will allow trish's body to be precisely positioned for each of her 28 treatments.

dr. horst came in and took a pen and drew on trish exactly where she wanted reference points for the radiation. jackie followed up by giving trish her first tattoos ever... they are smaller than a pin head, but they are very important and will be used to align the machine during each of trish's radiation visits.

all in all, the day was pretty quick, smooth and painless.. well, except for the tattoos, trish may say otherwise.

we will head back to stanford next week on the 13th to finish up the planning process, and trish will begin radiation the following day, wednesday the 14th...

thats about it from here... happy new year

tis the season for radiation consultations, fa la la la la, la la la la.

2008-12-29T21:42:00.000-08:00

so earlier today trish and i headed back to our favorite cancer center in the world.

we met for the first time with trish's radiation oncologist, dr. kate horst. although we had not met dr. horst yet, she was familiar with trish's case as she was one of the many doctors consulted last month prior to trish's surgery.

we had a pretty good idea of what to expect with the radiation, but dr. horst filled in all the blanks of the hows, whens, whys, wheres, whos etc... we both liked her, and trish is once again in good hands.

trish will have a follow up appointment either this week or next to have a CT scan of her upper torso so the docs can begin planning a radiation regimen tailored to her. the scan will take a half hour or so and it will take the docs about a week to plan trish's treatment schedule.

trish will have a team of 3-4 radiation technicians that will work with her for the duration of the treatment, and dr. horst will be checking in on trish at least once a week. since we will be there 5 days a week for 5 1/2 weeks, it will be nice to have consistent team of people to work with trish and know exactly the particulars of her.

the sessions will be quick, and dr. horst said we should be in and out in about 30 minutes (or the next radiation is free... kidding). the actual radiation dose only takes a minute or two, with more time being spent on the setup/posistioning of trish and the equipment.

side effects may be some sunburn type redness that will gradually fade away and fatigue. the worst is behind trish, and i know she will have no major issues with the radiation... shes a tough one.

so we dont have a definitive date yet, but we assume trish will begin radiation the week of january 12th

thanks for checking in... have a great new years... cant wait to get 2008 over with.

another day in the ITA...

2008-12-23T09:44:00.000-08:00

welcome back herceptin fans...

not too much going on lately in terms of treatment, so there hasn't been much to write about... but we are back at stanford today for a little holiday time herceptin.

we got here around 9:00am, and if all goes well we should be home around noon.

trish had her scheduled every three month ECHO this past wednesday to check her heart's health, and everything came back normal, so we are good to go with the herceptin today.

nurse lea tapped trish's port around 9:30am and the pre-drugs of benadryl and pepcid are flowing.

trish is continuing to do great, her energy level continues to increase and her hair continues to grow. the last few weeks have been filled with shopping, birthday parties, holiday parties, ornament exchanges and meals with friends. last night trish baked a bunch of cupcakes & chocolate nut bark for the nurses here at the infusion treatment area (ITA).

trish started going back to the gym last week. we decided to get a family membership to the PCC . this will work out great... its within walking distance of our house, and they have a sauna & pool that will help with some low impact exercises for trish.

last week's cold front brought a little snowfall up on skyline boulevard above palo alto, so we brought caden up to see his first snow... caden wasn't too impressed.

last night we headed to eucalyptus avenue in san carlos to check out the phenomenal two block display of christmas lights... caden was impressed.

we still need to bring caden to see santa, and we are gonna do that either today or tommorrow... and if this year is like the previous 2 years, he wont be impressed :)

so thats about it from here...

happy holidays to everyone, and thanks for checking in...

trish & caden checking out the snow at the
monte bello open space preserve

caden & i

the big guy & the little guy

another checkup with dr. j

2008-12-15T22:17:00.000-08:00

earlier this afternoon we headed off to stanford for a quick checkup at with dr. jeffrey.

the checkup itself was nice and quick, and the doc thinks trish's progress over the past month has been terrific. the checkup was sped up a little bit when the fire alarm went off, and we weren't sure if we would have to evacuate or not...

so dr. jeffrey quickly got to work and examined trish. evacuating woulda sucked, as we had already been waiting in the lobby for 2 1/2 hours for our appointment, so we didn't need any more delays.

anyhow, trish can now lift her arm above her head without much discomfort, and pretty much has her full range of motion back. she is back to lifting caden up, and i think thats what she missed the most.

so all is well in recoveryville. dr. jeffrey doesn't need to see trish again for another 6 months, but we will be meeting with her before then to plane for surgery #2.

this wednesday will be trish's scheduled ECHO, and next tuesday we will be back for some egg nog spiked herceptin...

so thats it from here..

a quickie..

2008-12-11T17:27:00.000-08:00

haven't posted in a while, cause not much has been happening since trish's herceptin infusion on december 2nd. not having doctor appointments all the time is kinda nice.

trish has been feeling really good, the soreness is going away with each day, and her range of motion continues to increase.

this past week trish has been able to relax and have and enjoy herself.

her college roommates, ginger and riley, came into town this past weekend and trish was able to get in some quality time with them. all of us headed up to san francisco for some ice skating in union square (caden and i watched), some shopping (caden and i watched) and then some clam chowder on pier 39.

on sunday we heading up hill to skyline to chop down that perfect christmas tree.

our schedule for the coming weeks pretty much looks like this:
- 12/15: checkup with dr. jeffrey
- 12/23: herceptin
- 12/29: consult with the radiation oncologist
- 12/??: another scheduled ECHO of her heart

christmas tree hunting this past sunday

the 10th reindeer, herceptin...

2008-12-02T11:24:00.000-08:00

we met this morning with dr. carlson and his physician assistant kathy...

looks like the doc is just as excited with trish's results as we are, cause he came into the exam room clapping with a big smile on his face.

we talked about trish's progress up to this point, and what we can expect in the coming months...

one thing we learned today is the "1 year of herceptin" trish is continuing on, is retroactive to her first herceptin treatment on may 20th, and not the beginning of the "3 week doses" trish began on october 21st.

so this means trish has 6 more months of herceptin to go, and not the 10 months we initially thought..

dr. carlson also scheduled trish for her standard 3 month ECHO of her heart, and a consult with the radiation oncologist, dr. kathleen horst. not sure when we will meet with dr. horst, but we expect radiation to begin in the next few weeks.

trish will continue on the herceptin every three weeks, but we wont be seeing dr. carlson for another 9 weeks... but we will be back here in 2 weeks to see dr. jeffrey, and those daily radiation appointments will be here before we know it..

after doc carlson we headed up to the ITA... and man, this place is busier than a wal-mart on black friday

around 11:45am trish started on her pre-drugs prior to the herceptin... the benadryl should be kicking in at any moment.

herceptin began around 12:45pm, and should finish up 2:30pm

hopefully we will be heading home in about an hour..
trish is doing great... she is taking a little nap right now, and looking forward to the play date this afternoon at our house..

thanks for checking in

another quick checkup...

2008-12-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

trish and i swung by doctor jeffrey's office this afternoon for a quick little checkup...

the doc wanted to see how the wounds are healing, and give trish some new stretching exercises to do...

everything was quick and smooth.. the doc was happy with the healing, and wants to see trish back in 2 weeks..

tomorrow morning trish will meet with dr. carlson for the first time in 3 weeks, and for the first time post surgery and post "the biopsies showed there aint no cancer in ya anymore". it will be nice to hear what he has to say...

we plan on talking with dr. carlson about the radiation schedule, and afterward we will head upstairs for some holiday herceptin..

trish continues to feel great...
she is out shopping right now, and after the infusion tomorrow she is having the story time moms/kids over in the afternoon for a little play date...

gobble, gobble, bloggle, bloggle

2008-11-27T10:25:00.000-08:00

trish, caden and myself would like to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving.

2008 is a year in which we have a lot to be thankful for, and a year we cant wait to end.

we appreciate all the love and support we've received from everyone this year, it has made all we have gone through more barrett-able.

trish is continuing to do great. dr. jeffrey removed her drains on monday, and she is healing up quite nicely and feeling better with each day.

things are good around here.

enjoy your thanksgiving,

trish, caden & oak (and bella)

the final pathology report...

2008-11-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

one of trish's drains kinda sprang a leak this morning, so we headed over to our favorite surgical oncologist this afternoon for her to take a look.

ended up being a non issue. dr. jeffrey cleaned out some clotting in the tube, put some new bandages on trish, and she is good to go until monday morning, when dr. jeffrey will remove the drains for good.

before dr. jeffrey took a gander at trish's drains, she handed me a sheet of paper, it was trish's final pathology report.

dr. jeffrey asked me to read it aloud to trish, and this is what i read...

No residual carcinoma is seen in the right mastectomy specimen. No tumor is seen in eighteen total lymph nodes (0/18); however, several lymph nodes demonstrate scarring and infiltration by foamy histiocytes suggesting possible involvement prior to therapy.

the english version:
------------------------
the breast tissue and 18 lymph nodes removed from trish WERE NOT CANCEROUS anymore... not even possible micro-metastasis the pet-ct, mri, mammogram & ultrasound may have missed.

several lymph nodes appeared to possibly have been cancerous in the past, but the chemo, herceptin & trish's determination kicked cancer's ass.

without the mastectomy, lymph node dissections and subsequent biopsies, we would not know with 100% certainty if the cancer truly was gone or not.

now we know.

it brings tears to my eyes as i type:

Trish is in complete pathological remission

it shall be celebration ale tonight...

p.s.

trish is out & about spending money everyday, so i guess that means she is feeling great.. :)

do you mish your dish?

2008-11-20T17:06:00.000-08:00

we really, really appreciate all those that have dropped of dinners over the past 7 months, but ill be the first to admit we have been horrible at returning dishes.

with the holidays around the corner, im sure you would love to be reunited with you long lost dish.

send me an email and let me know what we have of yours, and ill track it down and get it back to you.

thanks

oakbarrett@gmail.com

first post-op follow up...

2008-11-18T09:07:00.000-08:00

dr. jeffrey wanted trish to come in yesterday afternoon, so she could take a look at how things are going. so we pointed the car towards the cancer center yesterday, and trish, ria and myself arrived about 10 minutes later..

it didn't take long for dr. jeffrey to see how well trish is doing. in fact, i think she was able to tell just by the glow of trish's face.

after a quick look, dr. jeffrey was thrilled with trish's progress, and thought she was doing really great.

the bandages are clean, the stitches are good, trish is healing well and the drains should be out by monday, possibly even by friday...

she walked trish through some arm exercises she wants her perform, but more importantly she proved to trish that she doesn't need to be scared about moving her arm. dr. jeffrey had trish put her hands behind her back, bend over and swing her arm in a circle, shoulder shrugs, lift her arms up, touch her shoulders, etc... trish was able to do it all without any problems, and im glad dr. jeffrey showed trish she doesn't have to worry about any range of motion, or be concerned with ripping her stitches or drains out.

not all the pathology reports are back yet, but the results so far indicate no presence of cancer cells in the tissue that was removed.

this is good news, but not the final news..
so we will wait until the complete pathology report is back before we get too excited.
we learned early on not to get too high on the good news or low on the bad news.. stay in the middle and it makes the emotional roller coaster easier to handle.

trish is still sore, but thats a given. yesterday she went shopping with her sister, and she continues to do little walks around the neighborhood and around the house. she isn't over doing it, but she is keeping herself moving and keeping herself healing..

she is doing really well, and looks forward to her healing touch session tonight.

the update...

2008-11-13T14:57:00.000-08:00

11:30am friday update:
-------------------------------
im typing this update from home, watching trish hang out in the backyard with caden..

yup.. she is home, and doing great.

the vicodins will take care of the soreness she has, but other than that, she feels really good..

walking, talking, eating, smiling and laughing...

you would never know she got out of surgery last night at 7pm.

its a beautiful day in redwood city... sunny, blue skies, 80 degrees & not a cloud in sight...

a fitting day to be even more cancer free-er...

7:45am friday update:
--------------------------------
trish was finally transferred to her room last night around 9:00pm and looked terrific.
she wasn't too groggy from the anesthesia, and aside from being a little sore, she was feeling great.

around 11:00pm we got her out of bed, and took a stroll down the hall. she has good strength, and can move her arm without any problems. didn't have any problems walking, wasn't dizzy, and the anti-nasea medicine they gave her helped ward off any side effects of the anethesia.

trish slept well considering the nurses come in every few hours to take her vitals, but overall it was a really smooth night. she had a pretty good appetite last night and is now looking forward to her breakfast suprise.

dr. jeffrey said she would stop by this morning to check in on trish, and i can only assume that sometime this afternoon she will be discharged.

so everything is good here.. ill post another update later

7:00pm thursday update
---------------------------------
dr. jeffrey just came out with a big smile and gave us the update..

trish is out of surgery and she did great.
no complication, no issues, no suprised, everything went smoothly.

surgery ran a little late cause it started late, and dr. jeffrey took her time.

trish is in recovering now, and will be transported over to the hospital in about an hour, and thats when we will be able to see her.

dr. jeffrey still believes trish will be able to go home tommorrow

5:00pm thursday update:
---------------------

the update is... there is no update..

we haven't heard anything yet

stay tuned

thursday morning update
--------------------------
we arrived at stanford at 11:30am this morning

about noon, trish was brought in for the standard pre-op stuff... gown, iv and most importantly marking the correct breast... right is right in trish's case, but sometimes right is wrong, so you quickly learn to say things like 'correct' and not right..

ria, yvonne, julie, chrissy and myself were all able to spend time with her before she went into the operating room.

about 12:45pm, she was given an anesthesia technique called a parvertebral block, and then brought to the OR.

trish was in really good spirits this morning, and was ready for this.

surgery should have begun around 1pm, and we expect a ~ 3 hour surgery.

she will be in the recovery area for an hour following surgery, and we hope to see her around 5pm after she is transferred to the hospital side of the medical center, and into her private room.

thanks for checking in...
trish really appreciated all the recent comments, cards, phone calls and visits latley. knowing that she has so many people thinking about her is really helping her get through this...

the cancer center's wireless network is currently down, so my access to the blog is limited, but ill try and keep it updated.. i have not heard from any doc or nurse in the past 2.5 hours, and dont expect to hear from anyone until she comes out of surgery..

thanks

this morning, right before we left for the hospital

surgery info...

2008-11-12T15:38:00.000-08:00

we just found out the time for tommorrow's surgery...

check in: 11:10am
surgery: 1:10pm

surgery will be in the ambulatory surgery center located on the third floor of the cancer center, right above the ITA...

trish will be staying the night in the actual "stanford hospital" and not the cancer center, and will hopefully be home friday.

ITA, oh how we have missed thee

2008-11-11T10:50:00.000-08:00

ahhh... our old friend
the infusion treatment area... the ITA

6 months of coming here every week, sometimes several times a week, and you really get used to it... you get to know the nurses, they get to know you..

now when we only have to swing by about once a month, its nice... but odd.
i still dont think we are use to it, but its great when the nurses stop into trish's suite to say hi and congratulate her on the news, cause they haven't seen her in a while.

nurse chris got trish going on her premeds a little before 10:00am, and she is getting her 3 week dose of herceptin right now, and that should be finished up around noon.
trish is in benadryl-la-la-land, and taking a little nap to get caught up on the sleep caden robbed her of last night.

although we haven't been upstairs to the ITA lately, we have made plenty trips to the cancer center these past few weeks..
yesterday we were back in good old Clinic F on the first floor to visit with trish's surgeon, dr. stefanie jeffrey, to go over the pre-op plan for this thursday's surgery.

as mentioned before, trish is gonna go with a single mastectomy, and remove the leve1 1 & level 2 lymph nodes. we feel this is the best bet for trish, it will allow her to heal the quicker and get on with radiation. a double at this time would mean more recovery, longer surgery, more nights in the hospital, etc...

so lefty gets to hang around for a few more months.

dr. jeffrey is currently doing a research study on identifying cancer cells and their genes in the blood, and asked if trish would like to contribute her blood to the study... trish was more than happy to do so..
while i cant explain all the specifics of the study, i can tell you when dr. jeffrey called last night, she told trish she did not find any cancer cells in her blood!!! :)

after we left the cancer center, we headed home to pick up caden and bring him to the pediatrician.. the little guy got himself his first ear infection... he has been a little grumpy, and (lack of) sleeping over the last couple nights has been an adventure.

anyhow... caden is taking his meds... mommy is taking her meds... and daddy is looking foward to that cold sierra nevada sitting in the fridge..

after the herceptin is done today, we have a 1:30pm meeting with the anesthesiologist to go over whatever it is that anesthesiologists go over with you before surgery.

anyhoooo... trish has been feeling really, really great.
her energy is coming back, her hair is coming back, her eyebrows are coming back... but the smile has always been there.

she is physically and mentally ready for surgery, and slowly but surely we are getting back to normal around here..

dr. jeffrey believes trish will be able to go home friday, so it will be a short stay (in a private room) at the hospital.
trish's out of town support staff will be rolling into town this weekend..
her sister, yvonne, will be flying in from holland..
college roommates, ginger, is flying up from LA and riley is driving down from sacramento.

trish will be in great hands..

thanks for checking in..

the plan going forward...

2008-11-06T12:46:00.000-08:00

so we heard from trish's surgical oncologist, dr. stephanie jeffrey, last night.

as you know, dr. jeffrey, dr. carlson and dr. horst met yesterday to discuss trish's situation. since monday, the doctors have pooled their resources and discussed trish's case with other oncologists at major cancer centers around the united states.

the feedback was unanimous...

based on trish's diagnosis, age and the fact that she has the little guy at home, all the oncologists concurred they all want what is best for her long term health.

what is best is what we have know all along...
a mastectomy of her right side and removal of the first and second level lymph nodes.

trish has surgery scheduled for next thursday, a week from today. she will have a single mastectomy at that time, as well as lymph nodes removed.

5 weeks of radiation will follow a month or so later after she has had time to heal.

the reconstruction process will be begin after she has recovered from radiation.

the first step of reconstruction will be to remove her left breast, and place tissue expanders in both the right and left sides at that time.

several months later, there will be another surgery for artificial implants.

our emotions have been bounced around like ping pong balls lately, but in the end, this doesn't differ from what we had already prepared ourselves for had surgery been this past tuesday.

dr. jeffrey didn't give us any false hope, and i applaud her for thinking outside the box, and questioning "the norm".

it helps reinforce the decision we had already made, when trish's doctors take the time to think about her specific situation, and discuss it with other oncologists at other institutions to formulate plan tailored to her needs, and not come up with a plan "just because that is the way its always been done" .

although we may have wished for a different plan,
this does not change the fact that TRISH IS CANCER FREE.

surgery... postponed.

2008-11-03T18:48:00.000-08:00

well today was interesting to say the least.

when we met with dr. jeffrey this afternoon, she questioned why she is being asked to remove the breast of a women who shows no signs of cancer in her body.

this kinda through us for a loop, cause we thought we would be discussing a double mastectomy, and how many lymph nodes would need to be removed...

but rather the day was spent discussing different approaches to trish's (possible) surgery.

as you may recall, the first time we met with dr. jeffrey, she commented that trish might not even need her surgical services because she felt nothing of concern in terms of cancer in her breast and lymph nodes.

she then ordered the pet-ct, mri, mammogram and ultrasound to see exactly how trish's body had responded to the chemo & herceptin.

with the test results coming back a couple weeks agao, we now know trish's body shows no signs of cancer. dr. jeffrey wonders if surgery is needed, and if just radiation would be sufficient.

another thought is to do a sentinel lymph node biopsy to see if there is any trace of residual cancer cells the chemo didn't kill & the tests/scans did not detect;
if there is... continue as planned with the double & lymphnodes
if there isn't... continue with just radiation

this afternoon, dr. jeffrey spoke with dr. carlson, who disagrees, and suggests a single mastectomy and a removing Level 1 & Level 2 lymph nodes.

there are enough questions in the air right now, that trish and i decided to postpone the surgery until we know a little more.

next thursday, ten days from now, is when surgery is rescheduled for, but at this time we dont know WHAT exactly that surgery may entail.

i think its a good thing that doctors are butting heads at this point. dr. jeffrey said if there was any sign of cancer that chemo didn't rectify, she would surely operate. but with trish, there is no cancer...

this goes against "traditional" approaches, as with most folks, you kinda get the chemo, radiation, surgery... that "standard" cancer trifecta.

but it does make ya think for a bit... if there is no cancer, do you need surgery?
if dr. jeffrey didn't know trish was a breast cancer survivor, and based on all her scans and tests, would a mastectomy still be a viable option?

talk about food for thought... it really gets your head spinning.

ultimately, the choice is still up to trish, but we are gonna take the next 10 days to gather some info and decide then...

it may very well be the same exact choice that we planned on taking tomorrow morning.

to help with the choice, dr. jeffrey is consulting with several colleagues tomorrow, including one a doctor at MD Anderson to gather more information of similar situations.
additionally, dr. carlson, dr. jeffrey and dr. kathleen horst, a radiation oncologist at stanford, will sit down on wednesday to discuss trish's surgery face to face.

enough questions were raised today to take a pause for thought...

we are gonna discuss it over the coming week, and re-make a tough decision.
what we do know is that we will not do anything that jeopardizes trish's health. we aren't looking for her to be a guinea pig, we have come too far for that.. but we are open to hearing different approaches, and possibly even more "current" thoughts...

as for the days other events...
our morning meeting for dr. rockson's lymphedema study went quick... no wait, and 15 minutes of measurements, and trish was done..
the radioactive dye and scan was canceled for now.

anyhow... we appreciate all those good thoughts and prayers, we just wont need them tomorrow morning..

thanks for checking in..

its now time to relax and have a frosty sierra nevada (or six)

the beginning of a hectic week...

2008-11-03T10:22:00.000-08:00

tommorrow morning is trish's surgery for her double mastectomy.

we have decided the best course of treatment for trish is to remove both, and have tissue expanders placed AFTER radiation. this will result in one additional surgery for the tissue expanders a month or so after radiation, but we feel it will give the best results in terms of radiation effectiveness.

priority #1 is trish's long term health.

so tommorrow, we will be checking in for pre-op at 6am, with surgery beginning around 7am and scheduled for 3 hours. the doc said expect two nights in the hospital, but she might go home after 1 night, depending on how she is doing..

today we have our hands full.

at 11:00am, we have a meeting at the cancer center for a research study on lymphedema that trish will be a part of. lymphedema is a possible side affect when lymph nodes are removed. today is basically a meeting to get trish's pre-surgery baseline.

at 12:00pm, we are meeting with dr. jeffery to go over the plan for tomorrow morning's surgery.

at 2:00pm, trish is scheduled to get pumped full of some radioactive stuff

at 4:00pm, trish will have a scan done to get some pictures of her lymph node system, thus the need for the radioactive juice two hours earlier..

so... we are leaving home shortly to head to palo alto. ill try and leave some updates a little bit later..

a quicker update...

2008-10-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

we got a call from dr. jeffery's office yesterday...

trish's surgery has been bumped from november 11th, to november 4th.

to go from having 10 days to mentally and physically prepare, to a few... its kinda crazy, but we have been waiting for this day all along.

trish is doing great physically.

emotionally she knows this is all part of the plan of living a low maintenance life, but it doesn't mean she has to like it...

the silver lining: november 11th is a scheduled herceptin day. if she had surgery on that day, herceptin would have been postponed...
she will now be able to stay on her schedule to worryfreetown, usa.

a quick and overdue update...

2008-10-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

hi all..

its been a little over a week since i last updated everyone.

since we got the good news last, last monday, we have been busy meeting with the docs to arrange the next couple months. so this is basically the run down from the last week..

monday 10/20:
got the great news

tuesday 10/21:
met with doc carlson, and he reinforced how well trish has done... he agreed with the tests, and No Evidence of Disease, and said trish could not be doing any better. he gave trish her orders for herceptin, and headed upstairs for the 1.5 hour infusion (3x the amount now that trish gets it every 3 weeks). we will meet with dr. carlson again in 6 weeks (after surgery), then we will be on a 9 week schedule of seeing him.

wednesday 10/22:
in the morning, we headed back to the cancer center for a flu shot that they forgot to give trish on tuesday. feeling great, trish and ria brought caden and lucas to the woodside library for story time a little later.

thursday 10/23:
trish, jane and i heading back to the stanford cancer center for a cancer fair / survivor celebration.. got some good information on some up coming clinical trials, post surgery bras and saw chemo buddy christine.

in the evening, trish headed to healing touch.

friday 10/24:
trish, ria and i heading back to stanford for our first meeting with the plastic surgeon, dr. gordon lee (scroll to the bottom for his bio). we both liked dr. lee, and we talked for a while about the choices that need to be made going forward. dr. lee has a 1 hour long video of a presentation he gave on the topic of breast reconstruction, and talks in detail of all the options available today. if you are interested, here is the link to it:

What's New in Breast Reconstruction? on www.researchchannel.org

basically the choices are:

mastectomy: single or double

tissue expanders: same day as mastectomy, or after radiation (both have pros/cons physically and mentally) tissue expanders make it more difficult to deliver radiation, but there isn't any definitive study saying if radiation is less effective with expanders in the way, but it is harder getting a good angle to deliver it.

tissue expanders are basically implants that get filled with saline every week to help expand the tissue to the size of implants you will have in the future...
they also help emotionally knowing that "something" is there immediately after surgery.

reconstruction: DIEP-Flap (tummy tuck, and implants using your own tissue) or artifical implants (saline or silicon)... the silicon of today is much different than the silicon implants the FDA banned in 1992. they were reintroduced by the FDA 2 years ago, and 16 years of research has made a difference in their safety, and currently 95% of dr. lee's patients opt for silicon as it feels more natural and comfortable, especially when laying down on your stomach. this is a decision that we will make later down the road, not now.

timing: if trish decides on a double mastectomy, she can choose to remove both at the same time, or just remove the "cancer" side now, and wait to remove the second later

so its kinda information overload. there is no perfect solution, no simple solution.

scenario 1: remove both and have tissue expanders put in during that surgery, have radiation for 5 weeks, then put in the implants in a second surgery months later.
pros: least amount of surgeries, wake up after surgery with "something" there
cons: radiation effectiveness MIGHT be compromised with the expanders in place. the skin may be affected by radiation, and wont be repairable.

scenario 2: remove one, and do not have tissue expanders put in. have radiation for 5 weeks, have a second surgery to remove the second breast and put expanders in both sides at that time, followed by third surgery for implants several months down the line
pros:best way to deliver radiation, still have 1 breast for the time being.
cons:wake up with "nothing" on the bad side. is having 1 breast really better than having none, or is that worse? most # of surgeries.
symmetry may suffer as mastectomies happen during different surgeries.

scenario 3: remove both, no expanders. have radiation. have a second surgery to put in expanders... have a third surgery months down the road to put in final implants.
pros: radiation can be delivered easier, symmetry will be the same on the left and right.
cons: most # of surgeries, wake up with nothing on both sides.

i think we know what decisions will be made, but its really a lot to absorb, and make a good educated decision on whats best for trish. you can't just take into account the short term, or the long term... you need to take each into consideration.

there are physical and emotional extremes with all of the choices, but we need to weigh both and determine what is the best route to take for trish. although the short term is easiest to think about right now, we need to think about a year, 5, 10, 20 down the road, and the choices we make now, will affect the results later.

this will all be a distant memory in time, and although some choices may to tough to endure for the short term, trish is mentally and physically tough, and it wont be any worse than anything she has faced in the past six months.

needless to say, its a real personal decision.... and a difficult one.

saturday 10/25:
trish and steve took the boys to the redwood parents nursery school for a halloween fun day

sunday 10/26:
trish and cerena took the boys up to burlingame to get their hair cut

i finally got the bathroom countertop complete.. ive wanted to build a concrete countertop for 6 years, and i finally had an opportunity. took a few weeks, but its done. we had the terlet, then the tub and then the shower... its nice to finally have a working sink to go with it all... the bathroom is 98% complete now.

monday 10/27:
trish did some grocery shopping and did some baking for monday's play date.

tuesday 10/28: today... tuesday... and the first time in a long time we didn't have a chemo or herceptin appointment.. it was kinda nice. trish hosted a play date this afternoon with the story time moms and their kids. it was great having a bunch of kids play around in the backyard and decorate pumpkins.. i think everyone had a fun time.

we got a call from dr. jeffrey's office this morning, and trish's surgery is currently scheduled for tuesday, november 11th. we know this needs to be done, and surgery has always been "in the next month or so..." but now we know the day, and it makes it tougher, it makes it real, knowing that the date is closing in. nonetheless, the whole point of this is to get trish 100% healthy so we can get on with a worry-less, low maintenance life..

so over the past week, trish has been feeling absolutely great.
no signs of any sickness, fever, nausea, etc...
she is normal, and her hair is starting to come back, and she is really excited for that.

trish has been getting out of the house everyday, walking, driving and shopping.. just trying to lead a normal life. she pushes herself a little bit more each day, but makes sure she isn't overdoing it. her strength is on its way back and she seems to be smiling a little more these days.

sorry for not updating anything lately, but its been a great week and we just kinda savored it...

it hasn't been like this in a while.

thanks for checking in...

Hay, its today's play date

us...

the missing link, the bathroom sink

the test results are back...

2008-10-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

this morning, dr. jeffrey's office called with the results of trish's MRI, PET-scan, mammogram and ultrasound she had over the past coupla weeks.

there are no signs of cancer in trish's body.

yes, i typed that correctly.

mri: found nothing of concern
pet-scan: showed her lymph nodes have shrunk, and they are of no concern
mammogram & ultrasound: could not detect the cancer in trish's right breast, and did not show any signs of cancer in a new lump discovered in trish's left breast two weeks ago.

its been a very emotional day, a good day... a great day. this does not change surgery, radiation, etc, but trish has responded tremendously to the chemotherapy and herceptin. we still have plenty of questions for dr. jeffrey and dr. carlson, as we received the news from dr. jeffrey's nurse over the phone. but for today, we can relax a little.

we have an appointment with dr. carlson tomorrow morning and afterward trish will begin her 12 month regimen of herceptin.

i literally just finished watching 'Living Proof' a few minutes ago. it debuted on Lifetime this past saturday night, and we tivo'ed it. there will be an encore presentation tonight (monday) at 8pm on Lifetime, and i encourage everyone to watch it. even though trish was not part of the clinical trials a decade ago, it was like i was watching my life on tv. many women have benefited from the work of dr. slamon & genentech since herceptin's approval by the FDA on September 25th, 1998.

'Living Proof' is the true story of oncologist and researcher Dr. Dennis Slamon, the UCLA doctor who helped develop the breast cancer drug Herceptin, and his effort to keep the drug trials afloat. His inspiring journey shows the sacrifices he makes in his personal life and the obstacles that he faces to get the drug approved. Thousands of lives have been saved because of his dedication. (Based on Robert Bazell’s book “Her-2.”) Renée Zellweger, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, and screenwriter Vivienne Radkoff are the executive producers

trish is living proof.

now that we have the weekend behind us...

2008-10-14T09:02:00.001-07:00

its tuesday morning, how bout a big bowl of herceptin and a side of benadryl.

trish, myself and our special VIP guest star, ginger, headed to the cancer center this morning to get the last treatment of round 3.

its been a long handful of days leading up to today, but trish is doing really well. no signs of any fever. trish was really happy to get home and spend some time in her own bed with caden.

nurse denise tapped trish's port around 8:50am and starting the premeds.
denise also gave us the results of trish's ANC count from yesterday (we left the hospital before we knew the actual number...)

trish has gone way up :)

Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
friday (trip to the ER): 0.25
saturday: 0.3
sunday: 0.9

the drum roll please...

monday's test results that we received today: 5.2

this is the highest they have been since trish began the FEC rounds of chemo on august 19th. the neupogen is doing its job, and trish's body is recovering nicely. her platelet count is at an all time low, even lower than friday nights trip to the ER, but they will come back up on their own, and it isn't a concern right now.

so.. the deacadron and benadryl and dripping right now, and the 30 minutes of herceptin should begin in the next half hour or so...

later this afternoon trish will have her mammogram and ultrasound.

after today's treatment, i believe she is switching her herceptin schedule from once a week, to once every three weeks. we will meet with dr. carlson next tuesday, but im not sure if trish will begin her new herceptin schedule next tuesday, or three tuesdays from now.

thanks for checking in...

10:30am update
-----------------------------
the herceptin is just about done... just a quick heparin flush of the port, and we are out of here... early lunch today, we just cant decide where..

trish & ginger
(taking different kinds of shots)

the weekend update... addendum

2008-10-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

so...

guess i put the cart before the blog... or the blog before the horse, or put a blog in my mouth or a foot in my blog.... i dunno what the hell happened...

after we finished the pet-scan on friday ~ 5pm-ish, we headed to draegers to get trish some food, since she hadn't eaten for almost 24 hours.

about an hour after we got home, trish started running a fever up to 101.4ish

we called the emergency "on-call"ogist... and she said....

"bring her into the ER"

and i was thinking

"WTF, SOB, MF, $#!&"

so we headed over to the stanford ER friday evening around 7pm..
again, if it was business hours, we woulda went over to doc carlson, but nahh... couldn't have that kinda luck...
at the ER, they triaged trish in the waiting room and her fever was 99.7.

the benefits of being a cancer chick with a fever is that are pretty quick to get you into a private room, so again, we were put into a pediatric private ER room, and got the same great nurse, monika, we had last trip to the ER.

i kept taking trish's temp every 45 minutes or so, and we saw it go down pretty quick to a normal 98.6 ish an hour or two later..
no drugs, no iv's, no nothing.. hell, we hadn't even seen a real doctor at that point.

dr. oak says it was all part of the long day of no food, some radioactive dye getting pushed into her and her body being a little grumpy at her.

my money was on us coming home that night, perhaps even with a prescription for an antibiotic...

well.. dr. oak was wrong... and glad i didn't wager the 'under' on time spent at the hosptial this weekend.

the real doc came in around 11:30pm (4+ hours later) to let us know that trish's blood counts were really low..

ANC: .25

so... this meant they were gonna admit her to the hospital until her counts went up, and make sure the fever didn't return.

we (well, actually I) weren't too thrilled, but its all to get her better... we are thinking long term here, and if it means a short stay at the hosptial, sobeit..

i left the ER saturday morning around 1:30am, and trish was moved to her private hospital room at 2:30am.

on saturday, her counts had gone up a little..

ANC: .6 (the chemo cutoff is 1.5)

all this time, trish was feeling really good.. absolutely no sign of fever, they put her on some antibiotics to make sure they killed anything that may have been growing in her.

on friday night in the ER, they did a chest xray, and on saturday they told us the results...
the docs maybe saw some stuff that lead them to maybe believe that trish maybe had some maybe little perhaps onset of some maybe pneumonia... i call bullshit, but i aint the doc, and we gotta keep her safe..

so they gave her more antibiotics for the pseudo-pneumonia that may or may not mighta have been there

this meant there was no way they were gonna release her on saturday... ahh another night at stanford penitentiary, oh joy.

its like a little weekend getaway with a craftmatic adjustable bed.

so sunday... no fever, blood counts still creeping up, still on the antibiotics, eating good, looking good, feeling good, walking good...

ANC: .9 (still low, but going in the right direction.. frame of reference, she was .36 and at home, the day before my sisters wedding that she didn't go to..)

we took a walk around the hospital, and again... she was feeling really good, laughing and in good spirits.. just disappointed that she was still stuck in this fine facility...

part of her was comfortable with the fact that she was in the right place if her health decided to go south, but man... a 2 hour long fever that went away by itself 2 days ago.. dr. oak remained skeptical and was lobbying for the doctors to vote her off the island... but i kinda think trish was getting too attached to the awesome nurses she had... julia & patty

the real docs came in on sunday morning and basically said "you should be home by tuesday"... WTF, tuesday? whats wrong with monday... doc oak was wrong again.

anyhow... better being safe than sorry... trish's health is the priority and i guess we gotta make sure her 2 hour fever from friday doesn't come back sunday night or even monday.
so another night at the st. regis stanford, another night of anitbiotics, another night of hospital food.

so now as i pull my foot out of my blog, its monday morning, and the docs just came in... her monday blood test results are still pending, but her white blood counts (different than absolute neutrophil count) are back, and they are way up, so they are assuming the ANC will be within normal range..

the docs and nurse said trish should be paroled out of here by 11:30am... doc oak is happy.

literally 5 minutes before the parole board walked in to release trish, trish rubbed her nose cause it felt dry, and it sprung a leak. nose bleeds haven't been common for trish, but neither has 4 days of conditioned, dry, hospital air... i thought for sure the docs were gonna put her in solitary confiment for another week, but the docs didn't feel it was caused by anything but her nose being dry..

so thats that.. she, i , everyone is looking forward to getting her home.. she misses caden, and caden misses his mamma... she isn't sick, so lets get her the hell out of here..

i thought the friday night, saturday night, sunday night stay was a little overkill, but thats what i get for getting my doctorate from the local junior college...

ya can never be to careful with our favorite little cancer girl...

anyhow... trish's friend ginger flies in tonight from LAX, assuming the airport hasn't burned down by then...
we have herceptin, mammogram and ultrasound tommorrow...

just another (normal) hectic week...

trish & the nosebleed kit

i believe the C stands for Cell, as in jail...

the weekend update...

2008-10-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

a quick update

monday:
we met with dr. jeffrey, the surgical oncologist. she ordered a few tests/scans for trish before we decide how to proceed with surgery.

tuesday:
trish had her herceptin as scheduled.. we didn't realize it until we got into bed that night, but it was trish's 6 month anniversary of her diagnosis...

wednesday:
trish, ria and I went back to stanford for an MRI...
scheduled at 8pm, it finally started around 9pm, and we left around 10pm... long night, but we did swing by town & country to check out the pink lights (but i forgot my camera)

thursday:
trish picked up her new (to us) car... a little soccer mom volvo suv rig..
her current car goes bye bye on monday, so we needed to get her something to drive as i dont trust her riding a bike with my son.

friday:
back at stanford right now for her PET (positron emission tomography) scan...
they are gonna pump her with a radioactive chemical and it will be absorbed by any cancerous cells.. she will then go into a scan, and the resulting image will show the extent and location of any cancer.. she went in about 2:30pm, and they said it would take 2 hours... so another waiting game for ria and i.

trish is doing good today, just a little grumpy and tired.
she hasn't been able to eat anything before the scan today.. it woulda been nice to have it scheduled in the morning, rather than mid afternoon... but she is looking forward to a deli sandwich and a caesar salad when this is done.

saturday:
tomorrow is kinda of weird day for trish.
she is basically getting fired from work. her 6 month short term disability is up, and she will now go onto long term disability, but her employer, GlaxoSmithKline, will terminate her employment tomorrow.

so no more company car, laptop, etc...
but more importantly, trish is disappointed that she is losing her job. she has spent 7 years with GSK as a pharmaceutical sales rep in several different specialty areas, and has enjoyed the interactions and friendships she has made with co-workers, doctors and staff over the years. although she hasn't been able to work in the past six months, she will miss her job and being part of the GSK team.

maybe she can start pushing Herceptin, a Genentech product, once we get all this stuff behind us. :)

speaking of herceptin and genentech..

trish has been asked by genentech to give a presentation about the benefits herceptin has on her type of cancer, Her-2/neu Positve. the audience will be 100 or so genentech employees and trish will be introduced by the senior vice president of bio-oncology.
trish has been planning her presentation for a couple weeks, and looks forwards to share her story with the fine folks of genentech.

unfortunately, this is NOT a public event, so you wont see me out front scalping tickets for triple face value.

whats on tap...

tuesday:
trish will get her scheduled herceptin, as well as a mammogram and ultrasound of her boobies.. trish's college roommate, ginger, is flying up from LA to visit for the day, so she is really excited to see ginger, but having a machine smash her boobies... not so much.

friday:
the herceptin talk with genetech

next, next monday
the plan right now is to meet back with dr. jeffrey on monday, october 20th, to go over the results of the mri, pet scan, mammogram and ultrasound..

anyhow, trish is still feeling really good.. by far the best couple of weeks in a while. the biggest issue she is having these days is the heartburn... and if thats the biggest issue, we will take it..

she has been doing a fair amount of walking this past week, and its helped her emotionally and physically. she has also been able to hang out with some girlfriends, outside of the house, this week and she really enjoyed the time doing that.

thanks for checking in, enjoy the weekend...

H-Town, USA

2008-10-07T09:26:00.000-07:00

herceptintown, antibodyville, 94305, ITA...
whatever ya want to call it, we are back..

today should be a relatively quick day... 30 minutes of herceptin, and we should get home before caden goes down for his nap...

its 9:30am and nurse shelby is gonna tap trish's port, and get some premeds going in..
herceptin will probably/hopefully start in about an hour or so..

trish, jane, cerena and i made a trip to the cancer center yesterday to have our first meeting with trish's surgical oncologist, Dr. Stefanie Jeffrey.

we went over a rough time line of when surgery will be... 4-6 weeks away, as we already knew. as for the exact surgical strategy, dr. jeffrey wants to make that decision after an updated round of scans are performed. she wants to see how trish's body has reacted to the chemo, but after a physical exam of her boobie and lymphnodes, dr. jeffrey was really happy with how trish's body has responded to the chemo, saying things such as 'great' and 'this is awesome'.

the doc ordered several scans that trish will have in the coming week or so. starting off with an MRI on wednesday night, and a PET-CT friday afternoon. next week there will be a mammogram and an ultrasound.

the results of the scans will will give a better insight on exactly how we should proceed with the mastectomy and determine the extent of the lymph node removal.

this was the first time any of us have met dr. jeffrey, and we were really happy with her. she obviously knows her trade, but it was really easy to talk with her about different options/methods/philosophies, etc..
all four of us left with a good feeling, knowing that trish would be in great hands, and i think having a female surgeon will help ease trish's anxiety a bit.

the highlight of the day for trish was when we were on our way to meet dr. jeffrey, we saw another chemo buddy, cindi, in the waiting room for her doctor.
trish and cindi have only met once, while getting chemo months back, but they have exchanged many emails since then. both the the girls are looking and feeling good.. its really nice to see others around ya getting better as well.

after we left the cancer center, we headed over to town & country village in palo alto for a little lunch at Douce France, a french cafe and pastry shop.

october is breast cancer awareness month, and town & country village is hosting a fundraiser called "Town & Country Goes Pink", and all proceeds go to a local organization called Breast Cancer Connections.

http://www.paloaltodailynews.com/article/2008-10-6-community-fund

During the month of October, Town & Country Village in Palo Alto will be draped in 5,600 pink lights in support of National Breast Cancer Awareness month. It's the first year Town & Country management and the shopping center's 20 tenants have partnered with the Palo Alto-based nonprofit Breast Cancer Connections to "shine a light" on the disease and broadcast the availability of helpful services.

The shopping center presented a kickoff reception for "Town & Country Goes Pink" on Wednesday night, and general manager Joan Fantazia invited the community to purchase a light for $10 to honor a friend or loved one who has experienced breast cancer. One hundred percent of the funds raised by the lights will go to the free support services provided by Breast Cancer Connections.

Douce France's owner, victor, and trish's coworker rochelle, purchased a pink light in honor of trish... since it was lunch time, we didn't get to see the lights turned on, but we plan on taking a look tomorrow night after we finish up the MRI.

the last few days have continued to be good to trish...
she is eating well, and is just battling a little bit of nausea..
nothing too extreme, nothing unexpected.
she is getting sore from the neupogen shots (this is a good thing, unfortunately)

so, considering by this time, last round, we were sitting in the emergency room...
trish is doing much better in her 3rd round (insert cliché here).

thanks for checking in...

a quick update...
-------------------------------

11:15am: herceptin is done... just waiting on a quick flush and we are outta here..

last call for chemo...

2008-10-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

TODAY IS TRISH'S LAST CHEMO TREATMENT!

its friday, and we arrived back at chemoville around 9:45am for trish's second (AND LAST) dose of 5-FU this week.

im not gonna be able to call this place chemoville anymore, as TODAY IS THE LAST OF THE CHEMO... i guess ill have to call the place "monoclonal-antibodyville"

we are in suite B2 today with nurse margaret.
trish is currently taking a little nap while she gets her hydration IV. i dont think she needs the hydration, but might as well be safer than sorrier, as we are here anyhow for HER LAST DOSE OF CHEMO (in case i hadn't mentioned that)

we still need to come back to the cancer center to hang out with our favorite nurses, and to get trish's IV's of herceptin (an antibody, not chemo), over the next two tuesdays, and then continuing every 3 weeks for the next year...

but as for any and all of the actual "chemotherapy" drugs she has received in the last 164 days (since april 22, 2008)

- the adriamycin
- the cytoxan
- the 5-FU
- the taxol
- the epirubicin

she will be done with all of it in a couple hours :)

trish has felt really good this week... much better than round uno y dos..
we are hoping this continues, but we know it takes 7-10 days for the tuesday's "big dose" of chemo to really start kicking her ass..

on wednseday trish put up all the halloween decorations in the morning, and monica's mom, melissa, stopped by to visit deliver a beautiful blanket made by one of her coworkers.

yesterday, she went shopping at whole foods with her dad in the morning, and to healing touch with her mom in the evening. her stamina has been pretty decent, nausea has been under control (she took the last of the 3 emend pills). she has had a good appetite and continues to be relatively regular..
so far, so good..

so today:

at 10:20am, the hydration IV began

at 11:50am, nurse margaret began the manual push of the 5-FU

five minutes later, on October 3, 2008 at 11:55am, trish completed her chemotherapy.

so how bout a big FU to the 5-FU and its friends

today is a big day, a huge milestone... today is a milkshake day...

still plenty ahead of us, but its really nice to utter the words

CHEMO IS OVER.

trish getting her final push of 5-FU, while cuddled up with her new prayer blanket handmade by Pam of the Valley Church of Cupertino

tuesdays with trisha...

2008-09-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

so today is the first day of the last round of chemo...
a couple more tuesdays and the weekly treatments will be complete.

its 10:40am the blood draw just completed, and we are heading down to doc carlson's office...

hopefully trish's counts are chemo ready...

more updates later..

1:40pm update
-----------------------
12:40pm: dr. carlson and dr. pose came in and examined trish. dr. carlson continues to be pleased with trish's progress, and informed us that her white counts are back up to a range in which she can get chemo.

after we finished with our visit with dr. carlson and dr. pose, we headed to the pharmacy to drop off some prescriptions and pick up trish's prescription of emend.

its 1:45pm and nurse denise is getting trish started on her typical three predrugs.

we are hanging out in suite c1 today and trish is getting comfy on the bed.
we were joined for the morning hours with special guest star nicole, but she had to leave to go do real work... but it was nice having her around so trish and her could gab.

this past week has been an interesting one...
trish's ANC counts were really low, but on their way back up.
they are still technically low, but good enough to get her infusions.
the past week has by far been the best trish has felt since beginning the FEC+H regimen.
again, her ANC counts have nothing to do with how she feels, just how well her body reacts to germs/virus/infections. its been really nice to see her feeling good.

we still need to keep trish healthy, so we will keep her in a mini bubble... bella is gonna get kicked out in a week, and we will put the house on mini lock down again... the period of 7-10 days after the "big chemo day" is when her immune system will be its lowest, so we will be extra cautious during this time.

we have switched trish back to the "old" white cell drug, neupogen. so instead of coming in to the cancer center on saturday for her 1 shot of neulasta, ill begin giving her shots of neupogen again... 10 days in a row... oh joy.

trish has felt really good this past week, but we have been making sure we keep her in a clean environment. sunday we broke all the rules and had a party for caden's 2nd birthday. we had the part out front, and kept the house off limits, so most of the germies stayed outside..

so the week in review....
-------------------------------------------
wednesday, thursday and friday:
pretty uneventful as i cant even remember what went on. i know we spent most of the week getting things ready for caden's birthday.

saturday 9/27:
hmmmm... saturday was a rough one, a really emotional day for us.

september 27th was the due date of our baby girl.

in the morning, trish, caden and I headed out to find the perfect tree at the redwood city nursery, so we could plant it in our backyard in memory of our little angel.
as we searched for a tree, it was obvious when we found the perfect one...

a 'pink weeping cherry tree', that will someday look like this as it grows up and begins blooming its flowers in the springtime.

we also came across an evergreen shrub that blooms small pink flowers in the winter and spring, called a 'pink breath of heaven' and felt this would be perfect in our front yard.

both will be beautiful additions to our home

ive spent the last couple weeks making a decorative concrete block that holds a recessed plaque inscribed with the touching words trish's brother, steve, wrote on april 17th, that will sit beside the tree.

the baby will forever be in our hearts.

sunday 9/28:
with the downs, comes the ups...

sunday was caden's 2nd birthday party, and it was pirate themed complete with a pirate bounce house and pirate's chest full of treasures for the kids to dig through and discover, eye patches, bandannas (trish had a nice pink pirate one on)
it was a really nice day with a bunch of caden's little friends. the kids had fun, and i think the parents did as well (even if we didn't have a tv with football on... sorry... house was on lock down from the germies). trish was able to get caught up with a lot of folks she hasn't seen in a while since she has been staying away from story time and the caden's gym class.

monday 9/29:
caden officially turned 2 on monday at 2:13pm.
at 5:30pm i brought caden to the pediatrician getting him looked at for a little cold. caden woke up with a really sneezing, runny nose and a puffy eye. we decided he shouldn't go to his gym class at the rec center. he was a happy little camper, but we wanted to get him looked at, more for trish's sake, in case it was an onset of pink eye or something funky... dr. lynch said it was just a typical kid cold, and not surprising since there was a bunch of kids together the previous day. his eye was just a little puffy from being congested, and nothing crusty or oozey to worry about.

tuesday 9/30:
its today again... and about 2:45pm now..
nurse denise has given trish her predrugs and zofran, and is gonna get started on the rest of the stuff soon.

we will be back tommorrow for a quick hydration, and again on friday for trish's second dose of 5-FU and another hydration...

ill post another update later, once the chemo is a flowin...

trish and i just want to congratulate trish's chemo buddy, christine, who finished up her chemo today!!
trish and christine have seen each other every other tuesday for several months here at the cancer center, and have shared a lot with one another. its great to see both of them on the home stretch.

4:15pm update
---------------------------
nurse denise is finishing up the push of trish's chemo drugs, and she will soon hang the 1 hour bag of cytoxan... after that we should be good to go home...

till then, we are watching christina applegate talking with oprah about her breast cancer & double mastectomy.

for our angel

the last day of round two...

2008-09-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

so trish and i got to the infusion center today around 8:20am...
by 8:30am, we were sitting in window seat C4 awaiting the beginning of the end of round 2.

we are waiting on getting orders from the dr. carlson to run a blood test for trish.
typically trish doesn't get her blood counts on the 'herceptin only' days, as she can basically get the herceptin regardless of her counts.

her counts have been really low recently, so we want the piece of mind of knowing exactly where they are at... for better or worse..
so.. we will wait until we get the ok from the docs..

so the weekly rewind... let me see what i can remember..

last tuesday morning, we headed off to the stanford ER.. it ended up trish has a bacterial infection that some antibiotics knocked out. trish's blood counts were really good, eventhough she felt like crap for a little bit... but she did get her herceptin, and stayed on schedule.

wednesday:
she was released after an overnight stay in the hospital, and one of the dishcarge orders was to watch for any sores in her mouth. trish has been lucky throughout the chemo, and has only had one or two small sores that didn't last long.

thursday:
a cold sore began developing on her lip, so we watched it.. she felt good, no fever, eating and drinking well. she heading to healing touch that evening for her standing appointment with chanda..

friday:
we went to the cancer center to have a doctor take a look at her cold sore. dr. holbrook kohrt was the oncologist on call, and he came in to take a gander at trish's cold sore.. he saw it, he wasn't concerned, said there wasn't any reason to prescribe even more meds.. he said it was more to do with the infection still lingering in her body than any chemo related stuff.. he said to keep it clean and it will go away in a few days, no biggie.. nice to know it wasn't anything to worry about.

the nurses also drew blood for some blood tests to make sure everything was looking good.

this past weekend was my sister, monya's, wedding in the san francisco. friday was the rehearsal, and trish was one of the bridesmaids. we decided trish has walked down enough aisles in her life that she could skip rehearsal, stay home and rest up for the big show on saturday. caden was the ring bearer, so caden and i drove up to SF on friday afternoon for the walk through. on our way up, trish got a call from the nurses at the cancer center letting her know the results of her blood counts.

unfortunately, trish's white counts had dropped to their all time low, 0.36, although her reds remained consistent hovering a bit above 33.

there was no way we could let trish be around so many people, without fearing for her health. a simple cold would surely result in days in the hospital battling it.
the wedding on saturday was sadly just not an option for trish. it was heartbreaking for trish, as she really wanted to be by my sisters side for the big day.
but trish's health is the most important thing right now... and that even meant kicking our dog out of the house for a while... sorry bella..

saturday:
wedding day... trish felt great, looked great so it was crappy that she had to stay home. as much as we tried rationalizing a plan for her to make the ceremony, in the end, common sense prevailed.

caden and i left trish in the early afternoon to head up to the city.
it was sad heading up there without trish, but everyone, including monya & trish, knew it was for the best.

my sister looked beautiful, her husband, russ, was dapper, caden did a great job walking down the aisle/beach at crissy field, much to the aide of his new cousin in law, zoey... the adorable flower girl.
(my money was on the caden seeing the crowd and burying his head in the sand like an ostrich... dad was wrong & zoey kept him moving..)

it was a really nice day for monya & russ, and i have since shown trish plenty of video and pictures so its was almost as if she was there...

sunday:
lazy day around the house.. the low counts haven't changed how she feels, again trish felt great and looked great... the cold sore is drying up and going away... trish finally gave in and tried out the new master shower.. (each of us wanted the other to use it first, so its sat unused for the last couple weeks).

caden, having never taken shower before loved it... once he realized he had a shower head that fit him... and it was removable... it was tough getting the kid out of the shower..

monday:
another good day.. trish was up early and did some chores around the house, some watering out back and playing with caden in the front...

our friend lyndee was nice enough to stop by and drop of some din din, and the (masked and purrelled up) newlyweds stopped by prior to their drive back to LA.

tuesday:

and here we are.... today...

9:20am: nurse kyla got the 'ok' for the blood tests, drew blood, gave trish her premeds of benadryl, decadron and pepcid... she will get her 1/2 hour of herceptin beginning around 10am..

trish is looking and feeling good. keeping her in a bubble the past few days has really helped keep her healthy. we are hoping her white counts are up... her bones have been realy achy the past few days and this has typically been a sign of her blood marrow working in overdrive to produce some whiteys...

the blood tests will give us some piece of mind of how drastically we need to treat bubble girl over the next few days... hopefully they are high enough where things are normal, and maybe the dog can come back home..

thanks for checking in... ill update trish's blood counts when i get them..
but this is the last treatment of round two... only 3 more weeks of visits to the infusion center before chemo is OVER.. 1 more big day next tuesday, followed by 3 short trips on friday, the following tuesday and the following, following tuesday!

only 21 days of chemo left, but who's counting...

caden & zoey heading down the aisle...

caden watching auntie M & uncle R
take pics after the ceremony

caden giving the new shower a try...

the afternoon update...
-------------------------------------
trish finished up her herceptin around 11:00am, and we headed home.

trish's neutrophil counts are still down, so we are gonna need to continue being careful with her.

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 0.36
is 0.78

* 1.4 is about the lowest she can go and still receive chemo. although she is low, the good news is that she more than doubled her count since friday. we expect this to continue to increase as the infection disappears and she finishes up her antibiotics in a few days.

nonetheless, we left a message for trish's nurse asking if we can get back on the neupogen shots that i was administering... they seem to keep her ANC counts more consistent than this once every three week neulasta shot..

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 33.1
is 31.6

the white counts dont really have any bearing on how she feels...
aside from being tired (mentally and physically), she is feeling well.. eating/drinking relatively normal, but the infection has made her gums sore, so hard breads, cereals, etc have been uncomfortable for her.

the big concern with the low counts is that she is very susceptible to getting sick, and not having her immune system strong enough to fight off even common coughs, colds, flus, etc..

so as long as we keep her not sick... she will be fine... so while the stock market is a little shaky, it may be a good time to invest in purel & lysol cause we are going through it pretty quickly.

thanks for reading..

the update on why no update yesterday...

2008-09-17T11:05:00.000-07:00

so yesterday was kinda hectic...

trish woke up at 3am with really crazy chills that she couldn't shake... we have seen plenty of side effects in the past 5 months, but nothing like this...
sweatshirt, sweatpants, down comforter, nothing helped get her warm...
after a long overdue trip to the bathroom, she felt much better was able to go back to sleep for a little bit.

the chills returned at 4am along with a fever, so we headed to the stanford ER.
trish got a nice private pediatric ER room, complete with an Apple computer on the wall with games and music, and a tv with some on demand disney kids movies.

so while i was honing my race car skills on some video game intended for 5 year olds, trish was catching the latest nancy drew movie.

meanwhile, the docs drew blood for tests and cultures, gave some IV's of antibiotics and hydration, and tossed in some ativan and zofran (meds trish takes each day) for good measure.

once 8am rolled around, i walked over to the cancer center and canceled trish's 8am appointment for her herceptin infusion, and talked with dr. carlson to let him know that trish was over in the ER.

by this time, trish's chills were long gone... fever was gone... she was warm, and she was feeling much better. she had an appetite, and felt 100% better than 3am.

the blood test came back, and her red and white counts were good, but some other test revealed she did have an infection and she was gonna continue on the antibiotics.

the nurses recommended we bring caden to his pediatrician to get him looked at as as a preventative measure...

so i left the ER at 1pm and went home to bring caden to his doctor, Dr. Lynch at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. dr. lynch examined caden, and said we had nothing to worry about with him... he is a healthy, happy almost 2 year old. dr. lynch even gave trish a call later last night to check in her, as she was unaware of trish's diagnosis since caden has not been to see her since february.

caden and i then went home, and i dropped him off with my mom, and i headed back to the ER.

we were hoping the docs wouldn't admit trish to the hospital overnight, but they decided to. around 4:30pm, trish was moved to an actual hospital room and continued on her antibiotics and hydration. after the "hosptial" docs conferred with dr. carlson, they agreed to give trish her dose of herceptin to keep her on her tuesday schedule.

around 7pm ria came to hang out with trish, and i headed home so i could hang out with caden a little bit before his 8pm bedtime.

around 8:30pm, trish began on her typical trio of predrugs of benedryl, pepcid and decadron. the herceptin finished up around 10:30pm.

so now its today, wednesday...

im sitting in trish's hospital room and while we listen to the thunder of the life flight helicopter taking off, we are also counting the hours before her supposed 1pm release.

she is still feeling good, no fever, the typical nausea that she is taking zofran for, and thats about it... she is a little sleepy tired, and she didn't get as good as night rest as hoped, but trish said she had a really nice hour long conversation with her nurse at 3am.

trish woke up and ate a good breakfast, and is looking forward to heading home and hanging out with the little guy. until then, she is reading her new, new favorite book.. the follow up to Kris Carr's first book Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips, called Crazy Sexy Cancer Survivor: More Rebellion and Fire for Your Healing Journey...
looks like its as much of a workbook as a book to read. lots of spots to put down your own thoughts, goals, experiences, etc... trish has really been enjoying the book.

so its been a long 32 hours, but things are much better.

at 11:00am and dr. heather wakelee, along with her crew of med students and doctors, just gave trish the go ahead to head home... she is gonna prescribe some antibiotics to continue on for the next week, but thinks trish is fine.

now we just need to wait on the paperwork so we can do as the sheep herder does...

get the flock out of here..

just another crazy sexy cancer day...

12:50pm update:
---------------------------
supposedly we will be out of here in 20 minutes or so...

so much for being 'released' at 11am

1:20pm update:
----------------------------

we are on our way out... here is a pic from a few minutes ago...
looking good and feeling good..

a quick update...

2008-09-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

this week has been completely different for trish compared to the first week of round one. trish's appetite has been good, and she has been drinking plenty of liquids.

while she still has some nausea, its been manageable and she hasn't thrown her cookies around anywhere. trish says the nausea is consistently 4-5 on the "1 - 10" scale, but may have spiked around 6... much better than the perfect 10 she scored a few weeks back.

tuesday:
her big infusion day... tired and nauseated at night, as expected... but no fever and she slept well.

wednesday:
woke up feeling decent. went back to cancer center that evening to get hydration. she went to the restroom twice during the 1 liter hydration IV, and once right when she got home. peeing it out is a good thing... it means she is well hydrated, and her body isn't absorbing much of the fluid, cause its already got fluid... but we would rather make sure she is well hydrated, than not.

thursday:
trish finished up the last of her emend pills in the morning, relaxed during the day, and went to healing touch in the evening...
another day of feeling decent and controlling the nausea...

friday:
8:30am: we arrived back at stanford sitting in the infusion treatment area for trish's second dose of 5-FU & another round of hydration.

8:45am: we had the pick of the liter as we were the first ones in the "C" room, and chose window seat C5

9:30am: nurse jackie started trish on her hydration, which should take 90 minutes

9:45am: trish got a zofran shot into her IV

she will get her 5-FU shot in a bit... that only takes 10 minutes, and she has another hour or so of hydration to go... so its no rush.

although trish is feeling pretty good so far, i think it will only get better over the next 17 or so days.

we will come back tommorrow (saturday) for trish's neulasta shot, and then come back each of the following tuesdays for herceptin.

she is not scheduled for any other hydrations, and to my untrained eye i dont think she needs them.

thanks for checking in...

Happy Birthday Oak!!

2008-09-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

We just wanted to send a very big happy birthday wish to Oak today!! He has done such an awesome job keeping everyone updated on all the happenings at the Barrett home, all the while managing to insert a bit of humor in a very unfunny situation (and it works!). We appreciate all that you're doing. We know life has thrown you all quite a curveball but you're hitting it out of the park every time.

Oak, have a great one!

Love,

Your family

998-FECH

2008-09-09T14:05:00.000-07:00

round two of three of the FEC+H is underway at Six Flags ChemoLand...

9:00am: arrived for blood draw, yep... stairs...

9:20am: nurse terry finished up the blood draw

9:30am: went downstairs and checked in with dr. carlson's office

9:35am: got into an exam room

9:40am: angela, a medical student working with dr. carlson came in to examine trish

10:30am: dr. carlson came in and examined trish

11:00am: heading upstairs to the ITA with a prescription of emend

11:30am: trish got a bed in suite B6

12:00pm: pepcid & decadron done

12:25pm: benadryl done

12:45pm: zofran done

1:10pm: nurse chris finished up the manual push of the epirubicin & 5-FU, and hung the cytoxan up on the rack...

2:00pm: cytoxan done, herceptin nextin

so we met with dr. carlson this morning. he continues to be pleased with trish's response to the treatment, but was a little concerned with her rough couple weeks. he believes the sickness getting tossed around the family had a lot to do with trish's discomfort, but nonetheless we are taking a coupla extra steps this week to make sure the next coupla weeks are as smooth as caden's ass.

1. trish took the emend pill about a couple hours before any chemo entered her bloodstream (she will take this pill again on wed & thur)

2. we will be coming back for hydration twice this week... once tomorrow, and again on friday when we are here anyway for the second dose of 5-FU.

hydration will be a one liter IV of some fancy medical grade gatorade and will take an hour or so. this will help ensure trish has plenty of fluids in her whether she needs them this week or not. at this point, we would rather be proactive as opposed to being reactive and trying to play catch up with fluids at 2am in an emergency room.

we also talked to the doc about what the next few months hold for us, and this is pretty much the break down:

october 14th: last day of chemo

surgery will be at least 3 weeks later

radiation will begin at least 3 weeks after surgery (radiation will be 5 times a week, for 5 weeks

so theoretically, if my public school calendar math is correct, and we can get all the appointments scheduled on the perfect 3 week intervals... trish could be finished with surgery and radiation two days before christmas.

in reality, everything would need to fall into place scheduling wise, moons would need to align, doctors from different departments would need to have open schedules, etc..
let alone the fact that this is all driven by trish's body... the three weeks after chemo is to allow her blood counts to come back up... the three weeks after surgery is to allow for her body to heal... there is no need to be rushing things just so we can hit a certain date.

we already knew that trish will continue on the hormone therapy, herceptin for a year...
what we found out today is that will be once every 3 weeks, not every week... so that will make the coming year a little easier. 18 trips to stanford sounds a lot better than 52.

trish's blood counts are up and down...

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 2.14
is 1.63

* this is the second week that it has dropped, but dr. carlson told us not to worry.
trish will get her neulasta shot on saturday that will help increase her white counts.
the doc said as long as trish is within 'chemo range' and is feeling good, that's all that maters. playing the numbers game each week will just drive us nuts.

so with that said, lets play the numbers game... :)

the reds are WAY UP... !!!!

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 26.1
is 35.2

* trish began chemo weeks and weeks and weeks ago (april 22) at 34.5, so that two unit blood transfusion this past friday really helped her out. her energy is back, and is feeling the best she has in weeks.

so... for the week in review... its been yet another hectic one...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

tuesday 9/2:
back at stanford for her last herceptin treatment of Round 1. trish had fever that night of ~ 100.8

wednesday 9/3:
after talking dr. carlson's nurse, jan... we went back to the cancer center for some blood tests. jan lectured us (in a loving nurse kinda way) about not calling her sooner when trish's temperature was running towards the hot side.

we found out today that the two blood cultures they took, 1 from her arm, 1 from the port, came back clean... nothing funky grew in them. but they wanted to make sure there wasn't any type of infection in her port.

jan sent us home with the augementin, and that night trish began taking them when her temperature went up to 101.7.

we had a great dinner of stuffed chicken and rice, courtesy of trish's old co-worker sarah.

thursday 9/4:
the fine folks at GSK make a great antibiotic, as the augementin has rid trish of her fever, and she is feeling better, but still fatigued.

friday 9/5:
an emotional day... we woke up early and headed up to the cow palace in daly city to wish the 3 Day walkers well. later in the morning we headed back to the cancer center for trish's blood transfusion. again, no fever.. the blood went smoothly and took about 3 1/2 hours

you can see pictures from Day 1 of the 3 Day here

saturday 9/6:
trish took it easy... the benefits of the transfusion had't hit her yet, so she relaxed around the house... again, no fever... trish had a suprise visit from birthday girl becky, brie, monica and christina... so the girls got to sit and talk about the boys for a little bit while this boy was busy playing plumber. our master bathroom shower is nearing completion... all we need now is a shower door.
the 3 shower heads, 4 body jets and 24 square feet of body cleansing goodness is working... plenty of room for trish, caden, me and bella... ok, i agree... thats just plain weird...

toilet: check
tub: check
shower: check
sink: yeah, yeah... im working on it.. wash your hands in the tub for now :)

sunday 9/7:

it was a big day...

sunday was the 5 month anniversary of trish's diagnosis.
sunday was the closing ceremonies of the 3 day walk.
sunday was the best trish has felt in weeks.

this cancer stuff is weird.

in many ways, the last 5 months have flown by... but at the same time the last 5 months have felt like an eternity.

our lives have been consumed by the this cancer thing...
we have learned a lot, received a lot, and hopefully we have been able to teach a lot as well...

all in all, i think we have been doing really good with it, buts its been all the friends and family, all of you, thats helped make it easier on us.

trish has her ups and downs, and given the choice, we would all choose not to have any of this, but in the big picture, we all are doing well and hanging in there.

we have learned to adapt, learned what to expect, learned what not to expect, learned how to better manage our time and learned how to make it as "normal" as we can on caden...

he will turn two at the end of this month, and is at a great age where he doesn't really care whats going on...

he doesn't care if there is hair or no hair.

he doesn't care if we are home all day long, or if we need to sneak of to the cancer center, as he loves spending time with grammi claudia, oma ria, opa judas & cousin lucas.

as long as caden has a sippy cup with some juice, a toy truck in one hand, a toy tool in another and some fruit to much on, he is a happy camper...

even if his mama is a little tired, he loves to hang out with her all day long, whether it be in bed or in the back watering the garden, or our in front playing in his swimming pool.

caden loves his mama, regardless.

every day is a great day for him, and thats what we think as well.

so on sunday, trish was feeling much better than the previous couple weeks. in the early afternoon, with caden in tow, we headed up to san francisco for the closing ceremonies of the 3 Day walk, and to congratulate all the members of "Trisha's Trailblazers". about 20 minutes into our search for a parking spot, caden decided to choke on a tortila chip and toss his cookies all over himeself, his clothes, the backseat & the carseat...

just another normal day in our not so normal life.

later in the day, as the closing ceremonies were about to the begin, trish headed off with her mom, ria... ria was asked to be the flag bearer for the "I walk for my daughter" flag. so during the closing (and opening) ceremonies, ria walked out on stage, in front of the thousands of walkers/supporters/volunteers, waving the the flag in support of her daughter.

the closing ceremonies were a little bit more special, as trish was on stage with her mom.

it was a very emotional day for trish... for all of us...
trisha's trailblazers and every other team in the walk all did such a tremendous job of raising money and awareness of breast cancer.
i think the final tally for the SF walk some north of $4 million dollars.

it was a very special experience to be able to witness.

you can see pictures from Day 3 of the 3 Day here

we got home sunday night around 8pm to a beautifully decorated house. we later found out the secret decorators were none other than Mr. and Mrs. P.
Ron & Dianne Puccinelli, the in-laws of one of the Trailblazers, anna.... and the father of our longtime friend ron, who was a groomsman in our wedding.

thanks guys, the pink streamers, balloons, signs, etc... were a great end to an emotional day. trish got a little teary eyed (again), but we had to push them tears back in so she didn't dehydrate herself... ;)

monday 9/8:
feeling really good, trish spent the morning shopping with her dad, judas, and the afternoon hanging out at home with caden. we had a nice brisket stew and spinach salad lunch brought to us by trish's old boss, kim, and we had a tasty meatloaf dinner from neighbor bonnie and family... im sure all that red meat and iron helped push trish's red count over the top :)

tuesday 9/9:
feeling the best she has in weeks, we are back at stanford getting knocked down again.. but this week is gonna be different... its gonna be better... and she is gonna kick ass.

the cytoxan just finished up... trish has been sleeping like a newborn for a couple hours..

we should be out of here in the next 45 minutes..

our special guest star today is long time family friend, steph... she stopped by at the perfect time, right after the nurses woke trish, and 30 minutes before the end of the day.

all in all, the day went smoothly... and sometimes it odd how fast a 6 hour day at C-town can be..

thanks for checking in...

trish & ria, on stage at the 3 Day closing ceremonies

trish & steph

the work of mr. & mrs. p

thanks ron & dianne

the almost done, but functional i might add, master shower

inside the shower

closing ceremonies of the 3 Day

2008-09-07T23:04:00.000-07:00

i hope you enjoy the images from the closing ceremonies earlier today...

it was held on the san francisco marina, overlooking the bay, golden gate, alcatraz and of course the thousands of walkers, volunteers & supporters...

http://www.oakbarrett.com/3day/closing_ceremony/

congrats to all the girls & pete... it is an awesome accomplishment, and you should be proud of yourselves...

Day 1: 3 Day walk slideshow

2008-09-05T17:31:00.001-07:00

3 Day walk slideshow
(click me)

the 3 day is underway...

2008-09-05T13:04:00.001-07:00

trish, caden, judas & i headed up to the cow palace around 6:30am this morning to wish the 3 day team well on their walk. unfortunately, we arrived late and missed the opening ceremonies, but we were able to see everyone on the street as they began their walk.

if anyone knows where we can get a video of the opening ceremonies, please let me know

it was an amazing experience to see so many people rally around a common cause, i believe the final count was right around 2000 walkers. we parked on geneva street, ahead of the walkers as they departed from the cow palace, so we could greet everyone as they passed by.

trish received many well wishes and hugs from random strangers passing by, some of who mentioned they read trish's blog.. trish was really touched when a woman passed by and gave her a hand made 'survivor' angel pin.

trish's mom even met folks from a 12 member team out of el dorado hills walking in honor of trish... complete strangers... amazing..

i posted a few pics below, but im in the process of creating a slideshow that ill post later..

trish has been feeling a lot better the last couple days. she was running a fever since her treatment on tuesday, so we came back into the cancer center on wednesday, so dr. carlson's nurse, jan could run some blood tests and make sure there wasn't anything serious going on.

there wasn't anything serious, trish was just a little sick from the bug thats getting passed around the family lately.

nurse jan sent us home with some antibiotics, Augmentin (for you GSK peeps), and this has really helped her kick her little sick bug and fever...

since trish's red blood counts are low, and contributing to her fatigue, we scheduled a blood transfusion when we were here on wednesday, for today... friday..

so after we saw every single 3day'er pass us on the street...
after many waves, hugs from strangers and beads (it was like mardi gras out there... guess its fitting since this is all about boobies.. ),
we headed home to drop caden off with my mom, so trish & i could drive back to stanford for her scheduled blood transfusion at 10am. the special guest star of the day is non other than carrie, and yes... trish did walk up the staircase... i believe she said its was 38 steps...

trish's temp is currently 96.98 degrees, so her fever is gone... she was feeling great yesterday and this morning, but continues to tire easily, so today's 2 unit transfusion should do wonders for her stamina.

after the nurses double checked her blood type, the transfusion began at 12:45pm. it takes about 2 hours per unit, so we are hoping to be done in 4 or so hours... around 5pm.

i received a text from ria at 12:50pm, and the walkers have completed their first 10 miles, and are now having lunch.

thanks for checking in... ill post a link to the slideshow after we get home, but here are some pics from this morning

a short video from this morning, right before the trailblazers caught up to us...

caden & trish cheering on the 3 day walkers

some of Trisha's Trailblazers...

some more Trailblazers...

rooting as the walkers flutter by...

the infamous cancer center stairs...
all 38 of em

3 Day walk begins tommorrow...

2008-09-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

The Breast Cancer 3 Day San Francisco walk begins friday morning, september 5th, with opening ceremonies commencing at 6:30am at the Cow Palace.

Trisha's Trailblazers, a team of 19 friends and family who are walking in honor of trisha as well as other loved ones that have been affected by this disease, has done an outstanding job of raising over $55,000 to benefit the Susan G. Komen For The Cure fund.

Last I heard, this team has the third highest fund raising amount of all san francisco 3 day walk teams! thats an amazing accomplishment.

although they have eclipsed their team goal, there are still teammates working towards their individual fund raising goal.

if you are interested in donating, take a look at the Trisha's Trailblazer's team page and find a teammate that has not reached 100% of their goal.

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/SanFranciscoBayAreaEvent/1289336460?pg=team&fr_id=1188&team_id=42991

again, i would like to thank jeannie for organzing the team, as well as the 18 other teammates who have dedicated time to train, raise funds and increase awareness of breast cancer.

Jeannie (Cocconi) Wynne
Rachelle Fochetti
Whitney Glockner
Michelle Alexander
Kari (Rende) Allegri
Kim Balsama
Amy Bloom
Venessa Coffaro
Ria Faggiolly
Anna Franceschi
Jane Knynenburg
Angie Lu
Aimee Patten
Jodie Slautterback
Judy Spooner
Nicole (Lujan) Texeira
Josie Trefz
Racquele Welsh
Peter Wynne

good luck over the next three days...

the walk with take the team past the san francisco zoo, down the san francisco waterfront, across the golden gate bridge, through sausalito & marin county, back over the golden gate bridge, through golden gate park and will finish up on sunday with closing ceremonies at marina green.

Sunday, September 7th Schedule:
4:30 pm: Closing Ceremonies begin

Marina Green
310 Marina Blvd.
San Francisco, CA 94123

trish is honored that so many friends and family have participated in the 2 Day Avon walk in July, and this weekend's 3 Day walk. although she would much rather be walking along side you, honoring someone else, but it is what it is..

thank you so much, and trish looks forward to walking in it next year and has been hinting at the Boston 3 Day...

er... ugghh...

2008-09-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

its been another interesting week at the oak ridge estate.

trish has been fighting the nausea, fatigue, the cookies & the #2's all week...

this past friday night / saturday morning everything kinda caught up with trish.
after a couple hours of dry heaving and the runs, it was about 1:30am when we decided to take a trip to the ER at sequoia hospital.

not having much of an appetite, nor the desire to drink a lot of fluids... coupled with the fact that diarrhea and throwing up is robbing her of her fluids, trish needed some hydration.

if it woulda been 1:30pm in the afternoon, we would just make a trip to dr. carlson's office, but since it was the middle of the night, we headed to the ER at sequoia hospital....
i wouldn't call it an emergency, but there just isn't too many options on where to go in the middle of the night... so sequoia it was, a whole 1.2 miles away.

so trish made it in right before the 2am last call... her cocktail of choice was double sodium chloride IV and a shot of zofran. about 30 minutes into it, trish was catching up on some much needed sleep in her hospital bed. we got home around 4:30am, and back to bed we went.

trish was feeling better over the weekend, but took it easy around the house and didn't do much.

so aside from fighting the side effects, the week was pretty much spent watering the garden in the backyard, and hanging out in the front yard while caden was playing in his little swimming pool.

so today... back at the stanford ITA for our 10:30am appointment.
we were actually out of the house around 9:50am, and arrive well before our scheduled appointment... amazing...

trish took the stairs up again, and for those that haven't seen the staircase here at stanford... is pretty damn big, so trish gets a gold star for making it all the way up on her own.

this weeks special guest stars are julie and eric. with the entourage today, trish was setup with a suite that is right across from chemo-buddy christine and her husband russ' suite.

by 11:00am we were hanging out at the suite, and nurse mary collete drew blood for trish's blood work.

the herceptin IV began at noon, and should be done no later than 1pm today.

thanks for checking in...

julie, trish & eric

12:30pm update
----------------------------

herceptin done... the port has been flushed with heparin, and we are outta here...
trish wants a burger, so its off to the goose we go

the maiden voyage...
caden breaking in the master bathroom tub last night...
FINALLY...

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 5.9
is 2.14

* although its lower than it has been, 2.14 is still within the normal range of 1.7 - 6.7
trish had an ANC of 3 before her very first treatment in april.

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 29
is 26.1

* this is the lowest the red counts have been, and probably are contributing to trish's fatigue.
considering she hasn't eaten much in the last couple weeks, its not a suprise that they are down from her standard of 29.
dr. carlson has previously said that a blood transfusion would be a consideration if her counts dipped down around 22.

trish had a burger today, and we are gonna try and keep her eating this week and see how high we can increase the reds before we meet with dr. carlson next tuesday morning.

we are really hoping that the next 7 days will be unlike the last coupla weeks.

in hindsight, we are thinking all the nausea/cookies/two's aren't just a result of the chemo alone, but because trish has been a little sick as well.

caden has been a little sick lately...
i was sick last week, and im thinking it wasn't food poisoning, since no one else got sick from the food.
trish's brother, wife and son have all been hit by this bug as well..

so... hopefully she can kick this, take a nice long bath and have a decent week going forward...

the 3 day walk begins this saturday with opening ceremonies at the cow palace at 6:30am, and trish plans on being there.

thanks for reading..

rough week, but its getting better....

2008-08-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

well.. its been a pretty rough week for trish, but she continues to hang in there.
the first few days after tuesday's infusion were the worst to date, but trish is bouncing back and is beginning to feel better each day.

last tuesday was the day of 8 drugs:

zofran
benadryl
decadron
pepcid
herceptin
cytoxan
5-fu
epirubicin

so its no wonder that she was feeling like crap.

so, if we rewind a bit...

last monday night: i had food poisoning, and was tossing my cookies all night long..

tuesday night: after trish's treatment, that night she making good friends with the porcelain queen and the bathroom floor.

wednesday night: no porcelain here, caden likes to toss his cookies in his bed... twice...

so i believe there is an ancient proverb about a family who pukes together...

wednesday, thursday: not much going on...
trish spent most of her time in bed trying to rid her self of the nausea. she tried keeping herself hydrated the best she could, but there wasn't much of an appetite for a few days. it was really, really rough on her.

friday: back to stanford we went for her second dose of the 5-FU...
between tuesday and friday, trish had lost 7 pounds. she was feeling horrible, but she was determined to walked up the stairs to the infusion center, and she did.

trish got some pre-drugs of decadron, lorazepam and zofran from nurse nenita.
the lorazepam and zofran really helped out with the nausea.

dr. otis came up to visit with trish, and she prescribed a new anti-nausea drug,
emend.
this a set of 3 pills you take over the course of three days, and is a longer lasting anti-nausea medication for chemo based symptoms. it seems to be working really well for trish, so she will continue on this each week she gets the "Big Dose", and next time, we will do it sooner than later... on tuesdays, not fridays.

so we got here at 11:30am on friday and the predrugs and 5-FU was done by 1:30pm, so it wasnt' too long of a day.

saturday: another trip back to stanford...
this time for trish's nuelesta shot. similar to the neupogen shots, but she will get this one once every three weeks. the shot runs ~ $5000 so the insurance company is a little hesitant to send it home with me so i can play doctor with it...
thus the reason we need to come in and have the trained professionals administer it.

we were in and out... about 20 minutes and we were done..
free parking on saturdays, what a bargain...
its also interesting to see how many out of state license plates are in the chemo lot on the weekend.. thats why they call this place a Cancer Center... they know what they are doing, and folks come from hundreds of miles away to reap the benefits we get by driving 5.9 miles... we always feel so fortunate to have such great treatment, facilities, doctors and nurses so close to us.

sunday - monday: trish was feeling better... wasn't in bed all day, but still some fatigue, but less nausea.
the nuelasta has been good to her so far, and she isn't as achy as the nuepogen shots.
the itchiness hasn't been so much of a complaint, but i think its masked by all the other crappiness she is feeling.

so that brings us to today.... trish woke up and looked and felt pretty decent. probably the best in the past week. so i think things are just gonna get better for her. its another 2 weeks until she gets teh "Big Dose" again, so i think she will be able to better enjoy these coming 14 days than she did the previous 7.

back in the ITA (infusion treatment area) at 8:30am this morning.
no blood tests today, as the herceptin is technically a hormone therapy and not a "chemo" drug. this will make the day go quicker.

8:40am: seated again in window seat C5.. trish's weight is back to normal
8:50am: start on the pre-drugs with nurse Lea
9:15am: nurse lea done with the predrugs of benadryl, decadron and pepcid
9:40am: herceptin on the hook, and will be done in 30 minutes

trish is currently sleeping and enjoying the benefits of a direct shot of benadryl into her IV.

we should be out of here around 10:15am... another pretty quick day...

after this, just a quick stop at dr. carlson's office to drop of some long term disability paperwork, and then we will be heading home...

thanks for checking in..

House Resolution 1300, supporting IBC

2008-08-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

on June 24, 2008, congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (D - NY), introduced House Resolution 1300, summarized as

"Supporting efforts to raise awareness, improve education, and encourage research of inflammatory breast cancer"

in july, my aunt kim, sent a letter to Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, who represents Redwood City in the United States House of Representatives asking for her support of the resolution.

below is Congresswoman Eshoo's reply my aunt received this past tuesday:

August 19, 2008

Dear Ms. Abbott,

Thank you for writing to me about H. Res. 1300, a bill supporting efforts to raise awareness, improve education, and encourage research of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). I'm proud to be a cosponsor of this bill.

As you know, IBC is one of the most dangerous forms of breast cancer for many reasons. First, IBC symptoms are atypical of the majority of breast cancers since breast lumps and other warning signs are absent in cases of IBC. This causes women to misinterpret IBC symptoms and frequently delay seeking medical assistance. Second, the women affected by IBC do not fit the traditional profile since IBC tends to affect women at a younger age. Finally, IBC awareness in the medical community is lacking so the cancer is often misdiagnosed which is especially dangerous since it is a very aggressive and inaccurate diagnosing can be especially deadly.

Increasing awareness of IBC in both the public and medical communities is essential to fighting this disease. The more informed women are of this disease, the better they are prepared to recognize it and get the help they need. Also, by increasing awareness in the medical community, doctors will be better equipped to diagnose IBC correctly. H. Res. 1300 will work to increase awareness of IBC, encourage the American Medical Association to increase awareness of inflammatory breast cancer among physicians, encourage research that will improve treatments for inflammatory breast cancer, and continue to consider ways to improve access to information on inflammatory breast cancer for both doctors and patients.

I read Trisha's blog and was touched by her story. Her strength and courage are highly admirable and I wish her my best in her continued fight against IBC.

H. Res. 1300 has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which I'm a member of and rest assured, I will continue to do everything I can to see that this important bill becomes law.

If you have any other questions or comments, let me hear from you. I value what my constituents say to me because I need your thoughts and benefit from your ideas.

...

Sincerely,

Anna G. Eshoo
Member of Congress

the full text of House Resolution 1300 is below:

Whereas inflammatory breast cancer is a rare but very aggressive type of breast cancer in which the cancer cells block the lymph vessels in the skin of the breast; (Introduced in House)

HRES 1300 IH

110th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. RES. 1300

Supporting efforts to raise awareness, improve education, and encourage research of inflammatory breast cancer.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

June 24, 2008

Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York (for herself and Mrs. EMERSON) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

RESOLUTION

Supporting efforts to raise awareness, improve education, and encourage research of inflammatory breast cancer.

Whereas inflammatory breast cancer is a rare but very aggressive type of breast cancer in which the cancer cells block the lymph vessels in the skin of the breast;

Whereas inflammatory breast cancer accounts for between 1 and 6 percent of all breast cancer cases in the United States;

Whereas inflammatory breast cancer is more common than acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children;

Whereas inflammatory breast cancer may have environmental causes;

Whereas inflammatory breast cancer is particularly difficult to detect because the early signs of breast cancer, such as a breast lump or suspicious area on a routine screening mammogram, are rarely present in inflammatory breast cancer;

Whereas inflammatory breast cancer tends to affect women at a younger age than most breast cancers;

Whereas black women are more likely to have inflammatory breast cancer than white women;

Whereas inflammatory breast cancer is more likely to have metastasised at the time of diagnosis than noninflammatory breast cancer cases;

Whereas the 5 year survival rate for patients with inflammatory breast cancer is between 25 and 50 percent, which is significantly lower than the survival rate for patients with noninflammatory breast cancer;

Whereas the incidence rate for inflammatory breast cancer is on the rise, and the cause of this increase is unknown;

Whereas organizations such as the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Foundation are working to increase awareness of the disease in the public and medical communities;

Whereas the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas is among one of the only facilities in the country to have a clinic specifically dedicated to inflammatory breast cancer; and

Whereas many physicians remain unaware of inflammatory breast cancer and diagnosis is frequently delayed due to a lack of knowledge in both the lay and medical communities: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal Government has a responsibility to--

(1) endeavor to raise awareness and improve education about inflammatory breast cancer;

(2) encourage the American Medical Association to take steps to immediately increase awareness of inflammatory breast cancer among physicians;

(3) encourage research that will improve treatments for inflammatory breast cancer; and

(4) continue to consider ways to improve access to information on inflammatory breast cancer for both doctors and patients.

FEC cancer...

2008-08-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

home sweet away from home, the stanford cancer center.

feels like it was just yesterday that we were here...
ahhhh thats right... we were here just yesterday, but we will get to that later.

so we hopped in the car around 8:50am this morning and heading south.
by 9:10am we were checked in at the infusion center, and at 9:13am we had a seat for the blood draw with nurse sherry. nurse sherry had a little trouble accessing trish's port, as it may have been a little clogged.. but by 9:40am everything was done and we were on our way downstairs to check in with doc carlson's office.

after a stop to get trish some hot chocolate and a quick chat with trish's chemo buddy, christine, we were checked in and had a exam room at 9:55am. the nurse mentioned that the doc had three patients ahead of us, so we knew it would be a little wait.. but what we like about doctor carlson is... once he is in the room with you, you have as long as you want with him.

anyhow.. its 10:35am and the wait shouldn't be too much longer.

i expect doc carlson to examine trish as he does every month, and then fill us in on all the details of the new flavor of the month that trish begins today.. FEC + Herceptin.

more to come later..

11:45am update
---------------------------------

10:55am: dr. otis, an ocology fellow under dr. carlson, met with trish.. she informed us that trish's blood counts are good today, and the echocardiogram trish got yesterday came back normal.
the herceptin and epirubicin can damage the heart, so the echo keeps a close eye on whats going on inside trish's chest.

11:05am: dr. carlson came and and examined trish. the doc continues to be pleased with the progress, and said he didn't feel anything abnormal. we discussed the coming weeks of chemo, and we know understand exactly what our schedule will be, and how the side effects of the FEC + Herceptin will differ than Taxol + Herceptin. the nausea an possible vomiting is gonna come back, as well as some fatigue. the little bit of hair that has returned on trish's head will again fall out.

11:45am: after meeting with mark to get the next few weeks scheduled, we are back up in the infusion center waiting room, again hanging out with trish's chemo friend christine, another young mother of twins with breast cancer.

so, for the coming weeks this is going to be our schedule:
trish will get 3 rounds of FEC + Herceptin, a round consists of 21 days.

Fluorouracil (5-FU)
Ellence (epirubicin)
Cytoxan (cyclophosphamide)

Herceptin (Trastuzumab)

day 1.1 (tuesday 8/19):

she will receive F, E, C, H. the F, E are short IV's that are manually pushed by the nurse. the C and H are drip IV's. she will get the normal pre-drugs, plus some new stuff... 3 decadron pills for allergic reactions and 2 zofran pills for nausea. trish continues to get her IV of benadryl, and shot of pepcid as well.

day 1.4 (friday 8/22)):

back at stanford, she will receive F, again, this time is a shorter push IV from the nurse.. this "should" be quick.

day 1.5 (saturday 8/23):

she will come back to stanford and receive 1 shot of nuelasta, this 1 shot replaces the 12 shots of neupogen she currently gets.

day 1.8 (tuesday 8/26):

back to stanford for herceptin, hopefully ~ 1 hour

day 1.15 (tuesday 9/2):

back to stanford for herceptin, hopefully ~ 1 hour

days 1.16 - 1.21 (9/3 - 9/8):

nuthin :)

day 2.1 (tuesday 9/9):

day 1 of round 2 (thus the 2.1), start all over again, same order as above.

2.x
3.x
....

so there will be a lot of back and forth to stanford, but aside from the "Day 1's", the other days should go relatively quickly... we hope....

trish's nausea is gonna come back, but hopefully its only for a couple days of these 21 day cycles...

12:55pm: nurse jackie finished up all the pre-drugs ~ 12:30pm. we are gonna wait about 45 minutes for them to kick in... then its on to the good stuff.. its gonna be a long, long day...

so for a quick week in review:
---------------------------------------
tuesday: after chemo, trish took caden to a playdate. story time at the schaberg library is on hiatus, so the moms still get together each week to let the kids run around and get their fun time in. after the play date, we ordered in some amici's pizza & pasta and had trish's family over to "celebrate" the completion of the Taxol.

wednesday:in the morning trish headed to the story time at the woodside library, and in the afternoon we met with our lawyer to finalize our living trust.

thursday:trish went over to kelly's house and helped her with the cake kelly was making for steph & gabe's wedding. tuesday was the chevy's fundraiser, so trish headed over there at lunch time and saw a bunch of people supporting the cause. in the afternoon, trish got her wigs cut for the wedding by jen. around 5pm we headed back to chevy's for dinner, and by 6:30pm trish was off to her healing touch appointment.. needless to say, it was a full day.

friday:trish took it easy, but went to lunch with julie and carrie.

saturday:we headed out to patterson with christina and ricardo for gabe and steph's wedding. the wedding was a lot of fun, and this was the first time trish and i were away from caden on the same night.

sunday:woke up at the lovely best western in gorgeous patterson and headed home. it was a long couple days, so once we picked up caden, all three of us took a nice long nap and relaxed the rest of the day.

monday:in the early afternoon we heading back to good old stanford university medical center.. this time it wasn't for chemo, but for an Echocardiogram of trish's heart.. its about a 20 minute procedure that is basically like looking at a prenatal ultrasound, but a heart instead of a baby... this was trish's second ECHO, which they compared with the previous baseline ECHO they took 3 months ago prior to beginning the herceptin.
in the evening, we had steve/cerena/lucas/casey/jane/judas/ria over for dinner to celebrate cerena's birthday.

so its been a pretty busy week for all of us...
and that brings us to today... chemo should begin pretty shortly..

another update later..

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 4.5
is 5.9

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 29
is 29 (hasn't changed in a month)

3:40pm update:
------------------------
the special guest star today was racquele. she stopped by for a few hours this afternoon to hang out with trish and see what this chemo stuff was all about.

the 5-FU & epirubicin manual push IV's finished up around 2:15pm.
the cytoxan drip IV finished up around 3:30pm..
herceptin has been going for about 10 minutes, and should finish up at 4pm.

a long day, but now we know what to expect..

the "first tuesdays" are gonna be long, as we need to meet with dr. carlson each of these days, and have the predrugs, the waiting, the real drugs, etc...
but the good news, we only have 3 of these "first tuesdays", and we are just about finished with one of them.

herceptin is done... just a quick flush and we are out of here...

more chemo fun & games on friday & saturday at 11:30am as we return for trish's second dose of 5-FU on friday and the neulasta shot for her white blood cells on saturday..

thanks for reading..

trish & racquele

31 flavors
(l-r) 1 scoop of 5-FU, 1 waffle cone of cytoxan, 1 waffle cone of herceptin, and 3 sugar cones of epirubicin (with strawberry topping)

muchas gracias...

2008-08-15T09:01:00.001-07:00

just wanted to thank all of those that participated in the chevy's fundraiser yesterday.

i have no idea what the final headcount was, but im guessing it was well over 200+ people for lunch and dinner.

i know trish was there at lunch time and saw many of you, and we both returned in the evening for dinner and saw many more.

we apologize for not getting a chance to say hi to everyone in the evening, as trish had to leave to go to her healing touch appointment, and i was wrestling with a feisty almost 2 year old..

anyhow, i think the day was a success.

i would like to thank jeannie yet again for all her organizational efforts..

and a big thanks to everyone for not only supporting the Trisha's Trailblazers 3 Day Walk Team, but supporting breast cancer awareness.

the team is currently at 93% of their goal
(i don't believe this includes the chevy's portion):

Goal: $50,000.00
Achieved: $46,409.99

have a good weekend...

Chevy's Dinner Reminder: This Thursday Aug. 14th

2008-08-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

first off, i would really like to thank jeannie for not only organizing 3 Day team, but getting Chevy's to have a fundraiser and getting the Palo Alto Daily news to run a small story about trish in the paper.

soo.. a quick reminder...

Jeannie Cocconi Wynne organized a fundraiser at chevy's in redwood city that will be held this thursday, august 14th.

chevy's will donate 25% of the food proceeds during the hours of 11:00am - 9:00pm to Trisha's Trailblazers... the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk team jeannie organized.

The 3 Day walk raises money for breast cancer research, education and treatment.

you can read jeannie's original post here:

http://trishafaggiolly.blogspot.com/2008/07/chevys-fundraiser.html

Trisha's Trailblazers is currently 20 teammates strong, and has raised over $45,000 for the 'Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust'

the san francisco 3 Day will be held September 5-7, 2008.

you can view the Trisha's Trailblazers team page here:

http://08.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/SanFranciscoBayAreaEvent/1289336460?pg=team&fr_id=1188&team_id=42991

for those that missed it, the Palo Alto Daily News ran a little story in several editions of their paper promoting the fundraiser...

here is a copy (click for a larger version)...

and for you facebook types, jeannie setup a 'Breast Cancer 3 Day' group that can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37467647792

as i understand it, in order to get money donated to the 3 Day, you need to do one of the following:

1. mention the 3 Day donation to your server
2. print up the full article from the palo alto daily news from the link below:

ENJOY A MEAL AT CHEVY’S AND HELP FIGHT BREAST CANCER
3.
print up the 'official' Chevy's flyer here in MS Word format
4. click on the picture below, and print it

thanks

twelfth on the twelfth...

2008-08-12T09:19:00.001-07:00

its tuesday, its the 12th and its trish's 12th and final round of Taxol / Herceptin!!!
this is the first big milestone on trish's path to cancer free-dom.

next week she will begin her three rounds (of 21 days, 63 days total) of FEC + Herceptin... finishing up hopefully on october 14th.

with this being the last round of taxol, we are hoping the itchies will work themselves out of trish's system soon.. we have no idea how long it may take, but we dont think it will get any worse.

so this morning... we arrived at the stanford cancer center at 8:40am for trish's blood work.
by 8:50am trish had the pick of the litter, and chose the beloved B5 window seat.

we are joined today by two special guest stars, trish's brother steve who made the drive in with us, and trish's co-worker rochelle who stopped by to say hi and drop off some magazines.

nurse bev had the blood draw done a little after 9am, and started trish on her pre-drugs at 9:30am while we waited for results of her blood tests... (i wish they would have done this for the previous 11 rounds, instead of waiting 90 minutes for the blood work, THEN begin the predrugs). this should make for a relatively quick day.

more updates later...

11:00am update
----------------------------
the day is going quick.. trish finished up her herceptin by 10:30am, and nurse bev had the taxol cruising at at 10:50am..

im thinking we could be getting out of here around noon today. 12th round, 12th day at 12... hmmm

more special guest stars have arrived, making for the largest entourage to date.
our sister in law, cerena and trish's friend marit..
perhaps we should have reserved the 2nd floor penthouse suite, but its really tough to beat thee old standby, B5 window seat.

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 6.4
is 4.5 (surprised to see it drop that much, but the cutoff is 1.7 so still plenty of wiggle room)

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 29
is 29 (no change... steady... 28.9 average over the past 12 weeks)

so the week in review...
-------------------------------------------
the itchiness continues, but not as bad... trish tried the pills that were prescribed to her last week, Neurontin (Gabapentin). they helped with the itching, but they also cause her to get really dizzy...

so trish would rather deal with the itching that to have a new side effect, so the horse pills haven't seen much action.

my sister, monya, came up to visit this weekend. she works for a pharmaceutical manufacturer, and brought up some "chemo strength" anti-itching lotion... so far, this has been the winner.. its helped out more than any other lotions or the pills.

so tuesday after chemo, trisha, riley and myself hit up the dutch goose for some lunch.

thursday, trish had her standing appointment with her healing touch partner

on saturday, trish spent most of the day in san francisco with my sister, for monya's wedding dress fitting.

sunday was spent hanging out at home and watching some olympics

monday, trish went to her yoga class in the afternoon, and in the evening we had a tasty chinese chicken salad brought to us by monica and her mom, melissa.

another decent week... the itchies have slowed her down physically and emotionally it has taken a toll on her, but she continues to hang in there...

we have a wedding to go to on saturday, so trish is ready to try out her new wig on our big date night.

12:10pm update
---------------------
taxol is done..
the port has been flushed with the heparin, and we are heading out of here in olympic world record time..

nurse bev gets a gold medal for getting the show on the road early, and trish gets a gold medal for being trish..

see you thursday at chevy's...
many people have asked when we will be there...
and the official answer is... 'we have no freaking clue'

it will probably for dinner rather than lunch, but we have learned not to plan too far in advance... and thursday is kinda far, dontcha think :)

some pics from today...

rochelle & trish

trish & steve

marit, trish & cerena

oak, marit & cerena

trish & oak

caden & trish earlier in the week

april 7th - august 7th, 124 days later...

2008-08-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

the past 4 months have been a blur...

we appreciate everything that all of you have done for us, including reading this blog.

trish reads all the comments and really takes them to heart. to everyone that has sent/brought flowers, cards, dinner, diapers, groceries, thoughts, prayers, shared personal stories, experiences, mowed the lawn and even offered to walk bella, we really, really, really thank all of you.

i know we are kinda slow at returning calls, returning emails and even returning dishes...
but please dont confuse that with us not being grateful.

we truly are thankful and indebted to have so many folks who care about us.

we know this is a big reason why the past 4 months have seemingly gone by so fast.

thanks,

trish, caden, oak & bella

round eleven of chemo heaven...

2008-08-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

ok, the important stuff first ;)

after a one night stay at The Faggiolly Center for Avian Rehabilitation, LT (little tweeter) has returned to wild.
foster mama ria released the youngster this past wednesday after tending to its health throughout the day tuesday.

our conversation on friday went a little like this:

oak: ria how is the little bird?
ria: oh, the bird is fine, i released it
oak: when?
ria: on wednesday, and it flew into a tree
oak: FLEW INTO A TREE...?? like it flew into a wall?
ria: no, no, no, it flew away and landed up in a tree
oak: ahh.. good

so its today... tuesday... chemo... again...

8:15am: on the road to stanford, with special guest star, trish's friend Riley.
8:40am: checked in to the infusion center, and Ria stopped by to hang out for a bit
9:20am: blood draw by nurse deb is done, and we headed over to the cafe for some breakfast

so as we are heading to the cafe, trish, riley, ria and i were reliving the little tweeter story and showing Riley the main locations of the storyline... this is where little tweeter was found, here is the waterfall, etc..

and if there wasn't a better end to the story...
as we were walking, the same construction workers saw ria and began chatting it up and asking her how little tweeter was. ria assured them that LT was ok, and was back flying around on its own two wings..

all of us had a good laugh \, capping off the end to an already crazy story.
i think hearing the construction workers inquire about LT was worth the price of gas for Riley to drive down from Rocklin this morning.

10:00am: we are back in the sweet suite today and waiting on trish's blood test results..
10:15am: nurse deb is back with the pre-drugs of decadron, pepcid and benadryl..

blood is good, so there will be chemo today..

more updates later

riley, trish & ria

11:00am update
---------------------------------

10:50am: herceptin begins..

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 5.7
is 6.4

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 29
is 29

the past week:
-----------------------------------

the last 7 days have probably been the roughest on trish. the itchiness is getting worse, and is affecting her feet. we went to rite aid this weekend and picked up ice packs and just about every over the counter anti-itching medication known to the western world... probably time to hit up the east.

Aveeno Maximum Strength Anti-Itch Cream
Active Ingredients: Hydrocortisone (1.0%) (Anti-Itch)

aloe with lidocain
Active Ingredients: Lidocaine HCl (0.50%)

Sarna Original Anti-Itch Lotion
Active Ingredients: Camphor (0.5%) (Analgesic), Menthol (0.5%) (Analgesic)

Lanacane Spray
Active Ingredients: Benzocaine (20%), Benzethonium Chloride (0.2%)

Benadryl Itch Stopping Cream
Active Ingredients: Diphenhydramine HCl (2%), Zinc Acetate (0.1%) (Skin Protectant)

and a trip to baath & body works resulted in a purchase of:

Look Ma, New Hands! Softening Hand Lotion with Paraffin

they all seem to work a little bit, but nothing is working great.

nurse jan from dr. carlson's office is gonna come up and visit us today and see if there is anything else trish can take for this. the neupogen shots have trumped the chemo, and now the itchiness has trumped the neupogen.

aside from the itching, its been a pretty uneventful week.

on tuesday night, after chemo, trish went to a hip-hop dance class with christina

thursday, trish had another great healing touch session.

she had a vietnamese lunch with julie and carrie on friday at pho dong

on saturday, she was able to hang out with her girlfriends and celebrate becky's baby shower.

so thats about it for now...

the herceptin is almost done and the taxol will begin in a little bit..

11:45am update
------------------------------------------
11:40am: taxol is dripping..

at this rate, it looks like we will be at the Goose around 1:30pm

julie, trish & carrie heading to lunch on friday

1:00pm update
---------------------------
nurse jan stopped by and talked with trish about the itchiness. she prescribed a drug called Neurontin (Gabapentin) that should help curb the itches (and hot flashes).

trish will start taking this today, and hopefully it helps out.

the itching is caused by the taxol wreaking havoc on the nerve endings. trish only has 1 more treatment (after today) of taxol, so we are hoping this will leave her body soon.. but till then, she is gonna give the nuerontin a try cause who knows how long 12 weeks of taxol will continue to linger in her body.

got home around 2:45pm after a nice little lunch at the goose.. trish is in bed relaxing while caden takes his afternoon nap..

thanks for checking in..

a bird in hand is worth two IV's of chemo...

2008-07-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

checked back into the infusion center this morning at 8:30am...

we got a little crazy this morning, and took the freeway instead of alameda..
sand hill road exit here we come... home of billion dollar venture capitalists on the road less traveled to chemotown, USA.

its amazing how fast our weeks are going. this is trish's 10th infusion of taxol/herceptin, which leaves her with only two more to go after today.

she will switch to 63 days of FEC + herceptin, but during these 9 weeks, she will only be hooked up to an IV on 12 of those days, and of those 12 days, 6 of them should only be for 30 minutes.

so.. where were we... ahh today...

by 9:00am, nurse denise had the blood draw complete, so we decided to head downstairs for an hour or so and wait on the blood test results..

trish, ria and i headed over to the lucile packard children's hospital cafe to grab some food, and we are now we are sitting outside next to the waterfall...

ria came down to spend about an hour with us this morning.
during this time, she managed to become a foster mother.

this is an ever-developing story that i will be able to milk for weeks...

trish and ria went for a little walk while we were outside, and returned with a bird...
it appears a little baby bird flew itself directly into a wall right in front of some construction workers. being the loving mother ria is, she picked it up off the ground and she took this baby bird under her wing, offering the sweet little tweet some water out of my oatmeal spoon.

the bird, clearly in a state of shock, began to relax within a few minutes of ria's comforting. it was now time to see if the bird was ready to return to the wild...

little tweet, now on its own two legs, stumbled a bit and promptly fell into the water fountain.
with grizzly bear like reflexes, ria quickly snatched the bird out of the water, as if it was a salmon swimming up an alaskan stream...

it was clear the bird wasn't ready to venture off..

as ria was leaving to head home, she decided to give little tweeter one last chance at flight... the construction workers on their coffee break watched with eager anticipation, and cheered the little one on.

and off tweeter went...

at an altitude of about 7 feet, it was off into the great blue sky.... that is, until it bounced off the cancer center's stucco wall 15 feet away..
after a gasp of "uggghhsss" the construction crew fell silent.

tweeter landed in a patch of variegated palms, camouflaged and not easily found.
careful not to step on the rookie flyer, ria headed into the patch on a rescue mission...

the rescue was a success... tweeter was down, but not out..
knowing that a cancer center was no place for a baby bird, ria left to go home to babysit cousin lucas, with tiny tweeter in hand...

so that brings us back to the chemo joint...
trish is sitting in chair C6 today, close to a window.
i would call it the third best seat in the house (there are 6 seats in each room).

its 10:15am and we are still waiting on the blood test results, but they should be back any minute.. ill update you when they come back, and give you the week in review a little later.. and if we have any tweeter updates, ill let you know as well.

trish & ria outside at the waterfall

little tweeter

10:30am update
---------------------------------------------
after traveling home in ria's purse, tweeter is recouping in a basket on ria and judas's porch.

blood counts on trish are back, and good...

blood counts on little tweeter, TBD...

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 7.44
is 5.7 (1.7 - 6.7 is the desired range)

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 28.4
is 29 (highest its been since july 1 treatment)

nurse denise hooked trish up to the pepcid/benadryl/decadron at 10:20am..

with some luck, we could be out of there around 1:30pm today..

more updates later..

11:30am update
----------------------------------
the pre-drugs finished about about 30 minutes ago, and trish began on her taxol at 11:15am. this will take about 90 minutes, then she is on to the herceptin and home.

the week in review
----------------------------------------

not much to talk about in the past week, but ill give it a shot.. (pun intended)

tuesday:
trish and ria headed to whole foods after chemo and did some shopping. aside from being a little loopy, trish usually feels pretty good after chemo. it isn't until she begins the neupogen shots that she starts getting the aches.

thursday:
back at the stanford cancer center, but no chemo today...
this time it was to meet with plastic surgeon Dr. Geoffrey Gurtner (scroll down to the third doctor) to discuss various reconstruction options.

surgery is still a ways off, but we would rather discuss the options sooner than later. we already had a good idea of trish's choices, but after talking with Dr. Gurtner, we are a little more knowledgeable of the options, and can ask better questions to other doctors and to those who have gone through similar experiences.

we are looking at two different reconstruction techniques:

1. DIEP Flap, which is similar to a muscle sparing tram-flap, but using newer techniques (very basically put, its a tummy tuck and and the breast is reconstructed with abdominal tissue, but no muscle)
2. silicone or saline implant

the other option is the timing...
both choices can be performed before or after radiation therapy

as with everything, each of the four choices above has their own list of pro's and con's.

and this point there is no hurry to decide, but like i said, we can now make a better educated choice as to what is right for her.

more information on various reconstructive options can be found here

we plan on meeting with the surgical oncologist to discuss the mastectomy aspect of the surgery soon.

thursday night, trish headed to healing touch and had another good session with chanda

the weekend was spent relaxing around the house. trish, caden and i headed downtown redwood city on friday night and had sushi at the Suisha House

trish did some gardening over the weekend, maintaining the tomato, jalapeno and artichoke plants we have in our little garden. we watched a couple movies, went a a couple stores, and that was about it.

monday:
trish and caden headed over to maddux park for a play date, and in the evening steve, cerena & lucas had us over a nice dinner.

and that was pretty much it...

trish continues to feel pretty good.. her biggest complaints continue to be the side effects of the nuepogen shots and the itchiness she is getting in her hands.
following the advice of dr. telli, she has been putting benadryl on her hands, and that helps somewhat, but its not a perfect solution.

if she had to be achy or ithcy, i think she would take the aches..

more updates later..

12:45pm update....
--------------------------------
12:40pm taxol finished up, and now its herceptin's turn. 1/2 hour and we should be done.

trish's friend, lyndee is hanging out with us this afternoon...
they are talking about whatever it is girls talk about...
but its making trish's last half of the day go much quicker..

getting home around 1:30pm continues to look promising..

2:30pm update...
-------------------------
we are finally home...
but only after a stop at The Dutch Goose for some lunch :)

trish left to go shopping with cerena... go figure

i need to go get an update on tweets..

Trisha & Lyndee

how suite it is...

2008-07-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

its tuesday again? already?

8:30am: we begin our journey down the boulevard of the fleas, alameda de las pulgas...

8:40am: ahhh... the goose

9:15am: done with the blood draw from newly engaged nurse christy, and heading downstairs to see doc carlson.

9:35am: we got into an exam room, and trish changed into her fine looking baby blue hospital gown

10:20am: dr. mia levy came in and examined trish. we are still waiting on the blood test results, but they should be back shortly.. and then dr. carlson will be in to see her.

so for the ever famous, ever exciting week in review:
--------------------------------------------------------------

tuesday:
after chemo on tuesday, we went camping... yep... camping... roughing it in the great outdoors... the wilderness, bears, living off the land...
or..
steve, cerena & lucas had already taken the RV down to the thousand trails campground in morgan hill, so trish, caden, judas and i headed down there to "rough" it with them...

well for this post, the definition of "roughing it" will include running water, electricity, microwave, tv, swimming pool and of course wireless internet so i could do my work. anyhow, it was fun and relaxing and nice to get away from the house for a couple days. lucas and caden kept busy playing in the dirt, with the dogs, the swimming pool and everything else they could get their hands on. trish was able to relax, not have to worry about doing anything and get caught up on some reading.

thursday:
we came home from camping in the morning so could go into work, and trish headed to her healing touch appointment in the evening.
the healing touch has been really good to trish. she loves the 1 hour a week spent with her healing touch partner, chanda,
and its really helping her mentally and physically with the effects the chemo/cancer has had on her. she typically comes home emotionally drained, but with a smile.

saturday:
a tiresome day. fridays and saturdays are trish's worst days...
the chemo seems to catch up with her, and by this time she has taken 3 or 4 of her neupogen shots.
during these days, she more achy than normal, gets tired a little easier and the heat/sun tend to make her hands itch.
regardless, trish spent the morning at baptism class for our nephew lucas (whom she will be the god mother of), and the early afternoon celebrating cooper tozi's 1st birthday party at maddux park. we then planned on hitting up my cousin's graduation party, but by this time i knew trish and caden didn't have it in them...

the rest of the afternoon trish and caden spent snoozing at home, both of them getting caught up on some much needed rest.

sunday: a lazy day around the house... trish watched some chick flick, and in the evening we went over to trish's brother casey & jane's house for a bbq.

monday: nothing too exciting, just some gardening around the house and taking it easy.

tuesday: well... thats today and we are back at it again.

ill provide more updates after we meet with dr. carlson and get the blood results back..

camping in morgan hill

trish and caden at cooper's birthday

udpate numero uno: 11:30am

10:40am: dr. carlson examined trish, and again said he was pleased with the progress and thinks trish is doing great. trish's side effects are relatively minor, and expected. i dont have the numbers, but her blood IS good enough to get chemo.
trish's red counts are around 28, which is low, but dr. carlson isn't too concerned.
he said a transfusion wouldn't be necessary unless her counts were around 22-24, or if trish experiences serious fatigue and shortness of breath.

11:10am: back in the infusion center waiting room

11:25am: seated... well... lying
no seat, but a "suite" today.
it is a busy day in chemoland, and we are in here a little later than normal due to visiting with the doc today.

so... no more window seat... hell, there isn't even a seat available, so we have a private room with a bed in it... no windows, but a nice comfy hospital type bed and a tv...

11:40am: nurse arturo is beginning on trish's pre-drugs...
she will be getting a 1/2 dose of the steroid today, so hopefully this will help her sleep tonight. the decadron seems to keep trish up on tuesday nights, even though the benadryl makes her drowsy during the day.

12:40pm: taxol begins...

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 6.2
is 7.44 (all time high :) the neupogen is worth it )

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 28.6
is 28.4 (low, but stable, her 8 week average is 28.65 )

more updates later...

the suite life...

2:45pm update
---------------------

2:10pm: taxol done
2:15pm: herceptin begins

should be out of here and on our way home before 3pm

pretty smooth day.. trish has been sleeping for most of it.
hopefully she will be able to fall asleep tonight...

thanks for checking in...

Chevy's Fundraiser

2008-07-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!!

Mark your calendars. I am hosting a fundraiser to raise
money for the Breast Cancer 3 Day. The event will be held
at the Chevy's in Redwood City, on Thursday, August 14
from 11:00am-9:00pm. All you have to do is come and eat, be
it lunch or dinner, and Chevy's will donate 25% of the
food proceeds to my team "Trisha's Trailblazers." Make sure when
you eat to mention the Breast Cancer 3-Day or bring in the
attached flyer.

We are walking in honor of our friend, Trisha, with the
hope that we can raise money for a cure. Feel free to check
out Trisha's blog at
http://www.trishafaggiolly.blogspot.com or to browse the 3
day website at http://08.the3day.org/site/. You
can also click on the link below to get to my personal page
and find out a
little more about why I walk!

This is a great cause, as breast cancer has touched most of
our lives or will at some time, heaven forbid, so please
forward this on to friends, family, your workplace and
other groups. I want to reach as many people as I can...the
more that attend, the more money we raise to find a cure for
Breast Cancer!!! Together we can take a stand!!!

Thank you
Jeannie Wynne

Support me in the fight against Breast Cancer! I am doing
the Breast Cancer 3-Day... click here

chemo sweet chemo

2008-07-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

the trifecta is in play.... third week in a row of window seats.
barca-lounger B4 welcomed trish back as if she was an old friend...

ahh chair sweet chair... window sweet window... chemo sweet chemo...

9:15am: seated with nurse gail for trish's blood draw
10:30am: nurse martha had the decadron and pepcid running
11:00am: benadryl-tini not shaken, not stirred
11:20am: herceptin dripping
12:10pm: hercpentin done, taxol going... should be home around 2pm

for those keeping score at home, this is round 8 of taxol/herceptin for trish.
assuming she doesn't not miss any more rounds of taxol due to her blood counts, august 12th will be the 12th and final round of this regimen, before switching to 3 more months of CEF + herceptin.

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 5.9
is 6.2

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 27.8
is 28.6

the week in review:
-----------------------------

again, another good week for trish. nothing too out of the ordinary on the physical side. the 4 shots of neupogen are working well for her white blood count, and trish has been doing everything she can to increase her red count...
eating clams, mussels, steaks, becky's meatloaf, iron supplements.. you name it.
its good to see her red count up, but its still lower than desired.

after last tuesday's treatment, we had trish's family over for a bbq to celebrate her mom's birthday.

on wednesday trish & judas brought caden to get a much overdue haircut in the morning, and in the afternoon we had the pleasure of meeting and talking with cancer veteran, karol-ann coleman

karol-ann's memoir can be found on her website, http://www.itsprobablynothing.org

trish spent thursday prepping for my sister's wedding shower that she co-hosted this past weekend.

saturday was the wedding shower....

sunday was a raw food "cooking" class in palo alto that trish, julie and jane attended.

so its been another incredibly quick, hectic and busy week at the oak ridge estate, but trish continues remain active and do all the things she would normally do.

i know trish hasn't had the chance to talk with all of those who participated in the avon breast cancer walk, but she was really touched by the support and friendship of you ladies.. i know julie passed along a message to most of you, and i hope you know how much it meant to trish... thank you.

and this weeks special guest star, is none other than trish's dad, judas...

ria's birthday bbq...

not a happy camper...

Avon Walk for Breast Cancer: San Francisco

2008-07-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the Avon walk for breast cancer in san francisco.

this is a 2 day walk that covers 39 miles on saturday and sunday.

several of trish's friends are walking in honor of her, as well as other friends and family members that have been hit by the cancer bug.

for those interested in donating to the team, they are currently at 92% of their fund raising goal.

Trisha's TaTa's Team Page

Team Members
-------------------------------
Christina Lazzarini
Julie Blagg
Monica Conniff
Christina Gann Munguia
Elizabeth Greenlee
Brie Jennings

Goal: $10,800.00

Achieved: $9,927.00

Info about the Avon Walk For Breast Cancer:

http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/PageServer?pagename=walk_how_spent

B4 seven eight nine ten

2008-07-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

7/8 9:10am :
-----------------------
the blood has been drawn by nurse esther, and we are waiting on test results. last week's muffins are still working, as we are enjoying our northern views out of window seat B4 today...

based on trish's counts last week, and the 4 shots of neupogen this week (that she is now administering to herself), there isn't any reason why her counts should be low....
but ya never know.

yesterday was trish's 3 month anniversary of her diagnosis, and today is round 9 of chemo. in terms of taxol/herceptin this is round 7, and this title fight is scheduled for a full 12 rounds.

soooo for the week in review..

again, another pretty decent week for trish. the typical aches and pains of the neupogen, but nothing that kept her in bed.

for the 4th, steve, cerena, lucas, trish, caden and myself headed downtown to catch some of the 4th of July parade. we found ourselves a nice little spot across from the end of the parade route, parked the truck and watched it from there. after the parade we spent a few hours at our friends, thunder & angie's block party. it was nice to get out and spend some time with the family and friends and enjoy the holiday. for the kids there was sno-cones, a bounce house and a big ole 16 foot tall waterside. and for the adults, there were plenty of barley drinks in those big aluminum barrels on tap.

the rest of the weekend was pretty much spent at home...
we made a couple trips to bridgepoint and downtown san carlos to do some shopping, did some bbq'ing and some chores around the house...
overall it was a nice relaxing weekend in the ridiculous heat.

more updates later... stay tuned..

trish snuggling up with the hand-knit blanket
made by our friend kelly reutlinger

trish, lucas, caden & cerena checking out the 4th of july parade

caden & auntie jane in the bounce house

11:15am update
------------------------------
its chemo-ogogo...

whiteys are good, reddies are lower than they would like, but overall good to go.
looks like a burger for lunch and a steak for dinner for trish.

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 6.52
is 5.9

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 29
is 27.8

10:15am: pepcid done
11:00am: decadron done
11:05am: the benadryl was hung on the chemo tree with care
11:15am: harp lady is back (but its not the original harp lady, possibly a stunt double)

more later...

1:30pm update
----------------------
11:45am: taxol started
1:22: taxol done, herceptin on the hook

should be home in about an hour...

2:15pm update
----------------------
2:10pm: herceptin finished up, nurse esther flushed trish's port with heparin, and we are heading home for a little bbq tonight..

new month, same crap...

2008-07-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

ahhh the drive down the alameda that has become so familiar. each time wishing The Dutch Goose was our destination, but sadly it never is...

another day in chemoville is underway.

the past week has been pretty good to trish. she had her four neupogen shots on wed, thurs, fri and sat.

saturday trish went down to santana row for a birthday tea party for the sisters Gann, Carrie and Christina.

on sunday, trish, caden and i headed over to the menlo park farmer's market to pick up some fruits and veggies.. we actually ran into dr. carlson while we were there... its kinda odd.. like when you are kid, and you see your teacher at the grocery store for the first time... you know oncologists need to shop as well, but seeing them outside their habitat, you sometimes gotta do a double take.

trish has been feeling decent, but as you know, the neupogen shots make her really achy. yesterday and today haven't been too bad, but she made it through the week without any advil or alieve.. so she is hanging in there.

so that brings us to today...

8:10am: driving down alameda
8:30am: arrive at the stanford cancer center
9:00am: seated for blood work with nurse sammie
9:20am: blood draw finished, heading downstairs
9:25am: checked in with dr. carlson's front desk
9:35am: in dr. carlson's patient room
10:00am: nurse jan came in to check in on trish. blood counts look promising, but not all the #'s are back yet

the nurses in the infusion center have always been so nice and welcoming..
trish wanted to do a little something to say thank you, so she baked a few dozen lemon poppyseed, blueberry and coffee crumbcake muffins for them last night.

stay tuned... more updates throughout the day

here is a pic from a few minutes ago in dr. carlson's exam room...
trish was flipping through a copy of People, and came across this advertisement....

ya gotta be kidding me

11:00am update
-----------------

we met with dr. carlson and nurse jan and went over the blood work, the previous weeks, the coming weeks, surgery options, surgeon options, etc..

trish's blood counts came back good, and she is good to go for another round of juice today... she tried talking dr. carlson into 3 shots of neupogen a week, but he wasn't having it. i guess we will have to continue with 4..

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 6.05
is 6.52

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 28.9
is 29

trish's (and mine) face lit up when we heard dr. carlson say:

"a really wonderful response here"

and

"i think we you are doing fantastic"

its really good to know its workin...

its 11:00am and we are back in the infusion center waiting room....
1.5 hours late for our appointment... think its gonna be a long day

more updates later..

11:15am update
-----------------

seated in the much sought after spot, C5... theeeee prime, numero uno throne. westwardly facing, with windows of a northern exposure.
the sky is blue, the trees green and the chemo clear.

BRIBING THE NURSES WITH MUFFINS APPEARS TO HAVE WORKED :)

nurse nenita began trish on her bottle of wine (benadryl) and will be back to buy her a round of decadrone and pepcid in a bit

more updates later...

2:00pm update
-----------------

12:00pm: predrugs done
12:15pm: began taxol
1:45pm: taxol done, began herceptin

herceptin should take 30 minutes... we should be on our way home no later than 2:30pm.

trish has been catching up on a little sleep over the last couple hours.

the harp lady was back, and kicked off the concert with a fine rendition of Sting's "Fields of Gold". (this isn't "our" harp lady, but if you want to hear fields of gold on the harp, here is your chance)

Dinner Sign-up, Round 2!

2008-06-27T16:40:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone:

The 1st round of dinner sign-ups are over and I want to personally thank each of you for making it a HUGE success. Trisha and Oak (I'm sure Caden too) are so very grateful for all of your support during this time. Given the success of the dinner program, I've created Round 2! I know this is a small way you all feel you can help this wonderful family get through this challenging time. Please feel free to sign up again.

http://www1.mysignup.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?datafile=barrettfamily

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cerena

another tuesday, another can of chemo

2008-06-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

ahhh its tuesday...
must mean a trip to store to pick up another can of chemotherapy..

so off to the stanford university cancer center we go..

8:15am: arrived for our 8:00am appt... imagine that

8:25am: seated for a blood draw from nurse christy

8:35am: heading downstairs for our 9:00am appt with dr. carlson. this is the first appt with dr. carlson in the past 4 weeks. we are now visiting him once a month.

hopefully trish's blood counts are good today. we gave her 4 shots of Neupogen (Filgrastim) this past week, as opposed to the three shots during the previous two weeks... her counts were borderline last week, we hope this wont be the case today.

keep your fingers crossed...

results should be back in an hour or so..

ill post back after the visit with the doc...

---------------------------------
update #1: 12:00pm
---------------------------------
9:25am - 10:50am: met with dr. telli, and discussed a little bit of everything from blood, surgery options, chemo schedule for the coming months, food, alternative medicine, vitamins, etc..
she also referred us to a surgical oncologist as well as a plastic surgeon.

it was nice to get caught up with dr. telli, as we haven't seen any of trish's doctors in the past month.

dr. carlson is out of the office today, so we setup an appointment to check in with him prior to next weeks chemo.

drumroll....

trish's blood counts are back up :)
there will be taxol today

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 1.47
is 6.05

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 28.2
is 28.9

trish is litte bit anemic, but her red blood cell count has been down since beginning chemo.
this can be a result of being pregnant with caden, as pregnancies can deplete the body of iron and the body can take several years to recover. to help this, she will begin taking some iron supplements.

trish will continue receiving the nuepogen shots, four times week to keep her white blood count up. she isn't too thrilled about this, as lately this has been the hardest part of the treatment. the shots make her really achy in her bones (its all that marrow making some whiteys..)

there are corresponding drugs for red counts, Procrit or Epogen, but they are not recommended for those undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

11:10am: trish got her chemo chair... #C3
11:40am: nurse carol began trish's premeds of decadron and pepcid
12:05pm: begin the benadryl... might as well tap a bottle of wine, as this makes her loooopy...

ill give you another update later after she begins the chemo...

trish's mom, ria, is joining us today...
here is a pic taken a minute ago:

---------------------------------
update #2: 12:30pm
---------------------------------
12:30pm: premeds are done... trish is hooked up to the taxol.

the harp lady also just came in with her 5' tall harp..
shes strumming some tunes while trish is getting ready for la la land...

ETA of getting out of here is 3pm...

stay tuned..

---------------------------------
update #3: 3:00pm
---------------------------------
2:00pm taxol finished up, began on the herceptin
3:00pm: herceptin done
3:10pm: nurse carol flushed the mediport with anticoagulant, heparin

heading home...

another day in the bag...

chemo is spiffy, even when you blood counts are iffy..

2008-06-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

back to stanford we go...

9am we arrived for trish's blood draw from nurse christy...

while waiting for the blood test results, we headed down to dr. calrson's office to get a note to excuse trish from the jury duty summons she got last week...

(if ya ever want to get out of jury duty... just go get yourself some cancer)

we headed back up to the infusion center at 10am to get the results of the blood test from nurse bev.

trish's counts were a little iffy today, but dr. carlson decided to continue with the treatment this week.

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC): 1.47 (cutoff is typically 1.5)
was 4.7 last week, and .6 a few weeks ago

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):: 28.2
was 30.3 last week and 28 a few weeks ago

anyhow...

its 11:30am and trish just finished up her first pre-drug of decadron and nurse bev just hooked up the benadryl. she will then get her pepcid, and then on with the taxol and herceptin.

the 6pm update..
--------------------------

trish began on her taxol around 12:15pm...
herceptin at 1:50pm...
we were done and walking out the door at 2:30pm

trish is looking and feeling good, but again, her immune system is pretty low.
she is more prone to getting sick, so caden did not go to storytime today, and we need to keep trish as healthy as possible.

if you want to come visit, please call first...

ill be giving her shots of neupogen beginning tommorrow for 4 days, in efforts to keep her white blood cell up..

so thats the update from the oak ridge estate..

here is a pic of trish and her new tshirt on saturday morning before we headed to the farmers market downtown...

"My Oncologist Is My Homeboy"

and here is a pic from this morning in the waiting room...

an order of herceptin, and a side of taxol please...

2008-06-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

trish's blood counts are good! she will be getting taxol today...

she just began her dose of the steroid and nurse lea is giving her the pepcid right now.

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 0.6
is 4.7

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 28
is 30.3 (a little below normal, but not low)

more updates later...

---update---
its 6:00pm... the herceptin is done, and we are heading home...
ill provide a little more detail later

happy birthday trish!

2008-06-05T07:31:00.000-07:00

please, WASH YOUR HANDS!

2008-06-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

as you hopefully know, we enjoy and appreciate all the visitors we get, but those planning a visit to see trish in the coming weeks, we ask that you please call and make arrangements with us prior to stopping by.

based on trish's blood counts today, her immune system is at a point where even a small cold could mean a trip to the emergency room.

we ask that if you do come, (after calling) please leave anyone who is sick, was sick, might be sick, could be sick, should be sick or will be sick at home.
this also means ABSOLUTELY NO CHILDREN, regardless of their current health.

and a reminder, if you do visit...

for your disinfecting pleasure we encourage you to please hose yourself off with the bottles of purel hand sanitizer conveniently located next to the front door.

thanks

oak