Tuesday, August 5, 2008

round eleven of chemo heaven...

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..




4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dag Zusje!
Wow, you really look very nice in the picture with Julie and Carrie!
I sure hope the itchyness will go bye soon, or at least you can get something that really works!!
Too bad I missed talking to you, will text Oak as we are travelling.
Love ya, take care,
liefs Yvonne

Head Baby Wrangler said...

yah! for one LAST round wooohooo! I really hope this new stuff helps you with the itch issue :( On a lighter note, you look FABULOUS in the picture above :)

Anonymous said...

You look amazing as always, hope your itching goes away with the new meds! Can't wait to see you.
Riley ~ you look so ethnic!

Luv you!
Ginger

Anonymous said...

Hey Trisha & Oak,
Thanks for the update. Glad to hear everything is well with both Trisha & Tweets. :-) Sorry to hear about the itching - hope it goes away, soon! I hope to see you guys on Thursday for lunch or a visit since Anna is in town. I will call you.
Lots of hugs & positive thoughts!
Lyndee & Family