tuesdays with trisha...

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...

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...

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...

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!!

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

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

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

3 Day walk slideshow
(click me)

the 3 day is underway...

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...

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...

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..