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.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
herceptin today, gone tommorrow...
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
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
Sunday, April 26, 2009
vote for trish for SF Giants Bat Girl
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
Friday, April 17, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
1 year and a leap day ago...
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
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
a year ago, today...
a lump was found and the journey began... no fooling.
http://trishafaggiolly.blogspot.com/2008/04/lump.html
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
happy st. patricia's day...
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.
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
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
No Mas
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
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
Monday, March 2, 2009
¡ Una Mas !
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
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
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
still 2 2 go
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
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
Friday, February 20, 2009
2 2 go
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
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
Sunday, February 8, 2009
17 down, 11 to go
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
5 down, 23 to go
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
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
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
1 down, 27 to go
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
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
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
more, more, more radiation planning... and toss in a dash of herceptin while you're at it
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
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
Monday, January 5, 2009
more radiation planning...
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
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
Monday, December 29, 2008
tis the season for radiation consultations, fa la la la la, la la la la.
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
another day in the ITA...
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...
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
Monday, December 15, 2008
another checkup with dr. j
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..
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..
Thursday, December 11, 2008
a quickie..
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
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
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
the 10th reindeer, herceptin...
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
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
Monday, December 1, 2008
another quick checkup...
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...
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...
Thursday, November 27, 2008
gobble, gobble, bloggle, bloggle
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)
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)
Friday, November 21, 2008
the final pathology report...
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...
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:
it shall be celebration ale tonight...
p.s.
trish is out & about spending money everyday, so i guess that means she is feeling great.. :)
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.. :)
Thursday, November 20, 2008
do you mish your dish?
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
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
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
first post-op follow up...
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.
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.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
the update...
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
-------------------------------
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
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
surgery info...
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
ITA, oh how we have missed thee
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 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..
Thursday, November 6, 2008
the plan going forward...
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.
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.
Monday, November 3, 2008
surgery... postponed.
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)
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...
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..
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..
Thursday, October 30, 2008
a quicker update...
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
a quick and overdue update...
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...
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
Monday, October 20, 2008
the test results are back...
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.
trish is living proof.
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.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
now that we have the weekend behind us...
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, 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)
Monday, October 13, 2008
the weekend update... addendum
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...
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...
Friday, October 10, 2008
the weekend update...
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.
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...
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...
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
H-Town, USA
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
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..
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..
Friday, October 3, 2008
last call for chemo...
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
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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.
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
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