Hey all,
Check out our new "Support The Cause" page. Some really cool bracelets for sale. We are not selling these just to make money to line our pockets. Our hope is that you will show your support for Mary and promote breast cancer awareness by wearing these bracelets. All profits from the sale of these items will be used to pay for any medical treatments that our insurance will not cover. Any money left over will be donated to Huntsman Cancer Center or a similar cancer organization. Hopefully, you will understand that this is not about the money and all about supporting Mary.
I will be adding more pages with photos and other stuff later so check back often...
Thanks for everything!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Mary's First Chemo Treatment
Hey all,
I know...I know, there haven't been any updates in quite awhile. Sorry...everything has been going pretty well so it felt good to just forget about everything for a couple of weeks...but back to reality!
Mary had to have a complete body and bone scan before they would start the chemo just to make sure there wasn't cancer anywhere else. Both came back negative...great news!
Yesterday was Mary's first chemo treatment. Only 7 more... They gave her a combination of drugs. They started off with some anti-nausea meds, for obvious reasons and then gave her Dexamathasone, which is a steroid...used in this case to avert any allergic reactions to the coming meds. Next came Cytoxan, a pretty common chemo drug, but very harsh. This one will cause her to lose her hair and kill all fast growing cells in her body such as...cancer cells, hair cells, tastebuds, all of the cells that line your throat, stomach and intestines, white blood cells, red blood cells, etc. You get the picture? (obviously it doesn't kill all of these cells or she would die) Because of it's effects on the lining of your stomach it also causes alot of nausea. Next up...Adriamycin...nicknamed the "red devel" because it looks like red hair gel and turns your urine, tears and sweat red. When this first came out it was used as an antibiotic...I guess after it killed a few people along with the infection they had, it was decided that it should be used on cancer patients. ha, ha...anyway...the total process took about 3 hours. Not much fun but we did meet some really nice people while we were there.
Mary has handled this treatment really well. Just a little nausea and some headaches. (that's all she has told me about anyway!) I think that's it. I expected her to sleep in today but she was up and ready to go before I was. (that's not to hard. I'm not a morning person.) They gave her a prescription for nausea a couple of weeks ago called Amend. 3 pills...$450!! It seems to be working though so it's worth it. We have to get it filled before each treatment so lets see...$450 X 8 treatments is $3600. Wow...for just this one prescription, but like I said, it seems to work so it's worth it. Hopefully Mary will get through the next couple of days without to much trouble. By the end of next week all of her hair will be gone. (most likely) Her next treatment is on April 22nd, just when she will be starting to feel normal again. She has been texting a bunch so if you would like to talk to her feel free.
Mary is planning on doing some cancer walks in the near future, like "Race for a cure." I will post some info about what's going on with those as soon as I find out the details. Or you can just ask her if you want. Thanks to all of you that have been calling, sending letters, cards and emails. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers very much.
Love you all,
Dave, Mary & Erin
I know...I know, there haven't been any updates in quite awhile. Sorry...everything has been going pretty well so it felt good to just forget about everything for a couple of weeks...but back to reality!
Mary had to have a complete body and bone scan before they would start the chemo just to make sure there wasn't cancer anywhere else. Both came back negative...great news!
Yesterday was Mary's first chemo treatment. Only 7 more... They gave her a combination of drugs. They started off with some anti-nausea meds, for obvious reasons and then gave her Dexamathasone, which is a steroid...used in this case to avert any allergic reactions to the coming meds. Next came Cytoxan, a pretty common chemo drug, but very harsh. This one will cause her to lose her hair and kill all fast growing cells in her body such as...cancer cells, hair cells, tastebuds, all of the cells that line your throat, stomach and intestines, white blood cells, red blood cells, etc. You get the picture? (obviously it doesn't kill all of these cells or she would die) Because of it's effects on the lining of your stomach it also causes alot of nausea. Next up...Adriamycin...nicknamed the "red devel" because it looks like red hair gel and turns your urine, tears and sweat red. When this first came out it was used as an antibiotic...I guess after it killed a few people along with the infection they had, it was decided that it should be used on cancer patients. ha, ha...anyway...the total process took about 3 hours. Not much fun but we did meet some really nice people while we were there.
Mary has handled this treatment really well. Just a little nausea and some headaches. (that's all she has told me about anyway!) I think that's it. I expected her to sleep in today but she was up and ready to go before I was. (that's not to hard. I'm not a morning person.) They gave her a prescription for nausea a couple of weeks ago called Amend. 3 pills...$450!! It seems to be working though so it's worth it. We have to get it filled before each treatment so lets see...$450 X 8 treatments is $3600. Wow...for just this one prescription, but like I said, it seems to work so it's worth it. Hopefully Mary will get through the next couple of days without to much trouble. By the end of next week all of her hair will be gone. (most likely) Her next treatment is on April 22nd, just when she will be starting to feel normal again. She has been texting a bunch so if you would like to talk to her feel free.
Mary is planning on doing some cancer walks in the near future, like "Race for a cure." I will post some info about what's going on with those as soon as I find out the details. Or you can just ask her if you want. Thanks to all of you that have been calling, sending letters, cards and emails. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers very much.
Love you all,
Dave, Mary & Erin
Friday, March 12, 2010
Follow Up After Surgery
Hey all,
We met with Dr Morrell today for her after surgery follow up. The pathology report from the tissue removed showed 13 lymph nodes along with some chest muscle...ALL CANCER FREE! Yea!!! That was great news to get! She will still have to go through the chemo...we knew that, but maybe no radiation. It's just good to know that it did not spread beyond that first lymph node! They took one of the two drain tubes out, which about killed Mary. They will take the other one out in a couple days. Our next appointment is on the 22nd with the Oncologist to start the chemotherapy. Not sure if he'll start her that day or have her come back later in the Month. She is going to spend the next couple of weeks healing and getting ready mentally for the chemotherapy. All in all...it's been a good day.
Love you all,
Dave, Mary & Erin
We met with Dr Morrell today for her after surgery follow up. The pathology report from the tissue removed showed 13 lymph nodes along with some chest muscle...ALL CANCER FREE! Yea!!! That was great news to get! She will still have to go through the chemo...we knew that, but maybe no radiation. It's just good to know that it did not spread beyond that first lymph node! They took one of the two drain tubes out, which about killed Mary. They will take the other one out in a couple days. Our next appointment is on the 22nd with the Oncologist to start the chemotherapy. Not sure if he'll start her that day or have her come back later in the Month. She is going to spend the next couple of weeks healing and getting ready mentally for the chemotherapy. All in all...it's been a good day.
Love you all,
Dave, Mary & Erin
Monday, March 8, 2010
UPDATE - 9:40 AM
Just finished with surgery. Dr Morrell said everything went well. It will take about 3 days to get pathology report back on what they removed. She will be in recovery for about 45 minutes before we can see her. Dr said if she's doing ok with pain he will let her go home today...we'll see.
UPDATE - 8:10 AM
They took Mary in for her 2nd surgery at about 7:30. Dr Morrell said he would probably be done in 1 to 2 hours because they don't have to wait for any lab results. Hopefully they won't find anything this time. Both Dr Morrell and Dr Gray seemed confident that everything they remove today will be clean...they just want to be sure. As Dr Gray said..."we're going for a cure here...not just an extension of life." That's good to hear.
Friday, February 26, 2010
February 26, 2010 Update - Small Setback...
Hey all,
Sorry there haven't been any updates for several days...it was just good to be home with nothing new to worry about. Going forward I will try to post something every day. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Now for the update...We received a phone call from Dr Morrell, the surgeon, yesterday. The tumor board, which he is a part of, met early Thursday morning. Basically, the tumor board is a group of doctors; oncologists, radiologists, surgeons, etc. All are experts in cancer treatment. They meet each week and go over all of the cases and develop treatment plans for their patients. It's like getting a 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinion without having to visit each Dr. Anyway, after they all reviewed Mary's case, they felt like the best plan would be to go back in surgically and remove more lymph nodes and a little more of the chest muscle. When we originally talked with Dr Morrell after the surgery, he told us that there were some slight abnormalities in one of the lymph nodes but he thought the oncologist would most likely want to go after it with radiation and chemo. He did tell us there was a slight possibility that Dr Gray would want him to go back in surgically. They said that we could choose to just do the chemo and radiation but they felt like the "best" plan would be to go back in and make sure that we have it ALL...before we start the chemotherapy and radiation. This isn't because they missed something the first time, it's because the oncologists had not had a chance to review the final pathology report. Once they did, they all agreed that this was the best course of action. Dr Morrell did tell us that this surgery would be much more difficult and painfull, mainly because they are dealing with the chest muscle which has lots of nerve endings. The surgery is tentatively scheduled for March 8th or 9th. We will know an exact date on March 4th when we meet with Dr Morrell again. We also have an appointment with the oncologist, Dr Gray, on March 2nd so I will have some new info about all of this after that appointment.
Needless to say, yesterday was a pretty depressing day. Just when you think you've got the first bridge crossed they tell you that you must go back and cross the bridge in a different place! All that we can do is take it one day at a time and do our best to handle each challenge as we face it. Thank you all for your support and all of the nice comments...they are appreciated.
Love you all,
Dave, Mary & Erin
Sorry there haven't been any updates for several days...it was just good to be home with nothing new to worry about. Going forward I will try to post something every day. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Now for the update...We received a phone call from Dr Morrell, the surgeon, yesterday. The tumor board, which he is a part of, met early Thursday morning. Basically, the tumor board is a group of doctors; oncologists, radiologists, surgeons, etc. All are experts in cancer treatment. They meet each week and go over all of the cases and develop treatment plans for their patients. It's like getting a 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinion without having to visit each Dr. Anyway, after they all reviewed Mary's case, they felt like the best plan would be to go back in surgically and remove more lymph nodes and a little more of the chest muscle. When we originally talked with Dr Morrell after the surgery, he told us that there were some slight abnormalities in one of the lymph nodes but he thought the oncologist would most likely want to go after it with radiation and chemo. He did tell us there was a slight possibility that Dr Gray would want him to go back in surgically. They said that we could choose to just do the chemo and radiation but they felt like the "best" plan would be to go back in and make sure that we have it ALL...before we start the chemotherapy and radiation. This isn't because they missed something the first time, it's because the oncologists had not had a chance to review the final pathology report. Once they did, they all agreed that this was the best course of action. Dr Morrell did tell us that this surgery would be much more difficult and painfull, mainly because they are dealing with the chest muscle which has lots of nerve endings. The surgery is tentatively scheduled for March 8th or 9th. We will know an exact date on March 4th when we meet with Dr Morrell again. We also have an appointment with the oncologist, Dr Gray, on March 2nd so I will have some new info about all of this after that appointment.
Needless to say, yesterday was a pretty depressing day. Just when you think you've got the first bridge crossed they tell you that you must go back and cross the bridge in a different place! All that we can do is take it one day at a time and do our best to handle each challenge as we face it. Thank you all for your support and all of the nice comments...they are appreciated.
Love you all,
Dave, Mary & Erin
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