Merry Christmas

Over the last month, Teresa has been able to keep a "normal" routine with the chemo treatments. This is due to the fact that the 2 shots after treatments has helped with the low white blood count issues. This past Tuesday, she had an appointment with Dr. Gupta. During the appointment, we asked if he had any plans to check the tumor on her liver. He responded by offering her the opportunity to get an ultrasound on her liver the following day.

Well, Teresa went and had the ultrasound and got immediate feedback from Dr. Pearce (Radiologist). Although the ultrasound and PET are two totally different scans, Dr. Pearce said he could see enough of her tumor in order to gauge that it had shrunk approximately 2 cm. Needless to say, this was the greatest Christmas present that we will get this year!

As a result, she will keep the same regimen for a while and get a PET scan after a couple of more rounds. That means she got treatments today followed by another on December 30th. It will be a busy next week or so with family coming in from Ohio and Florida but Teresa is looking forward to it.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Your prayers and support are greatly appreciated.

Rob

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Please take time to enjoy your family and friends this weekend. Thank God for all of your blessings."It is good to give thanks to the Lord.." Psalms 92:1

I also wanted to update everyone on my health status. I apologize for not posting anything sooner. After a I get a few phone calls from folks that check my blog regularly, I realize that I better post something.

I was not able to get my regularly scheduled chemo this past Friday, November 18th. All of my counts were way too low to administer chemo. Dr. Gupta put me on a really strong antibiotic to help my body fight infection. He decided to let my body get built back up and then do chemo as scheduled on Friday, December 2nd. I will then get some sort of "booster" type shot on December 6th and 7th. The shots are supposed to boost my counts back up, so I can get chemo again on December 9th.

If the shots work, then I will probably continue to follow this schedule for the rest of my treatments. Dr. Gupta has not set a date for my next scan, yet. I figure it will be at the end of December or first part of January. He will determine at that time if my body is responding properly to the treatment or if we need to try something else.

The blessing in all of this is that I have been feeling pretty good despite what is going on in my body. I am so thankful that the pain in my lower back and leg is gone. The radiation did the trick! I am thankful that we live in the same town as the cancer center and that Dr. Gupta travels here to see patients. I am thankful for all of our friends and family that mean the world to us. I am thankful for all of Rob's co-workers that do special things for us all of the time. I am thankful for all of the prayers that continue to bless us. And most importantly, I am thankful to God for giving us the strength that we need to get through this.

Brain MRI Clear!!

Well, we can all breathe a little easier again because the MRI of my brain was clear. No cancer was found!! Words cannot describe the relief we felt when Dr. Gupta read us the results. Now, we can just focus on the current chemo treatment regimen that I am doing and pray for good results.

The chemo did not have any bad side effects for this first round. I mostly felt fatigued. The anti-nausea meds did the trick. I am hoping to feel as good for this next round on Friday.

Thank you again for all of the prayers. We truly believe that God is giving us the strength to battle this again. Keep the prayers coming!!

Love,
Teresa

Not the News We Wanted to Hear

We met this morning with Dr. Rhees (Radiation Oncologist) to discuss the results of the PET Scan that Teresa had on Monday. Dr. Rhees informed us that the cancer had spread to two more bones (base of neck/right hip) and that the spot on her liver had increased from 3 cm to 6 cm since the last PET Scan in June. Needless to say, this was not the news that we wanted to hear. Especially since she had been feeling better in the last week or so. Dr. Rhees told us that she knew Dr. Gupta would want to start chemo in order to treat the liver. So, before we left the office an appointment with Dr. Gupta was scheduled for next Tuesday. However, we didn't have to wait until Tuesday to find out the course of action.

Dr. Gupta called me this evening and talked about his plan. Teresa is going to start chemo on Friday. She will be given Gemzar and Carboplatin. These two drugs will be given one time per week for two weeks and the third week will be off. Dr. Gupta said that the side effects will not be as harsh as TAC was over 2 years ago. At this time, he said that we are not backed in the corner. However, he said that he is concerned with how fast it is growing on the liver. Dr. Gupta feels that there are two things that are working positively in her favor as she heads into the treatment. First, the spot on the liver is smaller than the first time. Second, the treatment the first time had significant response from her body for a long period of time.

I know that Teresa is a strong individual and she will attack the chemo and cancer with the same attitude that she has had over the last 2 1/2 years. Her spirits are down but she will battle. Her faith in God and the love for her girls will continue to help her through the next few weeks. Please keep her and the rest of the family in your prayers. We know that they have been answered to this point and have no reason not to believe that they won't be in the future.

Done with Radiation!

I received my last radiation treatment on Thursday morning. Dr Rhees said she is confident that they treated the right area, but it may be 4 - 6 weeks before I feel real relief. She said that obviously the tumor had done some nerve damage and it will take a few weeks for the nerve endings to re-train themselves on how to respond to movement, etc. I will meet with her again on Tuesday to go over my treatment plan regarding all of my prescriptions.

My tumor markers had gone down from 63.4 to 42.6 in just a short amount of time. We usually celebrate that as good news; however, Dr. Gupta said he is not sure that we are going to be able to rely on those numbers anymore to accurately pinpoint what is really going on with the bone cancer. He scheduled a PET scan for October 17th to get another clear picture of where the cancer has spread, tumor sizes, and locations. I will get another tumor marker test at the end of October to see how they have changed in a month. I am scheduled to meet with Gupta on November 1st to go over results and set up my next treatment plan.

I have been very thankful that I have been able to drive and take my girls to all of their activities. I have been able to attend all of their sporting events, too. It is the simple day to day tasks that really mean the most to me. We are so blessed to have so many people in our lives that offer to help us out, too. We really appreciate it!!

Week #2 of Radiation Completed!

Two down and one to go. I will finish up my radiation treatments on Thursday. The doctors said that the radiation will continue to work in my body up to a month after the treatments are finished. The main way we will know if this has worked will be my pain level.

I finally started a new drug called Neurontin on Friday evening. The doctors had been trying to get me to use it two weeks ago, but I was very hesitant about starting it. The potential side effects made me nervous, but I felt I had no choice but to try. I just needed some relief.

Amazingly enough, I felt so much better yesterday. It was the first time in weeks that my pain was minimal. My goal all week had been to feel well enough to go to Indianapolis with Rob and the girls to the Sagamore Athletic Conference football games at Lucas Oil Stadium. I had my heart set on the spicy shrimp cocktail at Harry and Izzy's, too.

We had a parking pass and the restaurant was very close, so I didn't have to do too much walking. We had an awesome lunch with friends and did a little shopping. Western Boone also thumped the Chargers, so that was fun to watch, too.

I had my tumor marker test on Friday and will get those results at our meeting with Dr. Gupta on Tuesday afternoon. I am also scheduled to get my once monthly infusion of Zometa and Faslodex injection on Friday, but we are not sure if Dr. Gupta is still going to go with that plan or change it.

Please continue to pray for us as we go through this and that these treatments and medicines work to control my pain.

First Week of Treatment update

The radiation treatment is going fine. They are zapping the tumor from three different directions, so hopefully it will do the trick. I am taking steroids twice a day to help lessen the inflammation. They also put me on an acid-reflux medicine to help with a few stomach issues that started this week.

I continue to take Ibuprofen for the pain. I am trying to hold off on having to use something stronger. I want to be able to drive and do things for the girls that need to be done. I don't want to be wiped out and sleeping all the time.

Thursday was my worst day. I was in a lot of pain and had severe nausea, so the doctor upped my steroid dosage. Thankfully, I feel a lot better today. I just feel tired today and have some pain, but I don't feel like I am going to get sick at any given moment. The doctor said I might feel worse, before I feel better. I am hoping that day was yesterday and all the rest will be better!

I wanted to thank everyone for all of their kind words, calls, prayers, and cards. We feel so blessed to have so many people that care about us.