jaw drop, pause, squeal, happy dance

That's the order it happened in. My jaw dropped, after a pause I squealed, then did a happy dance. Oh, you want to know why?

*ponders holding this information to herself for a day or five, but then remembers that she'll forget to post it*

Mom just called... her CA-125 dropped to 307!!!!!!!!! *does another happy dance*

I'm still not a fan of this drug because it doesn't make logical sense, but it keeps working, unlike all the other drugs she's been on, so *deep mock sigh* I suppose I'll let it stick around. ;)

Finally, an update (sorry!)

Yes, I know, I've been extremely bad about updating. I apologize, things have been crazy with me and working, both at work and around the house/yard. Mom has had three rounds of chemo so far, with her fourth round coming up on Monday. Her counts have been 669 on 9/24 (up, ew), 643 on 10/16 (down, yay), and 579 today (down, yay again).

Seeing as how chemo is a cumulative thing, she's been wearing out quicker and for longer periods of time, but she's still doing as much as she can, mostly without pushing herself too far.

Chemo brain kicks in every now and then, and she means to make/return a phone call or send an email, and just gets sidetracked or forgets. So feel free to call, email, or write her. She's been spending more time on her computer, checking her email and whatnot, and loves hearing from y'all. =)

Chemo again

So Mom's count went up to 613, which bummed her out, cause it took her so long to get things down, and only three weeks for them to pop back up. So she's starting chemo again tomorrow, and she and the doctor have decided to keep her on the same drug. I'm not a fan of the idea, because I like things to work predictably, or not work at all, but Mom tolerated this drug well, and the doctor said that there are some people that take this drug for a full year, so it's for the best. She did have a nice 2 1/2 month break though. =)

The scoop

So, when Mom got back from her travels, she got a CA-125, and it went down to 478. Again, this drug makes no sense. So the doctor said that as long as the count is still going down, he doesn't see a reason to start chemo back up. Besides, Mom's body could use the break still.

She's been getting on her email, so if you want to email her, it's pmensing@comcast.net. Also, she's getting back into selling Silpada, so if you want to have a party (you can get free jewelry), or just get some jewelry, you can see a catalog online at her website (mysilpada.com/pat.mensing).

Title to be figured out later

Mom's been on a break from chemo for a few weeks... her bone marrow just wasn't replenishing her red and white blood cell counts fast enough, and so after six rounds, she took some time off, and went traveling. She spent a long weekend in Iowa for a family reunion, then spent two weeks in San Diego visiting Brooke, helping her get her new house settled. Oh, BTW, Brooke and Joel BOUGHT a house! We're so excited for them. =)

So anyway, now it's just a matter of finding out what her new CA-125 number is, and setting up the game plan from there.

Home, Week 66

Count went down 48 points (at 529 now)... this drug is making no sense to us.

Mom's bone marrow isn't able to regenerate her red blood cells as quickly as it used to, so she's taking a break for a few weeks. Her red and white counts are both a little low, with her white count fluctuating, so she's been tired, but still up in spirits (what else would we expect from her).

Home, Week 64, Another New Chemo, Round 6

More chemo.

Home, Week 63

I need to find a different way of titling these posts so that they still indicate chronology, but aren't counting the weeks that Mom's been home from the hospital... any suggestions? =)

CA-125 is 577, only down 5 points. The next doctor appointment will be very revealing, I imagine.

Home, Week 61, Another New Chemo, Round 5

Okay, double info... Mom's count went down to 582, and it's chemo day again.

Home, Week 58, Another New Chemo, Round 4

Same thing, different day. =)

Home, Week 57

CA-125 is down to 622! This drug wasn't supposed to take time to kick in, but it appears that's the way it's acting. We'll take the blessings where we can. =)

Home, Week 55, Another New Chemo, Round 3

Well, the next step was to have another round of this same drug, now that the infection is gone. The thinking is that the infection may have caused her CA-125 to falsely be high (even though the CA-125 was weeks before the staph showed up...), so we'll see what happens. I can't logically chalk this up to anything (even though the doctor is trying), so I'm going with the doings of a higher power.

Home, Week 54.5

Preliminary blood results came back, and it looks like the staph infection is gone! So now we wait and see what the next step is. =)

Home, Week 54

I'm not quite sure how this happened, but Mom's CA-125 went down. To 792. She hasn't had chemo since the last number reading, this just kinda happened. Also, it's looking like her staph infection may actually be gone (won't know for sure until Monday, but we're optimistic), because she hasn't had anti-biotics since Monday, and she hasn't had a fever come back, so that's a positive sign as well.

Have a blessed Easter. =)

Home, Week 52.5

Okay, this has been going on for a week, but I didn't want to say anything because things weren't certain. We now have more information, so here goes.

Last Monday, when Mom was at hydration, she spiked a fever of 102.9, just 15 minutes after being normal. She was shaking with the chills. They gave her Tylenol and an anti-biotic, and she normalized enough to go home, with orders to call the doctor on call if she got a fever again overnight, and to go to the doctor in the morning. The infusion nurses took a blood culture from her port, as well as a urine culture, to try to figure out what was causing all this. The initial thought was that she was septic.

At 4am, she spiked a fever of 102.6, so we called the doctor, and because she didn't have the shaking chills, just a fever, he said take Tylenol, which worked.

The next day at the doctor's office, they had preliminary results back from the cultures, saying that she had a staph infection, but they didn't know what strain it was yet. Her urine culture was negative, but the port draw was positive. They gave her hydration and an IV anti-biotic right there in the office, with orders to have an IV anti-biotic every day for the next two weeks, and to get a peripheral blood draw (from her arm, not her port).

Wednesday, she went to the infusion center for hydration again, and they did the peripheral blood draw. They also had the final analysis of the cultures from Monday, and its staph epidermidis. The peripheral draw came back negative, but because they didn't have a peripheral blood draw at the same time as the draw from the port, they didn't know if it was an infection in her port, or an infection in the blood that could have minimized in two days.

Longer story short, she's one week into IV anti-biotics. Next week, when she's finished her second week, they'll do another blood draw, both from her port and peripherally, to see if the staph is still around. If it's gone, great. If it's in her port, but not her peripheral draw, they'll continue anti-biotics to see about killing the infection in her port. Anything after that will have to be crossed at that point. Pray extra hard for her. We need it more than you know right now.

Home, Week 52

Mom went septic this week. She has a staph infection (we're still waiting to find out what strain it is), which is a bacterial blood infection. She spiked a fever of 102.9 on Monday, and 102.6 early Tuesday morning. She's getting anti-biotics via her port for the next two weeks, but she's remaining outpatient.

This Friday is one year since she got out of the hospital. I told her that Monday night, and told her that her goal was to make it a full year without going back in. So far, so good. =) Happy Anniversary, Mom!

Home, Week 51

Her count went up to 933. She had a PT scan on Tuesday, and we will get the results next week to find out where the cancer is, and find out what the game plan is at that point. This last chemo drug wasn't working, obviously, so she may end up taking a little break before starting a new drug... her body is getting worn out again.

Home, Week 49, Another New Chemo, Round 2

Well, she went for another round of chemo. We're hoping that it will work the second round. =)

Home, Week 48

897. Don't know what the game plan is from here.

Home, Week 46, Another New Chemo, Round 1

This one is going to hit her white count harder than the previous one, but her red count won't be affected as much. Everything else should be status quo, in terms of side effects.

Home, Week 45

Mom's CA-125 went up to 756, so she's switching to a new drug next week. Pray hard.

Home, Week 43, New Chemo Round 3

We're giving it a shot. =)

Home, Week 42

Mom's CA-125 went up to 533. That was a hard hit to take. She's still going through with the next (third) round of chemo, and we'll talk to the doctor next week about a game plan, depending on how the numbers come out after the third round. Mom and I were talking in the car, and she said "After all, I shaved my head for this". We shaved it this last week. lol

Home, Week 40, New Chemo Round 2

Mom had her second round of the new chemo drug on Tuesday. Her CA-125 went down to 423, so this drug is working. Her birthday is on Saturday, and she's conscious for this one (yay!), so this one counts (boo).

Her hair is coming out, and it's rather thin now, but we haven't shaved her head yet. When she gets tired of it coming out when it's long, she'll let me know.