Hey everyone,
Last week, one of our friends, Bernadine Donovan, took Laurie to her chemo appt, and they had a great time catching up! Laurie’s hemoglobin went up .1, which was disappointing to her, but the doctor said that being stable is good. While he knows she wants her energy back, it takes a while. In the past, they had medicine that would trigger the creation of red blood cells just like Neulasta did for the white blood cells in the 1st round of chemo, but Procrit was pulled from the treatment plans about a year ago since there was evidence it caused strokes. So, Laurie will just have to be patient to get that energy back! She finds that she has energy on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but then the rest of the week she needs to take naps. Luckily, this weekend was a holiday weekend so we had a relaxing time. Ridge played in his very 1st 8U All Stars baseball tournament in Manassas, and it was only 1 game each morning (Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday) so Laurie could rest in the afternoons. It was strange for Forrest to be the spectator for once but he supported his brother most of the time (when he wasn’t watching other friends play or hanging out with them).
Laurie has also gotten the side effects that she was expecting between treatments 5-6 … the tingling in the fingers and toes. Since she just got it about a week ago, it hasn’t been too bad, but it may get progressively worse over the next few weeks. So please pray that she is able to cope with that symptom. The good news is that she only has 5 more of the Taxol/Herceptin treatments. Then she will have a week “off” of treatment (probably more medical appts though) and then start her radiation the week after July 4th. She will also switch to only Herceptin treatments every 3 weeks at that time, and the possible side effects are rash and heart issues (Laurie has an echocardiogram every 3 months to watch for any issues as A/C could have caused that as well.
This week, Laurie had her treatment on Tuesday due to the Memorial Day holiday and then will switch back to Mondays next week. While she had some last minute concerns to address at work related to her working part time while going on long-term disability, she was reminded while she was waiting for her monthly oncology check-up that if God takes care of the little sparrows, He will also take care of us, and all seemed to fade back into perspective (Matthew 6:25-34). Thank you God for your ways of reminding us of what really is important!
.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
May 12th update
Hey everyone!
"This is the day that the Lord has made, Rejoice and be glad in it!” This is the Bible verse that Laurie heard this morning when she was on the treadmill, and it just seemed so appropriate. She finished her 6th weekly chemo treatment yesterday, which means she is halfway through this 2nd round. And last night she was able to go to bed at normal time and sleep through the night. Her "spiritual" alarm clock woke her up at 6:30 so she went downstairs and got on the treadmill for the first time in 6 weeks, and turned on the TV, which just happened to be on this channel giving her a great verse for the day. How AWESOME is our God?
Last week, Laurie did get another sinus infection, but the Z-Pack from the doctor seemed to do the trick although she got a fever after starting the medications and had no energy on Thursday and Friday. Her great Brownie co-leader Stacey took Brooke to the Brownie Mom & Me sleepover Friday night, and then Laurie and her mom drove out to Potomac Woods (past Leesburg) for the activities on Saturday. I'm not sure if all the walking around the camp was harder for "Grandmom" or Laurie but they both made it with support from all the other mothers, and Brooke had a great time making jewelry, swap its, playing games and learning new Girl Scout songs. We got home around 4 pm, just in time to freshen up and go to Carlene's for a family celebration. Laurie's Dad turned 73 and Annie will be 17 in the next week, and of course, we celebrated all the mothers too! That night, we drove down to Ruther Glen, VA so we could be ready for the 2nd day of Forrest's baseball tournament. The first day, the team had won one and lost one. On Sunday, they won the first one, and then played against the team that had beat them the 1st day. They played like a team, very consistently, and beat that team, which placed them in the Championship game. For that game, we played the RISE team (Richmond Indoor Sports Experience), which is coached by a friend that used to go to Ox Hill Baptist with us before they moved to Richmond, Wayne Huggins. So while we lost to them 0-5, it was still good to see old friends and keep the game respectable (they got their points when they had 2 folks on base and then a home run was hit, and then 1 person on base with another homer).
On Monday, when Laurie did go in for her treatment (her Dad came with her again), her white blood count was totally back to normal days (8.3), and her hemoglobin had gone up .3 points (it was up .2 points the previous week). So while it may only be in very small increments, her numbers are slowly going back up, and that is great news! Maybe that walking around the Girl Scout camp did help! As her hemoglobin goes up, she will have more energy, which helps all of us. 8-) Yesterday, since she felt a little weak after leaving the doctor’s office, her dad and mom treated her to a High Protein Smoothie at Fresh City, and she perked right up! So she is learning new tricks for this round of treatment. And although she is going in weekly now, the appointments are only between 2.5 and 3 hours, so she can normally work the full morning on Monday and then go get treatment, and be back for Brooke & Ridge's baseball games that evening (unless they are rained out ... which luckily did not happen last night). They are both hitting the ball quite well and are making plays in the field. Every practice and/or game we see improvement and that is rewarding as one of their coaches!
So, all in all, things are going pretty well. We continue to go through each week one day at a time and praise the Lord for all he does for us. We continue to thank you for all you do for us and look forward to providing another good report next time.
.
"This is the day that the Lord has made, Rejoice and be glad in it!” This is the Bible verse that Laurie heard this morning when she was on the treadmill, and it just seemed so appropriate. She finished her 6th weekly chemo treatment yesterday, which means she is halfway through this 2nd round. And last night she was able to go to bed at normal time and sleep through the night. Her "spiritual" alarm clock woke her up at 6:30 so she went downstairs and got on the treadmill for the first time in 6 weeks, and turned on the TV, which just happened to be on this channel giving her a great verse for the day. How AWESOME is our God?
Last week, Laurie did get another sinus infection, but the Z-Pack from the doctor seemed to do the trick although she got a fever after starting the medications and had no energy on Thursday and Friday. Her great Brownie co-leader Stacey took Brooke to the Brownie Mom & Me sleepover Friday night, and then Laurie and her mom drove out to Potomac Woods (past Leesburg) for the activities on Saturday. I'm not sure if all the walking around the camp was harder for "Grandmom" or Laurie but they both made it with support from all the other mothers, and Brooke had a great time making jewelry, swap its, playing games and learning new Girl Scout songs. We got home around 4 pm, just in time to freshen up and go to Carlene's for a family celebration. Laurie's Dad turned 73 and Annie will be 17 in the next week, and of course, we celebrated all the mothers too! That night, we drove down to Ruther Glen, VA so we could be ready for the 2nd day of Forrest's baseball tournament. The first day, the team had won one and lost one. On Sunday, they won the first one, and then played against the team that had beat them the 1st day. They played like a team, very consistently, and beat that team, which placed them in the Championship game. For that game, we played the RISE team (Richmond Indoor Sports Experience), which is coached by a friend that used to go to Ox Hill Baptist with us before they moved to Richmond, Wayne Huggins. So while we lost to them 0-5, it was still good to see old friends and keep the game respectable (they got their points when they had 2 folks on base and then a home run was hit, and then 1 person on base with another homer).
On Monday, when Laurie did go in for her treatment (her Dad came with her again), her white blood count was totally back to normal days (8.3), and her hemoglobin had gone up .3 points (it was up .2 points the previous week). So while it may only be in very small increments, her numbers are slowly going back up, and that is great news! Maybe that walking around the Girl Scout camp did help! As her hemoglobin goes up, she will have more energy, which helps all of us. 8-) Yesterday, since she felt a little weak after leaving the doctor’s office, her dad and mom treated her to a High Protein Smoothie at Fresh City, and she perked right up! So she is learning new tricks for this round of treatment. And although she is going in weekly now, the appointments are only between 2.5 and 3 hours, so she can normally work the full morning on Monday and then go get treatment, and be back for Brooke & Ridge's baseball games that evening (unless they are rained out ... which luckily did not happen last night). They are both hitting the ball quite well and are making plays in the field. Every practice and/or game we see improvement and that is rewarding as one of their coaches!
So, all in all, things are going pretty well. We continue to go through each week one day at a time and praise the Lord for all he does for us. We continue to thank you for all you do for us and look forward to providing another good report next time.
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
