Happy New Year!

Well, just when we thought we had shared all of what we have learned with you, we learn some more! We’ll start with the good news. Laurie’s disability company contacted her in mid December, asking how her recuperation was going. They said that since they knew she was returning to work full time and would be focusing on building up her stamina, they would cover an annual health club membership for her. Therefore, she checked around and decided Worldgate offered the best for the money, and has already started attending their Water Aerobics and Yoga classes, showing off her new short “hairdo” since the club is not conducive to wigs!

The other thing that happened just last week was a halt in her biological treatment. She was due to have her every 3 week Herceptin treatment on Monday, but the oncologist (cancer doctor)’s office called and said that they were a little concerned with the numbers from the ECHO that she had on 18 Dec. Since the biggest side effect of Herceptin is to damage the heart, she has had an ECHO every 3 months starting in Dec 08. Apparently, the ejection fraction was at 55 in June, and then went up to 62 in Sept and is back to 55 in Dec. So, the doctor ordered a MUGA for New Year’s Eve morning and delayed the Herceptin infusion.

Let me step back and share with you what an ECHO is. An ECHO is an echocardiogram, often referred to as a cardiac ECHO or simply an ECHO. It is a sonogram of the heart and uses standard ultrasound techniques to image two-dimensional slices of the heart. An echocardiogram also assesses cardiac valve areas and function, and calculates the cardiac output as well as the ejection fraction. The ejection fraction (EF) is the fraction of blood pumped out of a ventricle with each heartbeat. The lower the EF the worse the heart function. A general breakdown of values is as follows: 40-50 % mild dysfunction; 25 - 39% moderate dysfunction; < class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">ECHOs are either performed by a cardiac sonographer or doctors trained in cardiology. A MUGA scan (Multi Gated Acquisition Scan) is a nuclear medicine test to evaluate the function of the heart ventricles. It is very much like the ECHO but since it is more “automated”, it is more accurate and is not dependent on the ability of the technician. When you have a MUGA, they put in an IV, draw blood, and then have you wait 15 min while they mix a radioactive marker in your blood. Then they return the blood to your body through the IV and takes the pictures of your heart function using a triangular X-Ray machine. I told Laurie she was “glowing” on New Year’s Eve!

So, at this point, we are waiting for the MUGA results to see what the next steps are. Apparently, if there is some damage, it normally heals itself, either with time or help with medicine. Once that happens the Herceptin treatments will continue as scheduled.

We pray for God's will to continue to be done in our lives and appreciate your prayers as well. We'll keep you updated! Once again, Happy New Year!

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