It Has Been A Pretty Good Week.

There was not too much happening this week, but I owe you all an update. We are all the way up to over 8000 hits on this blog, which is crazy. Thanks to all of you that care so much about our girl.

Last Saturday, I finally got to go to my favorite restaurant, El Rincon. I don't know why, but I crave their food so much. Since being diagnosed, Lauren cannot stand to eat there anymore and doesn't really have a taste for Mexican food. Mark gets so tired of asking where I want to go to dinner and winces when I say El Rincon. I think the only one that likes it as much as me is Giovanni, and poor guy never gets to eat there.

Lauren was super tired last weekend, so Gio and I watched our Browns while Lauren napped all day. I don't know how much sleep she got since we were hootin' and hollerin' throughout the whole game. Darnit if they didn't lose again, but they looked much better than the week before. We still hold out hope for them. Mark could care less about football, so I'm sure he was outside mowing or puttering around fixing something. That guy can never sit still.

We were up early to meet our girlfriends for breakfast at the Frontier restaurant in Hartville on Monday. They had a big table reserved for us but a couple of the girls had to cancel last minute. So it was Lauren and I, Dawn, Debbie B., and Ruth. We had a great time as usual and great food too. Wo wanted to stop at Marc's on the way home to pick up a few things. She wanted to make homemade peanut butter cookies. She got home and realized they forgot to put the flour and baking soda into her cart, so she ran up to the little country store by our house and picked some up. She got halfway done and got too tired to finish, so she covered the dough and took a nap. She finished them later in the evening and they were delicious.

We didn't do too much on Tuesday and Wednesday. Lauren watched tv, got on her computer, and slept. She gets so tired from the chemo, she can hardly stand and I think she was worn out from going to breakfast and making cookies. She didn't even go over with Gio to his house when he went to paint. It seems like it is taking so long for them to finish his house, but by the time he gets home from work and gets over there, he can only work a couple of hours and he is tired. Lauren has done a lot to help, but sometimes she just doesn't have the energy.

Another thing that happens with Lauren after chemo is that she gets really grumpy. She is not like that normally, so it must be chemo brain or something. She turns inward and doesn't want to talk. If you ask her a question, she may or may not bite your head off. I ask her about this when she is in a good mood and she says she doesn't know why she acts like that. She doesn't mean it and loves us all so much. So it has to be from chemo or meds, or a combination. I know she doesn't mean it and will eventually be in a better mood. We all feel so bad for her.

Yay for Thursday!! Wo got up and was in a good mood today. She said she was bored, but I told her I had a lot to do at home today, so we would have to stay home. I found some paint by numbers that we had gotten when she was first diagnosed. She spent the day at the dining room table painting. Ryan came home and painted some too. I remember loving to do these when I was a kid. Lauren and Gio went out with Melissa and Dan that evening and had a nice time.

Wo was happy again on Friday. We went to lunch at Grinders in North Canton and had salads. Lauren didn't eat that much. Sometimes her tastebuds are off and things don't taste right to her. Darn chemo again. I am beginning to wonder if some of these symptoms are from her Oxaliplatin that she gets through infusion and not her Xeloda. Why would her mood change that much when she is still on the Xeloda until next Wed. We went grocery shopping at Marc's. Lauren and I always split up and she goes through all the closeouts and comes up with some crazy things. This time she found some martini glasses for Gio's house and they light up. She is crazy!!

Gio usually stays overnight at our house on the weekends and this morning they got up and went to his house to do some painting. I am sure Lauren will help a lot today because she was happy and seemed to have a lot of energy. I think Mark and I are going to take dinner over there tonight. I am only posting one picture this week since I don't have any new ones. This is from Myrtle Beach last year. We had the best time and it was right before we knew Lauren had cancer.

Well, that is about it for the week. Please pray for all of our CC buddies as well as Lauren. I really think the prayers work. Also, could you say a special prayer for our friend Marta in California. She has stomach cancer and is having such a hard time lately. She posts a lot of videos on Facebook and they are just heartbreaking. She is only 31. Her blog is listed on blogs I follow under Team Marta if you care to check it out. She is such a beautiful girl. Thanks so much. Until next time...

Love, -Pam

Tumors Are Shrinking Again...Way To Go Wo!!

It is Friday. We got home yesterday, but we are still trying to recuperate from the past few days. Stress is exhausting!! I'll start at the beginning. Oh, by the way, you may want to grab a snack because I am in a chatty mood. This post might be kind of long because I have a lot to write about and a lot of pictures to show. Thanks again for all the prayers. I know we have God's attention!!

Mark, Lauren , and I left Tuesday at around 11am for Michigan. Ryan stayed home because he had work, school, and he took care of the dogs. I drove because I wanted to get there with plenty of time to spare so we weren't rushed. Mark tends to drive slower than I do and he likes to stop at about every rest stop on the way. Lauren and I usually don't stop at all when we are by ourselves. I only had to stop once for him this time. We got to Sis's house at around 3 and unloaded our vehicle and let their dogs out before heading to the hospital. Lauren's CT was at 5:30, but she had to be there at 4:30.

We got to the hospital at a little after 4. We always park in the Cancer Center deck because the big lots are always full. It is a long walk to the elevators that take you to Radiology, so we found Lauren a wheelchair and pushed her there. We got to CT waiting area early. Lauren had to drink two big glasses of water and they  took her back and a little later a nurse came and got me. They could not find a vein on either of her arms for her IV. Dr. Zalupski told Lauren not to let anyone use her port except for chemo. Lauren wasn't sure if she should let them access her port, but I said under the circumstances, I thought it would be ok. That is what the port is for to begin with. Dr. Z just worries about anybody accessing the port. He is afraid of infection and he doesn't know how hygenic everyone is when they aren't in the Cancer Center. The nurse assured me she is very conscientious and I watched her do everything. She was very careful and everything remained sterile. Lauren hadn't even put numbing cream on and she didn't even hurt her. Lauren was done with her scans by around 6:30. She doesn't mind CT scans at all. They are much easier than MRIs.

We went back to Sis and Bruce's house. Sis was on call until the next morning and Bruce wasn't home yet. Gio was coming up after leaving work early and got there shortly after we did. Bruce came home right after Gio got there and we all went to Chili's for dinner because that is where Lauren wanted to go. Everyone except me fell asleep or went to bed after we got back to the house. I was excited to watch the season premier of Son's of Anarchy. It is such a gritty, disturbing show, but also so good.

We didn't have to be to the hospital until 2:00 on Wed. Sis got home around 10am. She talked to us for a while and then crashed on the couch. Bruce was on call that day and left for the hospital. Gio,Wo, Mark, and I went to lunch at Panera before going to the hospital. We got to the Cancer Center at 2 for labs. Then we went to Dr. Z's waiting area for Lauren's appointment at 3. We were all super nervous because we were going into this appointment blind. We usually have the luxury of Sis telling us what the report says before we go to the appointment, but this time the report wasn't up because the scan was done later in the day. We had bad news last time and it was devastating even knowing beforehand. We all piled into the doctor's exam room. Gwen, the PA came in and said only the chest CT report was up and she said it was good. She said they would call us with the abdominal CT results, but they came up while we were there. She went to talk with Dr. Z about them and came back with a print out all marked up with lines drawn under stuff and things circled. She gave us the results and we were all happy except Wo. Gwen went to get Dr. Z. He came in and said there was shrinkage of all the tumors . He said he wanted to continue with her chemo for the time being. He saw Lauren didn't look too happy and asked her what was wrong. Lauren expected the new tumor to be gone because she still thinks it isn't a tumor, but something from the Y90. Dr. Z said he still wasn't sure what it was, but was very happy with the scan results and he has never said that before, even when Lauren had huge shrinkage. So I know he was really happy. That made her feel better and she hopped on board the happy train with the rest of us.

We scheduled her next appointments and went to the infusion waiting area. They told Lauren it might be a wait because they were backed up. We didn't have to wait too long. Sis came to the hospital after she woke up and got a shower, so Wo had plenty of visitors. Lauren had to get IVs of Magnesium and Calcium as well as her Oxaliplatin. They added the two IVs to see if it would help with her neuropathy and her sore feet from the chemo. We didn't know they would add a lot of time, but we didn't get out until 9pm. Lauren was so tired. She wanted Wendy's chicken nuggets and wanted to eat them in her bed at Sis's. So that is what we did. Her doctor decreased her Xeloda by one pill in the evening to see if this would help with the foot soreness, redness, and burning. Here are some pics from the hospital mostly taken by Wo.

Lauren and Gio also went to Cleveland last weekend to celebrate their friend, Melissa's birthday. They went to dinner and to a bar on Sat. night. They also went to the Browns game the next day. They had to walk a really long way to get to the stadium and back to the car. Lauren was exhausted and her poor feet hurt worse than they already did from her chemo. She had fun, but boy did she pay for her fun. She just doesn't realize she can't keep up with everyone else when she is dealing with cancer, but she sure does try. It breaks my heart and is just so unfair. Here are some pics from the weekend.

Melissa and Wo

Melissa and Dan

Thanks for reading this blog. We appreciate all the nice comments. We pray every day for a cure to be found for this cancer. That is all we want. God bless all of you.

Love, -Pam

Chemo does strange things.

Sorry, it's been awhile since my last post. I really didn't have much to talk about. I still don't!! It's been nice getting lots of comments and e-mails from people that read this blog that I don't even know. Nice to know people care, but usually sad that they know someone with this cancer or have lost someone to it. I look for blogs of cancer patients all the time. If anyone knows of one, let me know. I always figure I can learn something from reading a lot.

It seems like this has been the longest two and a half weeks since Lauren had her last chemo. Lauren has been extremely tired this whole time. She falls asleep at around 10 or 11 at night, sleeps in until 10:30 or 11 and then takes a long nap in the afternoon. So she really isn't awake very much. She does not have much of an appetite either. She eats enough, but not near as much as she used to. She likes bland food now. Nothing spicy. I think her taste is off too, an all too common complaint of chemo patients. I made mac and cheese the other night with fish and she said the mac and cheese tasted like granny smith apples!! I knew her taste was a little off, but my goodness! Her feet are bothering her also. They turn really red on the bottom and hurt when she walks. Mostly toward the end of the two weeks on Xeloda. Gio slathers creams and lotions on her feet every night. He is so good to her. Now today, she said they are feeling better. Probably because she has been off the Xeloda since Wed.

One night last weekend, Lauren and Gio went to get ice cream. She came home and gave me half of it because she couldn't eat it all. She has been getting nauseous out of the blue every once in awhile. When she does, she takes a compazine and chews peppermint gum. It didn't work this time and she threw up without notice into her hand while running to the bathroom from the living room. She usually can tell when she is going to be sick and sits in the bathroom until she does get sick or can fight it. Not this time. Gio was chasing after her. Dogs were barking. I jumped up to get paper towels and clorox wipes and tripped over Frank and fell flat on my face in the kitchen. I hit both of my wrists really hard and my knees. I had some big bruises on my wrists and still feel sore on my knees, but I am ok. I fall at least a few times a year because I am a huge klutz. Mark was already in bed and heard a loud crash downstairs and asked what it was the next day. Just me taking a tumble. Good thing I have strong bones and a lot of padding!!

We had lunch on Wed. with our dear friend, Lisa at Panera in Fairlawn. To refresh your memory, Lisa has the same cancer as Lauren, has had two resections, and the cancer keeps coming back. She has been on chemo, had different kinds of radiation, and really just deserves to catch a break and be cancer free. She is always so much fun and we had a great time. Lauren and Lisa can talk about things with each other that none of their other friends would understand. It is such a blessing to know someone else that can relate to Lauren and understand everything she is going through. I always take a picture of them when have lunch, so here they are. I think they both look especially great this time.

Lauren felt good that day, so she bought a bunch of bagels at Panera and had me drop her off at Gio's family business in Akron. She loves to hang out there with his family.

Wo has not been having any liver pain lately, only occassional back pain. It doesn't seem to be as bad as it has in the past. Maybe this is a good sign. Hopefully, tumors are shrinking. I'm not sure how Wo feels, but I am getting nervous for her scans on Tues. It is so stressful. I think it is worse now that she had a bad scan last time. We are praying so hard for a good one. I hope so much this chemo has helped.

The rest of the family is hanging in there. Mark has been doing a lot of work on our house in his limited spare time. Ryan is busy working a lot at the bike shop and at the farm. The bike shop is closing today, so he will need to find another job. He also started back to school at Stark State. Kristen and Bruce are working all the time and she has already applied for a few positions for next year when she is done with her residency. Wow! That has flown by. I'm hanging in there. Still taking the Celexa and went to the doctor yesterday. I am always really tired and I don't really care about much like I used to. I've had blood work and nothing is wrong. I thought it might be from the Celexa, but Dr. Steineck thinks it is from depression. It is a tired I have never felt before. He wants me to continue with the Celexa and gradually up my dosage, because he still doesn't think I feel as good as I should. I have never had a doctor like him. He is so caring and compassionate. Absolutely love him.

Lauren and Gio are going to Cleveland tonight to celebrate their friend, Melissa's birthday. I hope Lauren holds up ok. I know Gio will take good care of her. They are going to the Browns game tomorrow also. We will be heading to Michigan on Tuesday. Lauren has a CT scan at 5:30 pm. She has labs, doctor appt., and chemo on Wed. if the scans come back good. If not, I'm not sure what Dr. Z will want to do. I'm not going to think about it because I know they will be good. We can always use your prayers though. Thanks so much and I will let you know how things go as soon as I know.

I wanted to add another picture and this one came to mind. I think it is my favorite picture of Wo and Gio. It was last year when we went to get our Christmas tree. I even had a blanket made for Lauren out of this picture. It is just so darn cute. Enjoy!