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