Christmas Is Almost Here!

I didn't know if I would have time to post anything before Christmas, but by night time I am tired and usually play games on my computer or respond to posts on the cc.org website. So, I figured if I had time to do that, then I could write a blog.

Lauren and I left for Michigan on Wed. morning. She had bloodwork at 12:45, doctor at 1:45, and chemo at 3:00. Everything was on schedule. We saw Lauren's oncologist, Dr. Zalupski, and he said he had spoken with Lauren's surgeon, Dr. Sonnenday. Dr. Sonnenday had looked over her CT scans from last time and wanted a clearer picture, so he told Dr. Z that he would like Lauren to have an MRI. Hopefully, he will see that things look better and who knows what that might mean!! Lauren also signed the papers to be part of a study where she will have a liver biopsy again and the samples they take will be tested to see what chemos might work best for her. This is very exciting. Dr. Z wanted to coordinate all of this around Lauren's trip to Mexico with Giovanni. He said it would be best for Lauren to be off chemo for a little while to be able to get a good sample from the biopsy. She had her Gemzar at the hospital and is taking the Xeloda until Dec.26. We asked about the 5-FU pump again instead of Xeloda, and he gave us the choice. I asked him in his opinion which one did he think would work better for her and which one would he rather have her take. He said Xeloda, so that is what she is doing. She had the choice, but we like to do what the doctor says since he is the expert. She is having her MRI on Jan.8 and the biopsy the third week in Jan. Things are looking promising.

Lauren had chemo at 3:00. We got to the waiting area early because she got in to see the doctor early. She got taken back to the infusion area super early. That was a first!! My Mom and Dad came to visit at the hospital. Sis also got off work early and was there. We all have a great time together in the waiting area. Only one person is allowed back with Lauren at a time, so we all took turns. A research coordinator called Lauren and said she would be coming to the infusion area to collect a saliva sample and cheek swab for the study. She said Lauren would also have to go back to the lab for another blood sample as well after chemo. When Lauren was done with chemo, we went to the lab and she gave more blood.

We all went back to Sis and Bruce's house for a little bit and decided to go to dinner at Red Robin. All of us and Bruce went. We had a lot of fun and some good food. Here are a few pics from Red Robin.

Bruce, Sis, and Papa Ron.

Grandma Tommie, me, and Wo.

My Mom and Dad left for home and Wo and I stayed overnight at Sis and Bruce's. We got up the next morning and Wo and I went to Bob Evans for breakfast and headed home. Lauren has been doing ok so far. She has had a fever off and on since Wed., but that is normal with Gemzar. She takes Tylenol and it usually helps. If it goes up to 101, we are supposed to go to the ER. But it usually hovers around 100 or a little higher for a few days. Never 101 or higher so far. She has had a few bouts with nausea, but uses her trick of chewing mint gum and it seems to help. She also takes Compazine for nausea.

I spent all day cleaning today and I had Wo lay in the room I was cleaning and her job was to yell at me if I got sidetracked. Once in the afternoon, I took a bunch of stuff upstairs and she caught me trying to take a little catnap in my bed. Darn it!! She is very good at supervising.

Lauren and Gio are doing my grocery shopping tomorrow and it will be a big list since Sis and Bruce are coming on Sunday and will be staying until Thurs. Yippee!!! I'm sure we will have lots of fun and I will take loads of pictures. My Mom and Dad are going to a wedding on Sat. close by, so they will also be stopping by on Sun. Then, next Sat. we will be having another Christmas at my Mom and Dad's with my sister, Linda and her family. Oh, what fun. This is the day we all bring snacky food and all end up in a cheese coma. Haha. Hard on the belly, but it sure is good.

I hope everyone has a very nice Christmas. We are all so grateful that Lauren is still with us and doing well. God bless you all. Thanks for your continued support. Love, -Pam

Really Busy

I justed looked at the date on my last post and it was 11 days ago. Sorry I waited so long to write again. Like everyone else, we are really busy getting ready for the holidays. Lauren is feeling well this week. Her feet are sore, but that is mainly because she has been doing a lot of Christmas shopping and walking a lot. She has been in a happy mood since being off her Xeloda until we have to go back to Michigan, which is Wednesday. We are going to see if she can be put back on 5-FU instead of Xeloda. It is the chemo she used to be on that is given over 48 hours through a pump. Lauren hated that chemo because she had to wear the pump for two days, but it was so much easier on her and is supposed to be the same as Xeloda.

Giovanni's birthday was on Dec. 8th. He was 25. I can't believe he has been dating Lauren since he was a junior in high school! I made him one of his favorite dishes last Sunday. Chicken chimichangas.Here is a picture of Gio after he blew out the candles on his birthday cake.

Lauren and I had lunch on Wed. with our friends, Lisa and Betsy. We drove to Lisa's house and then she drove to Legacy Village. We met Betsy there since she lives near Cleveland. We had lunch at the Cheesecake Facory. We had a really nice time and hadn't seen Betsy since last Feb. Both of these ladies have the same cancer as Lauren. They are both doing well. In fact, you wouldn't know they had cancer by looking at them. I don't think anyone with Cholangiocarcinoma likes to say they are in remission, because it seems like bad luck. But both of these ladies are tumor free at this time. We pray that it stays that way too! Here are a few pics of our lunch.

Lisa, Betsy, me, and Lauren

Lauren and Lisa

Lauren, Lisa, and Betsy

Lauren and I went to Giovanni's house to bake cookies on Friday. We made apricot and nut foldovers, pecan pie bars, chocolate chip, and cut outs. We were having a great time and then Lauren checked her ipad. Big mistake. that is when we heard about the school shooting and it pretty much burst our good mood. We were both so sad. It kind of made me lose my Christmas spirit. We did as much as we could that day and went back Sat. night and rolled out and baked the cut outs and the rest of the chocolate chip that we had refrigerated. Gio had a guys night out for his birthday. We cleaned up and went home. Gio and Wo frosted the cut outs this morning. Her are a few pics from our cookie baking.

Apricot foldovers.

Pecan pie bars. Lauren had to taste test the corner!

Lauren working hard on the foldovers.

The little expert baker!

Christmas will be here before we know it! I wish you all a blessed holiday season and a new year filled with good health. Until next time...
Love, -Pam

We Are Happy

When I got up this morning the first thing I did was ask Sis if she had looked at Lauren's scan report. She said she didn't because if it was bad she didn't want to be the one that had to tell us. I said I can't wait until the doctor appointment. I want to know now. I told her to let me read it. I braced myself for the worst and was very surprised to see that all of the tumors were minimally smaller than before and only one tiny one was a little bit larger. Lauren had only been on her oral chemo for the last month because of her allergic reaction to Oxaliplatin. This is called stable in the cancer world. I would say it was a little better than stable since most of the tumors had shrinkage. We are all thrilled with the news.

We arrived yesterday to U of M a little before 1:00. Lauren had a CT scan at 2:00. She only had to drink two glasses of water before. None of the yucky contrast stuff. When she went to the desk to check in the receptionist told her she was very brave to wear that sweatshirt in here. Lauren totally wasn't thinking and neither were we. She wore a bright red Ohio State sweatshirt in the heart of Wolverine territory. It was an interesting day and we heard many people grumbling under their breath about that Ohio State sweatshirt. I think they are all just sore because we beat them in the big game. Haha. Wo was done around 3:30 and we stopped at Meijer for some snacks and went to Bruce and Sis's house.

We had some snacks and then Wo, Sis, and I went to Home Goods. Mark and Bruce went to Walmart. When we got back to their house, we decided to go out to dinner at Sidetrack, a burger joint in Ypsilanti. I guess their burgers had been featured on Oprah. They were really good. We got fried pickles and onion rings before the burgers. The pickles were huge spears, not little round pieces. I loved them, and Sis like them, but nobody else cared for them. I left the place with a bit of grease belly from all the fried food, but it was a fun place. There is a train track right next to the place and one went by when we were there. It flew by so fast that you could hardly see it!! It was a little bit scary. Then this guy kept hanging around outside the window we were sitting by. He picked a cigarette up that someone else had dropped and started smoking it! Gross. He kept looking in the window at us and was kind of freaking us out. We don't think he was homeless because he was dressed ok. I guess he just found us interesting. Gio pulled in the drive right after we got back to Sis's house. He had left to come up after work.

Mark and Bruce went to get donuts this morning and went a bunch of different places because nobody had maple creme sticks anywhere. They finally found some at Dunkin Donuts. In case you are wondering, maple is Wo, Sis, and my favorite donut flavor and you gotta keep the girls happy.

We got to the cancer center at 1:00 for Lauren's blood draw. We all went upstairs to the waiting area for Dr. Zalupski. Lauren's appointment was at 2:00. We saw his PA, Marlene first. I really don't understand why we see her because Dr. Z goes over all the same stuff. Lauren told him that the Xeloda is making her really tired and her feet are sore. He was pleased with her scan and offered her many options. No chemo, Xeloda only, or Gemzar and Xeloda. She chose the Gemzar and Xeloda.
She is having her Gemzar infusion now and will take Xeloda for one week instead of two. Then she will have a rest week and do it all again in two weeks. I asked the doctor about other chemos and he felt this would be best for her now. He said he will consider switching her to 5-FU instead of Xeloda, if the Xeloda continues to bother her, but he felt better with the Xeloda.

He also mentioned a study they are doing. Lauren would have a liver biopsy and it would be studied to see what kind of chemo might benefit her the most. Lauren agreed wholeheartedly and will sign the papers next time we are back. She is not excited about another biopsy because the first one was really painful, but she said she has been through so much, she can handle it. she will probably have it some time in January.

Dr. Z was very happy with the chocolate chip cookies Lauren made for him and the two ties she gave him for a Christmas gift. We thought we wouldn't see him again until after Christmas, but now with the two week chemo schedule we will. He reminded Wo that he expected another present next time as well. Always such a little joker.

I don't have any pics of Wo, but I did take a few pics of Sis's dogs. She dressed them up for me and we were laughing so hard. Buzz could not keep the the Santa hat on his big noggin an Stink just sat there like such a good boy.

Thanks for all of your prayers. They sure did help!! I will talk to you all again real soon...Love, -Pam

I am in the hospital right now and it won't let me post the pics. I will post them later.

Ok, I am home now, so here are Buzz and Stink. Buzz is the hyper, crazy dog in the Santa suit and Stink is the laid back good dog in the Elf suit.

Our Tradition Of Getting Our Christmas Tree

We decided to go get our Christmas tree Sat. after Mark got off work. Last year we went to a great place called Galehouse Tree farm. It is a very long drive and we only had a few hours before it would start getting dark this year. We decided to go to Moore's Tree Farm in Hartville. It was a beautiful sunny day in the 50's. We wanted a tree like the one we got last year. A Frasier fir. The needles are short and soft. They had a good selection and after hiking around for a while we found one that we all liked. It is a rather skinny tree, but it will decorate nicely. In years past, we have had trees so big around, they took up half the room. This one is just right. We all went to El Rincon after we dropped the tree off at home and had a great dinner together.

Lauren is on her off week for Xeloda and is feeling so much better. Last week she decided not to take her last two doses because she was extremely nauseous and her feet were red and sore. She can stay awake during the day and has a lot more energy. She went shopping today with Ryan and Stephanie and last night she made cookies for Dr. Zalupski, so she is the old Wo again.

Mark, Lauren and I will be leaving tomorrow morning for U of M. Lauren has a CT scan tomorrow at 2. We have to be there at 1. Gio will be coming up to Bruce and Sis's after work so that he can go to Wo's doctor appointment on Wed. to see what the scan says. She also has labs and if Dr. Zalupski has a new chemo plan, she is scheduled for chemo. Please pray as hard as you can for good news. I cannot even begin to explain how awful it is to wait for scan results. It's a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that doesn't leave until after seeing the doctor. We are going to be positive. Hearing good news is the best feeling in the world. That would be the best Christmas present ever!! I will let you know the results when we find out. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. I will leave you with some pics at the tree farm and the end result. Until next time...Love, -Pam

Ryan, Wo, and Gio standing by our tree.

Lauren and Giovanni with a little Charlie Brown tree.

Getting ready to cut it down.


 

Ryan usually cuts it down.

Momma and Big Man

 

 

 

Gio and Wo

 

Haha. This picture cracked me up. Wo looks like she has an antenna coming out of her head and I just look like a dope!

Family pic. Sad Sis, Bruce, and Stephanie weren't with us. Gio was taking the pic.

I have no idea why we did this. I think the boys have weightlifting on the brain.

Pretty Wo.

Handsome Bub.

All done. A nice guy on a tractor took our tree to the baler for us.

This is what I spent my day doing with supervision by Lauren. I love it!