Brief re-cap: She did a check-up up at Huntsman and her surgeon suggested they stop chemo since it hasn't worked and said that cancer can become immune to the chemicals. He offered the suggestion that the Huntsman does clinical trials and maybe she could get in on one of those. The oncologist agreed because he's frustrated that the three drugs she's tried as chemo work on like 80% of all people but they didn't work on her. She went three weeks without chemo and visited the Huntsman. The did another scan and sent tissue samples to Arizona.
Three weeks later she went in for another appointment.
They didn't have her test results from Arizona yet.
A week later she went in again and was told there wasn't a trial she could get on because most of them are pills and since nothing says in her stomache long enought to be digested, that wouldn't work. Also, her platelet counts are too low. They decided she'd go back to her oncologist and re-try the last drug she'd been on but they'll add on another drug that's supposed to enhance the effects of the first. She was feeling rather disappointed since this whole ordeal is longer than she expected and I think the quality of her life (IVs for 16 hours a day, always being connected to the gastric tube, throwing up, never getting more than 3 hours of sleep a night, etc.) is annoying her.
This week, as she was putting dishes in the dishwasher, her gastric tube caught on the door and completely pulled it out of her. Dad and Tara took her to the ER at LDS Hospital (where the tube was originally put in) to get a temporary tube put in so the hole wouldn't close. Thursday she went back to LDS to get another permanant tube put in. The good news is that when they put in the tube to her stomach, they tried to get a tube into her small intestines again (the first time the tube was put it, they couldn't get any sort of tube in her intestines because they were so blocked) and IT WENT IN!!!!!
Now, the tube coming out of her abdomen has three little "spigots": one for the gastric juices that immediately go into the bag she always carries around, one that leads into her intestins, and one that keeps the pressure in the tube.
Apparently, her large instestins have shown evidence in the last month of so of being awake (which means she's had a bowel movement about every 14 days-- something that hasn't been happening since September) and we're hoping that having access to the small intestine will help wake it up. Dad's been injecting her TPN stuff in miniscule amounts in there to see what happens.
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| At chemo |
Friday, Mom went in for chemo but her platelets were at 34, too much beneath the Dr's cut off of 40 to have her regular chemo treatment but they gave her an IV of the extra drug. It's been about 7-8 weeks since she's had any sort of treatment and now they don't want to wait any longer.
Here's hoping the small intestine wakes up and that this new drug starts working. Mom is going to Girl's Camp with her stake this week (she's the sk YW pres) and they got her a cabin to stay in and Dad is going to take the edge off the insurance liability and take care of her. I think it's cool that she still wants to go and that the Stake Pres insisted she go (even if Dad has to go to make it happen).
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| Mom, asleep. Her hair coming back right now, but it's like baby hair |
2 comments:
Adrienne, thank you for the update. It was soooo good to see your mom a few weeks ago, and I loved her soft hair. Send her our love, prayers and positive thoughts. Hope all is well with you. Tell her and dad that they are brave to handle girls camp...just had that a month ago LOL.
Hope all is well with you. Send love to mom and dad. Fran Miller
Adrienne--your mom has been in my prayers every night. I think of you and her often. Thanks for the update. Please let me know of anything you need.
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