Chemo 6 - completed

Today Kay sat with two of her good friends, Patty Freese and Cheryl Weiderspan, and got her final course of chemotherapy. It went as uneventfully as the previous 5 courses, and tonight is home and resting nicely. We are feeling a great relief that this has gone so well. Not really a lot to say tonight, just a heads-up that all is well, and now we just get through these few post-chemo days and then await the post treatment evaluation later this month.

Pray for good tests.

Ed

Chemo #6 Tuesday

Well it is finally here, the last planned course of chemotherapy is set for this Tuesday. Kay is excited to put this stage of this process behind her, and we are excited, anxious, and have just a huge collage of feelings about the upcoming testing and decisions on where to go from here.

Tomorrow, Monday, Kay will see Dr. McCroskey, get her labs drawn to assure she can get this last course of chemo, and then at 10:30 Tuesday she goes in for the infusion. We are happy that this is her last course of Taxol, as her peripheral neuropathy is quite noticeable to her, and we pray that it does not get a lot worse. This is an anticipated adverse effect of the Taxol, and is not usually reversible, so Kay feels this is just the price for a chance at life, and she is not too upset about it, though it is a factor she has to consider when she tries to do major activities. Example: on our Mt. Rainier hike a couple of weeks ago, this was the thing that bothered her most, her feet just got really uncomfortable.

On a lighter side, this weekend Kay and I picked blackberries Sat. AM on the Orting hiking trail. It is an early year for berries this season, we guess all the sunshine and heat. We picked about 3 gallons in <1 hour, and have gorged ourselves on berries all weekend.

Pray for an uneventful chemotherapy session, for continued good results, and for no sign of cancer on the upcoming testing. We have felt all your prayers and support throughout this process, and are grateful.

Ed

T-9 days

It is hard to believe that a week from Tuesday Kay will get her 6th and hopefully last course of chemotherapy. In April that seemed like a distant thought, but now we are focusing on getting past this stage of therapy, and getting ready to deal with the results of the post treatment testing. Kay will be getting a PET CT scan (a fairly new technology where in one scan a CT scan is done to look at her anatomy ina 3-D way with a computerized x-ray called Computerized tomography i.e. CT and her physiology is looked at using Positron Emision Tomography i.e. PET scanning. By doing them at the same scan, it is possible to compare the anatomy and the metabloic activity of body structures.) This anatomic and physiologic imaging plus the biologic tumor marker CA-125 will be the primary indicators as to the status of Kay's cancer. We are all praying for no sign of disease when this testing gets done. We should know a lot about this by August 24th when she has the PET CT scheduled.

We know that just having the 6th infusion of chemo is not the end of chemo, rather after her body recovers from that infusion is really the end of chemo, but it still is something put behind her.

This weekend has been very pleasant. Warm in Puyallup, near 90F daily, but not the >100F of earlier this week. Yesterday we mostly relaxed, and today the highlight was a family trip to the Sound Family Medicine softball game. This year for the first time I am playing, and Brett and Kay came to cheer us on. Kay and Brett had a lot of fun in the stands, Brett talking smack to the opponents in a light-hearted way, and we all had fun. I managed not to get hurt badly (a minor quadriceps strain running to first in my first at bat, but I'll survive to play another day) so it was a success. In addition we actually won the game 15-13.

This should be a no-news-is-good-news week regarding Cecil, so just continue to pray for the chemo to do its work, for no complications, and for every day to be lived to its fullest.

Ed

A/C at the library

Kay and I are spending the afternoon at the Puyallup Public library. It was 106 F in Puyallup yesterday, and is down to 98F today, but still too hot for our heat pump to do much more than keep indoors from getting hotter than outdoors. We decided to spend the afternoon at the library, soaking up the AC and using there free Wi Fi.

Kay is on the phone now making an appointment at the Seattle Cancer Alliance for a case review and second opinion after her final chemo appointment and follow up testing, hopefully in the first week of Sept. We hope to meet with several specialists including a genetic counsellor re the BRAC2 gene, and to discuss prophylactic mastectomy for Kay, as her risk of having a breast cancer is so high, given the genetic situation.

We also are planning a 25th anniversary road trip after this is done, and are excited to get going on setting that up.

Overall just having a nice summer, enjoying the heat as much as we can, and hanging in tough as this chemo does its work.

Hope all of you are having a good summer.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Ed

Paradise

Kay and I joined Ken Brown and a Tahoma Audubon group on a hike out of Paradise Mt. Rainier National Park today. As you may know Kay is on day 4 after her 5th course of chemotherapy today, a time when she gets fatigued and has more pain than usual. I was a bit concerned about how Kay would do on this hike, and we planned to just go as fat as she felt good, and trun back early. Here is Kay at Panorama Point, elevation 7100 feet http://www.visitrainier.com/index.php?&gigpag=hike&id=15

As you can see Kay completed the whole hike in fine form. She only whined for a minute or two when we got to the lower Skyline trail and found it snowed over, and had to take the upper Skyline trail up an additional 3-400 feet of elevation and adding over half a mile to the hike. She snapped out of this quickly, and finished strong. In addition she got a new bird for her life list, White-tailed ptarmigan. http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i3040id.html

The flowers on this trip were great, and we had a terrific day. We'll sleep well tonight, and feel blessed to have had such a nice day when we had low expectations.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Ed

11

Kay got her CA-125 result today and it is great. 11 is well down into the normal range for this test, and is very exciting for us. I think this may mean that Kay is either in a full remission, or close to that, with two courses of chemo after this test was drawn.

I wish I had a photo of the smile on Kay's face when she took the call from Dr. McCroskey's office. It was really nice to see. Almost a jubilant smile.

We had a great evening today too, pizza at the Aversa's home. Marc Aversa is one of my partners, and the doctor who took on my prior medical director position. He built a 3+ ton outdoor wood burning pizza oven at his prior house, and moved it to his new home a couple of years ago. The story of the moving feat was worth hearing. The pizza was great as expected. Broccolini and feta cheese was my favorite. They cook at about 7-800 degrees F in about 3 minutes.

Kay is starting to get her post chemo achiness tonight.

I appreciate all the love and support you have all been through this process, and appreciate all of your prayers.

Pray for continued great response to therapy, for no infections of complications, and for no worse pain.

Ed

Chemo #5 done

Kay is home after a walk with one of her exercise groups tonight. This after spending the day at the infusion center getting her fifth course of chemotherapy, and then coming home and cooking dinner. (I was planning to do this, but she had it done when I got home from work!) What a woman.

Jean and Brett accompanied her to chemo today, Jean took the first shift while Brett went to school, and Brett finished up. I worked all day and was really happy the kids could cover this. Kay says she does not need someone there, but we all feel a lot better when one of us goes with her.

It was really hot here today, high 80's. and we are enjoying the summer. Jean is moving back to Portland tomorrow, as we are doing well enough for her to get back to her life a bit. All well on this end. Pray for good blood counts, no infections, and continued success fighting the cancer.

Ed