No Break Yet

Blog readers beware. I am writing this entry and I am not as eloquent or coherent (thanks to the morphine) as Bill. He has done an excellent job describing the situation without using too much medical speak or supplying too much information.

The week of February 16th was a week of recovery for me. I was exhausted after the week before when I had surgery to put a port in, chemotherapy, surgery to replace my stents and 4 radiation treatments. My blood counts were too low to get chemotherapy last week. I did get 5 radiation treatments last week, but otherwise spent a lot of time in bed. This last weekend I had more energy, but I overdid it going up and down the stairs. On Saturday I had to sleep with oxygen.

Late last week, I received the written notes from the stent procedure on Friday, February 13th. The doctor described the strictures (tumors) in my bile ducts as significantly improved. So the PacMen and PacWomen and all of the people that have been praying for me have made a big impact. Wocka, Wocka, Wocka.

This week will see the end of my radiation treatments on my spine on Tuesday. I also thought it would be the last chemotherapy treatment before a 2 week break, however Bill and I met with my medical oncologist this afternoon. The doctor will be adjusting the dosage and I will be having chemotherapy treatment tomorrow, Tuesday February 24th and Tuesday March 3rd. I will then have a break the next week. The schedule that we are going to try is 2 weeks of chemotherapy treatments and a 1 week break. The doctor was happy to see my blood work was looking good. The CA 19-9 tumor marker dropped from 5,000 to 1,000 over the last 6 weeks. This was exciting news. Thank you for all of the prayers. They are definitely working.

So how did I do?

Michelle

Signs of Improvement

Prayer works. Yesterday Michelle had her 5th ERCP since the beginning of this journey, and the plan was to replace the plastic stents installed on January 5 with larger metal stents to reduce the chance of blockage. However, when they removed the old stents and took a look at the condition of her bile ducts, they were surprised to find the blockages much improved. So much improved, in fact, that they decided to place new plastic stents and hold off on the permanent metal ones for now. They want to see her again in 8 weeks to refresh these stents and re-evaluate her condition. This is really good news because it seems to indicate that the chemo is working. And, we believe, it also means all the prayers are working.

At the same time, Michelle's day-to-day physical condition has been not so hot. Due to the chemo, her blood counts (both red and white cells) are low and getting lower. Her hemoglobin, which is a measurement of the oxygen carrying capacity of her blood, has started dropping again after being relatively stable since early December. On Thursday she completed her 7th of 14 radiation treatments, and the impact on her energy levels is significant. She is close to exhaustion all the time, and we have to be diligent with pain and nausea medications to keep those side effects under control. We're really glad we have the pulse oximeter on hand to check her oxygen saturation level, because it has a tendency to drop when she gets too fatigued. She slept with the O2 turned on three times this week.

The port installed on Monday is working as advertised. She was very dehydrated on Thursday morning (blood pressure 80/60) so we took her in for hydration and they left the port "tapped" (needle in place) for Friday's procedures. They were able to use the port for all her IV needs yesterday. No more pokes!

Flash Update: All's Well

The port installation went smoothly today and Michelle was home in her own bed resting comfortably by 11:00 AM. Thank you all for your prayers.