Our visit

So we were able to get down and visit with my mom a week ago. The kids and my mom had a ball trying on her wig and taking pictures. We had a nice time, but she was a little stressed out because she is re-doing the living room and we had to move some furniture and take some with us. I think it is good for her to have this project to keep her mind busy.  She got her blood transfusion and her hemoglobin # went up a little. She has now finished her 3rd round of chemo. They had to give her benadryl again this week with the chemo because of hives.  She has been feeling sick with nausea, and stomach upset the past few days. At her Cancer doctors appt. today they gave her a new medicine for the nausea and diarrhea which hopefully will help. He also wants her to come in tomorrow for some IV fluids. Hopefully that will help her to feel better as well. Other than that, her spirits are still good. She has been amazing through this whole experience so far.

Update

Today my mom had to go and have a blood transfusion done. Her hemoglobin numbers have been getting increasingly low so they needed to get the numbers back up. All of her other numbers; kidney function, whiteblood cell are all good. She will start the next round of chemo next Wed, Thurs, Friday. She has been feeling really good, driving herself around a lot. She has started a new project in the house to re-do the living room. She wants to put in new flooring and paint the walls as well as get a new sofa. I think it is good that she has something to keep her busy. She has been cooking and doing lite cleaning as well. The chemo didn't seem to affect her much this time around, thank God. They are going to proceed with the same type of chemo, but give her Benadryl prior to her treatment this time. We are going down tomorrow for a visit. I will keep you all posted

Chemo Day 3

Today my mom had another allergic reaction while doing her chemo treatment (which she was able to drive herself to :)  So now they are not sure what she is having the reaction to. They gave her Benadryl again and we will have to wait until she sees the doctor next week to see how they will proceed. She has also been able to take off her oxygen for extended periods of time because her oxygen levels have almost gone back to normal. So far she has not gotten sick from this chemo. Smells aren't bothering her and her energy level has not been zapped. Keeping our fingers crossed that she will continue to feel well!

Chemo Begins Again

Wednesday my mom began a chemo regimen again. She went in at 11:00 and didn't end up getting to leave until 6:30. The doctor had requested that she get blood work done when she went in and her kidney numbers came back at 1.3 (which is awesome!) but, her magnesium was low (due to the previous chemo) so they gave her a bag of IV magnesium and then a bag of anti-nausea meds and then a bag of the first (new) chemo and then they were 15 mins into the second chemo(she had gotten this one with the previous chemo combo) and she began getting hives on her face and under her chin. They immediately called the Dr. and he ordered her a bag of Benadryl and they had to wait for all of the hives to go away before they could proceed with the rest of her treatment. They faded and she finished up and got to go home. They narrowed the reaction down to the new chemo because she had already had all of the other things before. She went again today and did fine because the new chemo is only given on the first day of the three day regimen. She had a wonderful visit with Aunt Susan, Aunt Carol and Jen was up from NC. She called me when she got home and was in such good spirits, laughing and talking about what a great day she had. I am amazed at how happy she has been the past few weeks. Here she is, riddled with Cancer, lost all her hair, enduring chemo and she is the happiest I have heard her in years lately. I love that I can call her ANY time of the day and she is my mom. I can not express enough how thankful I am to all of you for coming back into her life and making her smile, letting her know that there are people that love her and care about her. She will call me to tell me that Aunt Susan gave her homemade soup and Banana bread or that Aunt Carol took her to get her hair cut or that Aunt Beth came and helped her dust the dinning room table. She proudly displayed the centerpiece that Aunt Ellen brought her and said that the letter that Lori sent her brought tears to her eyes. She wore the necklace that Aunt Joan bought her and took it out Christmas day to show us all. She talks about Uncle Mike coming to visit her twice and how Maria helped her make Chocolate chip cookies. For years this has been missing from her life. So please know that everything you do, whether it be a visit, a letter, a gift or just picking up the phone to call, it means so very much to her and it is keeping her spirits high and giving her a life to live.

Christmas Gift

I hope that all of you reading this, had a merry Christmas. Don and I and the kids made it down to see my mom and spend Christmas day and night at her house. By the grace of God I was given the best Christmas gift I could have ever asked for, my Mom, my REAL Mom. The one I had when I was 7 or 8 years old. This year, my mom spent the day before Christmas baking pies from scratch and chocolate chip cookies and brownies. She hasn't done all of that since I was a little girl. Then yesterday, it was just a simple day, not fancy, but perfect! She watched the kids unwrap their gifts and Greysen watch the train go round and round. We had a nice dinner that she helped cook and played games with the kids and then we all sat down and watched A Christmas Story. She was happy, no fighting, just happy. We slept over and had to get up early to get to the city for work. She got up at 6:00am before us and I went down stairs (she was in the bathroom) I found 2 cups with tea bags next to them on the counter, plates set out and english muffins in the toaster ready to toast.   This may seem really simple or trivial, but it brought tears to my eyes and a smile to my face. This was a glimpse of the mom I had years ago that woke up with me in the morning and cooked me breakfast, that played board games with me, that sat on the couch with me at night and watched Nature. It was the best gift and I can only hope that God is gracious enough to allow me to experience it for a little bit longer.

As far as my mom's health goes, she had a Dr.'s appointment today with the Oncologist. He said that her Kidney function numbers have came down quite a bit since her last visit and are looking much better. She is going to begin getting a different type of chemo on Jan. 2nd, 3rd and 4th. This type of chemo is not supposed to effect her kidneys. She will get a CAT scan sometime after this round or the next tocheck things out. For now, based on how she looks and is feeling, the doctor believes it is doing its job. She is in great spirits, it is so bitter sweet to listen to her talk. She is fighting this cancer with her body, heart and most importantly her mind. She has such a positive attitude.  The Dr.'s are all suprised that she remains pain free. They asked her today if she was taking pain killers and she said, "No, I told you I am not in any pain." I thank God everyday for that.
It really has meant a lot to her to receive your phone calls and visits, she always mentions it with happiness in her voice. I am sure that it has a lot to do with her positive attitude, which is really helping her to get through this. She actually drove herself into Pine Bush twice this week to the store.  Please keep the phone calls and visits coming if you can.

Thanks again to all of you and Merry Christmas!!

Update

I haven't posted in a while because things were at a stand still for a while, waiting on bloodwork and Dr.'s appointments. My mom's kidney function #'s have slowly started to go down (the direction they wanted). She has gotten the green light from the kidney Dr. to start up some type of chemo (one that is not suppossed to affect her kidneys) under very close monitoring. She will see her oncologist this Monday and she will have a better idea of what and when Chemo will start. She has lost a lot of her hair (wearing a hat) and looking for the right wig. Her spirits are still good and she has been up and about around the house decorating for chirstmas and the tree. She got all of her shopping done through the help of friends and family and wrapped everything herself, so she could be prepared for the holidays if she is to start chemo prior. She is still using the oxygen and still not smoking. Her appetite is getting better, although the smells of food still bothers her a lot. She is still not in any pain, which I am so thankful for and I continue to pray that it stays at bay for as long as possible. She does mention every once and awhile "I know it's coming" meaning the pain. For now it is in the back of her mind and I am praying that we have time to spend with her during the Christmas break from school (if all of the kiddies can remain germ-free!)

I will put a post on here Monday evening after we hear what the oncologist has to say.

Got The Green Light

The doctor said that despite her kidney numbers not improving, they are sending her home to give it some time to see what happens. So she is going home today. She is excited to be breaking out of the hospital! She has an appointment scheduled with the kidney doctor on Tuesday to check her blood work and see how to proceed from there. She is feeling good, breathing is getting much better although she still is wearing the oxygen.  I requested for her to have a consultation with a dietician yesterday while we were down and she was able to get a book and some good information on what she needs as far as calories, protein etc. It is a little weird for her to be told to eat high calorie foods like icecream and cheesecake and pudding etc. after always trying to watch what she eats. I told her to throw caution to the wind and eat, eat, eat!!