Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Change

My latest results are in. There is a slight increase in some areas (tumor size). Isn't that a bummer.I'm going to stay on my current chemo. I have been on this since September. However the schedule is going to changer. Instead of going every two weeks with one week off I'm going to go every two weeks with two weeks off. Just to give me some more off time between treatments.

The doctor summed it up like a baseball game...imagine that. But he said you want to leave the pitcher in as long as you can . And then when needed to go to the bull pen...which is new chemo drug. So for now we are going to keep on the same drug even though we may have loaded the bases or given up a few runs. We are still winning.

My Coumadin levels are therapeutic now so I only have to go to the lab once a week instead of 2 or 3 times. I'm feeling better now that I don't have any clots.

The kids are busy. Rachel just made her Confirmation. She is running track for her middle school. Emily is doing water polo clinics for a few weeks and James is finishing up with basketball this weekend. Paul is done teaching his night class the first week of May.

We have a niece graduating from MSU in May and a nephew graduating from Lowell High School. We will have a few graduation parties to go to this year with extended family and friends also. And soon we will be celebrating Rachel's birthday and Mom and Dad's 50th wedding Anniversary.

Hope that nice warm air returns soon.
Peace to you all
Thanks for all you do
Love Kelly

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Not so fast Kelly

So it seems like everything was going so good. The good news from the last scan of having some tumors shrink and no new growth of tumors. The chemo drug being somewhat nice to my body. Taking a family vacation that was so needed and very much relaxing for all.
Three weeks after coming home I find myself in the hospital.
My left calf felt like it was sleeping one day. No big deal. The next day it didn't feel bad at all. This is on Wednesday, I went to watch my nephew Jordan play in his high school baseball game and my leg was fine. I drove about 10 minutes to a restraurant after the game to meet up with my friends.When I got out of my car and started walking to the door of the restraunt,I noticed my leg hurt again and.....I was limping. When I found the table where my friends already were,my friend Barb said..."it looks like your leg is bothering you" I said," It is" and we laughed.
I went home after dinner and Paul rubbed my calf. It didn't bother me to have him put pressure on it. I have had a blood clot befor and it didn't feel like that. I asked Paul what he thought and he said blood clot. Ugh I didn't want it to be. I had plans to go to Birch Run with the kidsand my mom, after they got out of school to start Spring Break the next day. Well when I woke up Thursday morning I could not put any pressure on my foot at ALL. I elevated my leg and did everything I could think of so it would go away. By 11am it was hurting more so Paul brought me to Urgent Care. They said I needed an ultra sound but they didn't have a machine available there so they sent me to the NORTH MEDICAL building across from butterworth. They confirmed that I had a blood clot otherwise known as a DVT. Deep Vein Thrombosis. They called my primary who then said send her to ER. They wheel chaired me to ER where then they put a heart monitor on me and said my heart rate was way high. They wanted to do a cat scan to check my lungs for a blood clot. They asked if I had shortness of breath, dizziness, pain in my chest ;which I answered no to. So off to cat scan I went and low and behold...significant clotting in both lungs. UGH!How can this be. So now they called my oncologist to see what he wanted them to do . So now I have to be admitted. If it was just in my leg they would have sent me home after they taught me to give myself a shot of blood thinning medicine called lovenox. But with the clots in my lungs I needed IV blood thinner hepparin. So here I am 5 days later on the Hepparin still and coumidin (sp) pill. I have to get my blood at the right level of thinning and the right number for coumidin. Maybe today maybe tomorrow I can be released. I'm ready to go home. My leg is much better. The swelling has gone down. It is still sore but not half as sore as it was.
Not the way I or the kids thought we would be spending Spring Break.
Happy Easter to all!
Keep Praying!
Kelly