First let me say that I have only updated after a treatment. I don't do weekly updates. Too much laziness or taking it easy to worry about my blog.
Secondly, I have done much better with this drug. I am glad that they switched to it. Even though I have been able to eat better because this drug does not give me any mouth sores or nausea. However I continue to lose the weight. The doctor isn't too concerned with that yet as I have a few to give freely. LOL.
Now I pray that this new drug works better on the tumors too. The first drug didn't shrink any lung tumors but did a little on the liver.
After this treatment the doctor decided to do one more treatment before doing a C.A.T. scan. That way there may be a better chance of seeing some results. I have no idea what the plan would be if there was/or wasn't progress. He may want to do more treatments, he may say I can be done with infusions and go onto the oral chemo.
The anglim's are very excited for the warm weather to get here. The pool is open but no one has been in it.
.
Only 8 1/2 days on the count down for school to be done. Field Trips and Field Day will take up much of the remaining days of school. All the children have had a great year. They have matured and have done quite well with their grades. Mom and Dad are very proud of them.
Everyone grass should be green with all of this rain we have had. Saving on the water bill....yippee.
Enjoy your holiday weekend!
Kelly
A Toledo woman once told a friend of mine. "From the day that you're born, 'til they take you in a hearse, thing are never so bad the they couldn't be worse."
Friday, May 27, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Has Spring Arrived?
Sure was nice to wake up to sunshine and warm temperature! What a great start to a Mother's Day weekend,
My last chemo treatment was this past Thursday and went like normal. Arrive and wait. Sit and wait and finally get your cocktail and leave, I think it averages out to be about 6 hours I am there. This new chemo is treating me tons better than the first drug I was on. No sores in my mouth, no nausea. The trade off is bone pain. Still have fatigue with both. That is tolerable. Who can't handle taking a nap right. One more treatment with this drug and then I will have another CAT scan to see if it is shrinking the tumors. If it did maybe I can go on the oral chemo...less side effects. Or maybe the Dr will want to do another 3 round to see if the tumors will shrink more. The idea is to get the tumors shrunk and then go on the oral chemo to maintain the shrinkage. After I am on the oral chemo its like treating high blood pressure or diabetes.
Paul is being the father of the year. Working, teaching a night class that just got done, running the kids to their activities. Taking care of me.
Rachel turned 13 on the 30th of April. It's official. She has been busy with the Equestrian team through school. She fell off for the first time this year after 4 or 5 years of never falling. Had to do it right in front of mom too!
Emily is doing Girls on the Run. She is training for a 5k run which will be the last Saturday in May.
James has been going to a reading program until last week so now he just has boy scouts keeping him busy.
We joined Gilda's club and that has been great for everyone.
Thank you for praying and thinking of the Anglim family.
Love Kelly
If you reached the end of your rope tie a not and hang on.
My last chemo treatment was this past Thursday and went like normal. Arrive and wait. Sit and wait and finally get your cocktail and leave, I think it averages out to be about 6 hours I am there. This new chemo is treating me tons better than the first drug I was on. No sores in my mouth, no nausea. The trade off is bone pain. Still have fatigue with both. That is tolerable. Who can't handle taking a nap right. One more treatment with this drug and then I will have another CAT scan to see if it is shrinking the tumors. If it did maybe I can go on the oral chemo...less side effects. Or maybe the Dr will want to do another 3 round to see if the tumors will shrink more. The idea is to get the tumors shrunk and then go on the oral chemo to maintain the shrinkage. After I am on the oral chemo its like treating high blood pressure or diabetes.
Paul is being the father of the year. Working, teaching a night class that just got done, running the kids to their activities. Taking care of me.
Rachel turned 13 on the 30th of April. It's official. She has been busy with the Equestrian team through school. She fell off for the first time this year after 4 or 5 years of never falling. Had to do it right in front of mom too!
Emily is doing Girls on the Run. She is training for a 5k run which will be the last Saturday in May.
James has been going to a reading program until last week so now he just has boy scouts keeping him busy.
We joined Gilda's club and that has been great for everyone.
Thank you for praying and thinking of the Anglim family.
Love Kelly
If you reached the end of your rope tie a not and hang on.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Update
Hello to all,
Today is Wednesday. 6 days after my treatment with the new drug. It treated me ten times better than the other drug. I was out of bed I think on Friday. Yes I even had Paul drive me to my work to see a friend on her last day of work. I did spend the rest of the weekend laying around and went to church. I was not nauseated at all. YEAH! The worse complaint would be the terrible bone pain. Not joint pain but all over bone pain. And then tiredness. But I will take all of it if I don't ever have to have the first drug again.
So the plan is to have 3 rounds of this drug, still on the same schedule and then have another C.A.T. scan. So sometime in May that should be scheduled.
It is amazing how the days just seem to be flying by. Chemo brain or not. The weather stinks. I want sunshine and the sounds of kids playing outside.
Thank you to all that have been praying, texting, emailing, mailing, and calling. Each one of those things lift my spirits and keep me going.
Peace to all
Kelly
Today is Wednesday. 6 days after my treatment with the new drug. It treated me ten times better than the other drug. I was out of bed I think on Friday. Yes I even had Paul drive me to my work to see a friend on her last day of work. I did spend the rest of the weekend laying around and went to church. I was not nauseated at all. YEAH! The worse complaint would be the terrible bone pain. Not joint pain but all over bone pain. And then tiredness. But I will take all of it if I don't ever have to have the first drug again.
So the plan is to have 3 rounds of this drug, still on the same schedule and then have another C.A.T. scan. So sometime in May that should be scheduled.
It is amazing how the days just seem to be flying by. Chemo brain or not. The weather stinks. I want sunshine and the sounds of kids playing outside.
Thank you to all that have been praying, texting, emailing, mailing, and calling. Each one of those things lift my spirits and keep me going.
Peace to all
Kelly
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
C.A.T. Scan
I had my C.A.T. scan Monday and was told that none of the tumors responded to the treatment. In other words there was no shrinkage. So tomorrow I have my chemotherapy but it will be a new drug. So maybe this drug won't be so rough on me. That is my hopes. My second prayer is that the tumors respond to this drug and shrink shrink away.
Not much to say on this posting. I had the previous posting written while in D.C. but didn't post it until yesterday because I couldn't remember some things and kept forgetting to ask Paul for some help.
Have fun doing your spring cleaning. Hope the weather cooperates and we all can enjoy a true spring.
I'll post again soon
Kelly
Not much to say on this posting. I had the previous posting written while in D.C. but didn't post it until yesterday because I couldn't remember some things and kept forgetting to ask Paul for some help.
Have fun doing your spring cleaning. Hope the weather cooperates and we all can enjoy a true spring.
I'll post again soon
Kelly
Turning the corner
As I lay here in bed while I should be sleeping at 4 in the morning, I'm thinking of everything this past week has brought me and how much better I feel even though I'm not sleeping like I should be,
I'm in Washington DC with the family for Spring Break. This trip was planned before I was diagnosed in Jan and was one of the first questions out of my mouth. Can I still go. When the answer was yes from the doctor I really hadn't had any worries about the trip. Spring break fell between treatments. It had been taking me about 8-10 days to start to feel better after a treatment and we were leaving by train on 7th day after a treatment. Well , for some unknown reason to me I didn't feel good at all the whole week. I actually was having the roughest time of all. I almost feel like the doctor may have upped my dosage with out telling me. I wasn't nauseated at all ....I was very fatigued, climb the stairs and need to sit down and put my head down. I wasn't eating. A bite of something and that was it. I wasn't drinking much either and believe it or not I was over my love of pellet ice cubes too. Then to make matters worse I developed open sores on my bottom cheeks!
Paul and I both called the doctor Monday and the nurse wanted him to describe the sores to her. Guess what peeps? He hasn't seen the sores, He offered to bring me down there and the nurse kept saying that she couldn't help us with out knowing what the sores looked like. But she wouldn't let Paul bring me in. I think I was so upset that I didn't call the nurse back to describe the sores. Tuesday I was trying to help Paul pack for the trip as we were leaving at 10 Thursday for Chicago to catch the train to DC. I figure I would call the doctors after hours. That way I could talk to a doctor. Sadly after describing the sores to the on call doc he didn't think the sores were from my chemo drug. Well I wasn't actually calling to see why I had the sores I w anted and needed some meds for these sores. doctor and he wanted me to call back in the am to get an appointment. We asked if we should go to ER or Urgent care or even my female doctor but he said it would be better if someone for the office could look at it. Here I was trying to be on the ball and get some meds before we left on Thursday for our trip. Anyway we called back on Wednesday morning and after telling the nurse we were suppose to call for an appointment they said a nurse would call back soon they were tagging the note as urgent. The nurse again wanted to know what the sores looked like, we told them we were suppose to get an appointment but they said they were to busy . No one had any openings. UUUUGGGGGHHHHHH. But she did recommend two different ointments to [pit on the sores.
I want you all to know that I have only made two phone calls after hours to this office. Once in 2007 and now this phone call. I can not believe this is normal practice. It's so frustrating. I don"t even get it. And yes we had mention on more than one occasion that we were going out of town.
So Wednesday night I tell Paul I didn't want to go and we had a talk about how he still needed to go for the kids sake and his. And when I felt better we could try to find a flight for me to catch up with them. The girls were sad but I told them I would come when I could , James was okay with mom not coming. He just wanted to get on the train. In fact I remember James coming home from school on Wednesday. I was laying on the coach and he said :Are you feeling better mom? I told him no. He then asked if I wasn't feeling better in the morning was I going to DC and I said I don't know. would you be sad if I didn't go and he said matter of fact..NO. I said I was happy to hear that.
I watched the kids pile in the van. There were no tears from anyone. Whew
My sister came to stay the night with me bearing many of varieties of food to try to find what I could eat. Not much luck in that department. But I did get a great back rub,
Friday morning came and I was hungry so I tried a little of everything and even had some awful ensure. By mid afternoon and no nap I figure I turned the corner and started to think about looking online for plane tickets. And trying to figure out when I should catch up with the rest of the family. Some good friends that live near by were walking their dog while I was resting on my deck. They checked in on me and offered to start searching for flights. Then my sister came back to my rescue after her day at work. I was feeling like trying something to eat so I rode with her to Culvers to get out of the house and we ordered a fish dinner to go to share. I nibbled but didn't get 1/2 of the 1/2 I took . The exhaustion, the dry mouth, everything was just not cooperating with me. By Friday night I was feeling better but not better and a flight was bought. A Saturday flight in the afternoon. The good thing was my sister offered to drive me . My mom came along, On the way to Detroit we stopped at McDonald's for a rest room and we ended up ordering lunch. I just stared at the menu and kept thinking gross. But I ordered a chicken wrap. Figured no bread was good for the the dry mouth and I could just eat the chicken or try. Well I DID IT MOMMY. I ate all the chicken. YEAH for me I didn't eat the wrap or anything else but I did eat the chicken.
Another good thing was I had a direct flight and it was only a little over an hour long.
I was gifted from those great friends that live near by that offered to help find a flight , the gift of first class. It was my first time and it won't be my last . WOW.
The family was very excited to see me and from the airport we went to see our friends , We were able to visit for 3 hours before I was ready to leave for rest. It was a short visit but a much needed visit.
Sunday we went into DC and went to the SPY Museum. and The Smithsonian History museum I think it was called, No that was yesterday we did that. Tuesday ...today we are doing the Cherry Blossom's and Vietnam memorial and Arlington Cemetery. I have a wheel chair in case of tiredness. Everything else we do is just planned the evening before. We leave Thursday at 4pm and get into Chicago at 9 am.
And every day I have ate a little more. 1/2 a burger and 2 tacos today.
So this is my update until after the next treatment which should be April 14. I haven't received my schedule from the office yet, I;m sure it is in the mailbox waiting for us to open it,
Just to up date everyone that has volunteered to bring dinners too. If you will wait to sign up for anymore.. I don't know how many treatments I will have and I would rather not see people signing up all the way out into June and July. I don't want to be having treatments then.
Please keep praying. I don't know where I would be with out all of your support.
Thank you for caring my friends
Kelly
I'm in Washington DC with the family for Spring Break. This trip was planned before I was diagnosed in Jan and was one of the first questions out of my mouth. Can I still go. When the answer was yes from the doctor I really hadn't had any worries about the trip. Spring break fell between treatments. It had been taking me about 8-10 days to start to feel better after a treatment and we were leaving by train on 7th day after a treatment. Well , for some unknown reason to me I didn't feel good at all the whole week. I actually was having the roughest time of all. I almost feel like the doctor may have upped my dosage with out telling me. I wasn't nauseated at all ....I was very fatigued, climb the stairs and need to sit down and put my head down. I wasn't eating. A bite of something and that was it. I wasn't drinking much either and believe it or not I was over my love of pellet ice cubes too. Then to make matters worse I developed open sores on my bottom cheeks!
Paul and I both called the doctor Monday and the nurse wanted him to describe the sores to her. Guess what peeps? He hasn't seen the sores, He offered to bring me down there and the nurse kept saying that she couldn't help us with out knowing what the sores looked like. But she wouldn't let Paul bring me in. I think I was so upset that I didn't call the nurse back to describe the sores. Tuesday I was trying to help Paul pack for the trip as we were leaving at 10 Thursday for Chicago to catch the train to DC. I figure I would call the doctors after hours. That way I could talk to a doctor. Sadly after describing the sores to the on call doc he didn't think the sores were from my chemo drug. Well I wasn't actually calling to see why I had the sores I w anted and needed some meds for these sores. doctor and he wanted me to call back in the am to get an appointment. We asked if we should go to ER or Urgent care or even my female doctor but he said it would be better if someone for the office could look at it. Here I was trying to be on the ball and get some meds before we left on Thursday for our trip. Anyway we called back on Wednesday morning and after telling the nurse we were suppose to call for an appointment they said a nurse would call back soon they were tagging the note as urgent. The nurse again wanted to know what the sores looked like, we told them we were suppose to get an appointment but they said they were to busy . No one had any openings. UUUUGGGGGHHHHHH. But she did recommend two different ointments to [pit on the sores.
I want you all to know that I have only made two phone calls after hours to this office. Once in 2007 and now this phone call. I can not believe this is normal practice. It's so frustrating. I don"t even get it. And yes we had mention on more than one occasion that we were going out of town.
So Wednesday night I tell Paul I didn't want to go and we had a talk about how he still needed to go for the kids sake and his. And when I felt better we could try to find a flight for me to catch up with them. The girls were sad but I told them I would come when I could , James was okay with mom not coming. He just wanted to get on the train. In fact I remember James coming home from school on Wednesday. I was laying on the coach and he said :Are you feeling better mom? I told him no. He then asked if I wasn't feeling better in the morning was I going to DC and I said I don't know. would you be sad if I didn't go and he said matter of fact..NO. I said I was happy to hear that.
I watched the kids pile in the van. There were no tears from anyone. Whew
My sister came to stay the night with me bearing many of varieties of food to try to find what I could eat. Not much luck in that department. But I did get a great back rub,
Friday morning came and I was hungry so I tried a little of everything and even had some awful ensure. By mid afternoon and no nap I figure I turned the corner and started to think about looking online for plane tickets. And trying to figure out when I should catch up with the rest of the family. Some good friends that live near by were walking their dog while I was resting on my deck. They checked in on me and offered to start searching for flights. Then my sister came back to my rescue after her day at work. I was feeling like trying something to eat so I rode with her to Culvers to get out of the house and we ordered a fish dinner to go to share. I nibbled but didn't get 1/2 of the 1/2 I took . The exhaustion, the dry mouth, everything was just not cooperating with me. By Friday night I was feeling better but not better and a flight was bought. A Saturday flight in the afternoon. The good thing was my sister offered to drive me . My mom came along, On the way to Detroit we stopped at McDonald's for a rest room and we ended up ordering lunch. I just stared at the menu and kept thinking gross. But I ordered a chicken wrap. Figured no bread was good for the the dry mouth and I could just eat the chicken or try. Well I DID IT MOMMY. I ate all the chicken. YEAH for me I didn't eat the wrap or anything else but I did eat the chicken.
Another good thing was I had a direct flight and it was only a little over an hour long.
I was gifted from those great friends that live near by that offered to help find a flight , the gift of first class. It was my first time and it won't be my last . WOW.
The family was very excited to see me and from the airport we went to see our friends , We were able to visit for 3 hours before I was ready to leave for rest. It was a short visit but a much needed visit.
Sunday we went into DC and went to the SPY Museum. and The Smithsonian History museum I think it was called, No that was yesterday we did that. Tuesday ...today we are doing the Cherry Blossom's and Vietnam memorial and Arlington Cemetery. I have a wheel chair in case of tiredness. Everything else we do is just planned the evening before. We leave Thursday at 4pm and get into Chicago at 9 am.
And every day I have ate a little more. 1/2 a burger and 2 tacos today.
So this is my update until after the next treatment which should be April 14. I haven't received my schedule from the office yet, I;m sure it is in the mailbox waiting for us to open it,
Just to up date everyone that has volunteered to bring dinners too. If you will wait to sign up for anymore.. I don't know how many treatments I will have and I would rather not see people signing up all the way out into June and July. I don't want to be having treatments then.
Please keep praying. I don't know where I would be with out all of your support.
Thank you for caring my friends
Kelly
Monday, March 28, 2011
Three down
the third treatment is done. yeah and yuck. This time I think the thrush is as bad as it has been. YUCK and OUCH!
I didn't get to see the doctor at my appointment. Had to see the PA. My CAT scan will be scheduled for the Monday or Tuesday before my next treatment. Then they will have the results when I see the doctor . I see the doctor before every treatment.
The third treatment went okay. I was home an hour earlier than any other treatment day. The morning was a waiting game but some how my nurse kicked it in gear for the pm, I'm still shooting for the 4 hours they said it would take. This appointment I was there at 9and left at 330.
The weekend and this morning has been in laying position either with layers of blankets on my in a lawn chair in the sunshine or just on the couch or bed. Energy is hard to come by for some reason this time it seems.
Thank you for all the cards, prayers, surprises, and thoughts. I need and love them all.
Pray for spring!
I didn't get to see the doctor at my appointment. Had to see the PA. My CAT scan will be scheduled for the Monday or Tuesday before my next treatment. Then they will have the results when I see the doctor . I see the doctor before every treatment.
The third treatment went okay. I was home an hour earlier than any other treatment day. The morning was a waiting game but some how my nurse kicked it in gear for the pm, I'm still shooting for the 4 hours they said it would take. This appointment I was there at 9and left at 330.
The weekend and this morning has been in laying position either with layers of blankets on my in a lawn chair in the sunshine or just on the couch or bed. Energy is hard to come by for some reason this time it seems.
Thank you for all the cards, prayers, surprises, and thoughts. I need and love them all.
Pray for spring!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
7 Good Days
Here's hoping the next 7 days are the best 7 days before my next treatment. The weather is trying to cooperate with every one's attitude. I'm feeling a lot better than the last posting I made. Saturday I started feeling better and everyday has been better since. I went to work the last three days for 1/2 day. Today I stayed home due to exhaustion. Lots of naps are needed to keep the energy up.
We have joined the Gilda's Club about a month ago. It is a beautiful house, with a lot of things going on.It has been a good thing for all of us. We have not been to any Laughfest events yet.
This next treatment I have will be number 3. I think the doctor will schedule a C.A.T. scan after this treatment to see if there has been progress on the tumors. After we receive the results we will decide if we continue on with this drug, change drugs or maybe even discontinue drugs because of phenomenal results! I will pray for that.
We are going to Washington DC the first week of APRIL. Thankfully with permission from the doctor back in January. Since we had bought tickets prior to my diagnosis . Thankfully spring break falls after a treatment week. We will be staying with Paul's brother Van in D.C. and I just found it will be Cherry blossom festival. Ohhh how pretty that will be.
Thank you for all your prayers and support.
Kelly
As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.
Buddy Hackett
We have joined the Gilda's Club about a month ago. It is a beautiful house, with a lot of things going on.It has been a good thing for all of us. We have not been to any Laughfest events yet.
This next treatment I have will be number 3. I think the doctor will schedule a C.A.T. scan after this treatment to see if there has been progress on the tumors. After we receive the results we will decide if we continue on with this drug, change drugs or maybe even discontinue drugs because of phenomenal results! I will pray for that.
We are going to Washington DC the first week of APRIL. Thankfully with permission from the doctor back in January. Since we had bought tickets prior to my diagnosis . Thankfully spring break falls after a treatment week. We will be staying with Paul's brother Van in D.C. and I just found it will be Cherry blossom festival. Ohhh how pretty that will be.
Thank you for all your prayers and support.
Kelly
As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.
Buddy Hackett
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