New Chemo

Mom started her new, more intensive chemotherapy on Thursday morning. It includes a mix of several medications (Irinotecan, Leucovorin, Oxaliplatin, 5-Fluorouracil) to be administered during a 5 hour infusion at the office and through a pump that runs 46 hours at home. She just finished her first round and is home resting after having the pump removed and getting some fluids. Thankful she can begin recovery until the next treatment in two weeks.

At the appointment on Thursday, they did learn that her cancer counts decreased from 42,000 to 40,000. That was a great surprise, because she had skipped a week of chemo before starting this new one. So happy for a bit of good news!

this lady amazes me everyday.

Please pray with us for mom as her pain has increased over the past couple weeks and this chemo is tough. We continue to hope and pray that she will be able to tolerate it well and that it will shrink the tumors in her liver and bring her counts down! Thank you for your love and support.

PS ~ We did the PurpleStride DFW walk this morning and it was amazing. Another post coming soon on that!

New Direction

Mom and Dad went to her oncology appointment yesterday morning, anxious to hear the latest cancer marker counts and the results of the CT scan. She has been in more pain over the last two weeks, running a low grade fever most days. The cancer markers increased from 23,000 (on 10/17) to 42,000 and the CT scan showed that two of the liver tumors grew. One bit of good news was that the spot on the pancreas is smaller. Thankful for that!

On Wednesday or Thursday of this week, she will begin a stronger, 3-day a week chemo. She will go in the first day and have an infusion, take the pump home for an infusion on the second day and go back the third day. This type of chemo will most likely have more side effects, but we are praying it's hard on the cancer, but not hard on mom!

With no chemo yesterday, she has been able to enjoy the weekend! She loves Halloween--from dressing up, to decorating the house, to passing out candy at the door--so we had a great time together last night! Also, Mom and Dad went to the Texas Renaissance Festival today, which was awesome! They had a great time and were able to hear their favorite renaissance musicians, Cantiga, perform three times! They love to relax and enjoy the outdoors and music at TRF, so this was wonderful for them.

We are thankful the first nine rounds of chemo have taken her cancer markers from 139,000 to 44,000. We are hopeful and pray this new regimen will shrink the tumors and reduce the cancer markers. She is such a beautiful lady and has such an amazing man by her side. Thank you for the continued prayers, love and support.