Just a quick update:
Coreen made it back home late this afternoon. And thanks for all those who have posted comments... They are greatly appreciate. Also Coreen's strength is limited so she hasn't been responding to txt's due to the volume of them. But please know that we appreciate your thoughts and prayers. Feel free to txt Ryan or the Grama's.
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
Thursday, 17 January 2013
Coreen was admitted yesterday to hospital; the palliative home care nurse & doc feared that she had a more serious problem than she normally has with her bowels. She arrived by patient transport (no sirens ambulance) and it took a while to get her shuffled around, some degree of pain control and an X-ray done. The xray did not reveal a perforation and that much of the abdominal concerns were just more of the same except for increased pain initially.
Bony pain has also increased since admitted so they changed the type of pain medication so she is now on fentanyl and playing catch up as happens when changing types. Now since she in hospital anyway they are changing again to methadone which is often used in palliative settings and which requires hospital to set up.
She does have another complications, in that she has shingles. As a result she is in isolation and in a negative pressure room. Not a big deal at home but we need to be considerate of their rules, masks etc and maybe keeping visits not so many initially while lesions heal and rules lighten up.
Ryan
Bony pain has also increased since admitted so they changed the type of pain medication so she is now on fentanyl and playing catch up as happens when changing types. Now since she in hospital anyway they are changing again to methadone which is often used in palliative settings and which requires hospital to set up.
She does have another complications, in that she has shingles. As a result she is in isolation and in a negative pressure room. Not a big deal at home but we need to be considerate of their rules, masks etc and maybe keeping visits not so many initially while lesions heal and rules lighten up.
Ryan
Friday, 11 January 2013
2013/Jan/11
No More Chemo
This techno- peasant has just realized that I can't reply directly to people who respond to my blog by sending a response privately back to their email because it is blocked. A heartfelt thanks to each response sent!
This week found us back at the oncologist on Tuesday; no more chemo is planned. It was an easy decision to stop the current regime which is clearly not working; without any further evidence required from other imaging. The evidence being numerous sub-cutaneous lesions and other tumors which have grown over time on this regime and pain which continues to grow. The next possibility was another harsher chemo, but both the doctor and I felt I would not manage it well seeing I am barely managing things currently.
My tummy has not been doing well this week, but it is still "managing". I have almost no appetite. The tumor from my back is pressing on innervation to my gut which makes it hard pressed to move food through normally. There is strong suspicion that there is tumor in my gut which also doesn't help. Use of high doses of pain killers also adds to the picture...
At the moment I think we are in a bit of a holding pattern until the "next thing" arises. The pain has actually improved in the last 2 days, but unsure why. Without chemo to help with symptom control we do have other drugs to use or radiation should the need arise.
Thanks again for ongoing support.
No More Chemo
This techno- peasant has just realized that I can't reply directly to people who respond to my blog by sending a response privately back to their email because it is blocked. A heartfelt thanks to each response sent!
This week found us back at the oncologist on Tuesday; no more chemo is planned. It was an easy decision to stop the current regime which is clearly not working; without any further evidence required from other imaging. The evidence being numerous sub-cutaneous lesions and other tumors which have grown over time on this regime and pain which continues to grow. The next possibility was another harsher chemo, but both the doctor and I felt I would not manage it well seeing I am barely managing things currently.
My tummy has not been doing well this week, but it is still "managing". I have almost no appetite. The tumor from my back is pressing on innervation to my gut which makes it hard pressed to move food through normally. There is strong suspicion that there is tumor in my gut which also doesn't help. Use of high doses of pain killers also adds to the picture...
At the moment I think we are in a bit of a holding pattern until the "next thing" arises. The pain has actually improved in the last 2 days, but unsure why. Without chemo to help with symptom control we do have other drugs to use or radiation should the need arise.
Thanks again for ongoing support.
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Happy Holidays!!
2012-Dec-30
It would appear that this blogger has taken a serious holiday. Sorry for the silence and I certainly didn't mean to leave off with me still in hospital!! No wonder I keep hearing rumours that I am "in hospital".
So the rest of the story is I was discharged from hospital on November 16th. Basically the days have been up and down. Fairly quickly I was able to eat more solid food. Food has never been so good:) In order to do more chemo a scan needed to show marked improvement over the previous scan. A satisfactory CT scan was done Nov. 28th that showed the appendicitis had "calmed down" although the appendix was still not normal. To be sure antibiotics were continued for a couple more weeks. The second round of chemo was done Nov. 30. It appeared to be an easy round but a couple days after I had a sudden, severe pain flare. These happen occasionally and may or may not be related to the chemo.
Another round of chemo was completed Dec. 19 and was also uneventful at the time. However, by the weekend (Dec. 22nd) pain had increased drastically. Fortunately, I have been placed on the palliative home care list so was able to survive the weekend and then a nurse came by on Monday and she was able to get orders through the on-call palliative care doctor to double my pain medications. Seriously, my long-acting narcotics were doubled which means I was previously crazily under-dosed. I have done reasonably well since, but still have moments a couple times a day where my pain is not well-managed. I'm sure we'll address this next visit.
About the palliative home care team.... it is a team of nurses and docs who are available 24/7. They are extremely good at what they do, readily available and they do house calls:) I am really happy about being on their list in spite of the "palliative" implications.
We sure appreciate every thought and visit and card and phone call and prayer. Thanks again for all your on going support. Thanks to any who have posted replies to my blog. I thought all replies were going to my email only but some stay on the blog website. I only just figured out how to read all the relplys. Thanks to each one. For anyone wanting to reply to the blog rest assured that nothing will be posted unless I got permission first...
2012-Dec-30
It would appear that this blogger has taken a serious holiday. Sorry for the silence and I certainly didn't mean to leave off with me still in hospital!! No wonder I keep hearing rumours that I am "in hospital".
So the rest of the story is I was discharged from hospital on November 16th. Basically the days have been up and down. Fairly quickly I was able to eat more solid food. Food has never been so good:) In order to do more chemo a scan needed to show marked improvement over the previous scan. A satisfactory CT scan was done Nov. 28th that showed the appendicitis had "calmed down" although the appendix was still not normal. To be sure antibiotics were continued for a couple more weeks. The second round of chemo was done Nov. 30. It appeared to be an easy round but a couple days after I had a sudden, severe pain flare. These happen occasionally and may or may not be related to the chemo.
Another round of chemo was completed Dec. 19 and was also uneventful at the time. However, by the weekend (Dec. 22nd) pain had increased drastically. Fortunately, I have been placed on the palliative home care list so was able to survive the weekend and then a nurse came by on Monday and she was able to get orders through the on-call palliative care doctor to double my pain medications. Seriously, my long-acting narcotics were doubled which means I was previously crazily under-dosed. I have done reasonably well since, but still have moments a couple times a day where my pain is not well-managed. I'm sure we'll address this next visit.
About the palliative home care team.... it is a team of nurses and docs who are available 24/7. They are extremely good at what they do, readily available and they do house calls:) I am really happy about being on their list in spite of the "palliative" implications.
We sure appreciate every thought and visit and card and phone call and prayer. Thanks again for all your on going support. Thanks to any who have posted replies to my blog. I thought all replies were going to my email only but some stay on the blog website. I only just figured out how to read all the relplys. Thanks to each one. For anyone wanting to reply to the blog rest assured that nothing will be posted unless I got permission first...
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Tuesday,
Today finds Coreen feeling much better but still at the Foothills hospital. She is in Good spirits but still on IV antibiotics for her Appendix flare up. The great news is her bowel issues seem to be momentarily righting themselves. Today she's finally back on "full fluids" aka Booster Juice. She is hoping to get out tomorrow on a Day pass but a full discharge is still a few days away. Thanks again for all your help, thoughts and Prayers.
The family...
Today finds Coreen feeling much better but still at the Foothills hospital. She is in Good spirits but still on IV antibiotics for her Appendix flare up. The great news is her bowel issues seem to be momentarily righting themselves. Today she's finally back on "full fluids" aka Booster Juice. She is hoping to get out tomorrow on a Day pass but a full discharge is still a few days away. Thanks again for all your help, thoughts and Prayers.
The family...
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
Wednesday, Nov 7
Today finds me in my beautiful suite at the Foothills Medical Centre!! Yesterday Lori (Good) & I went to my usual oncology appointment….and here I am. I have two probably unrelated problems; a large bowel obstruction and a huge Appendix which may or may not have ruptured. For the first I have this great nose tube ( called NG or nasogastric) going from my nose to my gut and really no other extra treatment beyond what I was already doing. The good news is that the CT scan didn't find anything requiring surgery nor did it find a gut full of tumor. The NG tube is only marginally effective and usually more appropriate with small bowel obstructions, but my tummy has improved significantly since coming. For the Appendix I only have antibiotics…apparently there is a very narrow window in which surgical removal is indicated if the appendix has ruptured (and we don't know if mine has). Outside of that window removal will "make a mess" and worsen the situation rather than improve it.
There might be more aggressive approaches to treatment of the obstruction, but we have to be careful not to aggravate the already aggravated appendix.
I'm not joking about my suite… i am in bed 1 of a 3 bed room, but no one else is here. At first I thought surgery patients would be coming all night, but then I was told that my bed was permanent and the other two allocated to day surgery (8am-4pm). And today one got cancelled and one went straight home and here I am!!!
So although chemo was planned for tomorrow it won't happen now because of the Appendix.
The backdrop to this picture is that G'ma B is at home with the kids who handled the first night with me away very well (or Dad & G'ma handled it very well).
I have so many people to thank for so many things I don't know where to start. So for the moment; Thanks ; Again!
Sunday, 21 October 2012
Sunday, October 21-
We did it! Chemo successfully completed last Thursday... using two drugs methotrexate & mitoxantrone. No untoward reactions the day of nor after.... appetite may have even improved since another drug, called dexamethasone is given the first few days of chemo because its a powerful anti-nausea. I call it my mighty mouse drug because it makes me feel falsely well and able:) So here we are at Sunday and doing very well..... pain has increased this past week, but it is early yet to look for a decrease in symptoms due to chemo. May also be too early to completely call this a cake walk because the second week the damage to cells, normal and tumor, shows up. The second week brings the lowest blood counts and thus the greatest danger of infection. But who cares!!! We did it! Onwards and upwards.
Since I was unable for chemo the previous week I managed to get a lot done:) Thursday I went shopping, Friday I went to Grace and Raymond Cooper's wedding; ceremony & banquet and stayed late:) Saturday Paula Young and Dana Petersen visited (all the way from SK can u believe it?) then out for supper Sunday night. Sunday was two meetings and then Tyson and Lori Good had my birthday supper at their house. It was a wonderful birthday party at the end of a wonderful day.
I was feeling a bit like a fraud by the end of the week, but i was truly "too sick" for chemo on Tuesday. The difference might have been the antibiotic prescribed by the oncologist on Tuesday to decrease my bacterial load... by Wednesday my cough was mostly gone and the terrible dragged out feeling had vanished.
Chemo will be given every 21 days which means the next session is November 8th... assuming blood counts are adequate. After a few sessions effectiveness will be evaluated objectively with some sort of scans.
We did it! Chemo successfully completed last Thursday... using two drugs methotrexate & mitoxantrone. No untoward reactions the day of nor after.... appetite may have even improved since another drug, called dexamethasone is given the first few days of chemo because its a powerful anti-nausea. I call it my mighty mouse drug because it makes me feel falsely well and able:) So here we are at Sunday and doing very well..... pain has increased this past week, but it is early yet to look for a decrease in symptoms due to chemo. May also be too early to completely call this a cake walk because the second week the damage to cells, normal and tumor, shows up. The second week brings the lowest blood counts and thus the greatest danger of infection. But who cares!!! We did it! Onwards and upwards.
Since I was unable for chemo the previous week I managed to get a lot done:) Thursday I went shopping, Friday I went to Grace and Raymond Cooper's wedding; ceremony & banquet and stayed late:) Saturday Paula Young and Dana Petersen visited (all the way from SK can u believe it?) then out for supper Sunday night. Sunday was two meetings and then Tyson and Lori Good had my birthday supper at their house. It was a wonderful birthday party at the end of a wonderful day.
I was feeling a bit like a fraud by the end of the week, but i was truly "too sick" for chemo on Tuesday. The difference might have been the antibiotic prescribed by the oncologist on Tuesday to decrease my bacterial load... by Wednesday my cough was mostly gone and the terrible dragged out feeling had vanished.
Chemo will be given every 21 days which means the next session is November 8th... assuming blood counts are adequate. After a few sessions effectiveness will be evaluated objectively with some sort of scans.
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