Mom just completed her 10th chemotherapy treatment. Even though these drugs are helping shrink her tumors, they are not fun. The treatment's side effects do have a cumalitive effect so Wednesday & Thursday's following her Monday treatment are the bad days -- she doesn't have much energy and the nerve ending damage seems to be getting worse in her feet. She says it feels like she is walking on sandpaper. She has figured out a few tricks to get some relief from tingling in her feet - if she keeps them warm to move the circulation in her feet moving it does help. They have lessened the dose of Oxaplantin drug, causes the numbness & tingling in hands & feet and also had effected her blood platelet count so that was the why they lessened the dose, but this last time it held so that was good news. Her white blood cell count seems to be managed with a shot to help produce more so that has helped too. She still has hard time sleeping because of the steriods that she gets in addition to the treatment.
Only 2 more treatments and then the CT scan will hopefully show the results that it was all worth it. The doctors are assuming this treatment will have near the same results as her last scan. The treatment is killing the cancer cells & shrinking the tumors so that is what we all hoped and prayed for -- now it's just managing the side effects.
The kids & I have spent most of the summer in Nebraska hanging out w/ Mom and Tim & other friends & family. The kids have really enjoyed being at grandma's & pa's house and so have I. I can't believe we are going back home in less than a week. We are going to do a few things before we go - we are going to head to Omaha next week to take the kids to the Omaha Zoo so we are looking forward to that.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
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