2 More Treatments ... until next scan

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.

Relay for Life

We attended Relay for Life in Columbus last night...what a great event and so much money raised to help in the fight against cancer. It was a fun and very inspiring and emotional night. So many that are fighting and so many more there to support and provide hope and raise funds to find a cure for this disease. Thank you to so many of you that supported the event & donated to provide a luminary for Sharon. There were so many there & showed Mom again how many people are supporting her through this.

She has been doing really great these last 2 weeks, she decided to take a "break" from the treatments after much reassurance from her doctor that is would not stop the progress. It was 'only 1 week' he said, don't worry & enjoy it. She did have a 1 drug on her normal chemo-day, but the rest that make her sick they didn't give her. She had lots of fun too during that time - we had a Summer party, went to the pool, shopping & to visit Tara in Lincoln. The kids & I have been back to Nebraska for almost 2 weeks and are going to spend a good portion of the summer here...helping & spending time w/ Mom. It seemed like a great plan and is working out fine.

A few more details...

As mentioned in my last post, we were waiting for a more detailed discussion with Mom's oncologist at her regular Monday appointment. He discussed the results in more detail and discussed the next steps to her treatment plan. She will continue for another 6 cycles (12 weeks) on the current chemotherapy mix with some adjustments to the dosage. And also discussed a few of the future treatment plans again based on her effects of the current drugs, etc. He confirmed that number of tumors has reduced and some of the larger tumors have shrunk. He read us the size reduction of the largest tumor on her liver shrunk from approx. 3.5cm x 4cm to 1.5cm x 2cm so it shrunk more than 50%. I think he actually used the words 'fabulous report' which is great.

The side effects are maintaining which is also better than expected as a few of the side effects could be cumulative and gradually get worse. Mom indicated a few side effects to the doctor that neither Tim or I had heard about before so we know she is being 'tough' and masking some of what is going on, but she still indicates that everything is fine & she really can't complain as she knows it could be much worse. The most sensitive side effect you could tell in the doctors voice is her blood platelet levels & her white blood cell count, but they are adjusting the drug dosage to manage through that as mentioned above. Plus, she gets shots to help boost white blood cell production, etc.

From Tyler Sueper...I Believe

"I Believe" Essay Assignment for English Composition Class

The Power of Friends and Family. By, Tyler Sueper

A couple of months ago my mom was diagnosed with cancer. With this disease comes a change in people’s lives. Some changes for the better and some for the worse. With friends and family to comfort my mom in her time of need, even if it was a smile that’s on her face when people come to see her, this gives me hope that my mom will win this fight against cancer. I believe the support of friends and family is the cure for cancer.

Cancer can adjusts a person’s life, even if just the thought of having this disease over their head the whole time. It also can change a person’s lifestyle and their routine. With my mom, her routine changes every week having to go to chemotherapy every other week. The chemo has different side effects on my mom’s body that makes her tired after her treatment and she is also extremely sensitive to cold food, drinks, and weather.

With the hard times come easier and better times. Since the time are family found out the bad news, friends and other family members are the ones that makes it easier, which lightens up the mood of our family. Having friends that care about you and you can always count on helps a great deal to those that are sick. Spending more time with family makes them come together and spend the time they do have with one another.

Without friends and family in anyone’s life would get lonely and boring pretty quickly. For are family, we are fortunate to have a family like we have and friends that are supportive during this time in our family’s life. Getting cards when we first learned of this disease and that continues still months after just shows how my family’s friends and family care by keeping her in their minds.

I believe that the best treatment for cancer is not the chemo, but by being around friends and family. With these changes that are going though our family it’s nice to have the friends that we do. The time that you spend with our family doesn’t go unnoticed, with that I along with my family want say thank you.

Chemo-therapy is WORKING!

Some good news! YAY! The CT scan showed good results...actually great results. The scan showed a reduction in the number of tumors on her liver and some of the larger tumors are smaller. These results are better than expected. We are so thankful. Mom is overwhelmed and waiting to be too happy until Monday when she sees the oncologist (her family doctor discussed the results on Friday so she just wants to be sure) and will get to discuss how they describe the progress so far based on the results of her scan.

Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement to Mom. She goes on Monday to continue the treatments she has been getting and will likely continue for another 6-8 more cycles (so 12 more weeks). She will know more on Monday after her appointment.

Please pray for God's healing and for the side effects of the chemo to not progress to anything new. Mom's body really has 'taken' to the treatments well, and we want this treatment to continue the way it has for as long as possible.

Checking Progress in 2 weeks

Mom went to her last chemo-day today before they check the progress of the treatment so far. In about 2 weeks (May 28 or 29th), she will have a CT scan to check the effectiveness of the chemo-treatments so far. We are hoping for "no-change" or anything better than that for the results...even a small growth would be "good" results at this stage of the treatment plan. Please keep Mom in your prayers as you go through these next weeks.

Mom is still doing great. Keeping her spirits up and been such a good sport in getting through those side effects. Sometimes we wish she would take it easy to keep her strength for the fun stuff, but she has been "caught" pulling weeds in the garden the day after chemo, painting Tyler's bedroom, and who knows what else. You all know Sharon, she can't just do-nothing.

I will be sure to post an update as soon as we get the results of the scan. Check back at the end of next week.

Almost 3 months of treatment complete

Okay, so I said I would update every week and now it has been a month since my last post. In some ways, I think that is good as things have been going pretty good so not a lot to update. Mom is doing pretty good all in all - has her "good" week and her "bad" week. Mom & Tim even made a long weekend trip to visit us in Chicago at the beginning of May. It was awesome that they could visit - lots of quality time w/ the grandkids and Mom & I even made it out for "girls night" w/ some of my neighbors.

She is still going to treatment every other Monday and almost to 3 months complete (started treatment on Mar. 9th). After her next treatment, she will likely be getting her "scan" to see how the treatment is working. They did check her "tumor markers" from her blood work about 3 weeks ago, the results were inconclusive. Although one of the checks improved slightly; another marker stayed the same or was slightly lower. I know Mom is ready to see how this treatment is going and we are all praying for the best results.

I'm sure many of you were thinking of Sharon on Mother's Day. We were sure to make last weekend special for Mom and organized for her to get 4 gifts for 4 days - one from each of us kids. She had a good weekend spent w/ family - Travis & Tara both made it back & Tyler was there to spend a great Mom's day w/ her.