Pains

On Tuesday the 17th...
(which also happens to be my wedding anniversary)
Mom was having pains in her shoulder and side.
She laid down and had trouble breathing.
By this time Garrett and I were in Seattle celebrating
and had no idea what Mom was going through.
My dad checked in with her.
After calling the nurses and checking with the doctors,
they told her to go to the emergency room.
My dad drove her.
Everything turned out to be alright.
No blood clots, infection or anything they were worried about.
The doctor there said it is probably just
pains from a dying tumor.

When we got home from Seattle,
Jason updated us on where our parents were and
how Mom had been feeling all day.
They did not come home until around 1:00am.
This, to me, was a little taste of what it will be like
to be living far away.
I won't know right away how Mom is,
I won't be able to help her.
I will feel helpless.
How awful.
Even though everything turned out to be more than ok,
I couldn't help but think about "what ifs" and "whens."
Like, what if Mom needs help when I'm in Charlotte.

I'm so glad it was pains from a dying tumor.
and not a new one.

More Than Half Way

This is at Mom's first chemo treatment after her half way mark.

View from the waiting room.

View down from the waiting room.

Walking, outside of SCCA

Dad and I went with her this time and this was our view from her room. 

Everything went well that day.

She had another blood draw yesterday,

(like she does every Friday before a chemo treatment)

and is going in on Monday for another treatment.

Only a few more treatments left.

Results

We just finished meeting with the doctor here at SCCA. He went over the results of the CT scan. We have two months of chemo down and two more to go. Her tumors have shrunk an average of about a third of the size, or less, of the original. The large tumors in her liver have only lost only about 2-4mm, which is not nearly as significant as we had hoped. They are still fairly large, but they are at least responding! The doctor was pleased with the results. He also said surgery is not likely after the treatments. It would not help because of how wide spread the cancer is. After two more months of chemo she will switch to a pill form that is more a targeted therapy than a chemotherapy, that will cut off the blood supply to all of the tumors. The pill would still help shrink the tumors. It's looking like the tumors will never completely dissapear, but there is always hope! It is good news that the cancer is responding to the treatments. Just because the tumors did not shrink in half does not mean there isn't hope for there to be more progress. Only time will tell and we pray continually we will pull through this.
Her cancer counters went from 16,000 to 3,600.
We are currently in the waiting room for her next chemotherapy....

Time for a CT Scan

Mom's sister came to visit for a week!

Her trip was pushed back because of the surprise trip to Hawaii.

She was really helpful around here.

She even made us goodies like cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls!

I am still kicking myself for not getting a picture of the two of them together.

Here's an update on Mom's health....

For the past week she has been feeling sick.

She caught pink eye.

She has had a sore throat that is so painful its hard to eat and even drink,

and her temperature has been climbing, nearing the ER visit number, the dreaded 101
She has also been coughing more lately.

A little hair has been falling out, but just thinning. No bald spots or big chunks or anything like that. Just thinning. It started while she was in Hawaii.

She went to the doctors yesterday and they gave her 2 prescriptions. Only one has been helpful with the pain. They didn't know for sure at first what was going on. A good friend of ours also had a mom go through chemo and thought it may be Thrush. Mom's tongue is also really white/grey. She doesn't have any sores in her mouth, which is what the doctors keep asking her. Her pain is really deep in her throat. Today the doctors confirmed she has a sinus infection.

She is just feeling yucky, which is not fun to watch. She had been feeling good for a while so the thought of cancer was practically out of my mind. Until now.

Today I took her in for a blood draw and the big,

long awaited CT scan.

The blood draw was through her port so I had to wear a mask when they poked her. It was soon over and then afterwards she had to drink a bottle of liquid that preps her for the scan over the span of an hour. We sat by the window in the waiting room enjoying the view of the water. (I just love Seattle!) We laughed and talked and hooray-ed at each milestone of the drink being gone with increments of time. There was a man that sat across from us and as he sat he said, "Wanna trade?!" He had TWO bottles of what looked like lemonade, but he went on to talk about how nasty the stuff was. My mom's was similar to tap water. Just goes to show you there is always someone worse off.
They called her in for the CT scan, which was about 3 minutes. Then I could sit with her for the 20 minutes they kept an eye on her in case of any reactions to the liquid she may have. They gave her a treat and a warm blanket. I was cold too so...

No reactions 20 minutes later and we were free to go!

(We won't have the results until Monday)

We stayed and ate lunch at their cafeteria since we were both starved.

YUM!

She fell right asleep when we got home.

I'm so happy I spent the day with her. Just the two of us.

She makes me laugh,

what will I do when we move 3,000 miles away??

Hopefully she gets plenty of rest and feels better soon

so we don't have to go to the ER Easter weekend

and so she can get chemo on Monday.

Lots of prayers!

*After calling the nurse since her temp has gone up near 102,

because of the sinus infection awareness they said we are ok to take care of her at home.

Hopefully things look up and don't get worse.