1 doctor down, 1 to go...

Well, we had a great visit with mom's oncologist today & received the results of her most recent CT scan. I am thrilled to announce that he really feels like mom is doing well right now!

He wants us to go have a biopsy on her thyroid to see what exactly it is that has latched on, but that there is a good chance that it is just a benign (having little or no detrimental effect; harmless) goiter. (In case you haven't noticed, if there is a line under a word, it is because if you click on it, it will take you to another page. Go ahead... you know you want to try it...) If the biopsy comes back positive for cancer, they are able to remove the thyroid and mom can function by taking meds. Often they don't even have to use chemo or radiation because thyroid cancer is often encapsulated and can be completely removed with surgery.

Now, he did not say that she is cancer free, nor that there might not be trouble in the future - just that, at this moment, the "hot spots" that showed up on the PET scan a few weeks ago, are not significant enough to warrant treatment. We will be testing her more often and watching for any symptoms of trouble, but, for right now, she will not be subjected to chemo or radiation for those spots.

Tomorrow we will go to the radiologist and he will most likely schedule an MRI of her head to check the tumor in her brain. At this point, they are hoping that it has been eradicated, however, they *might* need to do a "boost" treatment. This is called a stereotactic radiosurgery. (there's that crafty link thing again!) I will try to get an entry up tomorrow and let you know what they tell us.

Mom's hemoglobin level was low today, so they have her an injection of Procrit. Procrit is a man-made form of a protein that helps your body produce red blood cells. This sometimes causes pain in the hips and leg areas because it induces the body to produce more red blood cells. Please pray that her pain is minimal and that it has the desired effect.

Thanks for keeping up with Team Berkley!

stroke scare...

Well, she keeps me on my toes, that's for sure...

Mom has been exhibiting some strange, stroke-like, symptoms lately that caused us a little alarm. Thanks to Beth, our amazing Nurse Practitioner for mom's radiologist, we got in and had a ct scan yesterday to rule out a stroke... and they found no evidence of one! Praise the Lord!

We still aren't sure why she's exhibiting these symptoms, so please keep praying that we find it!

She goes for a chest, face and neck ct scan Wednesday to see what is going on with the places that lit up on the PET scan a few weeks ago. We will get the results next week, so I'll be sure to post them on here then.

Thank you to those of you that check this regularly - I'll try to get better about posting info!

Many blessings to you & yours...
Anita

wilted flowers and potato soup...

When I arrived to pick mom up for her treatment yesterday afternoon, she resembled the poinsettia's from Christmas that are still attempting to thrive at my house. She had been throwing up all day and just not feeling well. We met with Beth, the radiologist's Nurse Practitioner (whom we adore) and she threatened to have mom taken to the ER to receive vital IV fluids as she was severely dehydrated. Knowing how much mom HATES needles and would even more hates the waste of both money and time that the ER can be, I promised Beth I would do my best to get her hydrated in the next 24 hours and call her with the results.

The worst problem with being sick, is having to take a LOT of medication. This caused a cyclical problem with mom as she had to eat something to take her medicine, so she would force herself to eat something (toast or maybe some clear soup). However, this wasn't enough to coat her stomach, so she would throw up again and not feel well enough to eat something when it was time to take the next round of medication.... see what I mean by cyclical?

So, Beth has placed her on compazine (an anti-medic) and, with the approval of mom's primary physician, has taken her off of a few meds to try to keep her tummy happy enough to sustain her.

Mom was hankerin' (now THERE'S a good ol' Southern word for ya!) for some potato soup, so I decided to try my hand at making it from scratch. Everyone was pleased, however I think I used ever dish in my kitchen to make it.

Talked to mom this morning and she even SOUNDS like a new person! I will be glad to call and report that to Beth! Thank the Lord for Pedialyte (even though it tastes TERRIBLE! Mom has to put 1 part Pedialyte to about 5 parts water to be able to tolerate its sickeningly sweet taste. I guess they have to do that so kids will drink it. Good grief, it keeps them from getting dehydrated but rots their teeth!

Anyway, off to clean up my kitchen... Please keep praying for mom - she's a trooper, but still needs all the help she can get!!

Too many doctors...

Unfortunately, mom got not-so-good news from the Dr. yesterday.

It seems that the cancer has spread and is now in the left side of her thyroid, her neck, the lining of her left lung and possibly a spot on her face. The doctor was hopeful yet somber. She has 6 more radiation treatments and then a break. (they cannot do radiation on her head and chemo on her body at the same time because it would be too toxic and probably kill her)

We will go back to the Oncologist on Feb 28 and they will reschedule the scans to check on progress and see where we go from there… She is currently fighting a cold, so pray that gets better because it is REALLY dragging her down…

Thank you for your prayers - more to come later, but I wanted to get the news out...