Drama llamas...

So... The newest installment is that mom now has a blood clot on her forearm at the cite of where they administered chemo last Thurs. Her Onc. sent us home with an order to put heat on it for 20 min. then off for 20 min. in efforts to break it up. We go back there today for another injection of Nupagen (to build her white cell count) & he'll check it then.

In other news, Dad's doc thinks he might have kidney stones, so he'll go for an x-ray this week...

Hadi seems better. Not sure what her problems were/are... But I believe we're on the road to recovery...

I'm at the chiropractor in this groovy massage chair. Its a mini vacation from clots, stones and hurting pups...

Once again goes to show you that a day without drama is a day without the Lewis family...

what else...?

So... Both Dad and Hadi (my four legged daughter) were quite sluggish this weekend. Dad was in bed at 7 tonight but said, and I quote "I feel fine." As I pushed, as all daughters are expected to do, he finally caved that his kidney has really been bothering him - so much so, that he had scheduled an appt. with the dr. for tomorrow. But, and again I quote, "i feel fine." Men!

So I notice that Hadi had been sporting an "I DON'T feel fine" look & wouldn't lay still at bedtime. Well, come to find out, for one thing she hasn't eaten in several days. (she has one of those automatic food dispensers so please don't call the humane society telling them I'm neglecting her.)

I noticed that she wouldn't bend down to pick up a treat - which is HIGHLY unusual - and watched as it seemed she either couldn't see it or was suddenly afraid of it. Dad picked it up & handed it to her & she ate fine. Then I told her to get some water & she did the same thing. I took a handful of her food in my hand & she gobbled it like she was starving to death, but she would only take it from my hand. Not the bowl. Not the floor. And this is EXTREMELY unusual behavior.

Dad tossed a cookie at her and she almost caught it (almost ruling out that this is a vision problem) but then yelped and favored her front right leg when she landed. So maybe it hurts to stoop down to her food & water dishes? Ok. Now we're getting somewhere. Maybe. Dang. Why didn't I teach her to talk?

So the poor baby finally has her belly full & I gave her an aspirin covertly wrapped in a slick butter coating...

Tomorrow i'll hit my ol' pal, Dr. Jason Wheeler, (the Wonder Vet) for some of his knowledge - but for now... hopefully... prayerfully... we can sleep...

I'm on medication...

Ok, my neurosurgeon (the AMAZING Dr. Dusseau) put me on a pain medication called neurontin. It is not a narcotic which is good. It makes me sleepy, which is sometimes not-so-good. I have figured out that I have to take it 5 hours before bedtime. I also need to be near my bed at about the 5 hours & 15 minutes mark!

Around that mark tonight, I somehow managed to intangle some of my hair into my toothpaste cap. The best part (for you visual thinkers) was that I didn't realise it until I went to set the tube down...and it remained suspended... Floating through the air like a trapeeze.

Have you ANY idea how disturbing a levitating tube of Tom's Spearmint gel while under the influence of a sleep inducing med can be?

Nite

I'm a mess... (Psalm 40)

But all that are hunting for You -
oh, let them sing & be happy.
Let those who know what you're all about
tell the world You're great & not quitting.
And me? I'm a mess. I'm nothing & have nothing:
make something of me.
You can do it; You've got what it takes -
but God, don't put it off.

gotta love dem foreigners...

I have this thing where I think its HILARIOUS when foreigners mis-quote our euphemisms. I mean, I commend them for trying, but I think it is so funny! Today, we met Mom's Hospice Dr. For the first time. He is Croatian with a VERY heavy accent - so heavy that mom doesn't really understand him a lot of the time.

Earlier, he was having a serious conversation with mom about the advantages/disadvantages of chemo & radiation treatments and her quality of life. He said "it's between a hard & a rock place." I wanted to laugh SO badly - but instead, I just wrote it down.

Throughout the conversation, he kept saying, "We'll play by da ear." And then, speaking of his nurse, he told mom that "she keeps me on your toes."

I think I might be getting waaay too much of a kick out of this!!! But figured if I thought it was funny, you just might, too!

Great news all around...

Well... Took mom for her blood test this am & her levels are all back up to normal! Praise the Lord! that means she can have her chemo treatment on Thurs. as scheduled. Thanks for praying!

My buddy Tricia (double lung transplant recipient) will be released from the hospital tomorrow! This is starting out to be a GREAT week!

The Shack...

I'm reading an interesting book that I would highly recommend called The Shack by William P. Young.

I GUARANTEE you it will change the way you envision the Trinity... and the way you view life in general. Check it out then let me know your thoughts!

Blood, that quirky substance...

If you remember, mom was having trouble a few weeks ago keeping her red blood count up. Well, I'm happy to announce that, as of this morning, it is at 4.40! (normal range is between 4.20 & 5.40) So thanks to Procrit shots, iron supplements & PRAYER, she's doing much better on that scale.

We now have a new problem. As of this mornings blood work, her white blood count is 1.5 (normal range is between 4.20 &10.0) As you can see, this level is DANGEROUSLY low. They gave her a shot of Nupagen & will give her another one tomorrow in attempts to raise her WBC. This med is known to cause bone pain as it forces the bones to produce more white cells. Please pray that she will remain pain free!

This also means that mom is "quarantined" for the time being. She is at HIGH risk for infection right now, so a simple cold could be life threatening. Please also pray we can keep her healthy.

She was really shocked at the report because she feels so good. She did get a bit discouraged on the way out to the car, and said something like "why can't anything be easy?" I reminded her that she was walking out of that office & that there were several patients inside that required a wheelchair for any mobility whatsoever... Her response, "I truly have been blessed."

She's just tired. And I fully understand that...

Live from Lee Memorial...

Well, believe it or not, I'm sitting in the room with mom while she's having a bone scan... I got to watch her skeleton (front & back) appear on the magic screen. Now, I have no earthly idea what any of it meant, but it was still cool!

The tech said that at her first glance over everything, it looks good... No visable signs of cancer to speak of, but we will have to wait for the final results...

Keep on prayin', troop!

This phone is amazing!

Wow - so the test worked & I can now email my blog directly from my phone. Purty cool, huh?

So, here are the updates:

Mom starts radiation tomorrow at 2pm-ish, so please keep her in your prayers. This will be the first of 10 "ZAPS!" to the area on her right side near the waistline.

She will have chemo on Thurs. & then I think the doc will wait to see how she does before planning the next dose.

Dad & I met with the neurosurgeon this am to discuss surgical options for my Chiari Malformation. He is sending me for an MRI tomorrow - and said that he believes I would be a good surgical candidate. If I do opt for surgery, it will be quite a while down the road as I have other more pressing matters at hand with mom. It'll all work out in the wash!

While we were there, we also consulted him about Dad's potential surgery to widen his spinal column. We will get his primary to order a new MRI & get the results to the neurosurgeon to see if he should have the surgery now or not.

Too many doctors, not enough sleep! Hitting the bed early tonight... more to you soon...

Blessings-
a

p.s. Only bad thing about this is I don't have spell check - things *could* get interesting!!

Test blog...

Well, this is a only a test... I'm trying out a new setting that allows me to post to the blog directly from my cell phone... If it works, it will help me keep the site up todate...

Let's see how it goes....

P.S.

Make sure you check out the EXCITING things going on with Nate & Tricia at http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/

here we go again...

well, poor Weeze is about to go on another wild adventure... She will start chemo and radiation next week to treat the growing tumors in her body. Unfortunately, we found another one this week and are praying that radiation will get rid of it in 10 treatments.

This week we signed mom up with Hope Hospice. If you are like I was before this week, and unfamiliar with all of the services they provide, please click on the above link and do some nosing around. They will pay for ALL of mom's meds (related to the cancer) and provide amazing services like housekeeping (can I hear an AMEN!?!) and do her laundry and even go grocery shopping for her! They even have an art therapist that will come out & teach her some art techniques and such.

Dad had a TERRIBLE bout of the flu last weekend, but is feeling better now.

I go to the neurosurgeon on Monday to see if I might be a surgical candidate to help alleviate some of the headaches caused by the chiari malformation. I will do my best to keep you updated as we travel on...

Many blessings to you all...
Anita

we've entered the “so-difficult-it-is-borderline-hilarious” time...

So... when I last left you, we were anticipating the biopsy results. Well, unfortunately, it wasn't good news. The lymph node next to mom's thyroid was positive for cancer. The Oncologist wants to wait a month and run the scans again to give her a little more time to get the radiation out of her system before beginning chemo (as this could be toxic to her system).

A new thing is that her red blood count is exceptionally low and we don't know why. Hopefully today's trip back to the oncologist will provide some answers.

We go to the radiologist tomorrow to get the results of the brain MRI which will PRAYERFULLY state that the tumor is GONE!

As far as my situation, I woke up this morning with minimal hearing in my left ear. Scared me to death! I headed straight to the ENT and he informed me that it is not permanent and that it is caused by low pressure inside my Eustachian tube in the inner ear. Not great timing seeing as I am singing for all 938756 services we have this weekend for Easter! Please pray that this works itself out IMMEDIATELY (because there is NOTHING that can be done for it.) The headaches are still pounding and I have an appt with the most amazing neurosurgeon on the planet (John Dusseau) on April 7th to see if I'm a surgical candidate... we shall see...

Thanks for continuing on this journey with me...

Doctors Shmoctors...

ok - here's the latest on mom - she will have a biopsy of a mass on her thyroid on Monday (March 10th) - please join us in praying that this will be a benign tumor! She will have an MRI of her head a week from Monday to see how the tumor in her head responded to the radiation they administered.

She's currently having trouble with her blood sugar - please pray this gets resolved quickly as this could be a very serious problem...

But through it all - GOD IS GOOD!

Chiari malformation...

The good news: it’s not all in my head

The bad news: it IS in my neck area…

I have been struggling with headaches for about a year and finally decided to look into it a little more to see if anything could be done. I had a CT scan yesterday and already have the results. I have been diagnosed with a Chiari Malformation. I have included a brief description below… it explains a LOT!

First the technical description (as far as I know, I don’t have a cyst in the spinal cord – but it was the best pic I could find):

“Arnold-Chiari malformation is a rare malformation of the brain that is sometimes, but not always, apparent at birth. It is characterized by abnormalities in the area where the brain and spinal cord meet that cause part of the cerebellum to protrude through the bottom of the skull (foramen magnum) into the spinal canal. This interferes with the flow of cerebral spinal fluid to and from the brain, leading to accumulation of cerebral spinal fluid in the empty spaces of the spine and brain. The portion of the cerebellum that protrudes into the spinal canal can become elongated and is called the "cerebellar tonsils" because it resembles the tonsils.”

Now to help us ‘visual thinkers’:

“When you think of Chiari malformations, picture in your mind an orange with a cord through its middle sitting on top of a soda bottle. If you get hold of the cord and pull downward, this is in a simple way, what is happening to our brain. It is trying to make its way down through a very small opening so what we must do is to stop and reason carefully what we do and the affect it will have. Lifting heavy objects, squatting down, bending a lot, working overhead and using our upper body are some of the things that will cause a downward pull or a swelling of muscles in the neck and therefore cause increase in symptoms.”

I will be going to a neurologist in the near future for further study… Best case scenario is keeping my spine in alignment to keep it from pulling that cord mentioned above. Worst case scenario is surgery, but my doctor doesn’t think my case is severe enough for that (Thank the Lord!)

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...

Glamour what?

Mom enjoyed her birthday celebration and I, in attempting to give her a memorial day, actually broke one of my major rules "Thou shalt not look foolish in public." Yes, we spent THREE hours in Glamour Shots up at the mall... and... we had a blast! After several wardrobe changes and a layer of makeup so thick that it took a pressure washer to get it off, we were left with several great pictures. After doing some research to make sure that it doesn't compromise any of their copyright laws, I may post them on here...

We then went to listen to mom's favorite singer, Roseann, at a local establishment called Harborside. The people there have really adopted mom and had cards and a beautiful bouquet of flowers for her. She truly had a ball!

Again, thank you to all of you that sent her a note - she mentioned that she received more cards this year than ever!

Happy Birthday, Weeze!

Well, today is mom's 65th birthday! She is now officially able to get all of those nifty Senior discounts! Woohoo!

The best gift for mom's birthday was a trip to the radiologist's office this morning... The CT scan results showed NO OTHER TUMORS in mom's body! PRAISE THE LORD! They did find some scar tissue in her right lung, which they presume is from the radiation from last go-round. We are still waiting for the results from the PET scan, but the Dr. was VERY encouraged by the CT results!

Thanks to all of you that sent notes and messages to her for this special day - you are a blessing!

Here's a pic of her on her newfound love, motorized store carts...

PETs, CAT's and Posts, oh my!

ok - we have lived through the day from HADES!

Poor mom had to begin fasting last night at 10pm. Keep in mind that she is an insulin dependent diabetic... I picked her up this morning at 6:45 (!!!!!) to go have a PET scan and CT scan done of her entire body. They started the scan at almost 8:00 (scheduled for 7:15) and it is a 2 hour test. About an hour & a half into it the power went out. Apparently 100,000+ people were without power. This delayed things considerably, but I have to admit that the folks at Radiology Regional were awesome. At least at THAT office...

We then were supposed to go around the corner and have her CT scan done (in the same complex). Apparently, when the power went out, it severely damaged the CT machine and all tests were canceled for the day. So they sent us to another office, about 10 miles away & said that they were waiting for us... Of course, upon our arrival, they looked at us like we had 3 heads. Each.

The tech was a snippy ex-New Yorker (I refuse to go into a rampage about that!!) who neglected to check with the hospital (even though she told mom that she did) regarding mom's creatnine levels. Apparently th dyes that they inject for the CT scan is hard enough on the kidneys but especially hard when combined with metformin, which is a diabetes med that mom is taking. LOOOONG story short (I know, you're saying "it's too late for that") we got the levels from her doctor and the tests were able to be completed. (PRAISE THE LORD!)

Now we will wait for the test results. I hate waiting...

World Showcase Lagoon...

One of my most favorite parts about a trip to Disney is, by far, the fireworks at Epcot. If you have never seen them - I PROMISE it is worth the price of admission.

Every time that I have seen the show, I have to fight back tears. It is a beautiful display of fireworks and digitally mastered programming which includes a GIANT globe that spins and floats about the lagoon displaying images of people from all over the world. For me, it's not the spectacularness (is that a word?) of it as much as it is about the people. I know that if Pastor Betzer were to see this, we would HAVE to incorporate it into next years missions convention! (can you imagine!?!)

This time I have decided to let the tears flow if they come. Heck, i'm here alone - no one else needs to concern themself if I have a spiritual moment in this often unholy place...

I have a great seat, my Bratwurst (with saurkraut, of course) from Germany in one hand, a water from Dasani in the other and the show is about to start... I cannot wait!

(By the way, mom's sister, Janette took her to radiation today & mom said it went great! Keep on praying, Weeze's Warriors!)

LIVE from the Magic Kingdom!

I am currently at one of my absolute favorite places: Disney World!

I am once again reminded that our God is one of variety & diversity. How He must take such pride in His handiwork (even when we misbehave).

He obviously thrives on diversity... That is noticeable with EVERY person that walks by me. No two look alike (well, with the exceptional twin set) - very few sound alike - but most of all, it is incredible to think that ALL of us are created in His image. From your blonde haired, blue eyed All American folks, to the Muslim covered from head to toe... Amazing, huh?

ZAP!

Well, mom had her first radiation appointment yesterday - she calls it "getting ZAPPED." The best part is she doesn't feel anything... isn't technology amazing? I mean, you would expect it to burn or something - but she feels nothing! (Thank you, Lord!) They have made a mask for her that looks a lot like this:

Mom lays down and then they put the mask over her and bolt it to the table! (insert Frankenstein jokes here) She said it made her a *little* claustrophobic when they fitted her with it - it was warm and then they mold the facial features to her face.

I really appreciate all of the e-mails of encouragement and prayers you all have sent - I sat reading some of them to mom last night. She was deeply moved...

Well, treatment #2 is right around the corner. They expect her to have 20-25 treatments in all (daily, but only on weekdays). They said she might lose her hair... I think mom is convinced that she will, but maybe just so she won't be disappointed if it does happen...

thanks so much for being a part of "Team Berkley!" (Some of you may not know that Berkley is my mom's last name... just figured I'd put an end your sleepless nights)

Of whirlwinds and doctor's offices...

So... last Sunday mom calls me and says "I think this headache behind my left eye is getting worse."

It started between Christmas and New years and she had been "treating" it with aspirin and ibuprofen. I, as I sometimes stubbornly do, put my foot down. I called our friend Loetta, who works for mom's ophthalmologis... uh... opticia... eye doctor. She convinced me to call him, even though it was Sunday, so he would squeeze mom in the next day. (Thank you, Loetta!)

Monday - Long story short - we saw Dr. Gorovoy - he found nothing.

I had planned ahead and scheduled an appt later in the afternoon with mom's regular doctor. She scheduled a CT scan and bloodwork for the next day.

Tuesday - CT Scan and bloodwork

Wednesday - I received a call from mom's Dr. at about 9:00am - I knew that if they already had the results, it probably wasn't good news... She was obviously upset - and informed me they had found a mass about 1 inch in diameter in the periatal area of her brain. She said she just couldn't bring herself to call mom, so I told her I would go over and tell mom face to face (thought it was better that way, anyway)

Thursday - we met with mom's radiologist (Dr. Mantz) and his Nurse Practitioner (Beth Patrizzi) These folks were with us for all of mom's lung cancer treatments and were absolutely amazing! They were VERY positive and explained the treatments that mom will be receiving over the next 4-5 weeks (on a daily basis). They took measurements to fit her in a mask type thing that will get bolted to the table so she will be perfectly still while receiving the radiation. They will be treating her whole brain because they said that often if cancer has metastasized (a fancy word for SPREAD) at all, there were probably more spots on her brain that we could not see yet... better to be safe than sorry... They stated that about 6 months to a year down the road, we may see some effects from the radiation in regards to mom's memory, etc. PRAY THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN!

Friday - we went to see mom's oncologist (Dr. Teufel) and his Nurse Practitioner (Elizabeth Keifer). These folks have become like family and are genuinely concerned about mom. Dr. Teufel affectionately calls us "Team Berkley" when we come in... however, this time, he was not in a chatty mood. He told me several times how very sorry he was... He had hoped we would have more time between cancer treatments. (it is common for lung cancer to metastasize.) He has set us up for mom to have a full body PET scan and CT scan on Thursday of next week. His concern is that it may have spread to other parts of her body as well - but we are praying against that in Jesus' name!!!

Saturday - Mom finally got to rest! She has been worn out this entire week - but, praise the Lord, the steroids the doc's have put her on have helped her headache tremendously (the pain was caused by swelling around the tumor was pressing against her skull.) The down side is she now can't play professional baseball...

Sunday - mom came to church this morning and my dear friend Jeanie Turner prayed over her at the altar. We are praying for a complete healing so GOD gets ALL of the glory, Amen?

Wow - that gives you a "brief" rundown of our week... Mom starts radiation treatments tomorrow afternoon, so please set your alarm on your Casio digital watch & pray for her about 3:50.

Until next time....

Welcome to my world...

I have decided that blogging isn't just a fad that will soon evaporate - so I will make use of it to keep friends and loved ones updated on the "Transpirations" of our lives this year. I promise to do my best not to be droll or monotonous. I will use spell check. And will occasionally add pictures of Hadi, my faithful pup, in order to increase the "Awwww" factor.

Despite severe medical diagnoses, feasts or famine... I will report that the JOY of the Lord is my strength... Thanks for joining me on this journey. I promise I'll do all I can to make it worth the price of admission...

Just a small PSA - the easiest way to check for updates is to use Mozilla Firefox as your web browser (instead of Internet Explorer) You can download it for free at: <http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ - I have to say, I am a HUGE fan!), it is the easiest way to check this blog for updates. You can set it to display an RSS feed at the top of your browser, simply click that button & look for new entries at the top of the column. Sounds more difficult than it really is - let me know if you need any assistance!