Round 2

Hey everyone,

Sorry it has been quite a while since I've posted. Things around here have been boring for the most part. This really means it has been uneventful which is good.

Last we left off it was finals week of Fall 2010, mid December and my mom was still hospitalized. She was let out after 6 days of test and examinations that concluded to "fever from an unknown source". She continued on with treatment through the month of January, everyday radiation and Monday 4 hours of chemotherapy with the drug Cisplatin. Dr. Borst ended chemo a little bit early because her blood work was not showing enough platelets in her blood to continue and in early February she finished her last radiation treatment. Since then things have been mostly slow. During that time Ashley got her drivers licence, I bought my very first car (truck) all on my own, my Dad was in this super cool contest for being awesome at work, and we found out the results from my moms pet scan.

After waiting for what felt like forever we found out that the first round of chemo and radiation killed every cancer cell in her cervix so far. She defeated Stage 3B II Cervical cancer with the help of family and friends, and the awesome team over at Arizona Oncology.

If only life were that easy. The doctors did find that her liver was affected by the cancer and was more active than it was when they took her first PET scan. So she will be back for Round 2. She will go back to a Chemotherapy regiment for about 3 months could be less, could be more. If they can control the cells they way they hope, there are three options after that; treating the liver with ultra violet rays, treating the liver with contained radiation, or going in for surgery to slice that part of her liver out.

Needless to say chemo sucks. But my mom is ready to take 3 months for hopefully another 30-40 years. She is much more confident this time around. She knows what to expect and what she needs to do to maintain balance, peace, and strength to go through Round 2 and come out healthy, alive and free of cancer. The same goes for us, as we go back through this process. Daddy, Ashley and I will stay as positive and encouraging as possible. As crazy and hard life can get I truly believe that we make the choice to be happy. We control out attitudes and happiness. Which is exactly what I will do to ensure this is smoother and calmer than the first time around. It is an extremely emotional and frightening thing to go through as the patient and the loved one of a patient.

I choose to be strong and faithful. I choose to make sure that life goes on for everyone in my family.  I choose to stay happy even though things in life can try to bring you down. I cannot express how much I think this is real and true. I think everyone has to make that choice for themselves to take the control over life back.

So again as we go on with this journey your words of encouragement and prayers are always appreciated and we thank God and everything else in this universe for amazing people in our lives. Even if there isn't enough time in the day to spend time with you all as much as we would love. We love you and I promise I won't be gone that long again.

Love,

Cara <3

PS. Here is a picture for every month I've been gone to show yah whats been happening :]

November 2010

Ash and I at Carrie Underwood Concert

December 2010

My birthday and Christmas

 Ren's first Christmas with us/First stocking and gingerbread house

 Never fails every Christmas

Visit from Auntie Luz and Uncle Doug

January

New Years Chris getting rocked at Guitar Hero

Supercross with Ryan

Snowboard Trip 2011 (Thank you again Deb and Dean<3)

Can you tell he's beat? You can see the snow in the background.

February 2011

Ashley's first time driving without Mom, Dad or me

and I bought my first truck! (You'll see that in March)

March 2011

Dunes for Buddy and I (this is my new truck)

 Funny story about this picture, you'll have to ask Buddy.

Visit from Papa!

April 2011

Ashley's Prom

So that's life up until now. I'll definitely keep you posted <3

Just a Bump in the Road

Actually its like a big huge ugly pot hole in the road, but thats ok. We're in the process of speeding around it. Saturday morning Momma woke up with severe pain in her side and a fever of 100.8. I called her Dr. and he said to montior her very closely, take some Tylonel and if it went over 101 get her to the hospital. It stayed that way until about Sunday night before Chemo. So we opted to wait a couple hours and get to Chemo to see what they thought. They examined her pelvis area and found severe swelling in her stomach and well as unususal heat. Her fever also jumped to 102.5. She was hopitalized yesterday at Banner Good Samartain straight from Chemo. (Which they didn't give her by the way, she just wasn't strong enough) She is in the hospital which means she didn't go to radiation either and won't until she feels better. Which the doctors say isn't good.

So far she has had a CT scan and LOTS of test. The CT scan did pull up something up on her left side, which before wasn't as present before :[. Her Dr thinks it might be an abscess or inflammation but nothing will be sure until we know if it's malignant or not. They also found she is extremely anemic. (We thought this was taken care of before Chemo) Normal hemoglobin is at around 12, they said, and she is at a 6. So she is getting a blood transfusion in a couple minutes.

I actually just got off the phone with one of her Dr's mid writing this post. Her temp went through the roof again. So they are evaluating her more as we speak. Lets just say I CAN'T WAIT TO GET OFF WORK.

Ashley is also sick. :[ Sinus infection, Ear Infection and Strep. I'm downing Vit C and keeping my distance LOL Guess she was partying too hard up there at Church Camp this last weekend :-P

Oh and I can't imagine anyone feels as HAPPY as I am that this next week is Finals Weeks. That means its done. This has been a long semester.

Love you guys<3 I'll keep you updated

Oh PS BGS has pretty damn comfy reclining chairs for the visitors. I brought a blanket and slept like a baby.

Here We Go.

Our battle started yesterday. Mommy had her first round of radiation on Sunday, due to the holiday. They wanted to make sure she got a full round of treatment in. On the way back, she was nauseous a little bit. We think it actually might be from food poisoning, regardless we got her anti-nausea medication out and she felt good enough to stop 

So here we are at Chemo for the first time. We've been here about two hours and things have gone pretty well. We've already met some amazing people. This is the time for Chemo and her support group. They've written us a list of great recipes for hydration. They've given her some great tips on how to just live life. They haven't sugar coated anything and it's actually pretty relieving. To know what comes ahead from someone who's actually gone through this is so comforting, as crazy as that sounds. These great ladies have said chemo sucks, but they look forward to being here on Chemo day for support. I'm glad my mother is going to be around these people. So far she's feeling normal, no symptoms yet. We just have to be positive and proactive. We are all ready. Send us your positive vibes, we love you!

Thankful

Hey there,

Sorry I'm a little behind on the news update. So I'll fill yah in since Thursday's PET scan news. So we found out Thursday that Mommy's kidney function was low due to the cancer and in order to go through Chemo you have to have properly working kidneys. So they told us she would need to go through a nephrostomy procedure. In which they enter a tube into the kidney with a bag attached to it. This acts as the ureter and bladder for proper kidney function.

This woman has pretty good picture to show you what it looks like;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65844741@N00/308219677

After the inflammation goes down she can get a stent put in permanently and no more bag.

So since it was considered an emergency, she was scheduled for surgery right away.
So Friday, November 12th, Mommy was back to Banner Good Sams for her procedure. The Dr. told us that if the imflammation and blockage went down during the procedure he could skip the horrid tube out of her side and irritating bag that goes along with it and just place the stent in her kidney. (Really its not all that bad its just kind of annoying) But anyways he said that, it didn't happen very often and he's only seen it a couple times, but it was possible. So once she was all hooked up with sleepy drugs and antibiotics, she was off to the IR and I was off to Lulu's Cafe. (If you're every there, which I PRAY you aren't, but IF you are try Lulu's sandwich its DELISH!) And 1 1/2 hrs later I was picked up at the waiting room, Mommy was MUCH more knocked out that expected, pretty much OUT, snoring might I add LOL. So I kind of was nervous thinking something went wrong. I WAS WRONG!

The inflammation DID go down and the blockage was FREED. So they were able to put the stent in! It was so comforting and relieving to hear, she was part of the percentage where things go right, when they don't expect it. I pray that continures.

She's doing great! The actual site is not big at all and shes back to work. She's a trooper.

We are also in the process of moving Ashley into bigger room, total remodel. And turning her old room into an office. And making Mommy's room a relaxing comfortable oasis. I'll post picture soon!

Love you guys<3

PET Scan Results

Hey everyone!

So November 8th was PET scan day. First we went in and had a consultation with her Radiation Therapist, Dr. Jerry Lucas, of Arizona Oncology. He let us know what kind of radiation she would be using. She will be receiving internal and external radiation. They also let us know some side effects that may come about now and further down the road. The internal is kinda freaky so I won't go into details, you can e-mail me if you feel comfortable with it. :] But they were kind enough to set up an appointment with us the next day for external radiation mapping. They put all these little crosses and stickers all over her lower abdomen so they knew exactly where to point those radiation beams.

After that, she was prepped for her scan. We were supposed to get separated because they were going to inject her with some radioactive material!! Crazy huh? The syringe they had to use was inside this steel cylinder! But I decided to stick around just for a little bit. After a while of joking around about how she would probably glow in the dark, the Dr. said, "Let me show you something." He pulled out this radar gun thing that shows radioactivity. Where I was standing, it showed a 0.25 (its supposed to be at zero) but when he moved the gun towards Momma it was at like a 2.00. I thought maybe I should go sit in the lobby, LOL. I decided to call my Grandma, Grandma's always know what to say to make you feel better. So while I was talking to my Grandma, Mommy was taken to the back where she was wrapped up nice and snug in a warm blanket, with her arms up, and put through a big tube for the scan.

Today November 11, 2010 we were called for the results of her scan. Unfortunately, they were not the results we were hoping for. The cancer has spread to her liver, lymph nodes, and is affecting her kidneys, and of course in her uterus and cervix. It has also come slightly down into the vaginal walls. So from my understanding (I didn't get to talk to the Dr myself) in order to do Chemo, she has to have properly working kidneys. The tumor is blocking the "drain tubes" from her kidneys to her bladder, making it hard for proper kidney function. They are going to have to put a tube in her kidney, attached to a bag, that will help her through out Chemo, once the tumor has gotten a little bit smaller she will have to have an operation, where they will put a stent in her kidney for proper kidney function and she won't have the tube or bag anymore. Radiation and chemo should take care of the cervix, uterus, and lymph nodes. But her liver is considered treatable but not curable. She will have to go in for Chemo once a year probably for the rest of her life. I don't really know what else to say or do...but pray. That's all I know for now I'll update as soon as I can. Love you all.

The First Post.

Hey loved ones,
How are yah? To be honest I'm a little embarrassed, making a blog. But here it is. My inspiration really was The Abram Family blog. Christopher went to his Aunt Linda and Uncle John's blog to check on his progress almost everyday and it really helped him. I thought we have so many people in our lives that care about us but as you know with upcoming events time will be limited. I wanted everyone to be able to come to place where they can find out whats happening here in AZ and how Momma's progress to a healthy-cancer free life is going.  I'll probably be posting when I'm with Momma at Chemotherapy, her doctor's office has WI-FI! (Score) Which means I'll post on Monday or Tuesday (not quite sure yet). (If this font is too light or small just let me know I'll make it bigger and darker!)

So here's what's happened so far!
On October 25th, 2010 my mom was diagnosed with Stage IIIB Cervical Cancer.
This link can give you some more information on the staging. This website also has more info on cervical cancer. This is best one that has been most recently modified, that I could find.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/cervical/Patient/page2

Her doctor, Dr. Matthew Borst of Arizona Oncology, set her treatment plan;
5 days of Radiation Therapy and 1 day of Chemotherapy with the drug Cisplatin.
Radiation takes about 30-45 minutes a day and chemotherapy with take about 3 1/2 or 4 hours a day.

He told her she would need a port-catheter placement in her chest to make Chemo easier for her.

On Wednesday, Novemeber, 3 2010 she had her port-catheter placement procedure.
This is a picture that shows you where this is. I'll post a picture of hers as it heals.

Her procedure went great. She has about a 1 1/2 incision on the left side of her chest. Its was bonded with dermabond, its like super glue for your skin. It will come out on its own. She's still a little bit sore. But she did great considering, shes never had anything like this done in her whole life, and she was kinda freaking out about it. She was a little bit lopey when she got out. When I told her she was in there for an hour and half she was SHOCKED to say the least LOL.

Next up is her first appointment with her radiologist on November 8th. On this appointment she will be getting a PET scan to make sure the cancer hasn't spread. She will also find out her Chemo start date and what type of radiation therapy they will be using.

That's pretty much our progress right now.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone and let all of you know that we really appreciate you. Your calls and prayers and words of encouragement have been really helpful during this time. We love you all.