TKO in the 12th Round August 5th

Bonnie had her last chemo on the 5th. I was not able to get there until she was done to pick her up. I was busy at work. I have been trying to get her to write something but she wont. Hopefully she will give me some info to include before too long. I will say this, she is glad it is over and is still real tired and miserable. We will be going to Lake Mead and Vegas at the end of the month (go Aggies). She will start radiation on September 8th and will go everyday for 6 weeks. That will be fun to get her there everyday. Hopefully people will help take her for the hour trip.

Round Number 11, July 22, 2008

Well we are sitting waiting for the Physician’s Assistant to see us before treatment #11. Sometimes they are too far behind. Bonnie has had a miserable 2 weeks since her last treatment. The Oxaliplatin and the Neulasta took a good toll on her health and strength and she was tired more than usual and it lasted all 2 weeks. Plus she had other not so fun side affects that were fun to deal with, you can imagine.

The PA said that the chemo cures the cancer in the lymph system 60-70 percent of the time when the patient is at stage 3 like Bonnie is. The Surgeon had said he thought she was stage 4 but that means that the cancer is in other organs and Bonnie did not have that, so she really is a stage 3. Stage 3 means that it has gotten outside of wherever it has started growing and into the lymph nodes. We have debated this issue for a while now. So we thought this was good news today.

They connected to her port and ran the blood tests and her white cell counts were the highest they have ever been, by far. That Neulasta works very good except for making her tired and pukie faced. She would have bet her cell counts were low as drained as she felt.

So she is laying here sleeping and I’m trying to do some work remotely. I guess she will be really taking it easy the next month until she can get her last treatment and get recovered from it all before they start radiation a month or so after that. The PA did say that with her localized cancer being in her pelvic area that it would be a benefit to do targeted radiation to that area to help improve her odds more. I think we will try to get the radiation treatments done a little closer to home, probably at LDS Hospital, about 15 minutes closer. Some people say the radiation is harder than the chemo and others say just the opposite, so it all depends on the affects individually. But, nobody likes having to go every day for 6 weeks. We will see, I guess.

Thanks for your visits and calls and notes and cards and love and prayers. We can always use more prayers. Bonnie is very appreciative of all your caring and concern.

Round 9 and 10

Well today is July 8, and we are at the cancer center getting treatment #10. What happened to #9? It came 2 weeks ago but I didn’t post anything on it. For her 7, 8, and 9 treatments she didn’t receive the Oxalaplatin, so her recovery and overall feeling of well being has been a lot better than previously. She was more active and was able to do some cleaning and cooking and enjoyed life a little better.

But today she is getting the Ox again since she has most of the feeling back in her fingers. But they reduced the dose from 140 mg to 70 mg, so hopefully she won’t be as sick as she had been before. That drug helps the other drugs be more affective against the cancer, so it is good to have. When she gets her 48 hour pump off in 2 days they will give her a shot of Nulasta(?) so that her white blood cell counts can recover sooner. Hopefully she can keep getting that Ox again for her last 2 treatments so that it knocks out any and all of that cancer. Her cell count today was 1.7 which was a little low. We were surprised because she felt so good. That is another reason to give her the nulasta to help her white cell count.

She started feeling woozy during her treatment today instead of after. That hasn’t happened before. She is feeling more stomach sickness tonight, but so far so good. We hope she feels ok this week.

On another note, Merissa finally got her loan funded on her new home on July 2 (the 9^th anniversary of our wagon accident). Wells Fargo took forever to come through. See pictures of it at http://stylishindraper.blogspot.com/ . I had the 3^rd and 4^th off and we spent those days and the 5^th and the 7^th in the evening cleaning it and pulling carpets and fixing the garage door opener (then my own needed replacing) and getting the sprinkler system going. Hopefully the lawn can recover from no water yet this year. There is a big peach tree and apple tree in the back yard loaded with fruit. It is 5 bedrooms and 3 baths and she will have 4 roommates that will pay her mortgage. You can see the new Draper temple out the front door and the Jordan River and new Daybreak temple off the back deck. Can you believe it; 25 years old, 2 years out of college, has a great paying job and new home. I’m jealous. Some guy has to like that doesn’t he?

Thanks for you prayers and support. We get into our new church July 27.

Round 8 (still in the ring)

We are here at the treatment center getting round 8 done of her 12 round (boxing) battle.
Her cell counts were good to go ahead with the treatment. But her left hand/fingers are still numb so they did not do the oxaliplatin again today. But the doctor did say that when/if the hand gets better, that she could do that drug at another time. I guess it is a good drug to knock out (another boxing analogy) the cancer.

When her initial blood test came back and said she could have treatment, Kevin went to go get her some Panda Express lunch. When he got back, which took longer than expected because of a city kitty giving him a ticket, the doctor was at Bonnie's side and ready to consult with her. She couldn't see him when we got here because he was behind, so he came out when he had some time.

We talked to the doctor about radiation and he thought she should do it but not until about a month after her last chemo. That is currently supposed to be August 5 depending on getting treated every other week. So we will be able to do our Lake Mead trip and Aggie football game in Vegas at the end of August (yahoo!). Then she would have 6 weeks of daily radiation and hopefully be ready for another trip in the middle of November (to some place warm). I guess we will stay home this year for Christmas which we haven't done for a few years now. He said after the treatments end that she would have blood tests every 3 months and a CT scan and colonoscopy every year after that. I said I thought that a CT scan should be done sooner than every year and he said it could be done sooner but that is the standard treatment. I think it should be done every month for the first year. But I guess I am being overly cautious.

The redo of the house is going well. Kevin finally got all the new lights up, the house is all painted (do the outside next year), all new carpets are down and furniture is finally arriving after waiting weeks for deliveries. Then comes the finishing touches of decorating and hopefully still a fireplace. Stop by for a visit and view.

Thanks go out to you all again for your caring and thoughts and prayers. We couldn't do this without you and your faith and prayers.

Round 7 and Yellowstone

Well Bonnie did have chemo on May 27. First we talked to the PA and her fingers were still numb from the previous chemo treatment. So he decided not to give her the Oxaliplatin drug in the chemo mix for that day in hopes that the neuropathy will subside. So her treatment was shorter by 1/2 hour, so we were out of there after 2 1/2 hours. We got home earlier because we did not run into rush hour traffic as well.

She has had more energy from the lighter treatment and even felt well enough to make a couple meals this week. But her fingers are still a little numb. So hopefully that will clear up in time. Nobody can get that drug for the full 12 treatments cause it can cause permanent neuropathy.

Now on to YELLOWSTONE!
We went up to West Yellowstone on May 16 and checked into the new beautiful WorldMark Resort and into our nice 2 bedroom, 2 bath, full kitchen unit. The weather was very nice the first 5 days, it got into the 70's, and snowed the last 2 days. The new resort does not have air conditioning and we were on the top, third floor. So it got nice and warm. One night it was 78 at 11pm and still 73 at 5 am. Even on the cold snowy days, our unit stayed warm, we didnt have to use the heater. I guess they have a circulation system that they were tweeking, but it sure didnt work for us.

We went out to breakfast Saturday morning and checked out the town a bit. We took it easy that day and made dinner for when the girls arrived that evening. We swam in the indoor pool and hot tub that night and went to my sister Karla's room for birthday cake after that. Her and Bart and their family came up for a couple days also. The next morning I went to church with Karla and Bart and I went back to our unit for breakfast. Then we took a nice drive around Hebgen lake and went down to check out Quake lake. We were disappointed the visitors center was closed but the extreme devastation was still very visible.

We went into Yellowstone on Monday and took one loop around the middle of the park and saw the grand canyon and the lower and upper falls. We went down to Yellowstone lake and headed toward the east gate. We had never gone that way before and we still hadn't seen any bears. Well about 3 miles down the road there was a mother grizzly walking along the shore with her 2 cute cubs. We must have watched them for at least a 1/2 hour. It was awesome. We checked out a few more sites and went back to the west side of the lake and come upon more cars stopped and got out to see a big grizzly mom nursing her 2 one year old cubs on the grass by the lake. That was neat too.

We had a marvelous time and saw many beautiful things and much wildlife and many marvels of Gods handiwork. We got to see 8 grizzlies and 5 black bears and they were very fun to watch and we spent a lot of time watching them. We saw Old Faithful, it was fun to watch all the steam the snow caused when it erupted, and the beautiful Inn. We need to stay there one day. We got over 500 pictures and some great video also. On the way home we saw some dear friends and went to lunch with my brother Gary and his wife Debbie. We say that we would like to go back many times. It is wonderful. But maybe we should ask for a lower floor room??

Bonnie wants to thank you all once again for your special notes and comments and thoughts and prayers. We are feeling the power of that and the love of you all. Thank you. See some pictures of our trip.

Chemo Half Done

Well we hit the half way point for chemotherapy treatments today. More about that later.

First lets talk about last week. Bonnie went in to have chemo last week and her sub white blood cell(WBC) count (NEU) was way too low. It needed to be at least 1.5 and it was .1, so they sent us home for her to rest and see no one (too risky to catch something). Her liver blood test result came in 2 days later and it was high again. It is supposed to be between 0-35 but hers has always been in the 70s or 40s, so the doctor wasnt too concerned, saying it must normally be high. But that day it came in at 137, so he thought we should do a CT scan to check out her liver and kidneys and what ever else they could see. Oh it did say she had a small hiatal hernia, but the liver, gallbladder, speen, pancreas, adrenal glands and kidneys are unremarkable in appearance. They know that from the contrasts she had to drink and put in her port.

JaNae took Bonnie to the ghost hospital (LDS) (ghost since the new hospital opened, it is pretty empty), yesterday to get the scan. The results were good, all things checked were ok. That is great news since she was very concerned about her aching kidneys and also very concerned since the liver is the first place to be affected by those free radical cancer cells that escaped from the colon, if they haven't already been zapped.
So we brought her home last week and I put a note on the door that she couldnt see anyone, but they could call. She didnt like that but we couldnt risk it. People were very understanding, thank you. She started feeling a little better by Friday and decided she could attend her neice's baptism and lunch on Saturday. It was her twin brother John's youngest. She/we had a nice time with family.

We also got the genetic results back for the possible inherited colon cancer markers and it was negative. It was stated as "no mutation detected" for MLH1 and MSH2. But they didnt test the MSH6, and we need to find out why. (I know, I give too much detail) but I like detail.

So, back to today. her initial blood tests today were very good. The NEU was at 6.4, wow! So they did the same chemo treatment and she is home with the pump injecting folfox for the next 2 days. We will find out the liver result when she gets the pump removed on Thursday. But even if it is high I doubt they scan it again anytime soon. Then they want to inject (shot, not in her port, ouch) her with Neulasta(sp) to help keep her WBC higher by helping to rebuild it. But I guess it makes the joints ache. Since we are going on vacation to Yellowstone on the 16-23 she would miss her next treatment (just delayed another week). So she is thinking she doesnt need the shot for this week.

We are looking forward to the get away and hope to see some bears and lots of wildlife and even some friends and family.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and concerns and interest and prayers. We sure appreciate it.

5th Round

Well this past weekend we spent time at the Gunderson wedding and some time furniture shopping for stuff for both moms house and the house that I am looking at buying.
She went in for treatment on Tuesday and everything seemed normal. On Wednesday when she woke up she was very sick. Fever, sore throat, nausea, and other symptoms. Mom of course didn't want to call the doctor, and I didn't find out about it until after 5. About 8 I finally called the on call doctor and had him call the house. I can't get a clear story about what the doctor said but they want to keep checking her temperature and that they would see her on Thursday to get the pump out.
So today she went into the doctor about 1 o'clock and they didn't really do anything. She said she was feeling a little better, and she sounded better. She keeps saying that this is something that she needs to just wait out and get over. I am a little concerned about this due to the fact that she is so resistant to calling the doctor , or getting help.
They also told her the results of the latest blood work and her liver function is down further. That is a scary thing to hear considering what that could mean.
We are still living life to the fullest in every good moment we have.
I will post shortly about all the goings on outside of cancer world.
Please pray for our family. Please place our names on the temple rolls, and prayer rolls in your area. We need all of the hope, courage, and positivity that we can muster.
Thank you for all that you have done for us and for the support you have given our family.
We truly love you all!

Merissa

4th Round

Not much happened during the 4th round. They kept the levels the same. The liver numbers were looking ok so they were not to worried.
Not much to report. Alot of "normal" life stuff happening, which will be reported soon.

3rd Round

Well yesterday was the third round of Chemo. Bonnie's neutrophil levels were still running low. So they kept the same levels of the medication that they did on the 2ND treatment. They didn't get to meet with the doctor this time. Which was a little frustrating because there were questions to be asked.
Once they got home Bonnie took a long nap, and didn't eat. Today she has been sleeping a lot. She is sore and nauseous. She gets a weird craving for a few days after treatment, McDonald's fish sandwiches and fries. We are more then happy to go get those for her so she will actually eat something.
Bonnie and Kevin spend 5 days last week in Las Cruces, New Mexico for the Aggie basketball tournament. They enjoyed the trip and were able to spend some well deserved time away from home.
The house has been in the process of a remodel for several months. So while they were gone the main part of the house was painted. Then today new carpet was laid. The next step is for us to find new furniture that Mom likes. This will be an interesting feat with not being able to go out for very long since she gets tired so quickly. But we will get it done.
Thank you for the prayers and thoughts.
Merissa

2nd Treatment Day

What a long day waiting for doctors. First we went to the Radiologist on the first floor of the cancer building. We saw a Dr. Sause and they had us fill out another patient information history form. Why they can’t keep one updated on their whole network is beyond me. Anyone see a business opportunity here???

They had Bonnie change in one of their 5-6 changing rooms and put her clothes in one of 10-12 lockers. This was very different. I guess they have people do this because it takes longer to change than to get their radiation treatment. So they are in and out pretty quick.

We didn’t understand why they needed her to change to consult getting radiation treatments. After waiting for 20+ minutes he checked her lungs and abdomen and then did a rectal exam to see how far up the resection was. Then he read the surgery reports and checked the CT scan pictures taken 1-2-08. And we read with him the notes made of that scan. It clearly stated that there was something there. Our primary care physician told us there was nothing there, so she couldn’t get Bonnie in for an emergency colonoscopy. That’s why Bonnie set up her own appointments to get it done. And after one cancellation she finally got it done on the 16^th.

Anyway, the doctor thought it would be good to do radiation therapy because there could be ‘cancer seedlings’ out in the pelvis area. The radiation would help treat any free radical cancer cells along with the chemo. The affects aren’t very nice for the 3-6% increase in benefits. Mostly that is diarrhea, accelerating menopause, and possible similar after affects for life. The oncologist and surgeon told us previously they didn’t think it needed to be done. So they will consult each other and decide what to do. Then we need to decide if we want to do it. (They have decided that radiation is needed after the chemo is done, we’ll see)

Then we went upstairs to get chemo going and they put us in an exam room to talk to the doctor first. We waited 40+ minutes for the doc and then talked them into letting her get started with her treatment and have the doctor come talk to us while doing that. So she started her treatment an hour later than planned.

I ran and bought Bonnie’s favorite Philly Cheese Steak from the Philadelphian and brought it back for our lunch.

They insert a big short needle into her new purple heart and take blood and dispense the chemo into it. The needle stays in for the treatment and 2 days after for the other chemical to dispense with the pump. The numbing cream worked this time and she didn't feel the needle. Her white blood count for fighting infection was a 1.4 and they want it to be 1.5 or higher. Her previous number was 3.5. They decided to go ahead with treatment since she felt good, but they did reduce the amount of one of the drugs so hopefully it won’t be low for the next one. The treatment was uneventful and we got out at 3:30.

The doctor did proscribe medication for when Bonnie has night sweats and also an antibiotic for her to have in case she gets a fever from something while we are on our trip to New Mexico next week. BTW, we finally got it arranged to have our house painted while we are gone so she won’t have to smell the fumes. But she will have to smell new carpet when we get back when that gets installed. We were supposed get this done in January, but some other matters came up.

Her side affects from this treatment have been slightly milder than the first go round. But she is still very tired.

We are checking into getting the gene testing done at the next treatment. The insurance has to approve of paying for it so we will see what happens there. We still cannot get the percentage of recurrence from our oncologist. He said he would work it up again from our previous visit and then talked about it with us and said as he was leaving that he just told us again. I will try to pin him down next time. But, thinking about it, there is probably no way at all to know that or estimate what it would be, so….

Thanks again for all your encouragement and support and love.

Love the Rawlings

Goings On

Well it is about time we did an update. Mom is doing ok. For the first several days she pretty much slept all day. Then came the nausea, dizziness, and lack of appetite. She has a metal taste in her mouth most of the time. Bonnie has only really been able to drink water because nothing else tastes right. She can't have anything cold or frozen, even to the point of water that was in the fridge. Everything has to be room temperature or warmer. Certain smells just are too strong to handle, the ones we have found so far are bacon and seafood.

She is now having insomnia during the night because of the medicine, she gets to sleep off of a sleeping pill but when it wears off she is wide awake. She is reading a book at night to try to pass the time.

We have to be really careful with germs and bacteria so there are several precautions we are taking. We found out that fresh fruit or vegtables are probably not a good idea, due to the bacteria possiblities. We have a bottle of hand sanitizer at the front door, since hands are what usually spread the most germs. Also we are going into church once the opening song has started and leaving during the closing song so there is as little contact as possible, same thing goes with hand shaking, so please don't think we are being rude we are just trying to be very careful.

Any questions let me know I will answer them in a different post.

the picture is from the valentines dance at the stake the saturday before chemo.

First Chemo round

Today was Bonnie's first Chemo round. They got there at 11 and started the medication. When they put the needle in to the port she said that it hurt. Our best guess is that it is due to the area around the port still being bruised. She had one bag of anti-nausea medication(palonosetron), then 2 different bags of Chemo solution (Leucovorin Calcium & oxaliplatin) that was pumping in through the IV. They also sent her home with a pump that will dispense the 5FU(Fluorouracil) over the next 48 hours. She carries it around in a small bag with a belt (like a fanny pack).(I know, we wish the red blanket were Aggie Navy Blue)

I got there around 12:45 and she was about half way through the treatment. I came with lunch and mom and dad were hungry by the time I got there. We were able to chat for a while, and I got to check out the facility. It was pretty nice, everything was very new. The Huntsman Cancer Center on the new Intermountain Medical Center campus is one year old. The other buildings on the campus including the hospital are 2 months old.

About 2:15 the doctor came over and spoke with us. We were able to ask all the questions that had been written down, and several more I came up with on the spot. He said that he believes she is only a stage 3 not stage 4 like the surgeon thought. (we thought the books about cancer backed up his belief)(he is going to check into why the surgeon thought it was stage 4). He also told us that it is possibly hereditary and wants Bonnie to get genetic testing done to find out if it is or not. The doctor wants her to go to a radiologist to discuss if she should get radiation treatment as well.

He said that even though she does not have any markers (measurable tests) for cancer like blood levels or etc, they will always check for that because if the cancer starts up somewhere else, it could trigger a measurable marker to show. He thought that she should not get any mouth sores from her treatments (we'll see, I guess). He thought her most bothersome affects would be sensitivity to cold and tingling fingers/toes. They would probably have to discontinue one of the drugs that causes the tingling after about 8 treatments so that it does not have life long affects.

The tumor board has not discussed her case yet. So he hopes to do that in 2 weeks when they meet again. I am not sure what that will actually tell us. He will also work up the percentages of recurrence that he did for himself but not for us when we met the first time. He gave us a form to get a 6 month handicapped placard for easier access for Bonnie.

Tonight Bonnie has had a headache like a migraine (which she used to get) and was nauseous, she took some Tylenol and some anti-nausea medication. She also was tired starting at 7 tonight, probably from having a long day. See new pictures below also.

(added to by Kevin)

Bonnie’s Purple Heart

Yesterday Bonnie went in to have a port implanted in her upper chest so the Chemo can be easily given. We got there about 10 and filled out another medical history form. (you would think that they would make one available for all to see in their system).

They took her in at 10:15 and prepped her to go into minor surgery to insert the port implant. They gave her an I.V. for fluids including an antibiotic and to put her out enough to not feel the surgery.

They showed us the port they were going to implant. It was about a 3/4-1 by 1/2 inch purple heart shaped implant that had a small tube that was to go up 2-3 inches toward her neck and then would be inserted into an artery and go back down toward the heart another 2-3 inches. This is all under her skin of course. See the link for some info on the port.

http://www.crbard.com/news/innovations/PowerPortImplantedPort.cfm

They can give her all her Chemo and take blood for tests and administer contrasts for scans and even do transfusion if needed through the port.

They said she would be gone for an hour to do the 20-30 minute procedure. She was gone for an hour and 50 minutes. She said it took a while before they even got started and a nurse said she kept asking for more pain meds. She doesn’t remember that but said she was awake and aware of quite a bit of the procedure. They brought her a sandwich and chips for lunch while she recovered and we left at 1:50. She is very sore today around the neck area and says it feels like it did when she had her thyroid surgery. It is also black and blue today. As a side note. Apparently those who have had thyroid nodules (benign or malignant) are more likely to get colon cancer at a later time.

She is scheduled for her first chemo treatment (FolFox) Tuesday at 11 that should take about 3-4 hours. She will have a pump put on the port that will administer the 5FU drug for the 48 hours after she leaves the cancer center. We are hoping she doesn’t get too wiped out after her treatment and the next one 2 weeks later so that we can still go to New Mexico on March 12^th. But we will have to see how she is feeling as that gets closer.

She wants to thank you all again very much for your generous acts of kindness and cards and comments and food. It is very much appreciated. It is great to have such tremendous support during this trying time. Thanks again.

The Oncologist Appointment

We saw the oncologist today; well first we saw a cancer treatment advocate, then the doctors’ physicians assistant, then the doctor. These are some things we learned.

The cancer numbers indicator from the CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen) blood test shows normal levels for Bonnie. More information here.. http://www.webmd.com/cancer/carcinoembryonic-antigen-cea

She was checked twice, once at the colonoscopy on January 16 2008, and once before the surgery on the 22^nd. The first one gave a result of 1.0 and the second one a 0.9, below 3 is normal. So the type of cancer that Bonnie has does not have a measurable indicator. Which means, as I understand it, that we never know if it is all gone or comes back unless it shows up on a scan (CT/PET) or some sort of x-ray or ultra sound or going in to check. The first place it should show up is in the liver since that filters everything in the body and should pick it up first. But the one scan she had showed no problems in the liver. I like that news. I would want them to do another scan or two to verify the liver is still good. But, they don’t think that needs to happen at this time.

The Dr. said the colon resection went well and it had ‘clean margins’ as he called it meaning the surgeon felt along the colon on both sides of the tumor/growth and that he felt the cancer was contained to that section that was removed and the ‘clean margins’ meant that the resection was done without any cancer still being present. They did say that she is basically now considered disease free/cancer free because the cancer was taken out with the surgery. And what may be left is not detectable, so they say she is cancer free. But, since there was malignancy in 18 of 25 nodes that they removed, they want/recommend to do chemotherapy treatments to make sure it gets knocked out. He said the surgeon would have felt along the rest of the colon to see if there were any other growths and there must not have been any.

He made a drawing for us (see picture) that showed how the growth had started and grown into and outside of the colon until it blocked the colon 90%. When it starts going outside the colon it can get into the lymph nodes and/or the blood vessels. Hers did affect the nodes of course. Then it would spread to the liver, then lungs, then bone. So far so good along those lines I guess.

They are recommending a course of treatment called FolFox, check the WebMD link (Colorectal Cancer Health Center link at the left) to find out more about these terms. It would be administered through a tube inserted into her upper chest into a blood vessel where the chemo (oxalapletic?) would be inserted over a 3-3 ½ hour period and then a pump would be connected that would administer more treatment (5FU) over the next 48 hours. So she would have to go back 2 days later to get the pump removed. The treatment would be repeated every 2 weeks for 12 treatments which would take about 6 months to complete. It will be a long and tough process ahead still.

The side affects of this would be that she would be very fatigued starting the night of treatment and lasting a few days and slowly getting better until the next treatment 2 weeks later. Her immune system would be highly affected (wiped out) so we would have to be very careful not to expose her to germs/bugs/viruses/etc. He said to have hand sanitizer in the house for all to use. He said hands spread the most germs. If anything causes a temperature of 100.5 then they would administer antibiotics. Lastly, she would have neuropathy, meaning anything cold ingested or touched would feel like she was getting electrically shocked. So wear socks and drink room temperature drinks and she will learn other things to avoid. Then there can be tingling in her fingers and toes that should last a little while and if it continues they may need to reduce some of the meds in the ‘recipe’ as he called it that make up the chemo treatment. So you do not see a side affect of hair loss, that does not occur with this treatment apparently and she is happy about that. And there shouldn’t be a lot of nausea either.

Since there are no test indicators of her type of cancer the prognosis of it returning/recurring is not known (as I understand it, even though we did not ask that question). So if one were to have a NON-recurrence percent of 50% the treatments could improve that an additional 15% to 30% (65%-80%). If the NON-recurrence rate were 65%, it would help it to improve to 80%-95%. I guess annual or bi-annual colonoscopies and scans would have to be taken to try to see anything.

We setup to get the line inserted on February 15 and to have the first treatment on the 19^th. We have to work around our trip to Los Cruces NM on the 12^th of March for the WAC Basketball tournament (go USU AGGIES!). And then our trip to Yellowstone in May also has to be worked around. We are looking into getting a second opinion and also checking into having treatments at the Huntsman Cancer Institute instead of the Utah Cancer Specialists. So the dates may change if we change courses/groups of treatment. Stay tuned.

We feel like maybe we have experienced a minor miracle here and credit you for your fasting and prayers and prayers and prayers. This has been a roller coaster of a ride but hopefully things smooth out from here and we can knock this out.

Thanks again all for your many kindnesses and thoughts/comments.

Love the Rawlings

Whats New?

We went to the surgeon's office today and the 19 staples were removed. It hurt just a little. The scar looks pretty good. He wants to see her again in 3 weeks. Her pain levels were better today until she dropped something on her stomach. So we hope that improvement continues.

Bonnie has an appointment with the Oncologist on Wednesday morning and we hope to have more information and some indication about what the next steps will be after that. We will keep you posted, pardon the pun.

We want to thank you all for the kind words and emails and comments on the blog and cards and calls and food and flowers and snow removal (a lot of snow this year). They are really thoughtful and inspiring and very encouraging. Thanks to you all. You may want to leave some last names because sometimes it is hard to figure out who says what, with so many people responding and so many friends and relatives. We are feeling strength from your fasting and prayers and encouragement.

We really like this blog too, because it greatly reduces the amount of times we have to repeat the same information. Please don't be offended if I respond to a question by asking if you have read the blog. It helps to make our lives easier too.
Until next time...

Waiting...

Bonnie went to see the surgeon today, we were hoping she would be getting out her stitches today. But He decided to keep them in until Monday. They set up an oncologist appointment for Wednesday, Feb 6th with Dr. Nibley who works for the Utah Cancer Specialists (UCS). We got advice from my relief society president, a hospital oncology nurse, that the UCS are the best around and are great with their patients.
It is still just a waiting game until the oncologist appointment on Wednesday.

Goodnight

Thursday.. I mean Wednesday Night

Ever had one of those weeks when you can't remember what day it is? That is this week for me, I want it to be Friday so bad that I am trying to skip a day. I want to drive home and see my family, and help my mom. Anyways...

Less visitors came over today, Mom was able to get a nap in. She goes in to see the surgeon and hopefully to be able to get the staples out tomorrow. We are hoping they will have more information and give us a better idea about everything.
That is about it for today.
Thank you for all the comments, I know that we all look forward to reading the comments. The support to our family is amazing. We love you all!!

Goodnight,
Merissa

Not much new

There is not much new information currently. Lots of vistors coming over. Even hard for me to get anyone on the phone to get a full update. Hopefully we will have more information soon.
Thanks
Merissa

333 W 1000 N
Centerville, Ut 84014

1st Day Home

Since Bonnie has been home they have had lots of visitors. She slept pretty well last night. But she wasn't able to get any naps in today. Grandma flew into town today, but was 3 hours delayed due to one of the craziest storm we have ever seen! Grandma will be in town for 2 weeks, to help run Bonnie to appointments, and help with things around the house while she recovers from surgery.
The food that members of the ward, friends, and family have been bringing over is so much appreciated. It would be near impossible for us to get a decent meal prepared with everything else going on right now.
We are having a special fast this Fast Sunday for Bonnie and the Family to have the hope, courage, and endurance to make it through this trying time. Please join us if you wish.

Love the Rawlings

Sunday January 27, 2008

Another rough night for Bonnie with pain and little sleep. She asked for a bagel sandwich for breakfast since the hospital food was, well, hospital food. She then had a shower and got dressed to leave. It was about 10 am. So we packed up and hauled everthing to the cars and sit and waited. And waited, and waited.

They had to do the paper work and get the prescriptions to take home. So we waited and waited and finally got the paperwork done and the scripts and left at 12:30.

We got home and got Bonnie situated in her nice soft Intelligel bed and she had a couple hour nap. Once church ended at 4 then some people came by and my sisters, Karla and Laraine stopped on the way home from St George, she got up and visited and had something to eat. She is dealing with the pain with help from meds and getting her bowels moving again (enjoying that).

She goes to see the surgeon on Thursday to find out the next steps. Probably set up to see an Oncologist and start Chemo once she is recoverd from the surgery. We speculate that will be a couple weeks.

Thanks for all your concerns and support.
Love the Rawlings

More information

Well we didn't sleep last night, she was having reactions to her medicine again. So today they started her on a different one and so far so good. They took out the IV, the epidural, and the catheter today. They also changed her diet back to a "normal" diet, so she wanted us to go get her Panda Express...haha
The surgeon came in around 10 and was going to leave after a minute but I stopped him so we could ask questions. The lymph nodes that were taken were from the 10 inch section of colon they took out, they didn't biopsy any other lymph nodes.
He said that she is a Stage 4 (from 0-4), and he thinks that she is either a grade 2 or 3 (from 1-3). He said that there was a possibility that it has gone to other organs but it is hard to know. He believes the chemo regiment will be once every other week. He told us to live life as normal as possible while this is all happening.
As a family we are trying to do research and figure out what needs to be done but it really comes down to what the oncologist says.
We are probably going to be checking out of the hospital tomorrow but we don't know when.
We had lots of visitors today including the Bishop and his wife, Bonnie's twin brothers wife and 4 of the children, and Bonnie's sister.

Hello...testing... is anybody out there?

We have only received one comment on this blog since it was started on Monday.
Please post something even just to say "Hello" and tell us who you are so we know who is reading the blog.
If you have questions, suggestions, or there is something that you would like to see me talk about please post it.

Thanks to Kim for being the first one to post.

Short Update... ok not so short...

We got back the pathology report today. The surgeon spent maybe 2 minutes in the room, and wasn't very helpful in explaining the results. We were told that 18 out of 25 nodes that were taken were malignant and that they would have to be aggressive with treatments which would include chemotherapy. But that was about all he had to say. Bonnie and Kevin were able to get copies of several reports and a lot of pamphlets of information from a "case manager" that came to the room today. We are still trying to figure out what it all means.
Grandpa and Grandma Rawlings came today along with Aunt Karla, they brought a beautiful arrangement of flowers from the Rawlings family. Later tonight we had a surprise visit from Jeff and Becky Hone who stayed for a while and chatted, it was really nice to get our mind off of things for a while. The Hone's brought a very nice planter of yellow tulips that will be enjoyed for a long time.
I am staying at the hospital for the next 2 days with Bonnie and will post more tommorrow.
Hopefully we will all be able to get some sleep tonight.

A rough day

Today was quite a rough day for Bonnie. She has been really out of it, in pain, and moaning. She keeps rambling saying weird things and it is sometimes hard not to laugh. Tonight she started talking about us going to watch "Who Wants to be a Millionare". We have no idea where that came from.
She has been out walking 7 times in the past 24 hours, but every time she comes back from walking her blood pressure drops. She refuses to take her big epidural shot to relieve her pain (it automatically gives a little dose to her 8 times an hour). She doesn't like doing her breathing that she is suppose to do once an hour so she doesn't get pneumonia. She had 1 lady from the ward visit her today and received flowers from her twin brother and Kevin's office.
Thanks for the love and prayers.

Intermountain Medical Center room 1032

Well today was an interesting day. The doctor came in but didn't have very much to say. She was able to get up and walk around for about about 10 minutes the first time and 15 the second. She had 4 visitors come, 3 wonderful ladies from our ward and her twin brother. She received flowers from "Kevin and the girls".

She had a pretty good day until shortly after I got here at 6 she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open, was slurring her speech, and slightly twitching. we were a little concerned but all of her vitals were normal. A little later the pain management guy came in and said that it was probably due to her having to much of the epidural medicine. About 7:30 she seemed to snap back and was fine again. Bonnie is really tired tonight, and experiencing things that she hasn't before. She should sleep well tonight and be up for visitors tomorrow and through the next several days.
We would love to have any sort of show of support for her while we are in the hospital. JaNae is taking her 2 nights to stay in the hospital with Mom so she will be here if you need to get a hold of us before you visit.

Goodnight

Surgery Results

The doctor came and saw Kevin at 10:50 after the surgery. Bonnie was in for about an hour and a half. It went very well. They made an incision that was about 6 inches long that starts from the belly button down, and then two probe holes on the each side. The cancer was contained to the colon, it hadn't spread. They took out about 10 inch section of the colon (which the doctor said was normal). The growth was about the size of an apple core and they are going to have the pathology report back on Thursday. Everything else they said looked good including her ovary's which they were concerned about. Bonnie will have to remain in the hospital for another 5 days. We are feeling much better with what the doctor said, especially since it was contained. We still have a long road ahead, and are still unsure about the course of treatment. We will continue posting as new information is given. Thank you so much for the fasting and prayers. We love you all.

Night Before Surgery

Today Bonnie and Kevin met with the surgeon, the surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 6:30. They had the results from the biopsies and it is malignant. The biopsy shows that it is invasive adenocarcinoma. After the surgery it takes 2 days to get pathology back to find out what kind of cancer it is for sure. It is normally a 2 hour surgery. The growth is 12 cm up (4.7 inches), the surgeon told them that the growths are usually about the size of an apple core and that is what they are hoping to find. They are hoping that they will be able to attach the colon back together without any problems. There are still a lot of unknowns at this point so tomorrow will hopefully shed light on exactly what we will be facing in the months ahead.
Thank you all for your support and prayers.
Merissa R.

Family News

Shock and surprise.
So we have big news in my family.

Bonnie has been bothered lately by having to vomit while having a bowel movement. (we had fun in Vegas, we were there for Christmas)

So it takes forever to get scheduled for a colonoscopy. She had one scheduled for today but they called Monday and canceled it. So she started calling Tuesday to see if she could get in anywhere and a Dr Batista just had a cancellation and they asked if she wanted to come in the next day (Wednesday). She did and the Dr. couldn’t get the tube past a 90% blockage that was there about 6-8 inches in. They go in a meter normally.
The Dr said that from all he has seen he is pretty certain it is malignant and the biopsies won't be back for 7-10 days.
We just scheduled with a surgeon to have the growth removed and the bowel re-sected(sp). We meet with him Monday and it will probably happen Tuesday. It needs to get out ASAP malignant or not.

So that is our shocking news. Please include her and us in your prayers and on temple rolls where you are and hopefully the surgery Tuesday is all she will need.

Thanks and love you all.

Kevin Rawlings