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.