Thursday, July 24, 2008

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.

2 comments:

Kim Madsen said...

Every day for six week!? Yikes! And I was feeling sorry for myself going weekly. Hope you recover fast from round 11 and that round 12 goes as smoothly as possible for you. We can do this, girlfriend! Keep it up! Love, Kim

Gundersen Family said...

So sorry to hear how you've been struggling. I pray all will go well and you will continue to get well. We love you.
Karla & Family