On the road again...

Well, we've only been home for a few days and we're packing up to leave again. We're headed out to Fredericksburg to spend the new year with Jeff's family. Should be lots of fun. Can't wait to see our dogs again, either. Jeff's mom and dad have been "babysitting" Maggie and Bromley for about 3 weeks now and we miss them. But anyway, just a little note to say we're leaving again and we'll be back on the 1st. Hope everyone has a Happy New Year and a healthy one as well! Love ya'll!

Merry Christmas!

Hello All, just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! We arrived home today from our trip to Louisiana. We had a great time and got to see just about everyone in our family and a few friends as well. We got lots of great presents (one of which was a new camera) so look forward to many new pictures on here shortly. It will probably take me awhile to figure out how to get them on the computer, so be patient. But we took lots of good pictures so I'll try to get them posted so you can see them too.

On a side note, I had heard just recently that I might qualify for social security disability benefits, since I was out of work for so long. So I looked into it and spent a couple of hours filling out all the forms. I figured I might as well get it while I can since it probably won't be there when I need it when I'm older. So lo and behold, I was approved and my first check came in! It was the November check since that is when I could start receiving benefits. But it is quite a lot of money which is great. The bad part is, I plan to start back to work in January, and I think I stop getting payments when I return to work. But I will get it for a few months at least, so I'm excited about that.

Anyway, that's all for now. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a Happy New Year!

The past few days...

Let's see what's been going on the past few days. Jeff's parents left to go back to Fredericksburg on Thursday. They took the two dogs with them because we're going to be going to Louisiana for Christmas and it's easier if they have them. I sure do miss them, though. Thursday I took a neonatal resuscitation class that I have to have in order to work, so I got that done. Saturday Jeff and I went over to our friends house for a small Christmas party. It was very nice, we had good food, good friends and good music. I wasn't feeling all that great, because I have recently been diagnosed with shingles. They are not fun, let me tell you. I have this nasty rash on my lower stomach and on my leg. It's very painful and sometimes itchy. But thanks to a great doctor friend, I got the medicine I need and I'm in the process of taking that. Sunday was a very bad day. I think I got out of bed for like 30 minutes all day. I felt sick and extremely tired. I think I slept like 20 hours yesterday. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep last night since I slept all day, but no worries, I slept very well for once. I think the shingles medicine is kicking in and starting to help my rash clear up. It's going to take awhile, but I don't think it's spreading anymore.

Anyway, that about sums up the last few days. Just going to take it easy the rest of the week, finish wrapping presents and then packing. Jeff and I plan on leaving for Louisiana on Friday morning and coming back on the 26th. Then we'll head west on the 29th to Fredericksburg to spend New Years with Jeff's family. I'm looking forward to seeing all my family and friends that I haven't seen in awhile. It should be fun. That's all for now...

A bad day and a good day...

Well, yesterday I had a sorta bad day. I had some problems with nausea and vomiting. Not exactly sure why, but I did. So I just laid on the couch all day and tried not to puke. Not my idea of fun. But anyway, I felt better by dinner time. We watched Pirates 3 (Jeff and I had not seen it yet), and then we went to bed. Today was much better. I didn't feel nauseous at all, in fact I was shopping all day. Jeff's mom and I left around 11am and didn't get home until 4:30pm! We got a lot accomplished. I think I am pretty much finished with my Christmas shopping, now I just have to wrap everything. Maybe I can convince Jeff to wrap the presents since I had to do the hard part in finding them and buying them. We'll see how that goes. It's supposed to be getting cold here tonight. Not looking forward to that. I enjoy the hot weather. But it doesn't really feel like Christmas unless it is cold outside. There's only 13 days left until Christmas. Hope you get your shopping done in time! The one thing I would like for Christmas is my hair to grow in enough so I don't have to wear a hat or a scarf. It's coming in pretty good and there is a good chance that it will be thick/long enough to go bareheaded. But I'm not getting my hopes up. I'm going to bring my hats/scarves for back up. I'll be sure to let ya know, though. Maybe even post a picture. But only for those of you that have been nice this year! Ha!

Feelling better every day...

Today Jeff's parents and I went and did a little shopping. We didn't make it to the mall, but that's on the agenda for tomorrow. I got my paintings framed, so now we just have to find somewhere to hang them. They look really sharp now that they are framed.

I am feeling pretty good today. Every day is better than the last. I think I am over my nauseous stage. I'm taking pain meds every four hours. Not too bad. I do put some heat on my back, which helps a lot.

Must go now. Gotta watch the Saints beat the Falcons. It's rare we get to see them on tv so we're gonna take advantage of it.

Poll

There is an interesting poll on the Ohio State website, http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/ .

It's "What do you think the result of the BCS National Championship game will be?"

- Buckeyes by more than 14

- Buckeyes by 14 or less

- LSU by 14 or less

- LSU by more than 14


Guess which one is winning! Geaux Tigers! All you tiger fans out there go and vote. We'll show them who has the most fans!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

The operative word there being "look". It was almost 80 degrees here today. Sheesh! We went to get a Christmas tree and I was sweating! Pretty crazy. Anyway, today me, Jeff and his parents went and got a small, conservative tree to put up since we don't have many days left until Christmas and we won't be here on Christmas anyway. So we got a small one, but it looks real good. I'll post a picture after we get it all decorated. Jeff and his dad put the lights outside on the house and his mom and I unpacked all our Christmas boxes. I have a fairly decent size house but too much Christmas stuff to put out! I need more room! I think it will take a little while, but we'll be able to find a spot for everything. We're taking a break to cook some dinner. We're having fried shrimp, onion rings and french fries. Very healthy, right? It sounds so yummy! Hopefully I can keep it down. I've felt better today, still a little nauseous, but everything has stayed down. I'll try to keep it that way. Anyway, it's still hard to believe Christmas is a little over three weeks away. I like it hot and all, but it should be at least cold enough were I don't have to put the A/C on! That's all for now. Hope everyone else is getting into the Christmas spirit!

A little better today...

Hey all! I'm feeling a little better this morning. I haven't puked yet, so that's always good news! I'm just trying to take it easy and rest a bunch. I ate some breakfast and so far so good. Yesterday afternoon/night I was able to keep food down. But I literally laid on the couch and didn't get up for anything. I hope this goes away soon. Jeff went to work this morning. His parents should be on their way. I expect them sometime this afternoon. That's about all for now. Thanks for the comments on my blood pressure. I'll try them out!

Home at last...

Well, we made it home on Monday night around 9:30pm. We were all very tired and ready to be at home. We stopped at the pharmacy down the street from us to fill my prescriptions. But alas, it was not to be. One of my meds was too strong for the local pharmacies to have on hand and they were all about to close at 10pm. We needed the medicine for that night so we called MD Anderson and found out that we could fill the script at the Emergency room pharmacy. So at 10pm, Jeff and I headed back to MD to get the script filled. We finally made it back home for good at 12:40am and went to bed. Jeff went back to work Tuesday morning, so my mom was left to take care of me. It was an ok day. I was super tired all day, I guess catching on sleep I didn't get at the hospital. Plus, the pain meds make you sleepy too. I also was having problems with nausea and vomiting, and not eating very much. We weren't sure what the problem was, cause I was taking my no puking meds from chemo so they should have worked. My pain was not entirely under control, either. This morning I called my nurse practitioner and switched my meds up a bit and that seemed to help. But I am still feeling sick to my stomach. We kinda figured out that it may be due to my low blood pressure, which I have had since chemo. I had it during this hospital stay and they were concerned about it. They would ask if I was dizzy or nauseous when I got up and walked around. At the time, I wasn't, but that is exactly what's happening now. I will be fine, then get up to walk around like I'm supposed to, then feel nauseous and have to lay down. I will call the nurse practitioner again tomorrow to see if we can fix this somehow. Very frustrating. Everyone else seems to have problems with high blood pressure, but not me, I have to again, have the weird thing that no one knows what to do with. I don't know of any "pill" you can take to make your blood pressure go up. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I'm not going to get any better lying around in bed all day and not eating anything. So hopefully we'll get some answers tomorrow. I gotta go to bed now, try to keep you updated tomorrow.

On your marks...

Good News! We are getting discharged from MD Anderson tonight! Lauri has shown great improvement today, and they have been able to control her pain with oral medications, so they are letting us go home within a few hours from now.

Early this morning Lauri's chest tubes were removed, taking with it the source of the extreme pain she had encountered yesterday. Shortly thereafter Lauri's epidural was capped and she was given combinations of Hydrocodone and Oxycodone to control the pain as the epidural wore off. The Surgery Team decided to go ahead and give Lauri two units of blood to get her hemoglobin count up, which will make her feel better. It takes time to get blood orders on the regular floor rooms here, and it takes about 2.5 hours to infuse 2 units. We are waiting for the blood transfusion to finish up before we are allowed to leave.

Even better news came this morning... Assuming Lauri's CT scan in January is clear of cancer (which it should be), further chemotherapy treatments will not be required! We were visited by our Oncologist who told us that based on the Surgeon's reports stating that all of the nodules were successfully removed and no further nodules were found, chemotherapy should not be required. We meet with our Oncologist and take a CT Scan at the end of January. As long as the CT Scan is clear, which we expect it to be, then we will finally return to our normal monitoring checkups every 3 months.

We'll post again when we get home. Pretty excited now, the worst appears to be over!

Geaux Tigers!

It was just announced that the Tigers are playing in the BCS Championship game! We are so excited! We sure hope the extra time off allows the team to get healthy. Ask Virginia Tech what a health LSU Tiger football team can do...

As for Lauri's status, she has been having "episodes" of extreme pain for short periods of time since yesterday. We have been working with the Pain Team here at MD Anderson trying to find the right combination of drugs to alleviate the pain effectively. She describes the pain as starting out in the middle of the upper back, between the shoulder blades, growing in intensity and shooting like fire and lightning down her right arm to her right elbow. The pain level rises quickly, then fades after at most 5 minutes. Lauri ranks the pain during these periods as an 11, on a scale of 1 to 10.

We believe the pain is due to the chest tubes inserted in her side. We also believe the tubes are very near a nerve. When the tube is moved in some way within the body, then it disturbs the nerve, causing extreme pain.

In addition to her epidural, the Pain Team has Lauri taking two different IV pain medications continuously as well as several shots of localized anesthetic injected into her back at the location where the severe pain episodes start. The pain still breaks through the medications, although reduced in severity. We anticipate getting the chest tubes removed tomorrow morning, at which time we expect to see this severe pain go away. Lauri's tough and is handling the pain well. As long as she stays still, then she does OK. Those who know Lauri well also know that she is a long-time Board Member of the Commission on Sitting Still on a Bed or Couch...

Lauri's dressing on her incision was removed today and we got our first look at it. It looks just like the left side, and arching scar along the lower rib cage. I told Lauri it looks kind of like gills. Since Lauri is not what I would call an Olympic Swimmer, she might find these new enhancements very useful! She was not amused...

Oh well, nobody said this surgery stuff would be easy. Lauri continues to do very well. She is a fighter, and she'll be just fine. She can't wait to get home and get ready for the big game! Geaux Tigers!!

A Room at Last!

We got into a room here at MD Anderson at around 9:30pm last night. Lauri has been resting while the doctors continue to watch her electrolyte levels and try to control the discomfort in her right shoulder. She has been up and walking and has been put on a regular diet to try and bring her electrolyte levels up.

We will remain in the hospital until the drainage in the chest tube decreases and Lauri's pain can be controlled with oral medication. We expect to be here for a few more days.

We did get to talk to our Thoracic Surgery team this morning. Our Surgeon reiterated that the surgery went well, and the drainage issues seen last night appear now to be resolved. He also clarified that during the thoracotomy procedure, they do not actually break any ribs. He says they actually take a portion of the rib out, in an order to thin the rib, making it more flexible. This way they can spread the ribs without breaking them. Interesting...

Anyway, we are holding steady here at the room now, watching football and trying to rest between alarm tones, blood draws, and nursing/doctor/pain team/volunteer services visits... Lauri gets better every day, and we look forward to going home sometime next week.

Do Not Admit Till Christmas...

We are still waiting in the Waiting Room here at MD Anderson... Lauri had a few minor complications relating to her chest tube drain that have caused our admission to a room to be delayed. It appears to be coming under control now, and we expect to be in a room later this evening, after 8:00 pm CST.

Lauri was experiencing excessive bleeding at the chest tube site. For reference, the chest tube site is located on her right side, just below the rib cage, where the chest tube drains enter her body. There was also excessive drainage from the drain lines leading to some clotting being found in the drain tube itself. Clotting in the drain tube can cause it to clog up and not drain, causing the blood to pool in the lung.

Blood tests have been done on the order of every 2-3 hours since noon today to track her hemoglobin count. Lauri's hemoglobin has dropped to just over 8 at 6:00pm from an initial value of just over 12 at around noon. If she drops down to 7 or 8, then she will be given a blood transfusion to replace the lost blood. Since she is young, the doctors here will wait a little longer to let the body naturally replace the blood.

They have also taken X-Rays at 3:00pm of Lauri's chest to make sure the blood was not pooling in the lung or at the Chest Tube site. The X-ray came back negative for pooling, meaning that the drain is working as it should.

The Surgery team has decided to keep Lauri in the Recovery Room until 8:00pm, at which time they will do another blood test and a possible X-ray. If the hemoglobin count has dropped too low, then she will be administered a blood transfusion. The Surgery Team decided to hold her in Recovery because it is easier and significantly faster for them to order and receive blood in the Recovery Room as opposed to the regular floor rooms.

The Surgery Team further reports that at 6:00pm Lauri's drain tube appeared to be draining very well. The amount of drainage had reduced to a much more normal level, and the bleeding at the drain site had decreased as well.

It makes for a long day, but at least the cancer is gone. We are getting the bleeding under control, and we should be resting in a room by sometime next month...

Just kidding...

Cancer Free!

Just got done talking with the Surgeon; he reports that the surgery did indeed go very well. He removed three nodules from the right lung: two from the upper lobe, and one from the lower lobe. He was able to use wedge resection again, similar to the previous left lung procedure. This means he only took the minimum amount of lung tissue required to get the tumor out with sufficient margin. The margins are "grossly clear", but we have to wait until the final pathology report is in to be sure they got it all. We are of course, confident...

The scans had shown two nodules of interest in the right lung. However, the right lung also contained the infection from the possible pneumonia Lauri had this past summer (recall from previous posts about the "stuff" the Oncologist was concerned about). I believe the two tumors were successfully removed, while the third nodule is scar tissue remaining from the infection. We'll see what the pathology says...

We got to visit Lauri in the recovery room as well. She is feeling OK; battling some pain in the right shoulder. According to the Anesthesiologist, it sounds like the epidural block was a little low on her right side. The block is definitely sufficient for the incision site and the mid chest to lower abdominal area, but it doesn't really do much for the shoulder area right now. They are effectively controlling the shoulder pain with extra pain medications and heating pads. The shoulder is usually very sore after this type of procedure because of the contortions they put her shoulder and arm in to get them out of the way for the Surgeon to work. The Anesthesiologist also mentioned that pain from the drain tubes is also known to be referred up to the shoulder area sometimes. During the time Lauri's Dad, Mom, and I had visited her, they were already getting the pain under control, and Lauri was feeling much better.

We are all pretty tired over here. It has been a long journey to get to today, and we still have a long way to go. We expect to be in the hospital for anywhere from 3-7 days.

In the meantime, I would like to thank you all very much for all of your kind words, support, and prayers. We haven't completed the journey yet, in fact it never ends, but at least we are on the downhill side of this mountain. We could not have reached the peak without you all, and we look forward to the scenic route on the way down!

We are now waiting for a room to become available, and getting some rest in the meantime... Please leave comments for Lauri, she enjoys them so much, and will be reading them once she is comfortably in the room.

Early Word

The Surgery Nurse has informed us that Lauri's surgery was successful! She did great, and the surgeons are finishing up now. Lauri will be moved to the recovery room where she will be brought out of the general anesthesia. According to the Nurse, the surgery was begun at 9:45 am CST.

We will get further details from the Surgeon in an hour or so. We hope to see Lauri in about 2 hours. I will bring you the details as we get them here.

Good news so far!

Surgery Time

Hey All! Just wanted to let you know that I have to report to the hospital at 7:15am tomorrow morning. Surgery should start shortly after that, so I hope to be out by lunchtime. My mom arrived yesterday and my dad and my sister with her family will be here tonight. Should be a full house! Anyway, that's all for tonight. I'm ready to get this over and done with. Jeff will update the blog sometime tomorrow for you. Try to be patient! Good night!

Doctor's Visits

Today was supposed to be a morning only at the hospital, but turned out to be an all day event. I had two doctor's appointments, one at 9am and one at 11am. I didn't see the first doctor until after 10am and I didn't see the other doctor until after 1:30pm! So frustrating! It would have been nice if they would have told us when we checked in that they were running behind schedule so we could have gone and eaten lunch, but they didn't say a word, so we sat there from 11am until 1:30pm in the waiting room. Ughhhhh! We didn't leave MD Anderson until 2:30pm. Anyway, besides that, we got good news from my scans yesterday. Looks like there are no tumors left on my left lung. He removed one tumor, a calcification (not cancer) and two lymph nodes, which were also negative for cancer. Yeah! The two tumors on the right lung are stable, which means that they haven't grown any since my last chemo. Also good news. One tumor is 3cm and the other one is 2-3mm. The surgery should go exactly the same as last time. The recovery time is expected to be the same as well. It all depends on how fast I get the chest tubes out. I'm shooting for a discharge date of next Tuesday, so we'll see. Anyway, that's about all I have for today. Surgery time will be known on Thursday afternoon. Most likely first thing in the morning on Friday. That's all for now.

Test Day

Well, today I had all my tests done. I started out with the ultrasound of my leg. I think that came back negative, but we should know more tomorrow when I see the doctor. I had labwork, a chest xray, and a ct scan. Oh, and a pulmonary function test to see how good my lungs are. The last time I did it was after chemo and right before my first lung surgery, so the results weren't all that great. I "passed" but the numbers could have been better. This time around, I did better on almost every test, which is really good. Good news since they base my surgery on those numbers. I'm anxious to see the results of my ct scan and xray. I'm curious to see if my remaining tumors have grown at all. We'll find out tomorrow. Surgery is still planned for Friday. I believe it will be around the same time as last time, mid morning. I'll find out for sure on Thursday. Anyway, that's all the news for today. We'll try to post tomorrow after our doctor's appointments.

Back from Fredericksburg

Just a quick note to say we are back in town. We had a wonderful time away visiting Jeff's family. Now it's back to the real world. Jeff has to get back to work, and I have a busy day at the hospital tomorrow. I'll try to let you know how everything goes tomorrow. I'm sure it will be fine. Good night!

Thanksgiving Vacation

Today Jeff, me and the dogs are headed out of town to Fredericksburg, Texas to spend some time with Jeff's family for the Thanksgiving holidays. I'm excited to get out of town for a few days and looking forward to the feast I'm sure we're gonna have tomorrow! Hopefully it won't be too cold up there. But I can't wait to make my smores by the fireplace! Mmmmm, my favorite! Anyway, hope everyone has a happy, healthy and safe Thanksgiving. Eat some yummy food and don't forget the best football games are on Friday this week. LSU plays at 1:30 and Texas plays at 2:30. Hook'em Tigers!

New Surgery Date

I got a call from MD Anderson this afternoon. The nurse told me my doctor has a big meeting on Wednesday, so my surgery has been rescheduled for Friday, November 30. Not a big deal. My appointments will all stay the same, just surgery was moved. Won't know what time it will be until probably the Thursday before hand. Anyway, that's all the news for today.

Random pictures

Here are some random pictures we had on our camera:

Me in the hospital with all my lines, can you see me behind my teddy bear?



Kirsten in my LSU Crocs-Geaux Tigers!




Kirsten earning her keep during her last visit:



The infamous Camaro after our Veteran's Day Drive to Beach City:



Jeff and I in our self portrait at the park in Beach City:

Thanksgiving at the Mauldin's

Today we had a "mini" Thanksgiving at our house for some friends that Jeff works with. We needed a good excuse to fry a turkey, and this seemed like the perfect one. So we fried up a turkey and a chicken and held Thanksgiving early this year. I would say it was a success. We had tons of wonderful food and great company. I was worried about the weather, as it would be hard to fry a turkey outside in the rain. But luckily, it rained very early this morning and by lunch time, the sun came out. We feasted on fried turkey, rice dressing, "druffing" (couldn't decide what to call it, stuffing or dressing, so we compromised), deviled eggs, homemade mac and cheese, green bean casserole, rolls and yummy desserts like cupcakes, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, pumpkin/coconut/pecan pie, and dirt. Everything was awesome. Just wanted to thank everyone for a wonderful Sunday. Hopefully we can continue this every year and invite more people. Goodness knows we had plenty of food! Here a few pictures from the event.

Jeff injecting the turkeys:




Turkey when it's done:



Before we ate:


After dinner:



(Jeff, Me, Lisa, Josh, Todd, Erin, Cory - Not pictured: Tarik, Ginger and Lisa's mom)

Veteran's Day

Yesterday was Veteran's day, so Jeff had the day off. We took a drive in the Camaro down to Beach City. Not exactly sure where that is, but not too far away from us. It was a nice day so we just took a cruise in the car. Jeff really enjoyed it. I did too, even though I fell asleep during the ride. I can't help it, I have carcalepsy. It's also the medicine I'm taking, it makes me very sleepy. But all in all, it was a nice afternoon and a nice drive.

Not much going on today. Just hanging out with the dogs. I may go for a walk this afternoon if the weather stays nice.

Still waiting on the hair on my head to grow. It's coming in, but very slowly. My eyebrows are big and bushy and my eyelashes are almost full length. The hairs on my arms and legs are growing in fast and furious too. That's the bummer! Oh well, I guess that's fine as long as the hair on my head is growing in, too.

The last couple of days...

My sister, mom, niece and my sister's friend arrived on Wednesday night. They stayed until Saturday afternoon. My mom and I took my niece to the park on Friday morning. Here is a picture of her on the slide.






She is too cute! We took some more pictures at the house. It's hard getting a 21 month old to pose sometimes! Anyway, I really enjoyed the company. Can't wait to see them again. We had a really good time.



More pictures:






Me, Jeff and Kirsten:

Hair update

Hi all! Just wanted to give you an update on my hair. Seems like everything is starting to grow. My eyebrows are almost all grown in. They are very dark and thick. I can also put mascara on my eyelashes now. Very exciting! We are starting to see some new growth on my head. It's very tiny now and hard to see what color it's going to be at this point. I'm hoping that it comes in fast and I'll be able to go without a head cover for Christmas, but I really doubt it. Maybe by my birthday in January. That would be a good 30th birthday present for me! Ha! But hears to hoping.

Today I'm expecting some visitors. My sister is coming to a conference in Houston with a teacher friend of hers. I wanted to see my niece, so my mom is coming along as well so she can help me babysit while the girls are gone during the day. I'm pretty excited. They're only here for a few days, though. But it should be fun.

I'm feeling better and better everyday. My rib still hurts me, but less everyday. I'll feel 100% by the time my next surgery rolls around, then have to do it all over again. Oh, well. That'll be fine. Then I'll be done with everything!

Good news about the space shuttle. It landed without any problems at Kennedy Space Center. Yeah!

Geaux Tigers and Hook 'em Horns!

So yesterday was a good day for football in our family. The Texas Longhorns pulled out a win in the last seconds over Oklahoma State University. Then LSU played yet another exciting game against Alabama and our old coach Nick Saban. Very happy day in the Mauldin household. LSU should move up in the rankings to number 2 in the country. We're well on our way to the National Championship! Can't wait till January. Now, we have to cheer hard for the Saints, who play at noon. We actually get to watch the game since the Texans don't play until 3pm. Hopefully, they'll do us proud.

Not much else going on. Jeff has one more night shift to work tonight, then he should be on a regular schedule. I loved sleeping in for an extra hour today. It was nice. Anyway, that's all for now...

Benefit Dinner

Yesterday, Jeff and I went to Austin for the evening. Most of you know this, but for those of you who don't, I had a really great friend from Austin that passed away from breast cancer a couple of years ago. There is an endowment scholarship that has been started in her name. So last night there was a benefit dinner and auction held to raise money for the scholarship and to celebrate the fist recipient of the scholarship money. It was held at the Austin Club in downtown Austin. It was so nice! The place was decorated beautifully. The food was fantastic, also! I got to catch up with all my old friends I worked with in Austin. I had a really good time and I was glad we made the trip. We got home around 2am. I was tired and went straight to bed. Jeff stayed up a little while. He's been used to going to bed around 5am anyway, so that's what he did. He's still on night shift throughout the weekend. But he's doing well with that shift. Anyway, that's all for now. More later...

Next Surgery

I've got my schedule for the next (and final!) surgery. It's going to be on November 28. Another Wednesday. The Monday before I'll have a chest xray, lab, pulmonary function test, ultrasound of my leg, and a ct scan. It'll be one busy day. The following day is when I meet with my surgeon and the anesthesiologist. I will find out that Tuesday afternoon what time my surgery will be. So that's it. I'll be able to have a great Thanksgiving and should be recovered in time to really enjoy Christmas. Surgery is only 4 weeks away. Can't wait to do all this over again. Yeah, right. Anyway, that's all the info I have for right now. I'll keep you posted when I get anymore news.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Tonight, Jeff is working the night shift again, so if anyone has access to NASA tv, he can sometimes be spotted on it. You have to look for the space station control room and his desk is at the left, front. He's wearing a green shirt tonight. Erin and I are going over to a friends house a block over from us. We're going to hand out candy to all the trick or treaters in the neighborhood. Should be fun. I can't wait to see what the costumes will be. I think Bromley is already excited. He's been barking randomly all afternoon. Anyway, hope everyone has fun tonight and be careful!

More beautiful days...

Yesterday was another beautiful day in League City. Jeff's parent's were still in town, so we went to a few stores in the afternoon. Jeff has been working the night shift since there is a mission going on, so after he woke up, we ate lunch and then took the dogs to Challenger 7 park. It was a nice day and the dogs really enjoyed getting out in the fresh air. There is a nice boardwalk that leads to a marshy area so we sat and enjoyed the view for awhile. After that, we had a nice steak dinner and Jeff was off to work again.

Jeff's parents left this morning, so I'm on my own again. I'm feeling really good these days. Still having some pain, but nothing I can't handle. I'm still not able to drive or lift anything heavy, though. Those are my only limitations. Tomorrow is Halloween and I'm pretty excited about that. I love this holiday! Jeff won't be here to help my hand out candy, so I'm still working out a plan of attack! I can't handle the dogs and handing out candy by myself. I'll let you know what I decide to do.

Anyway, that's all for now. I hope everyone is having this great weather too. It's lovely!

A beautiful day in League City

Today was so pretty here. We went to League City park where they were having their Harvest Festival. There were some craft booths, none that were all that great. But this afternoon, they had a dog costume contest. So of course, I had to enter Bromley. Jeff's mother and I fixed his Halloween costume from last year to fit him. It was very big on him, but we sewed it so it was smaller on his head. He was Frankenstein, and I was sure he would win. But it was not meant to be. He was beaten by Sir Barks a Lot, a chihuahua dressed like a knight and a tiny poodle dressed as a punk rocker, dyed hair and all. We couldn't compete with that. Next year we'll have something very cool so he can win. Maybe we'll even enter Maggie. If she had her astronaut costume on she would have won. Hopefully between now and next year, I can find her another one. There is another costume competition coming up in a few weeks that I want to go to. It's called Woofstock 2007 and sponsored by the Bay Area SPCA. Sounds like fun so we're going to look into it. The website is www.BayAreaSPCA.org if anyone else is interested.

Healing nicely

Everyday I'm feeling better and better. Yesterday, my mom and I went shopping all day long. We left the house at 10:15 and didn't get home until 5:00! I can't believe I lasted that long. I was pretty tired though when we got home. It was nice to get out. I definately got my exercise. My mom left this morning and Jeff's parent's arrived around 3:00 this afternoon. They're here to babysit me for the rest of the week. I'm getting around ok, but I can't drive or lift anything heavier than 5-10 pounds. Thankfully, I don't have to go back to the doctor anytime soon, either. I don't have to see my surgeon again until right before my next surgery. We're thinking that it's probably going to be the week after Thanksgiving. That way I'll be healed nicely for Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's what I'm hoping for anyway.

Well, I'm pretty sleepy, so I'm headed off to bed now. More later...

Breakthrough!

Good news! My eyebrows and eyelashes are starting to grow back! I have half my eyebrows over my left eye and one eyebrow over my right eye. But now they are growing back. I can feel very tiny fuzzies coming in and I also have a blueish hue where my eyebrow line is. I have one eyelash left on my right eye, none on the left eye, but now you can see very tiny lashes starting to grow in, all at once on both eyes. I'm so excited! Anyway, just wanted to pass on the good news.

First night at home

Just wanted to let you know how my first night at home went. We got home yesterday afternoon around 3pm. We ate a late lunch at home. It was just Taco Bell, but it tasted wonderful compared to the hospital food! I took a long nap on the couch. So nice to be able to sleep and not be interrupted. When I woke up, I wasn't feeling very well, very nauseous. But I didn't exactly know why. I could have been hungry (I'm kinda weird like that, if I'm very hungry, I get nauseous), it could have been the medicine I'm taking or something else. But I choked down some chicken noodle soup and felt a somewhat better. But that feeling didn't last very long. I threw up about 45 minutes later. I felt ALOT better after that and then ate some apple pie! We went to bed shortly after that. I slept good during the 4 hour intervals I had between taking my medicine. Jeff was very sweet to me and woke me up every 4 hours and handed me the pills a glass of water. I slept until 8:45 this morning! It was wonderful sleeping in my own bed. We made breakfast tacos for breakfast and they were great. I then rested on the couch and dosed off and on. Jeff went to work, so my mom is staying with me. My pain has been under control for the most part. I'm getting used to it. It mainly is just really sore. I can still do the exercises I'm supposed to so that's all the matters.

Did anyone see the awesome LSU game this Saturday night? Unfortunately, we had to watch it in the hospital room on a very tiny tv and had to be pretty quiet since it was late at night and I had neighbors in both rooms next to me. But boy was it great. Thank goodness, cause it could have easily been very, very bad if that last pass was dropped. But the Gods were watching down on Tiger Stadium that night. Anyway, enough about that. More to come later...

Home Sweet Home

Just a quick post to let everyone know we have been discharged from the Hospital and are now resting at home! Lauri had all of her tubes, catheters, epidurals, and IVs disconnected yesterday, and was under observation as the pain team tried to manage her pain with oral medications. They were successful today, using both Norco (combo of Hydrocodone & Acetaminophen) and Oxycodone. We were sent home with presciptions for these two drugs, along with Ibuprofren.

Lauri is feeling good (who wouldn't, with the pain meds she's got, right??). Seriously, she has been doing great, and she is now resting comfortably. Perhaps now she can catch up on the rest she needs!

Recovery, Day 3

Well, so far Saturday has been a big day. I slept pretty good last night. I was itching due to the pain medicine I was getting, so I got some benedryl to help relieve that. As most of you know, the side effect of Benedryl is drowsiness, so I got a few hours of good sleep. I had to sleep with the nasal cannula on and apparently I didn't like it very much because at 2:30 am I was woken up by two nurses rushing into my room asking if I was OK. My nasal cannula somehow ended up underneath me and my oxygen saturations were falling below 90. (Normal is 90-100). I don't remember taking if off, but I did it a few times last night. Anyway, I don't need it anymore. They even took off the pulse oximeter, the thing they put on your finger to tell you how much oxygen your blood is getting. Yeah for that!

I also got my chest tube and catheter removed!!! I didn't realize how painful the chest tube was. It's awesome not having it in. Plus it's one less thing I have to tie me down. I have to leave the chest tube dressing on for 48 hours, then I can take it off. After that I can take a shower!!! (I'm taking sponge baths now) I should also get my iv out this afternoon. I get one more dose of iv pain meds, then I will be done with my iv. All things I'm looking forward too. I still have the epidural in place, but it's not hooked up to anything. I'm getting shots of heparin, so they wanted to wait four hours after that before they take out any lines which cause bleeding. Then I will be able to put on a real nightgown. These hospital gowns are terrible! If anyone wants to be something sexy for Halloween, you should wear one of these. Everything you want covered always pops out somehow and somewhere it shouldn't! Plus, it's backless. I guess it's legal to flash in the hospital. Anyway, that's my two cents. Let me know if anyone wants to wear it for a costume. I can sneak one home in my bag. No one will notice.

I guess that's all for now. I'm waiting for my wonderful lunch of grilled cheese. I've never had it before, so I hope it's good. If anything else happens, I'll post again. Until then...

Day 2 of recovery

Hi All! It's Lauri. I figured I would post since Jeff was gone all night and all day. My mom spent the night with me and all day. I had a much better night. Still up pretty often, but I got some good chunks of uninterrupted sleep. They finally got my pain under control. Besides the epidural with the pca pump (I can press the button and give myself a little extra medicine), I'm getting another medicine every 6 hours, round the clock, plus a pain patch on my shoulder. I had to have a little oxygen last night (2 liter nasal cannula) because my oxygen saturation would fall every time I fell asleep. It's off right now, we'll see if I need it tonight when I go to sleep. Hopefully I won't need it. I still have the chest tube. I'll probably get that taken out tomorrow. Once that's out, the epidural and catheter come out as well. Then home the day after that! So we're looking at probably Sunday when I get to come home.

Overall, I was less drowsy today. Again, they finally figured out the right dose of pain medicine. I had a much better day today. I was up more today, walking around the nurses station and sitting in the chair in my room. I've been doing my respiratory exercises like I'm supposed to, so I can prevent pneumonia. I've seen so many doctors today! Starting at 7:30 this morning until 4:30 this afternoon. My clinical oncologist showed up this morning to check on me, 2 surgeons, numerous pain doctors and nurses. It's been crazy! Anyway, that's about all. Thanks for the phone calls and prayers. They are working. That's all for now...

Recovery Day 1

Lauri was out of the bed and walking today. She has been walking laps around the nurses station about three times a day, beginning today. She is very tired, barely able to keep her eyes open. She actually falls asleep in the middle of doing things (she is already lying down of course), which gives me and her mother a good laugh... You may find that cruel, until you witness it yourself... Just imagine you are about to do somethi...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Anyway, the Anesthesiologists are continuing to try to find the right dose of pain medication for Lauri. They do not want to give her too much like they had before, but we also don't want to have too little. They are converging on a solution with the epidural, and have been using IV pain medications when the pain gets to be a little too much. On the whole, Lauri has been in little pain. She usually feels uncomfortable when she has to do her breathing excercises and walks. Can't imagine why that is...

We saw the Surgeon again this morning. He says Lauri's lung is healing nicely. He hopes to be able to remove her chest tube (used to drain fluid from the surgical area) as soon as tomorrow evening, but more likely on Saturday.

Lauri got some good rest today and will hopefully get some more tonight. Last night the alarms and beeps from her medication pumps kept us both up nearly all night. Hopefully things work out better this evening.

Surgery 1 Success!

It was a long day, but Lauri has come through her first surgery so far with flying colors! Our Surgeon was able to remove the tumor while minimizing the amount of lung tissue he had to take. He also found no other tumors in the left lung...a REALLY good sign!

Lauri went into the operating room for surgery around 11:00am, and she was finished by 12:30pm. She had an extended stay in the recovery room, waiting as she woke up from the anesthesia. Lauri has a Thoracic Epidural for pain, which numbs the nerves in chest area of the body. This is different from a lower lumbar epidural which is commonly given to pregnant women at childbirth. Lower Lumbar epidurals are generally more potent since they must cover both the lower back as well as the woman's...uh...lower front. Anyway - you get the picture...

Lauri's epidural was actually a little too good. After surgery in the recovery room, Lauri noticed that the numbness extended from her chest into her fingers. The anesthesiologist backed off the epidural dosage and used other pain medications via IV as they recalibrated the epidural dosage. No big deal, all is fixed now. The extended stay in the recovery room was due primarily to the epidural issues. Lauri has plenty of pain medications and she is feeling good with little to no pain.

The Surgeon used a "Wedge Resection" to remove the tumor. Basically, think of this as a pie slice of the lung, with the tumor in the middle of the pie slice. This approach leaves behind as much healthy lung tissue as possible. The Surgeon did NOT have to take the entire lower lobe of the lung, which is really good news. Further, the Surgeon could not find any other tumors in the left lung. This is great news because it raises our chances of being completely cancer free for life once the surgeries are complete.

Lauri is on a clear liquid diet until tomorrow, at which point she can begin having "other liquids." Eventually, perhaps by the second day, she will be able to eat regular food again.

I know those reading this blog and many others had been praying for Lauri's health and a successful surgery. I want to tell you thank you so much for your prayers, there is no doubt that they led to the great success and blessings God has given us today. I also ask that you keep up the good work, we have one more round to go. And for that matter, we still have difficult days ahead as Lauri recovers from major lung surgery.

Lauri and I were supported today by her Mom, Dad, Stepmom, Sister and her family. They were all a great help in keeping us all in good spirits throughout the day.

As I was writing this note, Lauri actually got out of bed (with the nurse's help) and is sitting up for the first time since surgery! It's amazing how quickly they have her getting up and around. We may actually go walking later tonight. We'll see!

Finally, for those who would like to send flowers, I wanted to let you know that it is generally MD Anderson's policy to not allow flowers or plants to be delivered to the patient's room. This is due to possible fungal spores that may come with the plant or the soil that could cause infection in the patient. I would recommend holding off on sending any flowers or anything like that until after we have left the hospital and are at home.

That's about it for now. I will provide updates as they come along...

Surgery Time

Quick update. I have to check in for surgery at 9:45 am tomorrow morning. I'm guessing I'm second on the surgery schedule since I don't have to be there at the crack of dawn (thank goodness!). It'll take about 45 minutes to an hour for them to prep me for surgery (intubated, epidural, etc.). So surgery will probably start around 11ish. I should be in surgery for about 2.5 hours, then 2-3 hours in recovery. Then into a regular room after that. I'll be in the hospital for 3-7 days, on average 5. Jeff will write an update tomorrow night letting everyone know how it went. So that's it. Now I'm going to eat a nice meal and then go shopping! Later...

Busy Day

Today I had a busy, but very relaxing day. My BFF Michelle came into town on Friday and stayed the weekend with me. My mom came in last night in preparation for my surgery. So this morning us three girls went and got manis and pedis. It was very nice. I haven't gotten a pedicure since May, right before I started chemo. Michelle left this morning after we got back. After lunch, my mom and I got massages at Herbana Spa in Clear lake. I got an hour long relaxation massage and my mom got a 30 minute stress relieving massage. I loved every minute of mine! It felt so good! Thanks to Tena for giving me the gift certificate! I would recommend that spa to anyone. They were super nice. My mom even got her massage free! They were having some sort of "special" on 30 minute massages, so hers was free. You can't beat that.
After our massages, we went shopping at HEB, Wal-Mart and Target. It is so nice to be able to go out and do that sort of thing without being totally drained from just walking around. Anyway, I got some cute pj's to wear in the hospital, as well as a new robe for the hospital. We also found the dog costumes at Target. As most of you know, we have two dogs, Maggie and Bromley, a springer spaniel and a maltese. I bought the cutest costume for Maggie, but it didn't fit. It was an astronaut! How appropriate, right? Too bad it didn't fit. She needs an XL and they didn't have that size. I'll have to return it tomorrow. I almost got the policeman outfit for Bromley. It was so cute!
Tomorrow Jeff has his final to become a HawkI. That is the "backroom" position in mission control. I know he'll do great! While he's at work, my mom and I will be at MD Anderson. I have to do a pulmonary function test, lab work, chest xray and I have doctors appointments with the surgeon, my study doctor (just a followup since I'm no longer in the study) and the anesthesiologist. I should find out tomorrow what time my surgery is.
Anyway, that's the news for now. I'll post tomorrow when I know what time my surgery will be. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers and cards and support. I appreciate all of it.

Our "mini" vacation

Jeff and I just back from a nice, long weekend in Louisiana. We had a great time. We got in Friday afternoon, visited some friends we hadn't seen in a few months and then headed over to our other friends house who we were spending the weekend with. Saturday morning, we split up and the boys went to the shooting range and the girls went to the mall. I met my best friend and my sister, brother-in-law and niece there. Not a long visit, but a good one. In the afternoon, we headed to New Orleans where we were spending the night. After checking into the hotel, we got dressed for dinner and headed over to Mr. B's, a really nice restaurant where we ate dinner. After a yummy dinner of barbecued shrimp (Jeff had shrimp wrapped in bacon over grits) and dessert of bread pudding, we headed back to the hotel to watch #1 LSU beat #9 Florida in football. Sunday morning we got up, checked out of the hotel and headed over to the Superdome to watch the Saints game. They ended up losing the game, but we still had a lot of fun. Back in Baton Rouge, the newest store is Cabello's. It just opened last week, but on Sunday evening, it was packed! It is a fun store just to look around. They have some cool stuff there. After Cabello's, we went to eat at Superior Grill, then went to Coffee Call to have dessert of beignets and coffee. So yummy! Monday we had a lazy morning, ate some poboys for lunch then did a little LSU shopping. We headed home in the afternoon. All in all, we had a really, really nice time. It got our minds off of things and we just had some good fun for a change. That's all for now...

Jeff's Birthday, CVC removal and the mouse

Today is Jeff's birthday, so I got up early (which for me is 8:00am!) and made cupcakes and brought them to work and surprised him. He left work early and we went to MD and got my cvc removed! Yeah! I'm so happy to have that thing out. I have to keep a bandage on it for one more day, but tomorrow I get to take a shower without having to tape it up with press and seal. Jeff's excited because he doesn't have to change my dressing anymore. After that, we went shopping so Jeff could spend his birthday money. He got some dvd's, cd's and a watch. All in all, not a bad day. Oh and last night as we were watching tv in the living room, I saw a mouse run along the wall and into our "fake" fireplace. We have had one mouse in the house last year and caught it with sticky traps. We've had sticky traps out since we caught that one just in case there were more, but never had signs of anymore, until last night. So we put out 2 fresh traps last night, along side the old trap, and hoped for the best. All morning I could hear the little mouse squeaking from behind the fireplace. I even tried "smoking" him out by turning on the fireplace thinking it would get too hot and he would run out right into our traps. But no such luck. So we left for the afternoon, but lo and behold when we returned tonight, there was the little mouse, stuck in the old trap. Thank goodness! He's now in the garbage where he belongs. Hopefully he was the only one. We shall see. Anyway, that was our day, a good day all around.

The week in review

It's been awhile since I last posted so I'll just let you in on what we've been doing this past week.

This last weekend, Jeff and I and a group of friends of ours went down to Galveston and stayed at our Aunt and Uncle's beach house. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time relaxing, watching football and playing games. It was so nice to get out of the house for a change. We really enjoyed ourselves.

Monday-Friday I've had lab. The good thing is I did it at the Bay Area Clinic so I didn't have to go all the way into Houston except for one day. This helps a lot since I can go by myself.

Tuesday I went shopping with a friend of mine from work. I haven't been to the mall since May! I even bought a new LSU hat and a pair of jeans. I really enjoyed myself.

Thursday NASA and UT held a get together for all the UT grads that work at NASA. It was pretty cool to see how many alums work there now. It was a good turnout.

Now I have a funny story about what happened today. I was going into the building to get my lab work done and I was waiting for the elevator. There was a man there waiting with his daughter who was maybe 3 years old. She was talking away and then she looked back at me and said "She's a pirate!" (because I was wearing a scarf on my head). I started laughing but the dad looked embarrassed and apologized for his daughter's comment. I told him it was alright, it was pretty funny. Anyway, thought ya'll might enjoy that. Have a good day!

Blood transfusion

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, but I got a blood/platelet transfusion which took FOREVER! I left the house at 8am and didn't get back until 10pm. LONG day, but well worth it. I got 2 units of PRBC's and 6 units of platelets. I feel so good today! Amazing what a little extra blood will do for you.

Tonight I think we are going to eat with friends and then going to play some board games at their house. Should be fun. It'll be nice to get out while I feel good. Hopefully this feeling will last and I won't be so tired anymore.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Plan

Lauri and I met with the Thoracic Surgeon today. We discussed what kind of surgery Lauri will have, the risks involved, schedule, and recovery. This will be another long post, with plenty detail on the surgery procedure. For those who prefer, here is the cliff notes version:

Lauri is scheduled for the first of two surgeries on October 17. The surgeon will work on Lauri's left lung to remove the tumor that is nearest the heart first. Six weeks later, on or near November 28, Lauri will undergo the second surgery to remove the two tumors in the right lung. After each surgery, a 5-7 day stay at the MD Anderson Hospital is expected, followed by recovery continuing at home.

And now for the details...

The Thoracic Surgeon confirmed that a "Stage Thoracotomy" is the preferred approach for Lauri's condition as opposed to a Sternotomy. A Sternotomy involves accessing the lungs via incision in the center of the chest, breaking the sternum bone, as in open heart surgery. This method, while providing access to both lungs simultaneously, generally results in the surgeon removing larger portions of lung tissue.

A Stage Thoracotomy involves working on one lung at a time. The surgeon generally only takes small sections of lung tissue in this case. For Lauri, the surgeon will work on her left lung first. There will be a ~4-5 inch incision parallel to the ribs, located around the middle of the rib cage on the left side of her back. Once incised, muscle is moved out of the way (a process referred to as "muscle sparing") and the ribs are literally spread apart enough to gain access to the lung.

The surgeon will use his hands and a bronchial scope (a scope placed through the trachea into the lung) to locate the tumor. The tumor will then be recessed (cut out) along with margin. Margin is simply surrounding tissue (about a millimeter to a couple millimeters thick), which is removed to guarantee the surgeon gets all of the cancer cells. According to the surgeon, he will not have to remove very much extra lung tissue, such as removing an entire lobe, to remove the tumor.

Chest tubes will be placed at the site to allow for drainage of fluids out of the area surrounding the lung. The chest tube is a large tube (perhaps 1 inch in diameter) that is placed near the lung, through the incision site, and connected to a container to collect the drainage. Once the wound is no longer draining, the tube will be removed. We expect this to occur around 2-3 days after surgery.

Lauri will be put to sleep during the surgery, as well as receive epidural pain medication during and after surgery. The epidural line will remain in place for around 3 days. Afterwards, Lauri will be put on oral pain medication for as long as she needs it...Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too...

We expect to be discharged from the hospital 5 to 7 days after the surgery. We will continue recovery at home, with expected "pain and discomfort" to persist for about 4 to 6 weeks. We will return to the hospital for the second surgery on the right lung 6 weeks after the first surgery, or around November 28. It is expected that Lauri will retain much of her lung capacity after both surgeries are completed.

The surgeon has decided to work on the left lung first because the tumor in the left lung is located near the heart. The two tumors in the right lung are not near other organs, and are considered lower priority (they can wait...).

The greatest risk of this surgery is the risk of pneumonia. To combat pneumonia, Lauri will have to do very frequent lung exercises using a tool called an "Incentive Spirometer". Open heart surgery patients use these too, so you may be familiar with them. The Incentive Spirometer requires the patient to inhale deeply and slowly, trying to draw enough air to keep a marker "ball" within a specified location. The device exercises the lungs while also providing a measure of lung capacity, and causing the patient to inhale deeply. Short breaths can lead to a pneumonia condition, and patients with chest pain are known to draw short breaths.

Lauri will also have to do arm exercises, basically stretches, to maintain full range of motion of the arms as the incision heals. She will not be permitted to pick up anything heavier than a newborn (so this means she can work then??). The information we received actually says that the patient cannot use a vacuum cleaner either, due to the pushing action....figures...

We really like our Thoracic Surgeon. He is very patient with us, and covered all of the details thoroughly. He has a good handle on Lauri's condition, and is very proactive in getting us all the help and information we need. He is also very straight with us, and wanted us to understand a very important point:

The chemotherapy and surgery process is 30-40% effective in curing the disease. While these odds are better than nothing, they are far short of a guarantee. We need to be prepared in the event the surgery is not successful in completely removing the disease. While Lauri's three nodules show up clearly in the CT scans, there may be more nodules out there, small enough to not show up on the scans and small enough that he cannot feel them during surgery. It only takes a single cell to split and grow into a tumor. If the tumors return, we will likely continue chemotherapy, followed by additional surgery.

I mention the above statement because while we have fought hard and fought well, the fight truly never ends. Even if we are cancer free after this surgery, others are not. We all have to work to prevent, in addition to cure, the cancer.

We are confident that the surgery will be successful in removing the tumors from Lauri's lungs. We must accomplish at least this in order to get to our final goal of becoming cancer free. We are blessed to have great doctors, family, and friends that fight along side us and keep us going.

It has been a hard path so far, having to stand by and watch as Lauri has lost hair, weight, and sometimes her lunch... But one thing she has never lost is her heart. It has been an inspiration to watch her continue to push forward even in the midst of great difficulty and pain. I pray that this surgery finally brings some release and reprieve from the cancer. But I am thankful that I am blessed to walk through life with such a great friend and wife.

The weekend review and appointment with surgeon

This weekend was pretty relaxing. Friday night we celebrated the end of chemo with some friends at a local Mexican restaurant and then went back to Cory and Erin's for some Catchphrase. The girls team lost this round, but we'll be back to get them the next time around! Saturday we went to our other friend's house to watch the UT game. We left at halftime to meet our next round of visitors at our house, Papa and Debbie. We went out for some good fried seafood from Abe's for dinner. Sunday was a lazy day of watching pro football. It was nice not doing anything for a change.

Today I went to the clinic and had my lab drawn. Everything looked good today, but the doc assumes I'm going to need blood and/or platelets by the end of the week. I'm feeling kinda tired even right now, so it might do me some good.

We also got our appointments for the surgeon, which is tomorrow at 8:00am. Kinda sucks since I don't need to go to the medical center until Wed and Fri and they have my appt tomorrow. I also have a pulmonary function test scheduled for this week and guess when they have it...Thursday. Can't these people get my stuff all on the same day? Sheesh. Now I have to go every day this week to the medical center. Anyway, enough complaining. At least I will get some answers tomorrow from the surgeon. We'll keep you posted on what he says.

Final Round

Lauri finished her fourth and final day of chemotherapy today! She is doing well, feeling a little tired but ready to get rid of the backpack... We go back tomorrow (9/14) to get unhooked, hopefully for the last time! To say we are excited would be an understatement...

Our Oncologist met with the Thoracic Surgeons on Wednesday to discuss Lauri's case. Our good news was confirmed, the surgeons believe they can do the surgery and remove all of the cancerous tumors! Our Oncologist said she was very fortunate that the two best surgeons in the Thoracic group meet with her (she called them both "phenomenal surgeons"). She has put in the paperwork for us to work with either one of them, whichever is available.

We expect to hear word on when our appointment with the Thoracic surgeon will be within a week from now. We anticipate discussing the surgical procedure, expected dates of the surgery, and what kind of recovery process will be required. Lauri is also being scheduled for a pulmonary test in order to determine how her lungs function now, which will help the surgeons decide how much lung tissue they can remove.

On another note, the Artist formerly known as Lauri has created another masterpiece. I am really impressed with her ability. I think she is impressed too, but won't admit it. She says she isn't really any good. I told her that if you ever meet an artist that thinks he or she is good, then walk away. The art is guaranteed to be garbage...

For your viewing pleasure

A big day tomorrow, the final unhook, and the last day of chemotherapy! Its been a long time coming, and an exhausting path the get here, but we are truly happy to be through this big step. We are very optimistic about the surgery. We have the best of the best Thoracic Surgeons working on our situation. They do this stuff every day, and we have no doubt they will do their job well. We will keep you posted when we hear more details about schedule and surgery. Thanks for fighting along with us, we are almost there!

One down, 3 to go...

Today was the first day of my last week of chemo!! I still feel pretty good. Just a little tired and yes, already annoyed with my backpack. Today Jeff's dad came with me to chemo. And if you didn't know, he's an artist, a very good one at that (check out his work at http://www.chuckmauldin.com). And if you know me at all, you know I don't have a crafty or artistic bone in my body. That said, he brought his watercolors to the hospital in an effort to get me to paint something. I was hesitant at first, since I can't even draw a stick figure straight, but I just thought, what the heck, let's go for it. So he patiently taught me the rough ends and outs of watercolor, which is supposed to be the hardest thing to paint with. So after a few hours here's what mine looked like:

And yes, this really is mine and not his. I'm pretty pleased with it. It came out WAY better than I was expecting.

Onto another topic. As if anyone didn't know, this weekend was a big one for football fans. The great LSU played an outstanding game against Virginia Tech and came out with a big victory. As most of you know, we are HUGE LSU fans and even Maggie, our dog participates in the celebrating. Here is a picture of her pre-game with her LSU bandanna on, lovingly given to her by my best friend, thanks Michelle!

Here is Maggie after the game, all pooped out from celebrating all the touchdowns LSU scored. She was pooped!

Also, a couple of my really good friends from Austin came by for a few days last week and brought me a surprise. A beautiful quilt made of pictures of me, Jeff and the friends I worked with at Seton in Austin. It came out awesome! I hope the pictures come out so you can see them. Thanks, Lesa and Krislyn! I love it!

That's all the news for now. More later on...

Results Day - End of Cycle 5

We had our big meeting with our Oncologist today. This is a really long post, so if you need the cliff notes... The bottom line: Lauri's tumors have shrunk compared to the baseline CT scan taken on May 24! We will proceed with the 6th cycle of chemotherapy, followed closely by surgery to remove the nodules. Now for the details...

Our Oncologist showed us the CT scan images taken yesterday along with the images taken right before we began chemotherapy (May 24), and we could all see visible reduction in size of the three tumors. The tumors are not melting away, but they are gradually shrinking. The official report from the Radiologist says there is no visible change, however they typically only compare the current images to those take most recently (3 to 6 weeks ago). The short term change in the tumor size is very little, but the cumulative change, which is what we looked at today, is more noticeable.

Since the tumors are not shrinking dramatically, the Oncologist sees no additional benefit of continuing chemotherapy past the 6th cycle. Therefore, the 6th cycle, which begins on Monday, will be the final cycle! As we have seen with Lauri, the longer she is exposed to chemotherapy, the longer it takes for her blood counts to recover. Adding chemotherapy cycles increases the risk to Lauri by extending the time with low blood counts, during which time she has an increased risk of infection, fatigue, and uncontrolled bleeding. Since we have gotten the disease under control, as is exhibited by the fact that her tumors have shrunk compared to when we started, our Oncologist decided the chemotherapy has done its job, and there is no need for any more cycles after cycle 6.

As for the "stuff" in the left lung, I am very pleased to announce that the "stuff" was indeed due to infection. Lauri's left lung is completely clear of the "stuff" in the CT scan we saw today. This made the Oncologist very happy, claiming that we nearly gave her a heart attack when we had that stuff show up the first time on Lauri's CT! We agreed that our heart attack was probably worse than hers when she told us it might be additional tumor growth... Thankfully, it was only an infection that has been eliminated with antibiotics.

Where do we go next?

Lauri will proceed with cycle 6 of chemotherapy on Monday. This will be her final cycle of chemotherapy. On Wednesday (9/12), our Oncologist will meet with a group of Thoracic Surgeons to discuss Lauri's case and possible surgical options. We expect to get the results of this conference on Thursday (9/13).

*The following is what we expect to happen next based on our Oncologist's experience. Be advised, we have NOT received confirmation from the Thoracic Surgeons yet, so nothing has been scheduled, and all plans are subject to drastic changes...

Our Oncologist expects to clear Lauri for surgery 4 weeks after the beginning of her final round. In terms of dates, Lauri will be ready for surgery as soon as October 8. Typically, the Thoracic surgeons work on one lung at a time. This process is referred to as a "Stage Thoracotomy."

For a Stage Thoracotomy, the surgeon will work on lung "A" first, sew everything back up, and allow around 6 weeks for healing. After 6 weeks, a second surgery to address lung "B" will be conducted. About 8 weeks after the second surgery, we would meet with our Oncologist to see how things are going. If we prove to be cancer free, then we return to the 3 month checkup schedule we were on before (i.e. return to normal life...).

As for the operation(s) itself, we don't have details yet. We have been told that the surgeon typically goes in from the side of the torso, as opposed to the front (break the chest bone, similar to open heart surgery). Our Oncologist added that two of the three nodules in Lauri's lung may be "tricky" to remove, but should be possible. The one nodule of concern is located on the outside edge of the right lung, attached to the "pleura", which is the sack that surrounds the lung. Nodules located here can be tricky to remove, according to our Oncologist. The other nodule of concern is located within the left lung, just behind the heart. The issue for this nodule is access, trying to get the "nodule plus margin" without damaging the heart.

You may recall from emails sent during Lauri's first surgery that in order to remove a tumor, the Surgeon must take not only the tumor, but also the surrounding tissue. The surrounding tissue is removed in order to guarantee that all of the cancer cells are removed. Leaving only one behind provides the chance for the cancer to return. In Lauri's case, the surrounding tissue may mean just a few centimeters of lung material surrounding the tumor, or perhaps an entire lobe. Unfortunately, we won't likely know how much tissue the Surgeon will take until the surgery is over. This decision is made during surgery, with the Surgeon doing everything he or she must to remove all of the cancer.

The surgery will undoubtedly be very dangerous and full of risk. However, we are confident since these Thoracic Surgeons do this literally every day, and are some of the world's best. This is also our only hope for being cancer free.

That's about all we have right now. Overall, Lauri and I view the day as a win for the home team. We got what we wanted: shrinkage of the tumors, and a chance to be cancer free. The alternative to doing surgery is to find a way to live with the cancer, having to endure chemotherapy in varying dosages and varieties for the rest of her life. Chemo is not fun, so we choose to take our shot and deliver the final blow to this disease. This is what we have wanted from the beginning, a chance to win...

Test Day

Today we went to the hospital for lab, a doctor's appointment, chest xray, and ct scan. Not sure what the labs looked like, except for my platelets. They were 69 today. They ideally should be around 100 before I get chemo again, so hopefully in the next few days they'll come up. I saw my study doctor today. This will be my last round with the Pallafermin. It's only done for 6 rounds of chemo, so if I do rounds 7 and 8, I will not get the drug. I have my appointment with my chemo doctor tomorrow afternoon to get the results of the ct scan. I'm anxious to see if my tumors have shrunk. We're praying that they have. I think I will have another ct scan in 3 weeks to determine if we're going to stop there or go on to rounds 7 and 8. I'm excited to be almost done with this. So tomorrow I'll post what the results were from my ct scan. Stay tuned...

Weekend Review

I know it's been a few days since I posted something so I'll try to let you know what's been going on these last few days. I've been feeling really good and I didn't have to go to the hospital! Yeah! Anyway, here's what's been going on:

Friday: I ended up needing platelets. I got to get them here in Clearlake, which was nice. I had to get admit ed to St. John's hospital. I went to outpatient surgery, got my own room with a bathroom and TV and received the platelets. They give you IV benedryl before you get any kind of transfusion, so I was out, taking a nice long nap during most of it. The whole transfusion still took awhile, but I was done at 4:30 and only had to fight NASA 1 traffic instead of Houston traffic. Much nicer! I felt pretty good that night so we headed to the movies to meet some friends to watch The Bourne Ultimatum. It was really good!!!

Saturday: Had more lab work to do, so we headed down to MD Anderson since the Clearlake clinic is closed on the weekends and holidays. Labs looked OK, no transfusion of blood needed, which was good. We meet some friends for lunch, then hung out for awhile. We watched some good college football games that night. We are both excited that football season is here again!

Sunday: We woke up super early to go get lab done in case I needed a transfusion. We had some good friends coming to visit from Baton Rouge and wanted to be home by the time they arrived. Labs looked pretty good again, so no transfusion today. We made it home before our friends arrived. They came in the afternoon and we had a nice barbecue dinner that Jeff made on the grill. It was yummy!! We ended up just hanging out at the house and watching movies that night.

Monday: Got to sleep in a little this morning. We ate some breakfast, then saw our friends off. We headed back into the car right after they left, back to MD for more lab work. Turns out, no transfusion needed again today. My hemoglobin is 7.5, so I'm borderline still, but hopefully tomorrow my counts will be going back up. If not, then I get my transfusion here in Clearlake, so that will be nice.

So that pretty much sums up our weekend. Wish we could have gone somewhere fun instead of MD every day, but that's the way it goes. We had a good time with all our friends instead. That's all for now...

Blood Bank info at MD Anderson in Clearlake

Yesterday I got some info on the blood bank at the Clearlake MD Anderson in case anyone was interested in giving blood around this area. That way you wouldn't have to go all the way to the medical center. So the center is right by St. John's Hospital on NASA Road 1. Go into the MD Anderson building. The lab is in Suite 380. The phone number is 713-834-6668. The hours are:
Monday: 8am-4:30pm
Tues/Thurs: 11:30am-8pm
Wed/Fri: 6:30am-3pm

You need to call and make an appointment if you are giving platelets and the last platelet appointment is 2 hours before they close. Also, you will need a picture id to donate.

Hope this info helps.

*For those that don't live in Houston, read my mom's comment from this entry. It will direct you to how you can donate in your area.

Meeting with the New Doctor at Clearlake MD Anderson

So I had the meeting with the doctor at the new Clearlake Campus of MD Anderson this morning. He is very nice and I really like him. He seemed to be on the same page with our thinking and wants to make everything easier for us by doing everything we can locally instead of going all the way to the medical center. The facility itself was very nice and everyone was very friendly. It looks like I'll be able to do most of my labs there, as well as any transfusions I need. I cannot do chemo there, but that's ok. The labs are our biggest concern at the moment. The doctor is supposed to coordinate with my chemo doctor and the study doctor and see if we can consolidate some of the labs they require. I'm supposed to get a call sometime this afternoon about that.

Anyway, I love the new facility and I'm excited to be able to go there. I'm feeling pretty good health wise. Tired as usual, but still able to get around pretty good. Not much of an appetite, but still eating like I should. That's all for now. More later...

Chemo Round 5, Day 4

Lauri finished her fourth day of chemo round 5 today. She is feeling alright, just really tired at times. Some of that fatigue is due to early appointments at MD Anderson. She gets her Mesna and Adriamycin pumps unhooked tomorrow. She is really excited for that to happen!

Once Lauri gets unhooked tomorrow, then we just take it easy and try not to catch a fever. We never found out why Lauri ran a fever during the last round. We only hope that whatever caused it is gone now. At the end of this cycle, Lauri will have another CT scan to help us determine if the old "stuff" in the left lung has finally disappeared, as well as a status on her other tumors. As always, we'll keep you posted...

Chemo Round 5 - Day 1

Lauri finished day 1 of the 5th round of her chemotherapy today. She is feeling fine, but she isn't very thrilled about her "baggage." As you may remember, Lauri is now being given her Adriamycin over a 72 hour continuous infusion. They put her Adriamycin, along with her Mesna, in her backpack, along with pumps for both medicines. It adds a little weight to the bag, but she carries it just fine, even though she will say otherwise...

At our appointment with our Oncologist last week we arranged to have Lauri's blood work done at the new MD Anderson wing at Christus St. John's Hospital in Clear Lake (right next to NASA = close to home). Our Oncologist knows the two doctors stationed at the new wing, and she called to arrange an appointment for us next week. Hopefully, we can begin getting Lauri's blood work done at the new wing immediately after the appointment. It will be a lot closer for us, and a greatly reduced impact on the car and our schedule.

Also, for the record, I found out today that I have a blood type of A+. I told Lauri that she should be proud that I have the best blood around! You can't get anything better than an A+, right?!? Needless to say, she was not impressed. Geez...

River Rafting at MD Anderson

Lauri and I returned to MD Anderson for our standard blood tests, chest x-ray, and meeting with the study doctor. Lauri's counts look good, so it looks like we are set for continuing chemotherapy with round 5 beginning on Monday. Our Oncologist will give the final word at our meeting tomorrow.

How they will administer the chemotherapy drugs to Lauri for the next two rounds will be changing. As you may remember from past notes, Lauri takes two chemotherapy drugs: Ifosfamide and Adriamycin. Up to now, Lauri receives Adriamycin via a "bolus", which is basically an IV bag given over 1 hour or so, on the first day only. She receives Ifosfamide over 3 hours for 4 consecutive days. The change is that Lauri will now receive Adriamycin via a "continuous infusion" over 72 hours. What does this mean to people who speak english? Instead of receiving Adriamycin via IV on day 1, she will instead get a fanny pack with the Adriamycin and a small pump that will infuse the medication much more slowly (over 72 hours instead of 1 hour). Administration of the Ifosfamide will not change.

Providing Adriamycin via continuous infusion translates to a greatly reduced risk to the heart, meaning we will no longer require the Zinicard medication. There is a greater risk of mouth sores, however, we take the study drug Palifermin to counteract that side effect. The change to the fanny pack was made to bring our medication process more in line with the study we are on. Some studies require Adriamycin to be given via bolus, while others require continuous infusion. Either way, Lauri will receive the same dose of Adriamycin, just with more "baggage" this time...

The really interesting part of our visit to the hospital was the ride home. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get home today due to extensive flooding in the downtown and Medical Center areas of Houston. We got our money's worth out of the navigation system in our car! We tried all kinds of ways of getting out of Houston, with just about all of them being blocked due to high water. We eventually weaved through subdivisions and roads we had never been on before, through the ghetto, to get to the interstate. We got home, though. Trouble is, we have to go back tomorrow, with more rain expected later today. Hopefully the water levels will fall...

Home Sweet Home

Well, we finally checked out of Ritz Anderson and arrived home around 12:30ish. It's going to be a short visit home because we have to go back tomorrow for more lab work, chest xray and doctor's visit with the study doctor. Friday back again for another doctor's visit and the Pallifermin. Fun, fun. Overall I feel really good. My counts are all in a good range. I feel a little sleepy because of the terrible sleep you get in a hospital. I'm sure Jeff and I will both sleep well tonight in our own bed. He says sleeping on the "chair which folds out into a bed" was not very comfortable and he felt like he had been camping for the last 4 nights in a tent that was pitched on rocks. He'll sleep like a baby tonight, I'm sure!

Just wanted to thank everyone for the phone calls and well wishes while I was in the hospital. It helped the time fly right on by (wink, wink). Anyway, glad to be home and not attached to the iv pole. That's all for now.

PS. Chemo is still on for next week as of right now. We'll keep you posted if that changes.

Still Vacationing at MD Anderson

We finally got to talk with our Oncologist today (she was out yesterday). She told us that Lauri will need to stay in the hospital through Wednesday, possibly as long as Thursday. Lauri's start date for Round 5 of chemotherapy will be pushed back about a week to allow Lauri's health to return. It's not so much that Lauri is feeling bad right now, it is more that the doctors want to give her body additional time to counteract whatever it is that put her in the hospital. No medicine can compare to the body's natural ability to fight infection, specifically those white blood cells. Stepping directly into another round of chemo will obliterate those white cells again, leaving the door open for further proliferation of infection.

The decision was made to no longer provide Lauri with any Tylenol beginning on Sunday afternoon. Tylenol would only be administered if her fever had risen above 101 deg for four hours or more. Instead, Lauri's temperature was managed with ice packs. She did have a temperature of around 102 on Sunday evening, but it has since fallen and she has had no fever since Sunday evening. She must remain without fever for at least 48 hours before our Oncologist will allow her to leave the hospital. They decided to stop providing Tylenol in order to better track the behavior and magnitude of the fever. Tylenol masks the fever, giving the doctors no insight into its actual value, and how it is effected by blood counts, antibiotic medication, etc. Relieving the fever is merely relieving a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself...

We also spoke with our Oncologist about the maximum number of chemo rounds we should expect, and what the path forward from here would be. She told us that we will complete 6 rounds (we have finished 4 to date), and then re-evaluate. At this point, she has neither ruled in nor ruled out surgery. In order for surgery to take place, our doctor must be satisfied that the disease is under control and that surgery would be able to remove 100% of the tumors. At this point, she is not sold that either criteria is met.

Her concern arises from the "stuff" that had shown up in Lauri's left lung. She is not going to proceed with surgery if the stuff remains, or grows, meaning the disease is not under control. As we saw in the previous CT scan, it looks like this "stuff" is going away, and was likely due to infection. Until it is totally gone, though, it will continue to be a roadblock. The next CT scan should provide more information on this front.

So the path forward is that we will continue with two more rounds of chemo, and then take a look at where we are. If the tumors have been controlled (no growth, perhaps shrinkage) and the stuff in the left lung is gone, then we will meet with the surgeons to determine if the remaining tumors are operable. If the tumors have not been controlled, or if the stuff in the left lung persists, then changes to the chemo dosage, drug type, and/or frequency will be made, and additional rounds will be required.

In the meantime, Lauri remains at the hospital, relaxing and trying to "be cool". Keep posting comments, she reads them all the time. Thanks for all of your support!