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...