FINDINGS
The superior mediastinal mass seen previously is no longer evident. The lungs are clear. The cardiac silhouette and pulmonary vasculature are now unremarkable. Regional osseous structures of the thorax demonstrate no acute change.
CONCLUSION
Superior mediastinal mass seen previously is no longer evident.
Interpretation is that Sarah is doing GREAT!! We just really really really like to be unremarkable in this way. We have yet to meet with the oncologist, but the doctor who refered us to get the initial CT scan called today to say the scans looked great. Aaaahhh.
Thanks for the prayers. Happy Day.
Jeanne
Monday, June 11, 2007
Friday, June 08, 2007
scan results from May 31 '07
Well, this report was a little mixed. It sounds like there is a bit of bone involvement again in the spine (lumbar region), but there is also some sclerosing going on, which means healing. Same in the liver...there are some old spots that appear shrunken a bit, and some new spots that the oncologist thinks were actually there before but are just now appearing on the scans. This opinion is based on the very visual photo that they took of the liver when they took out the ovaries. So, since there was some new growth, and the other chemo was only moderately effective, we switched on Monday to Doxil. This has a better reputation for dealing with breast cancer cells than the Gemzar, so hopefully we'll see lots of tumor reduction. Complete would be nice. Monday we were at OHSU for treatment, (they also added Zometa back in for the bone mets), Wednesday I was at Ambulatory here in Corvallis for a Neulasta injection (keeps the white cell count up so you don't have to miss any chemo. Mine have been quite good so far, but I think he's erring on the side of caution.) Thursday I went to Salem for IV vitamin C, and today is quiet at home. Both the Zometa and the Neulasta have bone pain as a side effect, and yeow. I was side lined in the evenings for a couple of nights. Thankfully this regime is once per month and not weekly. I have an appointment with the herbalist this Tuesday, so we can get a tincture specific to this treatment plan up and running, and revise the other supplements I'm on.
Sarah is going in for her chest x-ray today to make sure things are still shrinking and not active. We do not yet have an appointment set with her oncologist, so we'll not have results back right away. Probably in another week. She's doing well-she's been picking berries at OSU in the mornings, and is enjoying the thought of a good paycheck. She's also wrapping up her "Pillowcases for Pals" project with her 4-H leadership group. They collected lots of donations, stuffed pillowcases with fun things and will take them to the hospital to give to children who need to be there for a length of time.
Robert got Player of the Game in his baseball game Wednesday night, so that was exciting. He'll be playing daily for Parks and Rec. this summer.
Everybody else is doing ok...working, doing music, taking care of the rest of us :D
Take care, love you, and thanks for the prayers!
Jeanne
Sarah is going in for her chest x-ray today to make sure things are still shrinking and not active. We do not yet have an appointment set with her oncologist, so we'll not have results back right away. Probably in another week. She's doing well-she's been picking berries at OSU in the mornings, and is enjoying the thought of a good paycheck. She's also wrapping up her "Pillowcases for Pals" project with her 4-H leadership group. They collected lots of donations, stuffed pillowcases with fun things and will take them to the hospital to give to children who need to be there for a length of time.
Robert got Player of the Game in his baseball game Wednesday night, so that was exciting. He'll be playing daily for Parks and Rec. this summer.
Everybody else is doing ok...working, doing music, taking care of the rest of us :D
Take care, love you, and thanks for the prayers!
Jeanne
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Scans Today
Hi everybody:
Today is (Oh Boy-Can't Wait) scan day again. I'll begin drinking my Barium Smoothie at about 10 am, report to the Brain MRI arena for an hour of brain hammering thrills, then go to radiology for a follow-up with the guys to scan the torso for signs of spread, stability or regression of the cancer in the liver, chest wall, spine, etc. This is a little unnerving, as the last scan indicated I needed the Gamma Knife treatment again. As kind and skilled as those folks are up there, I'd really prefer that trip to Hawaii we've been talking about!! Results from today's tests should be available this next Monday when I go up for chemo. It has been a really busy couple of months with the Gamma Knife (then recovery), next the ovaries out (and recovery), followed with chemo every two weeks. So far it's going ok-much better than months ago when I was reacting harshly to it.
We have switched our medical oncology team to OHSU (Oregon Health Science University) in Portland, and have been pleased so far. The communication between people is very good, and it's nice to have a fresh start. Dr. Chui, the oncologist, is supportive of trying things to optimize my chances at a longer life span and is looking at things along that thought pattern. He has someone going through her 12th chemo and doing very well, which is (believe it or not) encouraging. When there are mets in the brain and liver, the options can seem a little narrow. So every day, we just put one foot in front of the other, and like a little kid, wait for God to direct our path. Sometimes we do the little kid dance, and try to run ahead or lag behind, but He has been there to pick up pieces when we mess up, so we have to focus on that and not beat ourselves up.
Pat went to Virginia to be with his siblings and parents for an extended weekend, and had a great time. The kids and I went to Foster Lake on Saturday with the inflatable kayak (we really need a hard body one to get up some speed) and it was a blast. Not too crowded, wonderful weather, and it was so nice to be with all of the kids-nobody at work, recitals, etc. We came home and just hung out all weekend and took it easy. Very nourishing.
Sarah bought herself a couple of new lenses (!) for her Nikon D80 that she got through the Make-A-Wish foundation. One is a nice zoom lens, so as she does photography for Robert's baseball team, she should be able to get some closer shots. She is still very infatuated with photography as a whole, and loves this camera. She is also due for scans, and we're just waiting for the heads up from the doc. to set up her app't. with radiology. It should be within the next week.
A family from church came out and put up a beautiful shed in the back yard so we can get a bit more space options around here-they did a fantastic job, and only have a bit left to finish up. The quality of it makes me wonder if we should just move some people out there, instead of "stuff". Thanks, guys-we appreciate it a LOT!!!
Everybody else is hanging in there, doing the regular stuff-work, play, Special O. track for Dan is finishing up, Baseball for Robert is coming to an end soon...then comes summer which we need to organize for a bit.
Love you all, thanks for praying and for your support.
Jeanne
Today is (Oh Boy-Can't Wait) scan day again. I'll begin drinking my Barium Smoothie at about 10 am, report to the Brain MRI arena for an hour of brain hammering thrills, then go to radiology for a follow-up with the guys to scan the torso for signs of spread, stability or regression of the cancer in the liver, chest wall, spine, etc. This is a little unnerving, as the last scan indicated I needed the Gamma Knife treatment again. As kind and skilled as those folks are up there, I'd really prefer that trip to Hawaii we've been talking about!! Results from today's tests should be available this next Monday when I go up for chemo. It has been a really busy couple of months with the Gamma Knife (then recovery), next the ovaries out (and recovery), followed with chemo every two weeks. So far it's going ok-much better than months ago when I was reacting harshly to it.
We have switched our medical oncology team to OHSU (Oregon Health Science University) in Portland, and have been pleased so far. The communication between people is very good, and it's nice to have a fresh start. Dr. Chui, the oncologist, is supportive of trying things to optimize my chances at a longer life span and is looking at things along that thought pattern. He has someone going through her 12th chemo and doing very well, which is (believe it or not) encouraging. When there are mets in the brain and liver, the options can seem a little narrow. So every day, we just put one foot in front of the other, and like a little kid, wait for God to direct our path. Sometimes we do the little kid dance, and try to run ahead or lag behind, but He has been there to pick up pieces when we mess up, so we have to focus on that and not beat ourselves up.
Pat went to Virginia to be with his siblings and parents for an extended weekend, and had a great time. The kids and I went to Foster Lake on Saturday with the inflatable kayak (we really need a hard body one to get up some speed) and it was a blast. Not too crowded, wonderful weather, and it was so nice to be with all of the kids-nobody at work, recitals, etc. We came home and just hung out all weekend and took it easy. Very nourishing.
Sarah bought herself a couple of new lenses (!) for her Nikon D80 that she got through the Make-A-Wish foundation. One is a nice zoom lens, so as she does photography for Robert's baseball team, she should be able to get some closer shots. She is still very infatuated with photography as a whole, and loves this camera. She is also due for scans, and we're just waiting for the heads up from the doc. to set up her app't. with radiology. It should be within the next week.
A family from church came out and put up a beautiful shed in the back yard so we can get a bit more space options around here-they did a fantastic job, and only have a bit left to finish up. The quality of it makes me wonder if we should just move some people out there, instead of "stuff". Thanks, guys-we appreciate it a LOT!!!
Everybody else is hanging in there, doing the regular stuff-work, play, Special O. track for Dan is finishing up, Baseball for Robert is coming to an end soon...then comes summer which we need to organize for a bit.
Love you all, thanks for praying and for your support.
Jeanne
Monday, April 16, 2007
April's News, so far...
I hadn't put out another blog telling everyone about the latest stuff, as it all happened kind of quickly, and I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. Like I EVER know what to expect these days?!? Pat and I went up to OHSU to see the oncologist and discuss chemo regimes on April 2nd. Instead we ended up discussing the disadvantages of having "ovaries of steel" that have evidently endured two years of chemotherapy. This typically doesn't happen, and is (while I'm proud of my buff little "girl friends") not considered acceptable when you have an estrogen driven cancer. He recommended that I get them removed-that week. We met with a lovely OB/GYN on April 3rd and she drew labs, etc. that indeed confirmed that my estrogen levels were surging, and that she could take them out, but not until the next week. Wednesday the 11th she did the deed, and while she was in there, found the liver, invited another surgeon in who took out a piece of tumor, and they shipped it down to CA to Dr. Weisenthal's laboratory to see if he could give input as to an appropriate chemo regime. Dr. Chui at OHSU has a plan of his own, and maybe we can combine heads a bit here to see what will be the most effective next step. This is a procedure that I've been wanting to do for a long time, but the risk of anesthesia, surgery recovery, etc. etc. plus the fact that insurance didn't want to cover the tumor removal and assay, have until this time been insurmountable. Wow! Two surgeries for the price and healing of one!! What a deal. (A tumor assay is when they remove a kidney bean piece of tumor, put it in a special medium to preserve it, then test it against different potential chemotherapy drugs to see which are the most, the least, and midline effective toward killing the cancer cells. It's not evidently as refined a process as testing bacteria against antibiotics yet, but can increase the odds of getting an appropriate chemo by 7 to 1. Jonathan Treasure and his co-horts have used this lab frequently, and again, while it's not 100%, they've seen some remarkable things happen. If I'm going to work to really fight this stuff, I feel like I'll take any extra tricks that are available.)
This week I've been laying very low obviously. We were originally going to begin chemo today, which would've been just 5 days post-surgery, but decided to post pone until Thursday, giving me a few extra days which I think will be a good thing. I know I need to get back on it though, as the liver photo was a little ugly. (They took pictures of all the important organs and gave them to us. What a keepsake!) There is never a super clear cut path through timing of what you do and when you do it, as everyone responds so differently, and my system has had to deal with so much over the last 2 plus years that we weren't sure how it would heal up. Stopping the estrogen is deemed a partial treatment though, and I hope that in the long run that this will be a good move. So that's it for my stuff for now. I feel confident that the Lord will allow me to be on earth as long as I have a purpose that is to be fulfilled, and so my trust continues to lie in Him. His orchestration of things is more than I can comprehend, and this life for any of us is such a delicate balance to walk out. What we do with our fear, our doubt, lack of trust or belief...and how we love one another is the stuff of what it's truly made of. All temporal things will (by definition) pass away, but He and those who are His will not. I'm excited for a new heaven and a new earth, without the effects of sin and pain. (Not enough to forgo treatment, or jump off a cliff, mind you, but to live in that promised peace is a wonder to me!!)
The rest of the family is hanging in there...Valerie turned 22 on April 4th, and once again we've had to post-pone her party. Aargh. She and Nicole came down with colds in the middle of all of the surgery/recovery time, and now Pat's got it. Daniel has a touch of it, but it's not extreme yet. Sarah sewed a skirt for a 4-H fashion review, modeled it, etc. and gets to go to State with it this summer. Robert is loving baseball still, and has two practices and three games this week. So glad we have extra drivers for this stuff. Th' th' th' that's all folks!
Thanks for those of you who found out about the surgery and brought flowers, meals, cards and books to read. It was (is) nice to have some visual beauty and encouraging words to read in the house when you lose some body parts whether it's wanted or not. Thank you.
Love you bunches,
Jeanne
This week I've been laying very low obviously. We were originally going to begin chemo today, which would've been just 5 days post-surgery, but decided to post pone until Thursday, giving me a few extra days which I think will be a good thing. I know I need to get back on it though, as the liver photo was a little ugly. (They took pictures of all the important organs and gave them to us. What a keepsake!) There is never a super clear cut path through timing of what you do and when you do it, as everyone responds so differently, and my system has had to deal with so much over the last 2 plus years that we weren't sure how it would heal up. Stopping the estrogen is deemed a partial treatment though, and I hope that in the long run that this will be a good move. So that's it for my stuff for now. I feel confident that the Lord will allow me to be on earth as long as I have a purpose that is to be fulfilled, and so my trust continues to lie in Him. His orchestration of things is more than I can comprehend, and this life for any of us is such a delicate balance to walk out. What we do with our fear, our doubt, lack of trust or belief...and how we love one another is the stuff of what it's truly made of. All temporal things will (by definition) pass away, but He and those who are His will not. I'm excited for a new heaven and a new earth, without the effects of sin and pain. (Not enough to forgo treatment, or jump off a cliff, mind you, but to live in that promised peace is a wonder to me!!)
The rest of the family is hanging in there...Valerie turned 22 on April 4th, and once again we've had to post-pone her party. Aargh. She and Nicole came down with colds in the middle of all of the surgery/recovery time, and now Pat's got it. Daniel has a touch of it, but it's not extreme yet. Sarah sewed a skirt for a 4-H fashion review, modeled it, etc. and gets to go to State with it this summer. Robert is loving baseball still, and has two practices and three games this week. So glad we have extra drivers for this stuff. Th' th' th' that's all folks!
Thanks for those of you who found out about the surgery and brought flowers, meals, cards and books to read. It was (is) nice to have some visual beauty and encouraging words to read in the house when you lose some body parts whether it's wanted or not. Thank you.
Love you bunches,
Jeanne