Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Update from my mini trip to Houston....

I flew into Hobby Airport Monday on a delayed flight (two hours late) but the Morris family was there to pick me up. We had a nice evening before getting up the next morning and at MD Anderson at 8 am for blood work. I was in to see Dr. Javle by 9. My labs were mostly good. Platelets were almost in normal range. All liver enzymes were good except the alk phosphate was a little elevated. White count was really good. BUN was great. But, the creatinine was 1.05 ...so my clinical trial pill has to be stopped until the creatinine comes down. So....I am at RMH in ICU (only place they could find to put me with an open space) getting a litre of fluids over a 3 hour period. Dr. Javle thinks this will bring it down enough to resume the last week of this cycle (which ends Tuesday of next week).        
     So, as soon as I get all the fluids pumped into me, I will have labs drawn immediately. Results will be sent to Dr. Javle and Ashley (the clinical trial coordinator) and I can hopefully resume the meds. The creatinine just needs to go to 1.00.  I wanted to go to the chemo area to visit with the nurses(who also work in Effingham) and also visit with a new chemo patient to calm his nerves if I could. PLUS, I was looking forward to a free breakfast and lunch from the chemo program I helped get started!! BOO my luck!
     I leave Friday night/Saturday morning with my daughter Leslie and her husband Rhett and two kids (and my friend Debbie Weiler) to go to Alabama for a week. Pat is going on a hunting trip out west for a week.  I am looking forward to some time away not related to a hospital, do some swimming, pontooning, and meeting new friends of Leslie & Rhett's. And then, of course, spending time with two cute little grandkids.
     I will also honor all members of all the Armed Forces that have served, are serving, or have died for our freedom and our country. I hope to find a service to attend and maybe try to tell my oldest granddaughter how her great grandfather was in the service, her great uncle Larry, her cousins currently serving and one who served but just recently got out of the service. And about her Grandpa Pat who served in wars, and was in the National Guard for 19 1/2 years.
     I pray for a lot of aching hearts right now, so painful that I cannot even fathom of losing a person the way some of them have. I pray they somehow can forgive, find peace, and try to find comfort somehow in all the tragedies that have been like a domino effect in our community and surrounding county.
     When I was in Houston I met a new CC patient who is new to MD Anderson coming all the way from Oregon. She and her husband were quite nice although time is so short on my visits when it's a fly in and fly out (all within 18 hours) so not a lot of time to visit. I also heard someone holler my name as I got off the elevator and it was ANOTHER CC patient on the same trial as me. I realize I am just so so blessed to still be a patient with this terrible monster of a disease. To be able to carry on daily at a almost totally normal life. I thank God daily...and actually more than once a day! 

I will update and hopefully be able to say I am back on the clinical trial pill today. If not...it does not mean I am off the trial...I will just have two out of the three weeks of a cycle done instead of getting the full 3 weeks in of the pills I take. I have definitely started losing my hair little by little. BUT, it you know me...you know if it gets too thin, I'm not afraid of razors...I'll shave it off in a blink of an eye!  Saves on "getting ready" for my day...but I am not HOPING I have to shave my head.....just saying.

God bless you all and especially our military, cancer patients, MS patients, CP patients, I could go on and on...so God bless the WHOLE USA!

Hugs,
Patty~~

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