Monthly Archives: February 2012

by | February 18, 2012 · 10:39 pm

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

One sees the French phrase in the title plastered all over New Orleans before Mardi Gras and it supposedly translates to “Let the good times roll”. Well, maybe not today. Lucy woke up with stomach problems this morning and was running a mild fever spike because of her blood clots. Her mood wasn’t very cheery and she was completely wiped out. Alimta is usually well tolerated, but it still can cause a bit of stomach distress and wipe out. That’s why she has to take the oral steroid dexamethasone twice a day for the day before, the day of, and the day after chemo. The past few months have seen her face a number of challenges and it takes its toll. My guess is today’s stomach problems were a direct result of her breakfast choices. She hadn’t eaten Lucky Charms in several months. The whole grains sometimes cause a bit more fermentation in the gut when one is not used to eating them. She started feeling better later this afternoon.

Her first shot Lovenox shot went better than yesterday’s. We’re probably figuring out the right timing and rhythm. The humorous thing about the Lovenox self-injection guide is the phrase “think love handles”. Lucy doesn’t have any. Heck, I’ve dropped 54 pounds in the past year and barely have any remaining.

We hope Lucy will be feeling up to visiting her dad tomorrow. Her left leg circumference was almost a full centimeter smaller than yesterday’s measurement. Her discomfort is now mostly from both ankles and is probably joint pain rather than tissue pain. The painkillers are still effective and she is using fewer of them.

I think I am suffering from chemo brain by proxy. I forgot to mention Lucy had a coworker stop by Thursday morning with some homemade soups. Her coworkers have been so wonderful and supportive! They have made meals and sent cards and flowers. It’s nice to know there are some good companies left.

While on the subject of chemo brain, I managed to mangle the “Comfortably Numb” lyric yesterday. Sorry about that! How I managed to turn “just a little pin prick” into “you’ll feel a little pin prick” is beyond me. I’d like to say “Damn you, autocorrect” but I wasn’t posting from an iPhone. I have an Android phone and I can’t find an autocorrect equivalent, perhaps thankfully.

For those of you that are able, we hope you enjoyed a walk today. We hope Lucy is walking normally soon.

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by | February 17, 2012 · 10:51 pm

“OK…just a little pin prick…”

Lovenox was not what the lyric snippet from Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb“ referenced. Lucy survived my first injection attempt and I still have all of my nine fingers. We found some advice on the Lovenox web site along with a handy PDF to help with the injections. We’ll be glad when Tuesday gets here. She gets reduced to once per day starting Wednesday.

Lucy has her appointments scheduled for the next three weeks. I think the phone got a workout today.

Lucy’s left leg looks better than yesterday. The erythema is smaller and a bit less red. Her right leg is back to normal except for some flaking skin. We took measurements of both calves so we have a reference point as was suggested by Dr. Thurmes. I’ll be taking twice-daily measurements until her leg gets better.

Lucy’s dad had minor surgery this afternoon. His surgery got bumped for an emergency, so it started at 3:00 instead of 11:00. Lucy had a Neulasta shot appointment at 4:30 so we couldn’t make it to the hospital tonight. She remembered how out of it she was when coming out of general anesthesia, and how it was nice that people cared, but she would rather had some time to get reoriented and rest up. We’re going to visit him tomorrow. It sounds like he might be getting released tomorrow late afternoon.

It was a very nice day outside today. We hope you had a chance to enjoy it.

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by | February 16, 2012 · 11:00 pm

Stop me if you’ve heard this before…

We fretted about today’s oncologist visit, but Lucy’s left leg stole the spotlight. We did not even get a chance to discuss the PET scan or CA125 level. Her rash is an erythema and is a sign of a blood clot. Her leg also ballooned up this morning.

Lucy did get her Alimta treatment, so something went right. She can take her multivitamins instead of the prescription folic acid since the multivitamins contain the requisite 400 micrograms folic acid. Lucy’s next vitamin B12 injection will be during her next treatment in three weeks.

She was supposed to visit Dr. Thurmes tomorrow, but he saw her while she was getting chemotherapy. Lucy had an ultrasound on her left leg at Suburban Imaging at 6:30. As a precaution, Lucy will be getting twice-daily Lovenox injections for a week followed by daily injections for around six months. Her Coumadin was stopped immediately.

We had about 45 minutes between the end of chemo and the ultrasound, so we had a quick dinner at Leeann Chin’s about eight blocks from Southdale Medical Building. The Heartland Cafe in the medical building closed several months ago and a Subway is supposedly going in to replace it.

The ultrasound confirmed multiple clots in her left leg. However, she was not admitted to the hospital. We’ll find out more tomorrow. Apparently, the belief is the Lovenox will work on the clots such that she won’t require hospitalization or TPA catheters.

I will be administering the injections. It looks like the syringe has a short small-bore needle. Lucy has no abdominal fat remaining because it got removed in her de-bulking surgery. The “tummy poke” is best for her, so I must be careful. It’s funny, I could probably give injections to anyone else, myself included, but the thought of giving Lucy a shot worries me. I know it’s irrational.

So yes, you’ve heard the blood clots stuff before. Believe me we hate reruns, too!

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by | February 15, 2012 · 8:20 pm

“So won’t you smile for the camera…”

Lucy is wiped out today. Getting her driver’s license renewed wasn’t too bad. She did have her picture taken three times. Apparently, they have a new camera that can take an awful picture and make it even more dreadful. I have never seen a bad photo of Lucy so they were really trying hard to end that streak. Tax dollars at work, don’t you know. The post title is a lyric fragment from “Peg” by Steely Dan. I doubt the inspiration for their song came from driver’s license photos.

I doubt either us will sleep well tonight. Keep Lucy in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow.

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by | February 14, 2012 · 10:40 pm

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A PET scan might not have been the most romantic way to spend Valentine’s Day, but battling cancer sometimes causes inconvenient lifestyle changes. The scan took almost 90 minutes overall at Lifescan Minnesota in Edina. An hour was spent for prep and the scan was about 20 or so minutes. The results will be available to Dr. Boente tomorrow afternoon.

Lucy had a bit of an upset stomach today. We’re both apprehensive about Thursday’s appointment. Lucy has had a series of set backs since November. Her CA125 level has been slowly increasing which necessitated stopping the Taxol/Avastin treatments. The waiting is the hard part.

For the positive news of the day, she did get the latest Coumadin dosing for the upcoming week. She is on a three day cycle of 5 mg, 5 mg then 2.5 mg until next week’s blood test. We did not get her hemoglobin level in the voice mail message, but there was no mention of a transfusion.

Tomorrow will be a test of how well Lucy can maneuver a walker. I’ll be taking her to the Bloomington Deputy Registrar’s office to get her driver’s license renewed. Maybe she’ll feel up to a belated Valentine’s Day lunch or dinner. I did pick up some carnations for her tonight. She likes carnations because they last a long time.

We hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day. Take a moment to think of the people who love you and remember how lucky you are to have them in your life.

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