CHEMO COUTDOWN

Tomorrow is the big day, first chemo treatment. It is at 8:45am and according to my notes to give her both drugs it will take approximately 2 hours. With Gemzar alone it is about 1.5 hours but with this additional drug it will be an extra 30 minutes.

I really did not say this in the previous post, but this is a "clinical trial" treatment. She had to test into the treatment and once accepted she was put in a random drawing to be in either group A or B. Group A gets both drugs and Group B gets only the Gemzar. The "drawing" was today and she will be getting the combo - with the new drug, which is Group A. This is a good thing and the call was good news. The combo will be Gemzar and Abraxane. This is phase 3 of the trial and after this trial the next step is to have it FDA approved for treatment. If you want to know more go out there and read about Abraxane and you will find promising results in phase 1 and 2. This is why Sarah is our "go to girl", she will be monitoring moms every step and she is the liaison between the Drug Company and mom.

Mom had a good day today, but became a real crab later in the day. I came home and my goal was just to clean. I want her to be able to come home tomorrow to a clean house plus a big factor in chemo is "odor" and I did not want her to have smell all the cleaning stuff after her first treatment. I also had her come to her room so she could help me organize stuff for her. We have so many things (meds) on hand for side effects and such and I just wanted her to have easy, organized access to it all. Now the funny part is will it stay that way LOL. Mom just really does not care about that kind of stuff right now. And if any of you know her that is totally out of character.

God does still deliver when you need it, he always knows. It was a bad day at work today, computer problems and our IT department did not help at all. I was very frustrated! On top of that yesterday I had to make an appointment at a WIG place for mom and today I had to call about getting into a caregivers class that was recommended by the Zang. How freaking depressing!

So I need to give a shout out to Mike he is a guy who I used to go to church with, he works at the same place I do and he is friends with Brian. Well, he came up to me today and wanted to introduce me to someone who works for him. She has cancer, is getting Chemo and told Mike she would talk to mom if she needed someone to talk to. He introduced us and Linda and I talked for awhile about all this stuff. Linda is a very nice lady and get this she is getting treated at the Zang too! What a small world! She does not have the same cancer as mom but she had some nice insight to a few things. It was great to talk to someone who has been there done that and is still doing it. As a matter of fact, guess when her treatment is…..yep tomorrow morning! She will start her treatment shortly after mom, so she is going to ask her nurse to introduce her to mom.

Depending where you are in this picture we are ALL going thru stuff and it would be great for mom to have someone to talk to. You know someone to understand how she is feeling and how scared she might be for this first time. Someone to call afterwards and say hey I am feeling this way or that way blah blah.

There are so many side effects and you don’t what or if you will get any of them but hair loss is the big thing. Linda has lost hers but I am telling you she looked good! Boy did she have some things to say about hair loss. The one thing I never thought about is that you loose you nose hair! Those are the hairs that filter what you breathe…duh! I wonder why they talked about congestion and breathing and such well you will be in haling everything and think about all the allergens that are out now that make you stuffy and such. She also told me wigs are synthetic and they catch fire easy, so mom will not be doing any cooking on the grill, that’s for sure! She said the scarves are so much cooler, especially this time year now that we have this crazy heat wave. That is good because mom loves to wear a bandana!

Linda had so much information on a personal note that I pray mom gets to know her and will communicate with her. Mom does need that kind of support. If you are reading any of this Linda, I want to say again thanks so much for you time today and your personal insight, it was such a blessing at the time we talked!!!!

Ok now I just need agreement and prayer that mom will do fantastic and this will help us get the Connie back that we know and love!

Love you all XOXOXOXOXO