from Mom ...

Good news, not so good news ...

The good news is my CA125 went from 301 to 283, which is not a significant drop but at least the chemo I’m on appears to be managing the disease process for now. If I were able to do the platinum chemo, it probably would have had more of a significant drop, but that’s water under the bridge. The bad news is that I’ll need to stay on the chemo until the numbers get below normal, which is 36. I most likely will not finish up with 2 more courses, as we had hoped, but instead may go on into the summer. At this point, it’s anybody’s guess.

What can I say? We’re disappointed but happy it didn’t go up. I’d like to share a short story I just read in “Letting Go” by Morrie Schwartz (Tuesdays with Morrie).

"A little wave is playing joyfully in the ocean until he realizes he is minutes away from crashing into shore. Another little wave asks him why he is so upset. He replies that they will both be destroyed when they crash onto the shore. The second wave replies, “you are not a wave, you are part of the ocean”!"

And I am merely a very small part of all of humanity. Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?


I love you all,
Nyshie

Maggie here ...

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update from me. Mom gave us a "minor" scare on Friday. After three days of misery she went to the hospital with a blood pressure of 76/34. I, and the nurse, thought she was presenting with heart failure but after a couple bags of fluids and I think some steriods she bounced back. Tough lady that she is! She felt much better over the weekend.

She had labs drawn today. So, we wait. If the CA125 comes back with a significant decrease then she will have the gemsar on Wednesday as planned. If it hasn't decreased enough, or has gone up, they will discuss a different chemo plan.

Thank you all so much for checking in and your continued love and support.
Maggie

from Mom .....

No really ... cancer suxs!

I’m on day 7 following my double chemo last week and still feeling like I’ve been poisoned. Hopefully, it will start to get better and I don’t have chemo this week. Yeah! I’ll have my CA125 results and another round of chemo next Wednesday, the 28th.. Keep your fingers crossed for low numbers. If my numbers haven’t come down, I’ll have to begin a different chemo and probably be starting over with 6 rounds of it. Although it’s healing, my abscess is still open and draining requiring a visiting nurse every day to change the packing. And yes, I would like some cheese with my “whine”.

Otherwise, Paul and the kids are all doing well overall, and doing their best to cope with this situation, sometimes more difficult than others.

The best and biggest news is that my favorite quarterback ever, Peyton Manning, is coming to the Broncos!!!! Yes!!! Hard to believe I went to college at Ole Miss with his father, Archie. 15 years goes by so fast. Really, my heart is full, life is good.

Love you all,
Big Giant Grandma Nyshie

more from Mom ...

And, so it goes ...

I saw my oncologist yesterday b/c the abscess area was not looking as it should and I had increasing pain in the area. He did have to re-open my incision about 4-5 inches (sans a local anesthetic) and if you remember the movie “The Exorcist”, that’s pretty much what came out of it. Needless to say, the abscess has not healed and I’ll start with the wound care nurse coming back to the house tomorrow to remove and replace the packing, and will continue on antibiotics for another week. He’ll check my labs (drawn yesterday) and I’ll see him again on Wednesday. If everything seems ok, I’ll do my scheduled chemo then. Otherwise, all is well. Beautiful, sunny Colorado day in the sixties. Life doesn’t get much better than that.

Love,
Big Giant Grandma Nysh