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Our morning in the ER

11/26/2011

We were at dinner last night with my cousin Brandon and his wife Nancy. They came up from MD for the holidays to visit family. And I noticed mom kept scratching her arms and legs. We concluded she was now allergic to Cymbalta so I told her to take a few Benandryls to help with the itching.

I called Dr. Marcoux and he recommended more Benandryl and some hydracortisone cream. When I went over to put the cream on her, she had hives all over her body!! I told her I wouldn't take no for an answer and said we were going to the ER.

We went to Newton-Wellesley Hospital since it was close by. Plus I'm sure MGH would have had a ton of people waiting in their ER. We only waited for a short period and they hooked her up with an IV - zantac, prednisone and benandryl.

She is now fine so no worries. Poor mom....at least she can eat cake! Long story but she loves this fruit and whipped cream cake from Whole Foods in MD. And Nancy brought one all the way from MD - hoping to tempt my mom to eat....

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Milk the cancer for everything you can!

11/25/2011

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While we were waiting to see the doctor (he was running an hr behind), I told my mom that she can do or say anything she wants and just use the excuse that she has cancer! And she said I say and do whatever I want anyways, don't need cancer as an excuse.

And that's what I love about my mom....think there's a little bit of her in me? Any comments?

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NO MORE CHEMO!! For now.....

11/25/2011

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Mom had her CT scan and while the haziness has somewhat cleared up, Dr. Marcoux has decided there's no reason to put my mom through any more rounds of chemo. He said the large tumor in her left lung is almost gone and that the lymph nodes are back to normal. He didn't think another two rounds of chemo will make any significant difference and given her nerve pain has increased, it was better to halt the treatment.

As this type of cancer will come back, she will have to do chemo again at some point. The stats show the cancer will come back in about 6 months for 30% of folks. On average it reoccurs in about a year. Also, the cancer may spread to the brain, so she's scheduled for a MRI in a couple of weeks. She'll go in for a CT scan every two months so they can monitor the tumor. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

So now she can stop taking her anti-nausea meds and antibiotics. Dr. Marcoux says while the chemo drugs are out of her system, it's still in her cells and it normally takes about 3 months before it's completely gone. She will get stronger and hopefully feel better. We started talking about planning a trip to HK next spring!

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An uneventful Thanksgiving

11/24/2011

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Since her last round of chemo, Mom has been struggling with alot of nerve pain. The doctors first prescribed Neurontin but she had problems with urinating (sorry, I know it's kinda personal but I want to be able to capture everything that's going on, gross or not gross) so now she's on cymbalta. She's now down to a 3 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most painful.

We went to Por Por's (grandma in chinese foryou non-chinese folks) as usual. It was so nice to see the love and concern from my dad's side of the family towards my mom. How appropriate as it is a day to give thanks. So a huge THANK YOU to everyone out there who's reading this blog and others who have expressed their well wishes to me and my mom.

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Cancelled 5th round of Chemo

11/14/2011

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We had an early morning - 7am for blood draw and IV setup. Poor mom, had an iv put in on left hand but then the nurse found out mom was scheduled for a CT scan so had to do another IV with a different needle on the right hand! I was spoken to by the nurse/tech that we have to tell them she had a CT scan scheduled. Jeez, aren't they supposed to know as they schedule it?? Whatever.

Then we rush over to BWH for the scan and rush back to meet with Dr. Marcoux. He said the scan shows some haziness/cloudiness in her lungs. Wasn't sure what it was from...maybe a viral infection or reaction to a new drup she was given a couple of weeks ago for nerve pain. So he decided to cancel the chemo until it clears up and will treat her with antibiotics. The tumors are continuing to respond well to the chemo - not as significant of change from the 1st couple of rounds of chemo but decreasing.

Mom will have to go back in two weeks for another CT scan. Sorry, mom - you had two IV's put in for nothing!

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Happy Mom with New Hat

11/6/2011

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We were Frugal Fannies and I had Mom try on some hats for the winter. I picked this one out for her and she liked it so much she wore it home!

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Be nice, Dad....

11/4/2011

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So I'm leaving for Orlando Monday and my mom asked if it was alright for my Dad to stay at my place while I was away. Especially since he has to feed Choco twice a day. I guess his nagging and negative comments were making her unhappy and depressed. I told her he wasn't going to go for it as I'm only a 5 min drive away. Plus he feels responsible for her and wouldn't consider leaving her alone.

So I had a talk with Dad and told him to stop nagging and to be nice to her. He's frustrated cos she's still smoking and won't listen to him. I said we cannot stress her out as it causes anxiety hence more pain. It's weird that I'm lecturing my 70 yr old dad!

Later on, my mom told me she just wanted to scare my dad by telling him to stay at my place. She knew he wouldn't go and hoped he would be nicer. Good thinking, mom!

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Our morning in the ER

Milk the cancer for everything you can!

NO MORE CHEMO!! For now.....

An uneventful Thanksgiving

Cancelled 5th round of Chemo

Happy Mom with New Hat

Be nice, Dad....

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