Chemo Round One - Done

Carrie made it through her first round of chemo. Thursday was a fairly short day and only took about an hour. She had one of the harder medications that can cause the most side effects, but luckily no nausea. She seems to go back and forth between sweats and chills at night, but nothing serious. They've given her a lot of nausea medicine so that seems to be helping. Friday was a longer day, close to 4 hours. They had to give her 2 full bags of fluid with the chemo because that one has a high risk of kidney toxicity so the fluids help flush the kidneys.

Overall, the first round went really well. They took blood friday to check her levels and liver and kidney functions and so far, everything has been great. She will go back to Birmingham next Friday, February 26 to have blood work done again - her doctor said her levels will be lowest 7-10 days after treatment so they want to monitor them. She will also have an echo cardiogram done that friday as well to make sure her heart is handling the medicines okay - one of them can really affect the heart so they want to make sure they stay on top of that. And she'll meet with her doctor after the blood work and echo and if everything appears to be okay, they'll keep on schedule to start the next round of chemo on March 11.

Until then, Carrie is going to talk to her doctor here in Auburn to see about getting a port put in at our local hospital so we won't have to travel to Birmingham. She is going to TRY to work a few days a week depending on how she feels. She wants to try and work as much as she can for now, and it will probably be good for her to keep her mind somewhat busy and hopefully keep her strength up as much as possible. She's home from Birmingham and will be resting all weekend and the first part of the week. She is doing pretty well considering the long week she had. She's not nauseous or sick (praise the Lord!!), she's just worn out and feeling somewhat sluggish, but her spirits are high and we hope she handles the chemo like the champ she is! We will keep everyone updated on how she's doing, and as always, thanks to everyone for their prayers and support.

Chemo Treatment Day 6

Well so far so good. Carrie made it through the weekend without any ill side effects from the chemo. She has had three treatments this week and everything has went well. She is hanging out with her mom in Birmingham while I am here working. Tomorrow and Friday will be tougher days in the fact that she will be getting the tougher drugs those days. They will be longer days since she will have to get nausea medicine and fluids with these treatments. She comes back to Auburn Friday evening. We are looking into getting Carrie a port put in so that she doesn't have to get poked for an IV every time she goes for treatment. That will be an out patient procedure and has been recommended by all of her nurses this week. Please continue to pray for us and I will keep everyone updated on Carrie's progress.

Chemo Day 1

Well we made it through day one. It was a long day of blood work, doctor's appointment, and three hours of chemo treatment. Two hours were actually Carrie getting fluids to help counter act the chemo. The next three days of treatment will only last about an hour. I think that she handled it pretty well. We did find out that she will have at least four cycles of treatment (1 cycle per month). Any treatments after that will depend on how effective the chemo worked. I will try to keep the blog updated every other day or so. The next treatment is Monday so no updates over the weekend. For everyone in the south enjoy the snow and stay warm.

Carrie's Treatment Version 2.0

Carrie talked to her Oncologist this morning and instead of having a treatment on Friday, they have moved it to this Thursday. Carrie's doctor appointment has also been moved to Thursday as well. Also, we found out this morning that Carrie will be having treatments everyday next week. I actually talked to her Oncologist this afternoon and the treatments will be every four weeks. Carrie will get a CT scan after every 2 treatments. Other than that we don't have any information right now but hope to have some more info after Thursday.

Carrie's Treatment

On Friday Carrie talked to her Oncologist here in Birmingham and on next Friday Carrie takes her first treatment of infusion chemotherapy. We do not know the strength of the dosage or how long Carrie will have to have treatments. We plan on getting more information once we get to Birmingham on Friday. I will try to keep everyone updated as much as possible. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

National Lampoon's Cruise Vacation

Okay, by now most of you have heard the news that Carrie and I got last Friday (1/29). Well that was just the beginning of a long weekend. Backup one week, our plans were to go to B'ham and get good news from the doctor on Friday and then leave for a cruise to Jamaica on Saturday. On the Tuesday before the doctor's appointment, we got word that something was wrong with our cruise ship and that it would not be able to make to Jamaica and back in 5 days. So they decided to move the cruise to Cozumel and Costa Maya Mexico. Now fast forward to Friday afternoon after the doctors appointment. We were planning on driving to Nashville and fly out with Carrie's parents on Saturday morning to Miami. Problem was that Nashville got hit with a very nasty ice storm Friday night we drove into. We slid off the road at one point due to the ice and spent 20 minutes getting the car out of the ditch. So if that wasn't enough Southwest started cancelling flights Friday night. At 9pm Friday night we decided to drive to Miami to catch this boat. The latest time we could check in to get on the cruise was 2:30pm on Saturday. We arrived at the cruise terminal at 2:15pm. So after a Friday to forget and a 16hr drive we made it on the boat and were able to spend a week in 80+ degree temps and catch some sun. As Jeff Foxworthy says, "You can't make this stuff up."