Quick Update - MUCH better

FYI: This is Carrie updating Jason's blog. It just seems easier that way sometimes :) I am doing MUCH better than thursday night. I went to bed around 4 AM friday morning and took some pain meds and that seemed to knock out my horrific headache and my fever. Jason got home around 11:30 or so, which is when I finally got out of bed and I could already tell I was having a much better day. I took it easy, but never got a temperature above 98.4 all day. I still feel somewhat run down, but overall, so much better. I talked to my doctors office friday afternoon and gave them the update and they said I was good to go and still plan on going up next friday June 11 for my CT scan and appointment with my oncologist. And I am cleared to travel to Vegas as long as I'm careful so unless something drastic happens, we're leaving tomorrow morning for 4 days in the desert! Thanks to all of you for your prayers and we'll continue to keep you updated :)

Little Bit of a Scare

Carrie has had a rough last couple of days. I went out of town to Atlanta on Wednesday to present at a conference for the Vet School. When I left Carrie Wednesday morning, she was having slight stomach problems, mainly feeling bloated and her abdomen was just tender to the touch. She said it kind of reminded her of how her stomach was feeling last summer before everything was diagnosed, but we were hoping it would go away quickly. Throughout the day, she starting experiencing a little stiffness in her chest and soreness in her back. She took a couple of pain medications and went to bed early wednesday night, and when she woke up thursday, her stomach was feeling much better, but her body was aching and she was running a temperature of around 99.0. She rested all day and her friend Pat from work called to check on her and when she found out Carrie wasn't feeling spectacular, she insisted on going over to our house, cooking her homemade chicken soup, and taking care of her (Thank you Pat!!) Carrie still felt cruddy and her temp got up to 100.1 a couple of different times. Her oncologist had told her if her temp ever got about 100.5 to call her or the nurse and even though it wasn't quite that high, Carrie went ahead and called to tell them what's going on. She finally heard back from the nurse just after 5 PM and he said Carrie needed to go to the ER to get checked out because of her symptoms and just to be sure she didn't have any kind of infection or anything else wrong. I was still in ATL so Pat took Carrie to the ER about 6:30 and got her signed in and registered (they gave her a hospital mask as soon as she walked in). She got called back to a room about 8:30 and luckily she had a private room. They quickly started an IV and took some blood and had her collect a urine sample. They also came in to do a chest XRAY to see if maybe she had pneumonia. Those tests took about 2 hours to get the results back, all of which came back okay. No pneumonia!! And her counts were fairly decent. Not great, but for someone going through chemo, they were at a healthy level. After the doctor came in to see her around 9:45, he said they probably would issue a CT scan based on her history to see if the tumor had developed somewhere that was causing the problems. THEN around 10:45 PM a radiology tech came in with a 30 oz. cup of lemonade tasting contrast dye to take for the CT scan. He told her to drink the whole cup (which Carrie said tasted HORRIBLE) then it would have to sit in her system for about 1 & 1/2 hour before they could do the scan. Soooo..... they finally pulled her to get the scan around 12:15 AM. Then she had to wait about another hour to get the results. The doctor came in and said the scan didn't show anything they weren't already expecting and didn't appear to be causing any problems that could be causing Carrie's symptoms. He wanted to go ahead and call her oncologists' office and speak to the on-call doctor just to make sure they didn't need to do anything else before they let her go. So FINALLY around 2:15 AM or so, they came back and said they talked to the on-call doctor and said they didn't see any reason for her to have to stay or be admitted to the hospital so she could finally go home. The on-call doctor in Bham said he would have her oncologist call friday afternoon to check on her and see how she's doing.

I'm back from Atlanta now and Carrie seems to be having a much better day. She took some more pain medication last night before she went to bed and that seemed to take care of her headache and a lot of her other pain. Her temp was 97.3 this morning so no fever so far! Overall, she's feeling much better today. We're thinking maybe she just got a virus that was causing her symptoms, but she seems to be improving. So after spending 8 hours in the ER to find out nothing was particularly wrong, at least now we have somewhat of a peace of mind. We'll keep you updated if anything changes or if her doctor says anything different.

Treatment #4 OVER

Carrie is home in Auburn now and doing really well. She was really tired last night after she got in, but she's had a busy week. Still never had any nausea and her appetite has been pretty good. Now we just wait to have blood work done next week and wait for the CT scan on the 11th! Please keep the prayers coming for an EXCELLENT scan in two weeks!

The Latest

Carrie is doing just fine. She is so well in fact that she is fussing at me about not updating the blog. Having said that here is the latest as of 9pm tonight. Treatment is still going well. She has not had any ill side effects this week. She sounded pretty strong on the phone when I talked to her. The doctor wants her to get some blood work here in Auburn next Wednesday to keep an eye on her levels. We have also scheduled her next CT Scan for the June 11th, which is the Friday after she and I return from our Vegas trip. Please continue to pray for us as the next couple of weeks will be pretty busy. (Carrie is in BHam now, I will be in Atlanta next week and we both will be in Las Vegas the week after that)

Treatment has Begun

Carrie started her 4th round of treatment this Monday (it's her second round on the streptosocin) and so far so good. My mom came down to Auburn Sunday night and took her up to Birmingham Monday morning. She had to have blood work drawn before they could proceed with treatment so Monday was a llloonnnnggg day - she had to wait over 2 hours just to get started. But her blood work came back fine. Her platelets were slightly low at 117 (they have to be above 100 to receive treatment) and her Red and white blood cell counts were ok. But she did treatment monday and yesterday without any problems. And so far, no ill side effects. Carrie is wearing the nausea patch all week to help ward off any nausea and so far so good! She's a little tired, but nothing more than usual. Her doctor stopped by briefly yesterday and told Carrie she would talk to her today (Wednesday) since she would actually be in the office for clinics and they would possibly discuss when her next CT scan will be. Other than that, so far so good!! Carrie's spirits are high and she is making the most out of her "vacation" in Birmingham! She's resting up and preparing for the REAL vacation to Las Vegas in a few week :) We'll keep you updated.

Next Treatment Scheduled

Not much to report this time. Carrie had blood work done in UAB this past Wednesday, May 12. Her doctor called her thursday to tell her that her counts looked good, but not good enough to start the next round this Monday. So they have scheduled that round to start Monday, May 24. It will be the exact same regimen as last time so we know what to expect. It will go 5 days, monday through friday. After that round is complete, they will schedule another CT scan to see if this new chemo medicine is working. We will keep everyone updated and as always, thank you for your unending prayers.

Doctor Checkup

Carrie went back to UAB today to have blood work done and meet with her doctor. And all of her counts were great! Praise the Lord!! Her red and white blood cells were "wonderful" according to the doctor and her platelets were at 149 (normal level is 150 so she was only 1 point below normal which is GREAT for anyone undergoing chemotherapy!). Her doctor told her to get blood work done here in Auburn next wednesday or thursday and depending on how they look, they will then determine when the next round of treatment will start. As of right now, they are thinking about starting on May 17 or 24, but we will know for sure after next weeks blood work.

As far as everything else goes, Carrie is doing really well. She's still at home from work on disability, which her doctor said was probably the best thing for her because it decreases the possibilities of getting sick or catching infections from everyone else. She's enjoying spending time at home and taking the opportunity to spend time with family. She just started her second cycle of the new chemo tablet, Xeloda, which she takes for a week on, then a week off. It doesnt really affect her too much, but it does tend to make her a little queasy after she takes the medicine. But other than that, she's doing great! We'll keep everyone posted after she gets the results of her blood work next week. And as always, thanks for all the prayers. God is good and He is definitely answering them!!