April 11, 2011

Ruth/Mom/Grammy had her first chemotherapy infusion today which took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to infuse. She also began taking a pill form of another chemotherapy drug.  She is also taking an anti-nausea medication which seems to be working. She is taking a smaller dose of the pill form than would normally be prescribed for a younger person as well as having chemotherapy infusion less often. She is doing well and she continues to eat orally instead of through her feeding tube. She has even gained a pound! The only problem we are having right now is with her infusion port. Somehow her port has "flipped," probably due to the hematoma she developed after the surgery to implant the port. She still has swelling around the port which is probably causing it to tilt or flip and the swelling is making it hard to tell exactly how much it has flipped. She has been told to put warm compresses on the port site to help decrease the swelling. Because of the continued swelling and incorrect positioning of the port, her chemotherapy oncologist wisely decided to not use the port for infusion but instead gave her chemotherapy through an IV in her arm. Later this week, Ruth/Mom/Grammy is to return to Baylor All Saints where she had the port implanted and the doctor who performed the surgery is going to check the port and see if there is anything that he can do to reposition the port and speed up the healing process.

Thank you for all your prayers. They lift us up and I know Mom's weigh gain and tolerance of the the chemotherapy is because of your prayers and God's intervention.