June 21, 2011

Ruth/Mom/Grammy had her last radiation"fitting" and check last Friday and everything was "good to go." She started radiation yesterday, Monday, June 20th, and she was a little apprehensive as anyone would be at the beginning of 35 radiation treatments. Her weight continues to hold steady. Her blood pressure was a little elevated, but I attribute that to the beginning of radiation and not knowing what to expect. I (Carolyn) finally met Dr. Nugent for the first time last week and, although he is definitely not as personable as Dr. Barker, I feel Dr. Nugent also has mom's best interests in hand.  He mentioned the radiosensitizer drug she took twice a day for awhile in pill form. It is a drug intended to improve the radiation therapy she is now receiving by enhancing tumor cell killing while the radiation hopefully has much less effect on normal tissue. The drug she received through her port was given to shrink the tumor and has been successful. It is still there but smaller, and he said he would probably continue her on the IV/ port drug in hopes of continuing to shrink the tumor. I thought he meant after we finished the 35 radiation treatments, but Ruth/Mom/Grammy received a call to set up the chemotherapy appointment and Dr. Nugent wants to start back up this week. We haven't talked to Dr. Nugent about this yet, as to why we are now going with concurrent instead of sequential treatment as we thought we were doing. I'm assuming it is because she did so well during the first 3 rounds of chemotherapy.

I know I keep thanking you for all the prayers, but God hears your requests. Sometimes He answers the way we want Him to, and this is one of those times, so keep praying please that Ruth/Mom/Grammy will be able to tolerate the radiation and chemotherapy at the same time!!

 

June 10, 2011

Ruth/Mom/Grammy had another CT scan on June 7th. Today, June 10th, we went to see Dr. Barker to hear the results. Dr. Barker used the word "favorable" in talking about the CT scan results. He said the tumor had gotten smaller (he didn't say how much smaller). He did another scope through mom's nose to look at the tumor directly. He said, "The tumor is definitely smaller and the voicebox is wide open. Let's start radiation to see if we can get rid of the tumor altogether." Dr. Barker has already done the prep work for the radiation and almost all of the technology has been set up. He wants one more appointment to take a "safety set of x-rays" to be sure everything is set up perfectly. That appointment is scheduled for late next week with radiation to begin sometime the week of June 20. Ruth/Mom/Grammy will receive 35 doses of radiation 5 days a week with the 4th of July off. She should finish up this round of radiation in early August, right before her 86th birthday, and then I'm sure it will be time for another CT scan.

As always, thank you so much for your prayers. I will update the blog to let you know how Mom handles the radiation so keep on praying that she does not have too bad of a reaction to the radiation and that she, at the age of 85, can tolerate it. She's pretty tough and has impressed both doctors with her strength and stamina so I think she will tolerate it just fine as long as we are all lifting her up in prayer!