Wednesday, June 30, 2010
1st Chemo
So, today I had my first round of chemo. It was very strange to me to go into the office, feeling absolutely fine, knowing that they are pumping me with chemo that could make me feel horrible. So far, I feel like I just had 4 cups of coffee from the steroids they gave me, but no nausea or anything. I'll probably be up all night, but I have some good books to read (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...anyone like it??). So, the plan is still for me to see my OB on Tuesday to feel my cervix and check blood work and if all is well, to induce on Thursday, and if I feel well enough that next week to have another round of chemo the following Wednesday. I'm looking forward to having this baby and the joy that it brings with it - something to look forward to in the midst of all of this other than shrinking this softball in my chest. God has really blessed me with peace in these last couple of days - my mom is all nervous about the baby and I really haven't been anxious about that at all - I have peace that my doctors know what they are doing and that the baby will be just fine. So, thanks for all of your prayers for peace - they are working!!!! I slept last night without taking any meds to help me sleep, which was another big deal. Well, just thought I would give a quick update - thanks again for all of the prayers and thoughts and notes of encouragement. Much love, Kara
Monday, June 28, 2010
Clogged veins....
Hey all - well, Friday's ultrasound showed that my 'vasculature' or veins in my chest are too congested right now to put the port in due to the pressure that the tumor is causing on my blood vessels to my heart. So, no port until they can shrink the tumor a little bit to relieve the pressure, which Dr. Anderson is confident can happen within a few weeks of chemo. Also, they found a clot in my jugular vein, which freaks me out a little bit, but they said not to worry about it yet as it's just from slow/congested blood flow from the pressure. I worry more about pushing with labor and having a clot, so I talked to Dr. Lee (OB) about it and he's going to talk to the surgeon about it and let me know. C-section still might be the end result...we'll see.
So, this week I have my first chemo treatment on Wednesday - 3 hours. I guess they aren't usually that long, but this includes teaching so it's longer than normal. I've saved my coupons to cut and my magazines to read for until then... :) Dr. Lee says that most likely if my blood counts are ok, we will be inducing labor on the 8th of July then so that I will be 36.5 weeks along and a week out of chemo. Collin had his 2 year well-baby visit today with the pediatrician so I explained to him that he will have another patient next week, and he's confident that everything will be fine....and St. Joe's has a great NICU if we need it.
Emotionally I've been really labile lately....one minute I will be fine and then the next minute fighting tears. I'm having trouble sleeping because I can't seem to turn my brain off, which is frustrating and leaves me even more tired during the day. I want to pray, but a lot of times I don't even know what to say, so I really appreciate everyone praying on my behalf. I swear that I'm more short of breath lately, but I don't know if it's from anxiety, or actually knowing that I have a huge mass in my chest, or from the baby growing or a combination of all of these things. I guess I'm just ready to get started with getting rid of this thing in me (tumor) and meeting my new little bundle (baby), and am just sad that they have to be at the same time.
Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers....sorry if I don't respond to your messages or emails...there are just too many to keep up - I would be on the computer all day and I'm trying to savor my 'healthy' time with my kiddos and hubby right now instead of sitting on the computer. Love you all, Kara
So, this week I have my first chemo treatment on Wednesday - 3 hours. I guess they aren't usually that long, but this includes teaching so it's longer than normal. I've saved my coupons to cut and my magazines to read for until then... :) Dr. Lee says that most likely if my blood counts are ok, we will be inducing labor on the 8th of July then so that I will be 36.5 weeks along and a week out of chemo. Collin had his 2 year well-baby visit today with the pediatrician so I explained to him that he will have another patient next week, and he's confident that everything will be fine....and St. Joe's has a great NICU if we need it.
Emotionally I've been really labile lately....one minute I will be fine and then the next minute fighting tears. I'm having trouble sleeping because I can't seem to turn my brain off, which is frustrating and leaves me even more tired during the day. I want to pray, but a lot of times I don't even know what to say, so I really appreciate everyone praying on my behalf. I swear that I'm more short of breath lately, but I don't know if it's from anxiety, or actually knowing that I have a huge mass in my chest, or from the baby growing or a combination of all of these things. I guess I'm just ready to get started with getting rid of this thing in me (tumor) and meeting my new little bundle (baby), and am just sad that they have to be at the same time.
Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers....sorry if I don't respond to your messages or emails...there are just too many to keep up - I would be on the computer all day and I'm trying to savor my 'healthy' time with my kiddos and hubby right now instead of sitting on the computer. Love you all, Kara
Thursday, June 24, 2010
So, we met with Dr. Anderson this morning for a long time....and got a lot of answers.
I start chemo next week Wednesday already, which was a shocker to me, and then will induce baby the week after that, which would be 36 weeks gestation. Before we start chemo, I need to have a cardiac ultrasound to make sure that the tumor isn't compressing any major vessels, which is now scheduled for tomorrow morning. Then, I meet with the surgeon again tomorrow to first take out my stitches from last week, and then plan to put a port in my chest for the chemo, which will most likely be Monday. Dr. Anderson was pretty confident that this is stage I or II hodgkins, which is great news, but we can't know for sure until after I have the baby and can have a PET scan. I will have chemo once every 2 weeks for 6 months total, and then probably radiation after that.
After todays appointment, things are much more real to me and it's been a little bit more rough to be tough. I for sure will lose all of my hair, which is one of the hardest things for me to deal with, even though it seems vain in light of everything else going on, but then I will look like a cancer patient. I was hoping to kind of fake it through and look pretty normal, especially for my kids. I don't really want them thinking mommy is sick. Maybe it will grow back curlier... :)
I've been blessed with such great doctors - I know for sure that Dr. Lee and Dr. Anderson are both Christians, and that really helps when dealing with things like this.
I guess I just covet prayers that everything will be ok tomorrow on the echo so that I can have the port put in, instead of having to use my veins in my arms for chemo. Dr. Anderson is starting chemo right away because he is confident that he can shrink the tumor with just a few doses of chemo, to prevent any respiratory or cardiac complications that could come from having a huge mass on my chest.
Well, I'm just blubbering on and on....thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers.
I start chemo next week Wednesday already, which was a shocker to me, and then will induce baby the week after that, which would be 36 weeks gestation. Before we start chemo, I need to have a cardiac ultrasound to make sure that the tumor isn't compressing any major vessels, which is now scheduled for tomorrow morning. Then, I meet with the surgeon again tomorrow to first take out my stitches from last week, and then plan to put a port in my chest for the chemo, which will most likely be Monday. Dr. Anderson was pretty confident that this is stage I or II hodgkins, which is great news, but we can't know for sure until after I have the baby and can have a PET scan. I will have chemo once every 2 weeks for 6 months total, and then probably radiation after that.
After todays appointment, things are much more real to me and it's been a little bit more rough to be tough. I for sure will lose all of my hair, which is one of the hardest things for me to deal with, even though it seems vain in light of everything else going on, but then I will look like a cancer patient. I was hoping to kind of fake it through and look pretty normal, especially for my kids. I don't really want them thinking mommy is sick. Maybe it will grow back curlier... :)
I've been blessed with such great doctors - I know for sure that Dr. Lee and Dr. Anderson are both Christians, and that really helps when dealing with things like this.
I guess I just covet prayers that everything will be ok tomorrow on the echo so that I can have the port put in, instead of having to use my veins in my arms for chemo. Dr. Anderson is starting chemo right away because he is confident that he can shrink the tumor with just a few doses of chemo, to prevent any respiratory or cardiac complications that could come from having a huge mass on my chest.
Well, I'm just blubbering on and on....thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
New to blogging....
Hey everyone....well, I'm new to blogging, but I figured this would be an easier way to keep everyone updated on what's going on in our lives these days. Some day I'll figure out how to post pictures, but for now, words will have to do! :)
So, the story is this....about a month ago I had a lot of pain in my back and left chest area and thought I had pulled a muscle lifting Collin or pulled a rib or something and noticed a lump on the left side of my sternum. It was hard and felt bony, so I just thought it was some cartilage or scar tissue building up from some sort of injury. I mentioned it to Dr. Lee at one on my OB appointments, and he said to see a general surgeon. So I made that appt, went to see Dr. Battista, and he wanted to do a CT scan. This made me nervous because I was pregnant, and because everything I was looking at online about lumps on sternums meant bone cancer of some sort.
So, I had the CT scan last week Wednesday (and about 20 minutes before I was supposed to leave Mike noticed that our sump pump wasn't working and we had water in our entire basement!!!!) and when I got home from the scan , the surgeon was on the phone already telling me that the radiologist thought it looked like lymphoma. I was shocked. So, he wanted to do an open biopsy the following day, so on Thursday Mike and I went to the hospital for what we thought was going to be a 15-30 minute procedure. Well, he couldn't give me general anesthesia because I was pregnant, so I was given propofol (the same drug that killed Michael Jackson :) and was awake during the procedure, which took a little over an hour. He removed a lot of the lump that was on my sternum, but told us that there was a huge mass underneath my sternum still. The pathologist called back while I was still in surgery and said he was almost positive it was Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is the better kind, so that was the best news that we could get other than the lump being benign. So I now have an inch incision on my chest with stitches to come out on Friday. I really had quite a bit of pain for the first few days since there was some muscle connected to the lump, but that is feeling much better these days.
So, we met with Dr. Lee my OB last night and we meet with Dr. Anderson the oncologist tomorrow morning to decide the course of treatment and when to have this baby. I'm 34 weeks along, so Dr. Lee would like to get to 36 weeks before inducing me, but we will have to see what dr. Anderson has to say tomorrow. We also don't know if I will need just radiation or both radiation and chemo at this point. All of these questions will hopefully be answered at tomorrows appointment.
I'm really feeling quite hopeful at this point, but still anxious about whether or not this cancer is anywhere else in my body. I really just want to have this baby and get treatments started so I can be rid of it all. I'm also a little anxious about being tired with a newborn and starting treatment, but those are things in the future that I can't really be worrying about already. I'm confident in all of the doctors that I see and that this is a curable and treatable disease, but it's still scary since it is cancer. I trust that God has a plan in all of this - he blessed us in the fact that I'm this far along in my pregnancy and that Mike is home for the summer....it would be a lot more challenging if it was earlier in the pregnancy and if Mike was still teaching. I'm blessed with a church family that acts as our family here in WI since our family is all out of town, and with wonderful, supportive friends here in WI. (and those that are no longer living in WI) :) Anyways, I am rambling now, so I will post tomorrow after we meet with Dr. Anderson....hopefully we will have a timeline of when things will happen and what my treatment plan will look like. We appreciate all of your support and prayers. Love you all!!!
So, the story is this....about a month ago I had a lot of pain in my back and left chest area and thought I had pulled a muscle lifting Collin or pulled a rib or something and noticed a lump on the left side of my sternum. It was hard and felt bony, so I just thought it was some cartilage or scar tissue building up from some sort of injury. I mentioned it to Dr. Lee at one on my OB appointments, and he said to see a general surgeon. So I made that appt, went to see Dr. Battista, and he wanted to do a CT scan. This made me nervous because I was pregnant, and because everything I was looking at online about lumps on sternums meant bone cancer of some sort.
So, I had the CT scan last week Wednesday (and about 20 minutes before I was supposed to leave Mike noticed that our sump pump wasn't working and we had water in our entire basement!!!!) and when I got home from the scan , the surgeon was on the phone already telling me that the radiologist thought it looked like lymphoma. I was shocked. So, he wanted to do an open biopsy the following day, so on Thursday Mike and I went to the hospital for what we thought was going to be a 15-30 minute procedure. Well, he couldn't give me general anesthesia because I was pregnant, so I was given propofol (the same drug that killed Michael Jackson :) and was awake during the procedure, which took a little over an hour. He removed a lot of the lump that was on my sternum, but told us that there was a huge mass underneath my sternum still. The pathologist called back while I was still in surgery and said he was almost positive it was Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is the better kind, so that was the best news that we could get other than the lump being benign. So I now have an inch incision on my chest with stitches to come out on Friday. I really had quite a bit of pain for the first few days since there was some muscle connected to the lump, but that is feeling much better these days.
So, we met with Dr. Lee my OB last night and we meet with Dr. Anderson the oncologist tomorrow morning to decide the course of treatment and when to have this baby. I'm 34 weeks along, so Dr. Lee would like to get to 36 weeks before inducing me, but we will have to see what dr. Anderson has to say tomorrow. We also don't know if I will need just radiation or both radiation and chemo at this point. All of these questions will hopefully be answered at tomorrows appointment.
I'm really feeling quite hopeful at this point, but still anxious about whether or not this cancer is anywhere else in my body. I really just want to have this baby and get treatments started so I can be rid of it all. I'm also a little anxious about being tired with a newborn and starting treatment, but those are things in the future that I can't really be worrying about already. I'm confident in all of the doctors that I see and that this is a curable and treatable disease, but it's still scary since it is cancer. I trust that God has a plan in all of this - he blessed us in the fact that I'm this far along in my pregnancy and that Mike is home for the summer....it would be a lot more challenging if it was earlier in the pregnancy and if Mike was still teaching. I'm blessed with a church family that acts as our family here in WI since our family is all out of town, and with wonderful, supportive friends here in WI. (and those that are no longer living in WI) :) Anyways, I am rambling now, so I will post tomorrow after we meet with Dr. Anderson....hopefully we will have a timeline of when things will happen and what my treatment plan will look like. We appreciate all of your support and prayers. Love you all!!!
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