Home from the hospital

I arrived home from the hosiptal yesterday about 4:00 pm. Soooo very nice to be home and in my own bed. I am feeling much better. The worst part is I have very little leg strength and control. I need to hang on to furniture and walls so I don't fall. It is hard to get from sitting to standing without Sandy almost picking me up. My knees just seem to buckle. Hopefully the strength will coming back quickly.

I came home to an astonishing 76 Emails of support and annonymous blog entries. Thank you so much for your love and continued support. Also thank you for the flowers and the many meals for the eatting and freezing.

I am off scrapboking for the weekend at Pincher Creek. Not to worry there are no stairs and I have my 8 best friends to take care of me and hover and mother me whether I like it or not. I also have a cane and a walker. So I will be well taken care of.

My love to you all.

Carolin

Update August 29

The doctor does not think that Carolin will be in the hospital over the Christmas holidays. It just seems that way.

- they haven't been agressive against the diarrehea because they were worried about the hole in her bowel. That treatment would have made things there worse. So far Carolin still doesn't show any symptoms that would make them want to operate.
- the weakness is now thought to be from the steroids, not the xeloda as originially reported. I had thought it was because she's only now starting to eat after 10 days. They've cut the steroid dose in half again.
- they're going to give her insides a rest from xeloda (her last type of chemo). Instead they are going to try an older, better tolerated chemo to keep things in check until her insides heal up. In a few months they will go back to a reduced dose of xeloda because it does seem to work for her liver.
- her hands are going to peel. (they don't look too good as it is). Feet are OK.
- she's taking 5 pills to replace all the potassium she's lost. More pills.

She's quite weak and needs help walking and getting up from chairs. The runs to the bathroom are getting less rushed but are still more regular than she would like. Today she's unhooked from all the intravenouses to prove she can go without them. We're hoping to get her out of the hospital tomorrow.

Sandy

Still in hospital

Carolin's wrapping up a full week in the hospital. She's rehydrated and thinking well but still suffering from diarrehea. 10 days of it!! Modern medicine is working on it. Hopefully she can come home at the start of this week.

Update #2

Carolin's still in the hospital and it looks like it might be Monday before she gets out. Her spirits are good and she looks great (except for the knees), but the diarrehea continues. They're using some high power drugs to slow things down but they didn't have any effect until today. Things MIGHT be slowing down.

Yesterday she had a CT scan of her liver. The cancer there has shrunk substantially (Yeah!!) but it also showed she had air in her stomach. The only way to get that is from a perferated bowel. Because she doesn't have any symptoms of pertonitis, they are just going to wait and see if it has fixed itself. Meanwhile she has surgeon residents dropping by to check on her stomach pain (or lack of it) quite often.

Sorry about the delay in the updates but the internet connection died here at home.

Sandy

Update 1 / Monday

Carolin's own oncologist saw her this morning. Her weakness, sore hands and feet, and diarrehea can all be side-effects of her xeloda (chemo) drug. She'll be in the hospital until they can stop all the bathroom trips. They figure that will be 3 days. She's in a good frame of mind but still can't walk without help. As soon as she starts eating again maybe we'll get her strength up and the walking will come back too.

Vacation's Done

On Friday Carolin was no better. Saturday was a little worse. She had persistent stomach cramps and diarrehea, couldn't walk and didn't have the strength to stand up. Saturday morning we decided to drive home. By Vancouver it was apparent this wasn't going to work. We grabbed a Westjet flight from Vancouver to Calgary and had an ambulance meet the plane.

Working through Emergency in Calgary isn't quick but it is familiar. 18 hours after we started she was admitted into the Foothills hospital. The diarrehea is continuing but she is much more coherent probably due to the saline IV. The feeling is that she has to get back on her medications (except the chemo). She's been avoiding them because anything in her stomach might make her problem worse. The balance is still off but that's the original brain tumour. Her strength is poor. Some tests aren't back.

I'll update later.

Sandy

Over relaxed on vacation

Parksville is just what we had hoped. Lots of beach, strange critters, kids and sun burn. Unfortunately I'm getting to the end of this cycle of chemo and things are not good. I'm too weak to get up stairs or even out of a chair without help. I'm always cold and have to stay near the bathroom. I called the doctor and filled him in.

I can stop taking this chemo. Now I just have to build up a little strength so I can make a trip down the beach with Jess. No problem. We've got lots of time left here and by all reports, there's no end of little criters to find.

Love
Carolin

On vacation #1

We made it to Vancouver Island and are settled into our spot on the beach. The weather is perfect and the pace is nice and slow. Of course day 1 heading for the beach I took a header right in front of Jessica. The knee took another hit and now looks quite gruesome. Once down on the beach Jess had a great time hunting crabs about a quarter of the size of a dime, and clams. The tidal flats here are large and filled with excited kids. This is what summer is suppose to be like.

Today I went to a spa nearby. I could live in there. Wow. I was so relaxed when I came out of there I just floated out the front door.
More later.

Carolin

One step back

I saw the doctor today while I was getting my herceptin. I told him the short version of my recent problems. He thought that most of the side effects were from the high dose of steroids. As my balance is worse than ever, the steroids aren't working so he cut my dose in half.

The pill chemo were going to keep doing. Their side effects aren't bad enough to stop.

The steroids are to fix my brain problems. Without that option it's a short list of choices. After the next MRI in September I'll get to hear what the choices are. For now I'm tired, clumsy and going to bed.

Side effects

This week my sister from San Fran and I and the kids went to see my dad in Edmonton. Too bad it turns out this is the week all the side effects they warn about, show up. The worst is mouth sores that makes it hard to talk, let alone eat. Soup is as good as I can do right now. But that's not a problem as my stomach is not happy either. "Rot gut" the doctor called it. Seems appropriate. Of course there's a pill for that.

All in all I'm sleeping a bunch waiting for these things to pass. Did a muga scan yesterday and will see the doctor again next Tuesday. He'll be deciding if I can stay on this chemo or not.

Love
Carolin