Thursday, May 29, 2008

5/29/08 Thursday Afternoon
Yesterday was a difficult day for Judy. She was quite nauseated and stay flat on her back most of the day. Today was only slightly better.

We talked with her oncologist just a few minutes ago and were advised that Judy's biopsy looked most like breast cancer cells. That was the good news. The bad news was that the cancer was not hormone responsive, so she will have to have chemotherapy. They are doing one additional test (nu tu du or something similar) to see if she will be sensitive to a particular chemotherapy drug.

We are presently waiting for a call back from the oncologist, who is trying to fit Judy into her schedule tomorrow for plan development and the start of chemotherapy. Judy is most anxious to start the chemotherapy, as she literally feels worse and worse each day without any kind of treatment.

The oncologist's nurse just called back and Judy is scheduled to go in, in the morning at 8:30 am. She will do labs, meet with the doctor and then get her chemotherapy. It appears that they will be giving her a drug called Taxol once a week thru her portacath. (This time it will go in the midline, then they will pull the midline. From then on it will go in the portacath.) The portacath has to be flushed once per month, if not used. Since they will be using it weekly they will be doing all of the flushing. She will probably loose her hair, which is no big thing for her ... since she lost her hair when she was on chemo 23 years ago. Last time her hair grew back darker and more curly!

1 comment:

John Stockett said...

Dear Judy and Jerry, we love you both so much and are so sad that you have to go through this most recent trial. You are amazing the way that you are coping with all the poking and prodding, with all the doctors, nurses and students taking a stab at you (no pun intended!!!) We will keep you in our prayers. Keep your chin up, you are such a great example to so many of us - we love you. Scott & Michele McKee