Standing still .... Again.

For the past three weeks we have been going back and forth to doc appts to find out if Mom's platelet counts were high enough to receive Chemo. Well today's appointment was the same as the last three weeks. Mom once again did not get the approval to start taking the next round of Chemo. Her counts were only 95k and needed to be at the least 100k. We will not lie to you .... this has been highly disappointing for us. The spirits across the entire family have been up and down. We are thankful though that all signs point to her getting chemo next week. We also look forward to meeting with the doctor at her next appointment to see if there is an alternative protocol Mom can pursue since her body doesn't seem to want to recover from the current type of chemo. We will also discuss what the delay in treatments means to her treatment plan as a whole. Please keep praying and sending positive thoughts our way. We need them. I will re-post after our appointment next week.

On a brighter note .... Mom has been feeling well and had been getting out of the house. We have been enjoying Sunday dinners at Katie and Patrick's house, Chase and Owen's football games, Miles for Hope Benefit Walk, shopping, dinners out, birthday parties and last but surely not least Epcot! Mom, Jim, Katie and Patrick went to Epcot last weekend for the Food and Wine Festival. Mom had a blast. She was so happy to be there and enjoy the park like the ole days. The only difference this time was that it was from a wheelchair. She allowed the family to push her in a wheelchair to help her preserve her energy for the entire day. The four of them came home from the trip and crashed. They were all tired! I have put pictures below of some of the things we have been doing over the past month. Enjoy! Note: Mom's cheeks are puffy from the steriods. She has to take the steriods to help her recover from surgery and radiation. She hates her cheeks, but we insist she is the cutest little puffer fish we have ever seen. ;)

Not happy but not sad ....

We went to doctor today to have Mom's platelet counts checked again. Her platelets are still too low to get chemo. Our platelet counts are around 450K. Her platelet counts need to be at least 100K and they are only 63K right now, up from 50K last week. We will have to wait until next week to see if her counts are ready for the next round of chemo. This is all completely normal for patients that are post radiation and chemotherapy.

Mom has also been battling headaches and other issues this week. The doctor upped her dose of steroids and reminded us that the six weeks after radiation therapy can be the hardest. This really comforted us. We were worried that we were seeing signs of the tumor. :( Thankfully they put our minds at rest that, what she is experiencing is from her healing from radiation and chemotherapy.

After all of this ... she is doing well ..... so we are still doing well. Everyday we wake up and remember to look on the brightside, to hold on to hope, and try to make the most out of the day. Some days are harder than others as you can imagine. Thankfully today will make the next couple of days easier while we wait for chemo.

Today's Appointment

Jim, Mom, Katie and I set out early this morning to head to Tampa for Mom's big appointment. We had high hopes of TONS of information and for it to all be good as today would be the first day that she would get an MRI since treatment. It was our first look to see how she reacted to the 6 weeks of radiation and chemo. Today's appointment didn't necessarily go as expected. We thought we would walk away from the appointment with a clear cut feeling of victory. However we found out that we will not be able to do that until the next MRI about two months from now. The brain goes through many changes after radiation, which can make it hard for the doctor to determine exactly how much progress she has made. So, we will now have to wait until her next MRI to determine exactly how well she is doing. The next MRI should be about 2 months from now. They will compare the MRI from today to the MRI from then. Hopefully at that time will we be able to do our victory dance. ;)
As far as the next steps of treatment. Mom will begin a 28 day cycle of Chemo and will repeat it for 6 months. She will take a higher dose of the Chemo than she has been use to.... she will do this for the first 5 days of the cycle and then will have 23 days off. We are playing the waiting game right now as to when she will start her first 28 day cycle. Her platelets are low and she cannot start the cycle until they come back up. She will have blood work done again next week to see how her counts look. The doctor was optimistic that Mom would tolerate this new treatment plan well and hopefully have minimal side effects.
Mom is in good spirits and is overall feeling well. She was happy to hear that the doctor wants to try her on a lower dose of steroids, which will hopefully only help her feel better.
Prayers and crossed fingers that she gets to start her next round of treatment next week. We want to continue to take this bull by the horns and not wait another minute waiting to fight it!