#7 Down, One to go...what a day.

Hi All,
Deb asked me to blog for her cause she's too pooped to blog right now. We have slain treatment #7 and have just one more to go. Back in August when we sat with Dr. Brown and listened, totally numb, to him tell us what we had ahead of us, I didn't know how we were going to get thru this. But here we are, close to the end of this journey. Of course we still will need to be on guard for quite some time, but this part of it is almost over for us. The one thing cancer has taught us is what a person is capable of doing in the midst of adversity. We are honored to have come to know some very special people who share our fight in the infusion room who also have shown us what a person can do under enormous odds.

Okay, about yesterday. While meeting with Dr. Basche she said it's time for a change. The treatments are just dragging Debbie down too fast. So she eliminated one of the three drugs in Deb's chemo cocktail for this treatment. It is the drug that causes so much numbness and pain in her hands (also probably the most aggressive of chemo drugs) and the hope is that Deb can get thru this treatment and function somewhat better since she's in her deadlines with work. Dr. Basche assured us that this is commom to drop it for one treatment since it's a very tough drug to handle. It seems to have worked, Deb can move around and function better than previous treatments. Tomorrow and Friday will be tell tale days as those are her worst after treatment. And since Deb is down to 113 pounds they want her to go in next week (our off week normally) and get an IV infusion Mon., Wed., & Friday. It's to keep her fluid levels up and keep her hydrated.

So, we get home in the late afternoon and about dinner time Tori starts having pain in her neck/shoulder. By 7:00 she is in agony and I call her pediatrition. He has me come right down and after examing her, calls 911, they show up and proceed to strap her to a back board, tape down her head and we enjoy a ride back up to Skyridge. I told her she looked like what they do to a NFL player after a hard hit. After 4 hours of tests they conclude that she pinched a nerve in her neck and the muscle spasmed severly causing the intense pain. She's home now resting and on muscle relaxants for a few days. I'm going to get her into Integrative Medical also for some treatments to help relax the neck muscles. I did pray to God and thanked him that it wasn't anything more serious (they were talking possiblity of liver, pancreas, or gallbladder before the test started).

So it was a very adventurous day to say the least. But Deb seems to be functioning better and Tori is fine so all's well.

Again, from my heart, thanks to all of you for checking in, emailing, calling, acts of kindness. It is our family and friends that keep Deb fighting to beat this beast!!

-Doug