April radiation and a new baby!

Sorry it has been so long, but here is the last few weeks' worth on Liz.

After her MRI on her birthday, Liz started taking a steroid, dexamethazone, for inflammation of her spine. It did affect her appearance, so she got a bit of the "moon face" (chubby cheeks) and a little belly. She also had more of an appetite which was good. She is now tapering off of the steroid.

We asked about Liz taking study drugs vs. radiation treatments for her cancer in her bones. Dr. Ribas said she could stop taking the drugs just during the days she has radiation, then start again afterward.

So, on April 12, Liz began five days of radiation treatments on her spine and her hips. It seemed to go fine. She developed red skin rectangles where the radiation went into her body, front and back. Her esophagus was irritated from it too, and by the following Wed. it was pretty painful to swallow. She began to take more oxycodone to help with the pain. Monday 4/26 she started on a liquid to gargle and swallow. It contains lidocaine for pain, maalox for acid, and diphenhydramine for swelling reaction. She also has clotrimazole lozenges to suck on for the thrush (her tongue is white) and we feel like these are helping somewhat. Both of these were used before when she was released from the hospital after IL2 treatments.

On April 13th Liz had an infusion of Zometa as well. It is a medicine which blocks cancer from being able to react and break down bone. It took her nearly two hours, instead of 30 min, because they got the wrong person's prescription ready, and almost gave it to Liz: Elizabeth K Harris is an older lady who also needs zometa but takes it with other medicines at a very slow rate.

Zometa made her bones ache that night around her ribcage, an expected side effect. She took oxy to help. This will be a once a month treatment for her bones to grow better over the next 4 months. Liz received rides to radiation treatments from Melissa Lewis, Cindi Wendler, Nell Howell, and Lisa Safeer. Dinners were brought in by Karen Leonard, Linda Leonard, Yalanda Atchison and Jeanne Moore and Nell Howell. They were delicious!

Then Liz had an appointment at UCLA on 4/21. Liz did blood tests fairly easily and saw Dr Chmielowski (sp?) because Dr. Ribas was called away on an emergency. She received the next three weeks' worth of medicine and we plan to return on 5/12 for the start of cycle 5.

After that appointment Liz flew to Yakima to join the rest of us at Rachel's house, to see their beautiful new baby boy, Hyrum Benjamin Jensen. Luckily Hyrum is small enough that Liz can hold him. He is a sweet boy, and his parents are very happy and devoted to him. He was born on 4-6-10 and weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 19 3/4 inches long. He has lots of blond hair. It was fun to have a little break from some worries and get away. Even Matt got to come, right after finals at BYU. We worked on a few projects there to help out. We enjoyed participating in Hyrum's blessing too.

We drove home through the night from Sunday to Monday the 26th. We all feel better for getting a good night's sleep in our own beds. Liz keeps a pretty good attitude most of the time. She does get tired of her body always having pain somewhere, or her appetite being gone, then returning, only to be less able to swallow. She keeps trying and we will work it out. We so value our friends who help lift our burdens (weed my flower beds, and mow the lawn, feed the dog...) and share our concerns. Thanks for your support!

ECGs and bumps along the way...

2-15-10

This morning Liz tried an Ensure on the way, and vomited as we arrived at the airport at 6:20 am. Luckily we brought extra pants, and a jacket. She changed in the car and we washed them later. Liz and I made it to Los Angeles after a delay of an hour in Oakland. It was harder this time than last with two flights to get to Burbank. We go back by way of Phoenix on Thursday.

Liz has had much more pain lately, and needs help moving most everywhere. She has trouble eating, feeling nauseous and reacting to heavier foods, then even to milk products. She tries to keep liquids down and eats like a mouse – applesauce, dry cereal, fruit (especially strawberries), a bit of chicken. Meat sounds too hard to eat. Since Friday Liz has had a swollen tongue on one side. We thought she reacted to a very acidic kiwi (like I now do eating fresh pineapple), but it hasn’t gone away. It makes it hard to swallow at all.

Val brought us home from the airport and we ate a bit then napped. I also showered. J Today Liz has eaten a bit of pop tart, a bite of graham cracker, a little serving of applesauce, a couple of blueberries, a little orange juice (6oz) and some ginger ale, soy milk chocolate 4 oz, and even a few small bites of chicken enchilada, mostly after we got here at 3pm.

2-16-10

Liz slept sitting up against some pillows and seemed to do better than lying down. We still used the heating pad too. We set alarms to get her medicines in less than 4 hours and it helps too.

Driving to UCLA was very slow as freeways are more like parking lots here. J We took over an hour to go 23 miles, but we did find it just fine. The office was packed with people, due to the Presidents’ Day holiday. Liz started her ECG (they still call it EKG) at 10:14am so we will end up doing the last one early before the last nurse leaves at 6pm.

We also told them about her tongue/throat situation and Dr Ribas came out to look at her and talk to her. He said maybe some lymph nodes are swollen and putting pressure on her nerves; then he borrowed a flashlight and said she has thrush. (She had it in the hospital before.) He prescribed a swish and spit med called Nystatin. He also heard about her pain getting much worse and called Smiths’ Pharmacy to talk to them about what the insurance will cover (instead of/before oxycontin). He has been on a trip but was concerned they didn’t just give her a different medication than was prescribed. “She shouldn’t be in so much pain.” She has taken one morphine pill which has made her sleepy. They told us it would take several hours to take effect for pain. We are grateful to Jackie for asking him to see her today (unscheduled) and that he got us meds to try right away. We also know Jackie has ordered pills to be ready tomorrow morning so Liz can start on them asap.

Liz has eaten some applesauce and some chocolate soy milk. Dry stuff hurts too much right now. We thought about stopping at Diddy Riese – they sell cookies/ice cream sandwiches there. We opted to head home more quickly. J

She is really tired, probably because of the morphine. Her back did hurt quite a bit after lying down on the bed at the clinic for 90 minutes. She feels every bump, every bit of braking or acceleration. I try to make it as smooth as possible in stop and go traffic. She ate some cereal and might be good for more.