Scenes from an inpatient treatment

Hello everyone! It's Amy again, checking in to let everyone know that Inpatient #3 is going well and sharing some pictures of Scott's world while he's undergoing is inpatient treatments. Here's a day in the life...

The Oncology floor is 11 North. We've met the majority of the folks in this picture, but only a handful of them treat Scott. Nurses have to go through extra training and requirements to be able to administer Chemo. Here are some of our "Regulars" and are all wonderful nurses. (I felt to silly asking them all to pose for pictures, so I took pictures of the ones on the board - please excuse the reflections!)

Brenda is Scott's favorite and I'm sure Scott is her favorite. She says he's her "Buddy" and always takes Scott's side when we disagree about something. She is a Nursing Assistant.

Todd was our first nurse for Scott's very first inpatient treatment. He is a very nice guy.

Erdsley is the nighttime Charge Nurse (Nursing Supervisor). I've actually never met Erdsley, but Scott says he's really nice.

Cynthia is one of my favorites. She's always challenging Scott. She says she wanted to be different and NOT smile in her picture, but in actuality, she smiles a lot.

Marie is the Sweet Bearer of Caffeine! She has other duties, but in the afternoon, she brings a coffee cart by and knows my coffee order - 2 creamers and a half a Splenda. :) I think she has the kindest smile.

Maria and Scott have lots in common - they watch a lot of the same shows and she's a dog-lover, too.

Deinier is so sweet, too. She was with us the first two days this week. She's very attentive.

Tryphose is the daytime Charge Nurse. Yesterday, her and I were trying to convince Scott that Facebook IS the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that is more than acceptable to have text conversations instead of phone calls so that strangers don't have to listen to your conversations and you won't bug people if they are too busy to talk. (It didn't work)

"The Pole". The incessant beeping that emanates from "The Pole" can be VERY annoying, and I'm not allowed to figure out how to dismantle it and figure it out, so I just deal with it. Seriously, though, this is Scott's IV. The Chemo bag is always covered with a dark bag to block the light from having an any affect on the drugs. Scott is connected to this the entire week, including bathroom trips. When he gets unhooked, he does a little jig and sings I'm FREE, I'm FREE!! (Just kidding - but I know he wants to)

"The Board" is our daily status. Notice the section that says "My Most Important Priorities For Very Good Care Are:". He usually says "No Nausea", "No Pain" and ALWAYS says "Go Home".

Sorry guys - this is the very best Chemo Smile I could coax out of him, but he says "Hi!"

We hope everyone is having a great week - we'll check in later in the week. Love and hugs to all!

~Amy

Inpatient #3 Starts With Good News

Hi all! It's Amy, happy to deliver some good news. While Scott is not happy that another inpatient treatment has started again, he IS happy to have received some good news this morning. Before every treatment, we meet with his Doctor and/or PA and we discuss all kinds of things. Today, we were anxiously awaiting the results of Scott's first CT Scan since the original (He went on Friday). Today, we heard that that his tumor has shrunk AND there is new bone growth. We are still waiting more exact details, but apparently the tumor was bigger than we originally thought (about 2.5 inches) and it is now smaller. We had hoped and prayed and expected to hear the tumor has shrunk because his pain has decreased quite a bit, but we are very happy to have that confirmed. They still see the same two small spots on his lungs. They are too tiny to even tell what they are, but they will keep watching them as they were before.

He is going to go for an MRI next week, and then meet with his original Oncologist to discuss the results. Her, his Medical Oncologist, and other Doctors will review these results, his progress, and determine if they are going to recommend radiation, surgery or both. We'll let you guys know more when we know more.

So the boredom of the week has begun for Scott and we'll be happy when it's over. It is nice to see the nurses and aides we are getting to know well - there were "hi's!" all around when we got over to the hospital. They are such nice people - it makes this a little easier.

We'll check in throughout the week. Hope everyone has a good one!

~Amy

Fever's can be a bitch

Hey everyone.  Well, I'm home from the hospital.  Got home yesterday and was pretty tired.  I unfortunately couldn't go to a friends wedding last night, so I stayed home.  Really bummed about that since I was looking forward to Amy and I going.  She got a dress that she looks phenomenal in.  I probably couldn't have danced with her, but I really wanted to go.

Other than that, I stayed in, relaxed and rested.  I slept really good last night and for part of the day and am feeling better (not that I was really feeling "bad" when I had a fever).  The good news, no infections.  I think the type of fever is called a Neutropenic Fever.  This type of fever can happen when your cell counts are low after a chemo treatment.  This was true for me.  The immune booster shots I take weren't supposed to start until Friday, so my cell counts were low.  Now that I am taking the shots, my cell counts are going back up.

Well, tomorrow, I am going to try to go back to work (especially since I am scheduled to be back in the hospital a week from Monday for my next in-patient treatment), but I will be taking it as it comes.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend and I thank everyone for there thoughts and prayers.  I love you all and will post again soon with any updates.

A slight hiccup...

Hi all - It's Amy - I hope everyone is doing well.

We've had a slight "hiccup" with Scott's treatment and I always promise to keep everyone posted, so I wanted to do a quick post.

Overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, Scott came down with a fever. Many of you already know that a fever is a serious issue for patients undergoing chemo. The chemo kills everything in his body - both good and bad - and that means his immune system is very compromised. His body can't fight off infection like "healthy" people can. So, a fever has to be taken very seriously. He tried to see if it would go away on it's own (he didn't even wake me up to tell me) and continued to try to fight it throughout Thursday. Thursday afternoon, it continued to get higher, so off we went to the ER. The doctors at Coral Springs Medical Center decided it was best to admit him overnight, and have since decided to keep him overnight tonight, as well.

He feels fine, has energy and shows no obvious signs of infection or pneumonia, so that's all good. The doctors here are just being cautious and aggressive with the prevention and that's why he's going to be here. They are pumping him full of antibiotics and monitoring him. They've also sent some blood cultures to the lab, but those results will take several days. His fever is gone, but he has to go 24 hours without any fever and run the full course of antibiotics before they'll let him go home.

As you can imagine, he's not a happy camper - he's bored and more than slightly annoyed that he's back in the hospital, but he really is doing fine. So no cause for alarm - just keeping everyone posted. :)

Thanks for all the love, as always. We hope everyone has a great weekend!

~Amy

P.S. - Today's medical vocabulary lesson: "Afebrile" means without fever. Scott's Physician's Assistant (PA) used that term in an email to me like I had a clue what she was talking about! Of course, for those of you that know me well know I immediately Googled it. LOL - we're learning much more about medical terms, definitions and situations than I ever thought I would.

Treatment #5 Completed

Hey everybody.  Just wanted to let everyone know that I am doing ok.  My energy level has really gone down and I seem to be tired all of the time, but other than that, I feel pretty good.  Finished my 3rd out-patient treatment late Monday night.  We got out a little earlier than usual, not much, but I'll take what I can get.  I can't tell you how good it felt to take a shower and wash off all the hospital crud off of me.  Talk about feeling refreshed.  Felt so good afterwards.  Then I was able to sleep for about 8 hours or so which also greatly helped.  Especially since it was straight through.  It's a rare night for me to sleep all the way through without waking up at least once or twice.

I spoke with Liz, my PA and she told me that I have an appointment on Friday, May 20th to go back in for a CT Scan.  We were expecting this.  This is to see the how much the tumor has shrunk (if at all) from the Chemo.  I'm sure it has, since the pain isn't what it used to be.  I can now walk normally, but still tend to limp as it does hurt a bit.  I haven't needed any of the harder pain meds in a while and haven't even need any of the Excedrin (except for a headache from time to time).  So before I am admitted for my next treatment, we will go over the scans and have a better idea of where my treatments will go from here (surgery, radiation or both).

Hard to believe that I've had 5 ttreatments already.  Before I know it, I'll be passed the half-way mark.  And then be done sometime in October (if my body can handle the decreased time between chemo treatments).  I hope so.  I really would love to start the 2012 with a smile on my face and maybe some hair back on my head.

Almost finished with treatment #5

Hello all! I wanted to let everyone know we are almost done with treatment #5 and are ready to go home. We should be leaving by 11, which is an hour earlier than normal, so we're happy! We're both looking forward to getting some comfortable sleep. We'll check in more tomorrow - just letting all of Scott's Loyal Followers know he's ok. :)

Love to all!
Amy

Treatment #4 finished!

Hello all, It's Amy doing a post to let you know Scott's 4th treatment is done and he is home resting. He's still going to be trying to handle the 2-week cycle, so his next treatment is an outpatient one scheduled on the 9th. The week was a very long and boring one, but the nurses at the hospital just love him and they take such good care of him. He was very happy to be out of there by 4:30-ish on Saturday afternoon. The car ride wasn't as bad for him this time, as he made sure to take his anti-nausea meds about an hour before we left.

He's especially tired this time and is achy, but overall, he's fine. The nausea isn't too bad. He's going to be pretty quiet and resting for the next couple days, so you guys probably won't hear much from him, but I wanted to let you know not to worry. He starts getting the immune booster shots tomorrow, so I'm hoping that will help him feel a little better.

We hope everyone is doing well - talk to you guys soon!