Monday, May 17, 2010

Results, Graduation, and Chemo

There is never a dull moment in the Ours’ family. We always have something going on. Below is an update on what has been keeping us busy.



My mom has finished 3 treatments of her current chemo. This chemo has been the hardest on her. It has taken all her energy away and has made her feel exhausted ALL the time. She has done a lot of sleeping and it never takes away the exhausted feeling. However, she still continues to go into work through all of this.


CT Scan Results

My mom had a scan before she came to San Diego for my graduation. My mom decided to wait to hear the results of the scan till after their trip to San Diego. She had a doctor’s appointment on May 12th. The test results came back that the cancer continued to grow in her liver and lungs. My mom asked for a printout of the results to take home and review. Later my mom noticed that the scan was not compared to the most recent scan (this is proof that it is important to be proactive in your doctor appointments). We finally received the correct results. The CT scan showed that there were no changes since the last scan. This means that the chemo kept the cancer from growing. This is good news but we want the chemo to get rid of the cancer. She will now start a different type of chemo this Thursday May 20th. The new chemo treatment will be every two weeks. We are hoping that the new chemo will not take her energy away and her hair might grow back.



San Diego

My parents came out for my graduation from Azusa Pacific University. It took a lot of planning and perseverance from my mom. We were concerned that the weekend would be too hard on my mom (traveling, visitors, sitting through the graduation in the heat, and having a place for my mom to rest). The first concern was having a supply of oxygen on the plane and at our apartment. My mom rented a portable oxygen machine that makes oxygen from the air (her name was Bertha). Oxygen tanks and an oxygen concentrator were delivered to our apartment. The next concern was planning a weekend that would not be too much for my mom. Once graduation was over she got to rest in our tiny apartment. We were happy that Amy came for the weekend too. We were all cozy in our two bedroom one bath apartment.




Chemo

Below are pictures from my mom’s last chemo. This chemo session was around six hours, which gave my mom, Aunt Suzanne, and Greta time to read lots of magazines.