Just a bit about the latest.
We are having a benefit concert for Iva here in Houston at UH Cullen Performance Center on August 2nd at 5 p.m. This is a classical piano concert. This event is only in a couple of weeks so we need as much help as possible with organizing a mass of people to attend. We are aiming for 1500 tickets to be sold. They are $50 each and will be available at the door. More to come, but please tell everyone you know!
Iva went to physical therapy today for an evaluation. They are going to do some strengthening for her legs and such.
She also went to the oncologist, who was her to have a new PICC line in tomorrow and start chemo the next day. The "tumor" in the lung is either dead or was never a tumor to begin with. It is not clear. The spot on the spine is essentially unchanged, which is progress if you look at it properly. The MD Anderson sarcoma specialist who initially evaluated Iva said he would be satisfied if the tumor did not grow. So we are choosing to count this as a victory.
More to come. Kids are crying!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Birthday
Iva's birthday was this past Sunday. We had a small gathering of friends, ate great food, and just enjoyed the day. For her gift, we wanted Iva to go pick out a wig. She has been a bit disgusted by her appearance and we were hoping a wig would help. Amazingly, it has. She feels great in the two she picked out and I will post pictures soon.
As for Iva's medical progress, she is suppose to have an MRI tonight. That will tell us what the spine tumor is doing. If there are favorable signs of response to chemo, she will get a new PICC line next week and start two more rounds of chemotherapy.
As for Iva's medical progress, she is suppose to have an MRI tonight. That will tell us what the spine tumor is doing. If there are favorable signs of response to chemo, she will get a new PICC line next week and start two more rounds of chemotherapy.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Great News
Iva's CT scan results are back, and the doctor said that there are no new spots. The spot on her lung looks like it is necrotic (dead), and in fact, the oncologist isn't sure it was/is a tumor afterall. Or that is what Iva understood her to say.
So all that remains is an MRI of the spine so we can see what is going on with that tumor. We are rejoicing a bit, but are still hesitant to sound the victory bell just yet.
Iva is even more hesitant than us to feel any relief, but hopefully after the MRI she can have some moments that replenish her for the fight to come. For the best news (that the tumors are responding) means more chemotherapy. There will be several more rounds to come. 5 days of chemo, then 2 weeks rest, 5 more days of chemo, then more scans. This process will be repeated for several months, more than likely. And in between, when she has no immune system, then more potential infections and other risk for complications. There will never be a time, at least not in the immediate future, when we will be without some feeling that something else is lurking. We pray for that day to come, but realistically, I know it won't be any time soon. But it is what it is. As long as we are in the fight, that means there is life. And as long as there is the strength of faith, then there is the will to fight.
Whenever anything tragic occurs, the most human response is to try to find meaning in it. The optimistic thing to do is to look for the "silver lining." In just these last 2.5 months, we have received support from so many of you, some of you whom we already knew, but many of you we did not. The fact that a complete stranger can be affected by Iva's story and moved to support her in her fight is a truly astonishing thing. This is our silver lining.
As an example, there is a pianist who lives in Chicago and is organizing a concert to be put on here in Houston for Iva. She has never met Iva or any of us, but is a friend of a friend of Iva's from years ago.
For all of our Houston supporters, save August 6th in your calendars. There will be tickets going on sale soon for this event, the proceeds of which will go to Iva's cause. More info to come.
And on a more immediate note: Iva is suppose to be coming home tomorrow. After one week in the hospital, she is ready!
So all that remains is an MRI of the spine so we can see what is going on with that tumor. We are rejoicing a bit, but are still hesitant to sound the victory bell just yet.
Iva is even more hesitant than us to feel any relief, but hopefully after the MRI she can have some moments that replenish her for the fight to come. For the best news (that the tumors are responding) means more chemotherapy. There will be several more rounds to come. 5 days of chemo, then 2 weeks rest, 5 more days of chemo, then more scans. This process will be repeated for several months, more than likely. And in between, when she has no immune system, then more potential infections and other risk for complications. There will never be a time, at least not in the immediate future, when we will be without some feeling that something else is lurking. We pray for that day to come, but realistically, I know it won't be any time soon. But it is what it is. As long as we are in the fight, that means there is life. And as long as there is the strength of faith, then there is the will to fight.
Whenever anything tragic occurs, the most human response is to try to find meaning in it. The optimistic thing to do is to look for the "silver lining." In just these last 2.5 months, we have received support from so many of you, some of you whom we already knew, but many of you we did not. The fact that a complete stranger can be affected by Iva's story and moved to support her in her fight is a truly astonishing thing. This is our silver lining.
As an example, there is a pianist who lives in Chicago and is organizing a concert to be put on here in Houston for Iva. She has never met Iva or any of us, but is a friend of a friend of Iva's from years ago.
For all of our Houston supporters, save August 6th in your calendars. There will be tickets going on sale soon for this event, the proceeds of which will go to Iva's cause. More info to come.
And on a more immediate note: Iva is suppose to be coming home tomorrow. After one week in the hospital, she is ready!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Hospitalized
Iva is still in the hospital. She had another really high fever--about 103 for 5 hours today. She shivered so much and for so long, her muscles ached, especially her leg that has been bothering her.
The hospital finance people have been by to see Iva at least twice to discuss the all important issue of "How are you going to pay for this?" They have already said she does not qualify for state or county assistance, which is no surprise since she is not a resident, but interestingly, the hospital has its own charity program that she can apply for. In 6 weeks we will find out if she is a charity case or not.
Tonight she had a CT scan for the restaging. Since she was already in the hospital, her doctor ordered the test. She was too weak to go by wheelchair, so she went to the test by hospital bed. She drank half of the contrast and promptly threw it up. So they gave her the IV contrast instead. Hopefully tomorrow we will know the results. This test will show whether she has any new metastases or growth in the 2 existing tumors. She may still need an MRI for the spine metastasis. No one has told us for sure.
The blood cultures so far have not been consistent with the type of infection they thought she had. Initially, the oncologist assumed it was a PICC line infection, since it is common. However, the cultures are more consistent with a urinary tract or digestive tract bacteria. So they are changing her antibiotics and we will see. We can only pray that they know what they are doing and that this new fever does not represent a new infection picked up at the hospital, which is, unfortunately, more common an occurrence than it should be.
The house has been still and less full. None of us is enjoying it. We pray that Iva is home soon.
The hospital finance people have been by to see Iva at least twice to discuss the all important issue of "How are you going to pay for this?" They have already said she does not qualify for state or county assistance, which is no surprise since she is not a resident, but interestingly, the hospital has its own charity program that she can apply for. In 6 weeks we will find out if she is a charity case or not.
Tonight she had a CT scan for the restaging. Since she was already in the hospital, her doctor ordered the test. She was too weak to go by wheelchair, so she went to the test by hospital bed. She drank half of the contrast and promptly threw it up. So they gave her the IV contrast instead. Hopefully tomorrow we will know the results. This test will show whether she has any new metastases or growth in the 2 existing tumors. She may still need an MRI for the spine metastasis. No one has told us for sure.
The blood cultures so far have not been consistent with the type of infection they thought she had. Initially, the oncologist assumed it was a PICC line infection, since it is common. However, the cultures are more consistent with a urinary tract or digestive tract bacteria. So they are changing her antibiotics and we will see. We can only pray that they know what they are doing and that this new fever does not represent a new infection picked up at the hospital, which is, unfortunately, more common an occurrence than it should be.
The house has been still and less full. None of us is enjoying it. We pray that Iva is home soon.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Set back
Last night about 6 p.m. Iva spiked a fever. After talking to her oncologist, we rushed her off to the hospital. We didn't want to go through the emergency room since they would just charge us more and since we knew she had to be admitted. We didn't need an ER doctor to tell us that. Unfortunately, we had to wait for an hour in the ER waiting room for her hospital room to be ready. They were disinfecting everything getting ready for her, which is great, but at that same time she was miserable, shivering from fever, working up a monster headache, and feeling like total shit. Difficult to be understanding and patient in that situation. But we did our best.
She was started on a mixture of antibiotics. They think it is an infection in her picc line, but they won't know for sure until the blood cultures come back, which takes 3 days. In the meantime she has to go fever free for 48 hours before she can be released. She still had fever this morning, so she will be there for at least another couple of days.
The good news is that Iva's white blood cell count has finally rebounded. From 0 a few days ago to 12 today. That's at least something we can feel good about.
She was started on a mixture of antibiotics. They think it is an infection in her picc line, but they won't know for sure until the blood cultures come back, which takes 3 days. In the meantime she has to go fever free for 48 hours before she can be released. She still had fever this morning, so she will be there for at least another couple of days.
The good news is that Iva's white blood cell count has finally rebounded. From 0 a few days ago to 12 today. That's at least something we can feel good about.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Leg
Iva went to the orthopedic doctor on Monday. Although she has been handling the side effects of chemotherapy pretty well, she still has some real problems with walking. A couple of weeks ago she had undergone a bunch of scans of her pelvis, hip, and upper leg to see what was going on. The good news is that there is no new tumor growth in any of those areas, and her problems are all related to the surgery she had back in February. Her gluteal muscles and pelvic muscles are a real mess. So her hamstrings, especially in the left leg, are very weak and not working properly. So she can go to physical therapy to strengthen these.
The not so good news is that she has 0 immune system. Despite trying a new (very expensive) drug this time to stimulate white blood cell production, she has 0 neutrophils.
So to do physical therapy at this point and expose herself to the big, germy world out there seems like a bad idea.
The thing about cancer is that there is always something. Always something new to worry about. Always some other test result to wait on. You can never really ever take a deep breath and say, "OK, things are good right now." Cause you never really know. In Iva's case, we still don't know if chemo is working and what this whole immune system thing means. Later this week or next week, she will undergo a full scan to see if the tumor in her lung and spine are responding. If they are, then she will get 2 more rounds of chemo followed by more scans. If at any point, her tumors grow or multiply while getting chemo, then they stop the therapy. And that is the reason we cannot breathe.
The not so good news is that she has 0 immune system. Despite trying a new (very expensive) drug this time to stimulate white blood cell production, she has 0 neutrophils.
So to do physical therapy at this point and expose herself to the big, germy world out there seems like a bad idea.
The thing about cancer is that there is always something. Always something new to worry about. Always some other test result to wait on. You can never really ever take a deep breath and say, "OK, things are good right now." Cause you never really know. In Iva's case, we still don't know if chemo is working and what this whole immune system thing means. Later this week or next week, she will undergo a full scan to see if the tumor in her lung and spine are responding. If they are, then she will get 2 more rounds of chemo followed by more scans. If at any point, her tumors grow or multiply while getting chemo, then they stop the therapy. And that is the reason we cannot breathe.
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