HOME!!!

Mom was released from inpatient rehab on Saturday!!!  She came home and will continue with outpatient rehab at the new Hendricks Regional/YMCA place out in Avon.  We are all so thankful that she is HOME!!!  Thanks for your continued support as we transition to yet a new set of challenges!  More updates to follow as she is evaluated and gets her rehab schedule later this week.

 

Rehab...

Just a quick update as I don’t have many details yet…Mom is on her way to the Rehab Hospital!!  She is medically cleared from the hospital—just one month after her ICU trip!  We’ll update with more details when she is settled in and Mom and Dad have a chance to meet with the rehab team.  Keep up the prayers for Mom’s strength and for her motivation!

Update 11/18/11

Well this week has been a fairly good week. Dialysis was discontinued this week and Mom got her dialysis catheters removed on Thursday. Her numbers continue to look good for her blood and her kidneys. They were talking about sending her to rehab at the end of the week...and then there were some fevers, which means she needed to have blood cultures drawn. Some of her blood cultures came back postive for a potential infection, so they pulled her port out today and started an antibiotic. Getting discharged to rehab is on hold until they get the infection and antibiotics sorted out.
So in the meantime, Mom will continue to do physical and occupational therapy here at IUSCC. She continues to get stronger everyday!!
Please continue to pray for her health and strength.
Thanks to all!!

Update 11/13/11

So it's been a little over a week since the last update, which means things are calming down a little bit! Mom is continuing to make really great improvements. She can get out of bed with assistance and she can shuffle her feet to get from place to place with assistance. She's using her hands and arms much better now. She gets Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy daily through the week and has exercises to practice, along with foot braces. Mom is still on 3 East, room A8 and she will probably stay there until the rehab gets sorted out. Mom is still on dialysis. Last week she needed it Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This weekend they said that she may not have to have dialysis on Monday because her numbers are starting to improve! If that's the case, they may watch the numbers for a few more days before deciding about rehab hospitals. If she doesn't require dialysis, then her options for a rehab facility are more available...if she needs rehab AND dialysis, there aren't many places available.
Dad continues to stay with Mom at the hospital. He stays busy with insurance/disability paperwork, figuring and refiguring retirement options (he can dream, right?), and taking care of Mom. The staff have been wonderful...making sure they both have what they need.
We'll continue to keep the updates coming...we're really praying for improvements as the holidays creep closer and closer, but we know that no matter where everyone is this Thanksgiving, we have plenty to be thankful for every day!
Blessings to all of you!

Update 11-3-11

It's been a few days since our last update, which is a good thing!  Mom is continuing to do well on 3 East.  She is getting dialysis Monday-Wednesday-Friday at this point...but the doctors will continue to evaluate how often she will need it. 

In the beginning of the week, Mom was still having a very difficult time staying awake and really being oriented with what is going on.  By the middle of the week, she was definitely a lot more "with it" and is starting to grasp just exactly what is going on.  The most difficult part is that she is VERY weak and has to rely on people (mostly my dad) to help her with everything.  She's getting physical therapy every day which will help her return to her old self.  Even over the last few days you can see her strength getting better and better. 

The other thing that the doctors are considering is sending Mom to a rehab hospital.  This would be necessary because Mom doesn't have the strength to really do the things she needs to do to be independent right now, but there is no doubt that she can regain all of that.  We will know more about where she will go once we have a few more things sorted out with doctors and insurances and all of that wonderful stuff. 

Overwhelmingly, the one thing that mom keeps saying is that she can't believe how sick she was and how many people have prayed for her.  THANK YOU!!  We hope to continue to report wonderful news to everyone who has taken such a thoughtful and vested interest in this journey. 

Update 10/30/11

This weekend has been so drastically different from last weekend, and what a wonderful difference it has been. Mom needed to have dialysis on Saturday morning, but the doctors think that she may not need it again until Tuesday. Those numbers are starting to improve. Mom is also a lot more "with it" and less groggy. There were several family members that visited this weekend, but I'd guess her favorite visitors were Dominic and Andrew today (although she didn't say so!).

Mom is allowed to eat a "full liquid" diet--so juices, soup, jello, ice cream, etc. She also takes most of her medicines orally now so she doesn't have to be hooked up all the time. She's tolerating it pretty well even though we have to help her quite a bit. Her body is still pretty weak, so it takes a LOT of effort to do things. Like Mom said though, she is going to keep pushing through. She keeps saying "I was pretty sick", but it's more like a question or a reminder because, thankfully, she doesn't remember all of the 'stuff' she's been through. Physical Therapy came in today and helped her sit in a chair. She really liked that she didn't have to be in the bed! She didn't want to get back in bed, but she has to keep moving positions so that she doesn't get stiff or have sores from sitting in one position too long. Mom also said she wants to keep pushing so that she will feel well enough and be strong enough to have visitors.
The staff have all been great--no surprise--and are really encouraging all of us by continuing to notice all the areas that Mom has improved.
Mom's a little bummed that she's going to miss Halloween, but in true Mary form, she said she'd probably dress up like a patient:) She said make sure you take a bunch of pictures, so of course we will! We aren't too sure what the remainder of her admission is going to look like, how long it will be, or what the next step is, but we are just continually grateful to have all of that to think about! For those of you asking for her address, here you go: 3 East, Room A8, IUSCC (535 Barnhill Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46202).
Thanks to everyone for your support!!!

Wow!

Where to begin...I'll start with what I saw when I got to Mom's room today. No dialysis machine and no NG tube! Mom was taken off continuous dialysis overnight. She will still need to have dialysis until her kidneys start working again, but they will only need to do it a few hours and maybe not every day. She was also allowed to start a clear liquid diet. She took her medicines with applesauce today and she had some jello (and a few sips of diet coke!!)

The most exciting news is that they were ready for her to transfer out of the ICU. We thought she would need to go to the progressive care unit, but to our great pleasure, she moved to 3 EAST TONIGHT!! She's back in her "hospital home" where she knows the nurses and staff--and where they know us! It was a lot if excitement for one day and Mom was pretty tired, but she's making great progress!
Praise the Lord!!

Great news- 10/27/11

Today was the day they were going to remove the tube and take mom off the ventilator. They were able to do this around 10:30 this morning and she's done pretty well. They told Mom not to talk too much because her throat might hurt, she didn't seem to be in too much pain though because she was talking. When I came back later this afternoon Barb and Dad were reporting that Mom was talking throughout the afternoon:)

Mom is still very sleepy and disoriented--she usually knows who is in the room with her, but she has no idea how sick she is, so she keeps asking to go home and to get out of bed. As she continues to get better, that will likely start to clear up. We do know there's a lot of her old self inside though because she's already asking for Diet Coke!

Continued thanks for all of your prayers and support. How far we have come in one week!!

Update 10/26/11

Today was a good day! Mom used to have about 3 pumps running...today she's down to one. They also moved her back into a regular hospital bed and she's out of the air bed. Her vent settings are very minimal and they think they'll will try to pull out the tube (known as "extubation") on Thursday. The best part of the day though, is that Mom is more alert. She's not completely awake all of the time, but she opens her eyes and responds to us.
Now, of course, she can't talk because of the tube, but she CAN mouth words, and some of the words are very clear. Today, we could understand: "I love you" , "I want to go home"(I told her that she had a little more work to do before she could go home, but that she would get home soon), "Hi babe" (Joe walked in and said hello) and "Who's on the phone?" (That would've been James).
There's probably other good stuff too, but I just can't think past being able to communicate:)
Thanks for all of your prayers...they are working!! Praise the Lord!!

Update 10/25/11

Mom continues to make improvements each day. She will remain on dialysis for awhile until her kidneys are able to function again, but her liver is starting to make a comeback. They are weaning the vent settings so that she can breathe on her own. She's doing pretty well with that, but they are still providing vent support while her systems heal...maybe she'll be able to breathe without it completely soon (fingers crossed!). They are also changing some of the medications so that it's not a continuous delivery of meds, but now doses of the ones that she needs. Mom's also requiring less pain medication, so that means she is starting to be just a little more alert when they do something to arouse her--like cleaning her mouth, suctioning her, or changing her position in bed. Today we saw her open her eyes a little more and she was able to nod her head just a little bit to answer questions.
Dad had some of his cousins visit today and I think that was a good distraction--thank you for coming up and making that LONG drive!! Continual thanks to everyone for their support and prayers. We hope to just keep the good news coming!

Update 10/23/11

Today showed a little more stability. They took her off of the blood pressure medications and her blood pressure remained above the goal number. They also were able to pull a little bit of fluid off during dialysis. The other thing they were able to do was wean the sedation medications (a combo of anxiety and pain meds). Mom fluttered her eyes a little bit today and did briefly squeeze Amanda's hand. She was also able to nod a little when they asked if she was having pain...so they did start the pain med up again, but at the lowest dose--and not "sedation" because they didn't start the anxiety medication again. There is still a long way to go, but she needs to improve a little each day! Thanks for the prayers--they are working!!

Update 10/22/11

Wow, what a wild day Thursday was! Fortunately, things seem to be a little more calm right now. After Thursday, we weren't to sure what Friday would bring. Mom has been stable, but still critical. The septic shock that has caused all of these issues is very difficult to bounce back from, so we look for little victories. Late Thursday night they also started dialysis, because of acute kidney failure. This is pretty typical when considering all of the medications and fluids Mom is requiring right now. The dialysis will help filter her blood so that everything isn't just stuck inside of her body. The other thing the dialysis has done is made her core body temperature drop, so no fevers (although there is likely still infection, at least her temp isn't up).

Friday, the doctors were able to start weaning a med for her blood pressure and they did some tweaking on the the vent (that is helping her breathe). She also had an ANC...woot woot! The ANC is one of the numbers we look for in the blood work to know how her White cells (the infection fighters) are responding...it was 200 on Friday and Thursday it was undetectable. They didn't have to add a lot of other medications, but they did order a special bed. I wish you could see this contraption--it is like a bed/bounce house (imagine poofy and full of air). Mom is lifted and moved by the air, so it's a little like laying in a bounce house while someone walks around you...low on one side, then another. Anyhow, this is done to help make her more comfortable so they don't have to physically lift her all the time to keep from getting pressure sores. This also will help her lungs so they are just stuck in one position. The doctors really encouraged Dad (and all of us) to go home and get some rest...they were comfortable with how mom was doing and promised to call if we needed to come in...so we did.

On Saturday morning I got a call from the ICU doctor to let us know that they had moved Mom to a different room. She is still on the ICU, but they have them divided into a few different specialties. When mom needed an ICU room, the one that was available was on the Transplant ICU, so that is where she was, but now she has been moved to the Medical ICU. It's still on the 6th floor at University hospital...they are a little different on the visiting rules though--no one in the room between 7a-8:30a and 7p-8:30p while they do shift change and only 2-3 people in the room at a time--good thing there's plenty of waiting room! Also, the doctor said that her ANC had gone up to 400 (again, small victories)! Today they took her off the blood pressure medication and she seems to be holding her own in that regard. Her heart rate has been a little abnormal, but not high, just bouncing around alot so they stopped weaning the heart medication to see if that would help. Everything else seems to be stable, so that is good. The attending doctor in the ICU said that she was pleased with Mom's improvement.

So that is where we are for now. No doubt all of the prayers and love are being felt by Mom and our whole family!! Thank you to everyone for your support!! (By the way, if you are on facebook, I started a "Prayers for Mary" page. You can like this page and post prayers (0r read other prayers and well wishes that people have posted for Mom). We're going to read them to her (of course), but we can't wait to show her all the love and support when she starts to wake up.

Prayers needed--update 10/20/11

***I Have added more, because this was "Published" before it was finished, be sure to read all the way to the end***
Well this morning has been very eventful, so I'll try to get everything in without getting too confused.
Dad decided to come home last night to get some sleep...Joe brought him home and I brought him back this morning. We were in her room by 7:30 this morning. She had gotten 2 units of blood and bags of fluid with protein to try to increase her blood pressure. It was in the low 80s/high 70s for the top number. The doctors decided they needed to add a blood pressure med and get a ventral blood pressure (what we typically hear about are arterial pressures). They had weaned some of the sedatives in an attempt to make her less sleepy, but still keep her asleep. When the doctor tried to get her to respond, she was still too sleepy.
Her nurse started to put the head of the bed down to hook up the ventral pressure and when she did Mom's heart rate skyrocketed into something called ventral tachycardia (aka "V Tach"). This is certainly a major concern that requires immediate attention. To get immediate attention in the hospital setting, staff call a "code blue". This allows all staff to be on hand to assist as needed. So, Mom "coded" this morning. The response was immediate and the doctors and nurses were able to get her heart back into normal rhythm--but that did require that she was shocked twice. Fortunately, Dad, Granny, and I had been ushered out of the room at that point and did not see THAT happen.
Dad stayed in the hallway until things calmed a bit. They inserted an arterial line (art line) that will give the medical team constant feedback about her blood pressure. They also added a triple lumen central line to get more meds in as needed.
Right now Mom is stable, but she is still quite sick. They will need to help her fight this infection (whatever it is), but in the meantime, that may mean fighting smaller fires that pop up (i.e. blood pressures, heart rates, kidney function, etc.).
Currently she is on: several antibiotics, 2 sedative medications, a med to regulate her heart rhythm, a med for her blood pressures, they gave her another 'booster' for her white count, and I think she's on steriods for something too. In addition, they have numerous lines running in and out of her poor body--she would definitely freak out if she could see all of this stuff, but it is all there to give her the meds and fluids she needs, to monitor her vitals, and to help her excrete all the extra 'stuff' inside. There is no doubt that she is in the best place, getting the best care. There are multiple different medical services consulting with her team and getting information to and from my dad. They are trying to make sure they have everything looked at...and so we wait. Wait for the blood cultures to return the results. Wait for her white counts to come up and start fighting the infection. Wait for her pressures to come back up and her heart rate to stay normal. Most importantly we wait for her to be able to talk back to us and tell us that she doesn't like this tube, or this unit (we know she would want to be on 3 East--you all spoil her), or that she's ready to giddy-up on out of here.

On a side note, we certainly would be remiss if we didn't take the time to thank everyone for the love and concern that they have shown throughout, but especially today. I don't want to name any names for fear of forgetting someone, but you know who you are!! And to Mom and Dad's friends in dietary--those of you in and out of the room bringing her the diet Cokes and the catfish--THANK YOU for the tray of goodies that you provided us to day. You don't just care for my mom, you care for the whole family. YOU are Awesome!!
It's been one heck of a day--a day I'd rather not have to do again--but another day to give thanks for your prayers and to the Good Lord for watching over us!!

Update for Mary 10/19/11

Still fighting fevers and infections. She has not been making any progress on her breathing in the last three days and her heart rate and respirations continue to run high. So early this morning they moved her to Intensive Care and put a tube down into the lung and they have sedated her to keep her from pulling it out. She is calm of course and her rates have come down to correct level. They are scheduling a bronchoscope today at 1:00 PM to irrigate the lung and collect material to find out what type of infection it is so they can hit it with the correct antibiotic. She of course cannot talk or recognize anyone in the room. She also still has the infection in the blood stream which will be dealt with when they get her breathing better. Will update when I find out more.
 
Windford

Mary 10/17/11

Good News is that Mary DOES NOT have C-diff. She does have some type bacterial infection in her blood. They are waiting for the blood cultures to finish their results so they can identify where it is coming from. That is what is causing the high temperatures. Temperature was up to 103.3 earlier today, but it is down to normal now so they are giving her the platelets she needed. They couldn't give them when her temp was high.
 
The infection may be from the port they put in her chest, if so it has to come out. Then maybe be replaced in a month or so.
 
Her breathing is really difficult aand her heart rate is  up, so they are going to take another chest X-ray, checking her arterial blood gas, maybe some blood or increased liquids. This just going on now so I will update more on Tuesday if needed.
 
Windford

Mary's update 10/16/11

I hadn't updated in awhile,but since Mary is back in the hospital I thought it would be a good time. She had been going through a drop in her blood counts as expected since she was released from her last chemo on 10/07/11. She received two units of blood and one unit of platelets on Friday 10/14/11, she also had low potassium so they gave her some potassium. She woke about 4:30 AM on Saturday 10/15/11 with a very high temperature (105 at first then dropped to 103.4 when we left the house). Got to the Emergency room between 5:30 and 6:00 AM and it was still about 103. ER got it down to around 98.9 and then it started going back up. They admitted us and we got in a room in the cancer unit about 5:30 PM. While in the ER she started having severe diarrhea. The temperatures and diarrhea have continued throughout the night. This morning her temperature is around 102.1. They have taken samples to check for Clostridium difficile (C-diff) so they can decide whether to give her an antibiotic for C-diff or give her something to stop the diarrhea. They have also taken another set of blood cultures to check for other sources of infection or bacteria. Doctor said we will need to stay until fevers are done and her white count starts to go up. Maybe several days.
 
Windford

Chemo Admission--10/3

Mom was admitted on Sunday (10/2) to start her next scheduled chemo treatments. She will be in the hospital until Saturday (10/8). After that she will have to get bloodwork done a few times each week to watch her counts. As they start to drop, she will have to watch for fevers and possible infection. If she gets a fever or infection, she will get re-admitted for antibiotics, etc. We will be sure to keep everyone updated. Thanks to all for your prayers and support!!

Update from MARY :)

Went and had my blood work done and my numbers are up and now another round of chemo starting Oct 2nd and then if everything goes like it should I should only have to do this one more time!!!! STILL IN COMPLETE REMISSION SO KEEP THOSE PRAYERS COMING!!! LOVE YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT

~~Mary

Update 9/18/11

First of all, let's start with Happy 1st Anniversary to Amanda and Curt!! 

Mom was discharged from the hospital on Monday and has gone in for blood work once this week.  Her numbers were good, so she did not need to go in to the clinic for blood or platelets!!  She is going in for blood work once a week now and the doctor's will continue to watch them.  When everything seems to be recovering well, then they will schedule her next appointment and next admission for chemo.  She should have one or two more rounds (I think!).

In the meantime, things seem to be going well.  Mom and Dad were able to see Dominic and Andrew's football games this week and Dad is back to work.  Thanks for the prayers and well wishes!!

Update 9/8/11

Mom is still in the hospital. Her counts are starting to stabilize and get better. Her last fever was early this morning, so hopefully she is done with these fevers! She is also getting her anti-fungal medication in a pill now, instead of IV, so if she were able to go home and still need that medication it would be something she could take at home.
Keep up the prayers that the counts will rise and the fevers will stop so Mom can come home!
Some good news from Dad: he had another appointment today and the liver scan shows that the tumor has been reduced to a mere scar! This is excellent evidence that the radiation was effective as originally indicated back in May. His liver function numbers are a little wacky, but not any more out of whack than before, so he said they are "holding their own".

More to follow...thanks for all the prayers and support.

Update 9/6/11

This is a quick one because I don't have much news to report. Mom has had a cough during the last week or so that the doctors thought they should probably checkout because Mom continues to have fevers. They ran a CT scan of her chest today and it revealed a fungus...so back on the anti-fungal medication like she had during her last long admission. Hopefully this knocks out her fevers and get her counts up so she can come home!

Update--9/3/11

Mom was admitted Friday morning because she had a fever and as expected her counts are down. She will stay in the hospital until the blood tests come back to determine if she has an infection or if the fever is just because her counts are low (neutropenic fever). Once they determine that, we will know how long she has to stay.
On another note, please pray for Amanda and Curt and Curt's family. Curt's grandpa passed away Friday morning. :(
Stupid Cancer.

Update 8/29/11

Well, let's see...since the last post, Mom has gotten out of the hospital! She was able to make it to 2 exciting little league football games too!! She got bloodwork today and her counts have bottomed out (as we expected and they should!). She'll get blood and platelets tomorrow.

Just a little plug--although you can't necessarily donate blood directly to Mom, if you can donate (look for a local blood center in your area) you could be helping someone's Mom or Dad, Son or Daughter, Grandfather or Grandmother.

Speaking of Grandmother, Granny has spent the last few days in the hospital for some tests. Everything appears to be normal, just a "little spell" (as she calls it)...hopefully she'll be discharged on Tuesday.

Dad got his PICC line pulled today and should be able to return to work soon.
Thanks for praying for our family (even if we do take up half of your prayer lists!)

Also, several of you have asked about ways to help, especially with meals. Watch after Labor Day for details (if needed).

In the meantime, enjoy this upcoming holiday weekend!!

Love your Family. Love your Neighbors.

It's Chemo Time!

Mom got her port placed this afternoon (she said it was quite an experience!) and then got admitted to the unit. She is back on 3 East, but now in room A8. Chemo starts tonight at 9pm and then each day at 9am and 9pm until Wednesday morning's 9am infusion. Each infusion will take about 2 hours She will be able to go home after that and will have return visits for lab work twice a week.
Several of the unit staff have already stopped in to say hello:)
Praying for strong, effective chemo that isn't too hard on the side effects!!

Another Admission...

Hello Everyone! Thanks to all for the well-wishes after Mom's AWESOME news. As mentioned earlier, Mom is going to be admitted on Friday, August 19th. She'll first go in for a procedure to have a port placed. The port will be inserted under the skin, in her upper chest, usually. The port will allow them to access mom for chemo, but then they can de-access it at the end of her admission. This way she will still have it in place for the remainder of her treatment, but won't be restricted by what she can do when she's not in the hospital and she won't have to get another PICC Line (a PICC line is like an IV, but it lasts for weeks rather than days, so that you can get drugs administered). Mom will likely be in the hospital for a week this time. When we now what her regimen will look like, we'll update the blog. Meanwhile, just pray for a smooth port placement and that Mom won't have to wait too long to get admitted (sometimes waiting for a room can take awhile).

On another note, since this is the Williams Family Journey, I would be remiss not to mention that Dad was admitted to IU West last Thursday for a leg infection. After a short admission (he was discharged Wednesday) he got a PICC Line (see above) that he will keep for a few weeks while he continues to get IV Antibiotics. He will also return periodically to visit Physical Therapy so that they can measure his leg to monitor the swelling and properly fit wraps for his legs to help keep the swelling down. He seems to be much happier now that he is home and hopefully he'll be feeling much better soon.
More updates soon. Take care everyone!

Quick Update

Mom got her bone marrow results and she is in complete remission! She will have blood work done on Monday and will be admitted at the end of next week for chemo. Praise the Lord!!

ETA: Some have asked why more chemo if the cancer is in remission. This chemo is termed "maintenance chemo". This is given to help ensure any lurking cancer cells don't find a home in the body. The maintenance phase is typically 3-4 months. Each round will likely require a 7 day hospital stay followed by outpatient visits to the lab for bloodwork and then possible blood and platelet infusions. They will continue to periodically perform bone marrow biopsies to monitor the cancer cells. The results from each of these biopsies will allow Mom's oncologist to make the best decisions for her treatment plan. Any differences in what they see from one time to the next will help them determine if she is still in remission.

Again, Thank You to all who are and have prayed. God is Good!

Mom Update 8/4/11

Hello Everyone!
There hasn't really been much to update. Mom has been home since July 2nd. She's gotten labs each week and has visited the clinic and ER a few times for blood and fevers. Her biggest issue has been the constant dry and peeling skin. It appears to be clearing up just in time for her bone marrow biopsy next week. The results of the biopsy will help the oncologist determine the next steps for her treatment.
There will be more chemo regardless of the results, which we knew from the beginning, but we just don't know what that will entail. We don't think the hospital stay will be as long, but we need to wait for the doctor's final say:)
While Mom's been out she's enjoyed some tomatoes from the garden, spent a lot of time with family, and had a chance to enjoy the day at the Hendricks County Fair watching Dominic show his pigs!
Thank you to everyone for checking in, for the well-wishes, the cards and treats, and the prayers. Our entire family is so appreciative to everyone for your care and concern.
We'll post the results next week!

Mary's Update 7-10-11

Mary's bloodwork came back good so she is still at home. Turned out not to have any infection. The rash and swelling are driving her crazy though. She is also becoming chilled at times and when she isn't cold she just sits and shakes like she is coming apart. Face, feet and hands are alternating swelling up real bad. Her whole body is red and extremely dried out, her skin is peeling off in flakes all over which she really is bothered by.
 
Windford

Update 7/6/11

Mom had a good weekend home after being discharged on Saturday. She was able to join in the birthday celebration for Andrew, see some fireworks, and visit with family.
Today she had a bit of a bump in the road--she took a little spill in the hallway, but was OK. She did have a fever though, so we were off to the IU West ER for some followup. After some blood work and scans, it was determined that she might have a bit if an infection, but it was not conclusive. She will see her oncologist tomorrow to determine what else, if anything, she needs to do.
On the good side, we got blood counts back:
ANC-- 1200
WBC-- 1.9
HGB-- 8.9
Platelets--118
These are all increases from her numbers the day of the discharge, so that is a good thing!

We'll keep you posted as move on to the next step of the process.
Melissa

It's a Home Day!!

More details to follow... Mom is discharged and on her way HOME!!! 45 days are done!

Mary's Update 7/01/11

The good news is that the white blood cell count, the red blood and platelets are beginning to rise on their own. She hasn't had platelets since last Friday and no blood transfusion since last Saturday. The "ANC" or "Absolute Neutrophil Count" is at 100 and has held steady for 3 days. The doctor took her off all the antibiotics today, if she doesn't get any fevers and the numbers continue to show an upward trend she may get out by Sunday.

 

She still has some rash and swelling in her legs and feet, but we will continue to apply some triple mix lotion they are trying.

 

Windford

Update for 6/29/11

Mary had some good news today we finally got an "ANC" number of 100 today. If that gets to 500 we can go home at least for awhile. We could get out by early next week, Saturday if we are real lucky.
 
Windford

Mary's Update 6/28/11

It has been a week since the last update.  In that last one I mentioned about the rash and swelling with her white count going down to 0.4, but some people thought it might go lower. They were right. The white count dropped to 0.2 on 6/23 and 6/24, but it has now started a steady rise. It went back to 0.4 then 0.5, 0.7 and today was at 0.8. The good news about this is that the white blood cell count carries different types of cells, the cells that are the most abundant in humans that fight infections mostly are called Neutrophils. The "ANC" or "Absolute Neutrophil Count" is what the doctors are waiting to rise before she can be released. They are seeing some activity in the "ANC" from the blood samples,but no acctual number yet. They think we could go home for awhile maybe next week if the numbers keep coming up.
 
Neutrophils are key components in the system of defense against infection. An absence or scarcity of neutrophils (a condition called neutropenia) makes a person vulnerable to infection. After chemotherapy, radiation, or a blood or marrow transplant, the ANC is usually depressed and then slowly rises, reflecting the fact that the bone marrow is recovering and new blood cells are beginning to grow and mature.
 
Some good news is that her rash is slowly improving, but she still has some bad swelling in her lower legs and feet. We also made it through our 36th wedding anniversary today and the staff and nurses here did a lot of nice things for us today to help us celebarte as much as we could.
 
Windford

An anniversary from the staff...

This is the door to Mom's room today. The nurses and staff here are wonderful! They signed cards, brought balloons and candy, and just celebrated the day with Mom and Dad!!

Happy Anniversary!!

I am once again hijacking the blog….this time to wish a very HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to our Mom and Dad!  We all love you very much!!  You are wonderful examples of love and commitment.  You definitely have the “in sickness and in health” part down.  We hope you enjoy the day as best you can and we will celebrate all things June when you get out of the hospital Mom.

Love from all of us!

Melissa and Steven;

Joe, Kim, Dominic, and Andrew;

Amanda and Curt;

James, Malari, and Jackson

A visit from BLUE!!

Today the Colts Mascot, Blue came to visit patients and boost their spirits. In addition to a poster and some goodies, Blue was taking pictures. Here's a good one of Mom and Blue!

Mary's Update 6/21/11

Sorry for the delay since the last update. After the last round of Chemo Mary has developed a severe rash again. This time however the areas all over her arms have severe itching that she did not experience the first time. Her arms and hands are swollen as well, this morning she can not even pickup her water cup so I will be helping her today with that. We are waiting for the counts to go up, but yesterday the white count dropped to it's lowest point at 0.4. This was disappoiniting to Mary as you can imagine, but some schools of thought around here seem to be that the count needed to get as low as possible before going up. Many patients go down to 0.2 or 0.3, but not everyone. Right now our main concern is getting the rash resolved. Mary thanks you all for your cards and prayers, keep them coming.
 
Windford
 
 

Happy Father's Day!!

I'm briefly hijacking the blog to wish a Happy Father's Day to the great dads in our family. Dad, Joe,and James--you are all awesome and set great examples for your kids! Dad, you've done an exceptional job and are dealing with this stress amazingly!
~Melissa

(for those of you looking for an update...Mom is still waiting for her counts to rise! Keep those prayers, comments, cards, and calls coming...30+ days of the hospital is getting pretty long)

Update on Mary 6/12/11

Yesterday (Saturday) Mary's white count had went up for the first time since about May 26th. This was a good sign. It has fallen a few points this morning, but still is higher than it has been in over a week. However her platelet's and red blood cells had dropped enough that she will get transfusions for both of those today.
Her hair had began to shed and come out in larger and more frequent occasions so she decided to have Melissa and Amanda finish shaving her hair off yesterday. Now I just have to figure out how to tie the scarfs properly. Overall she is doing pretty good and it is just a matter of her counts getting high enough and stabilized to get her a break from here at the hospital.
 
Windford

Mary's update 6/8/11

Mary finished the second round of chemo on Tuesday morning. She seems to be doing very well as of this Wednesday morning. She has hardly any side effects up to now and the very bad rash she had after the first round seems to be drying and curing up very well. Now they will just monitor her and try to get her bone marrow bulit back up. They probably won't do another bone marrow biopsy for 4 weeks, but if she gets built up enough we might be able to go home for a short time before that.
Thank You all for your prayers and thoughts.
 
Don't worry bout me I am doing fine. I woke up this morning and had turned 59.
 
Windford

Mary's Update 6-2-11

The doctor came back a few minutes ago with the preliminary results of the bone marrow biopsy they took this morning.  It was not what we were praying for unfortunately.  According to Dr. Sayar he sees about 20-25% leukemia cells out of the cells still in the marrow. Mary will start her next round of chemo tomorrow (probably) which will involve 3 or 4 more days of twice a day chemo (same drug as before but 15X stronger).  We hope she can handle the 4^th day so I guess that's what we pray for now…strength to get through this really disappointing setback.  This also means that the original 4-6 weeks is probably 6-8 weeks stay in the hospital.

 

Windford

Update 5/30/11

Well today has not went as well as Mary had been doing. Late yesterday she broke out with red blotches in several areas, but they were not itching. They thought it may have been related to her platelet count which had fallen to 5. They had already given her platelets to raise the count, but the red areas were worse today and so they thought she may have had some reaction to one of the antibiotics she is taking. They have switched the suspected antibiotic with another.
 
Mary was a little apprehensive this morning so they gave her the same medication for that which she had been taking, but with the full recommended dose. After a light breakfast she felt as if she may get sick so they gave her something for nausea. She was very drowsy after this and slept most of the day. When they checked vitals in early afternoon her fever had spiked up to about 102 degrees, so they have given her Tylenol, fever has went down at an earlier check, but she has slept most of this evening with only two small cans of soup to eat since breakfast.
 
I am speculating that her hemoglobin will drop enough by Tuesday to require some more infusion of red cells, but I have misplaced my Medical Degree so it is strictly a guess. It is of little consequence at this point, but her hair is thick and plentiful as always up to this point. Let's hope for a better day tomorrow.
 
Windford

Update 5/28/11

     Well, Mary finished her first 7 day cycle of Chemotherapy last night about 10:30 PM. We spent a quite night without the machine beeping at times as usual. We now wait and see how effective this first round was. They will monitor her for 4-5 days and then do another Bone Marrow Biopsy to  find out more specific results. Further treatment schedule will be decided based upon these results and I suppose the cytogenetics of her particular type of Myeloid Leukemia. Although they have not seemed to concerned with those cytogenetic numbers yet. I think it takes awhile to get those results. Steven and Brad, I will let you know when I find out what they are.
      Overall I would say Mary has has held up better than I thought and better than expected in general. The doctors continue to warn us that it is about to get rough iin the next few days, but we will have to wait and see. Everyone has different reactions or degrees of reaction. Thanks for all your prayers, concerns and support. Thank God for our children and their spouses. They have pitched in together and made everything as smooth as possible while dealing with their own concerns, They most assuredly have made Mary and my struggles easier.
 
Windford

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Thank you to everyone who has called, sent cards, and left messages! Mom (and all of us) truly appreciate it!!
~Melissa

May 23 Update

Mary is finishing her third day of chemotherapy and they start the fourth day of chemotherapy tonight around 7:00PM. The bags run for 24 hours and usually finish and start every night about same time. She is doing OK with the physical aspects so far, emotionally she is strained. The doctor says things seem to be going as expected on the kill rate on the white cells. That is what we have to get rid of to start getting her back on track.
 
Windford

Really?!?!

Where to begin....after a tumultuous week of appointments, doctors, and LOTS of bloodwork, we finally have diagnosis for Mary.  She has Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).  This means she has cancer in her blood and bone marrow (which is where the blood cells are made).  She will need to begin chemotherapy treatment right away, in fact it's already running as this is being written. She will have 2 chemo drugs...one that she gets as a short infusion in three days and one that runs continuously for the next 7 days.  That is actually the easy part.  The hard part will be the side effects for the weeks after the chemo. 

The effects might include nausea, vomiting, mouth sores, and who knows what else.  The other physical effect will be losing her hair.  That will probably happen during week 2 or 3.  She is very aware of this and is actually ready to get some scarves...not thinking she wants to mess with a hot, itchy wig.

The other big piece of information that is important...this initial stay will be 5-6 weeks.  After that, there will be more treatments planned and that will be based on the bloodwork and biopsies...but that will be a decision for a later time.

During this time she will be able to have visitors (most of the time), BUT YOU CANNOT BE SICK!  If there are too many of us at any given time, there are nice family lounges throughout the floor and we can rotate if necessary.  If Mary is feeling up to it, she could even join us in those areas.  Another important thing to note:  Mary CANNOT have fresh flowers, fresh fruit, or latex balloons. 

She can get emails, cards, and messages:)  Her room is 3 East, C-26 at the IU Simon Cancer Center (535 Barnhill Drive Indianapolis, IN 46202-5116).  If you would like the phone, please send a email or call any of us on the cell phone.

 

We appreciate all of the care, concern, prayer, and support.  Mary's asked that you add her to your prayer chains.