Tough Day 9-23

Pretty tough day yesterday.... Rachel seems to be okay, but had to get a Neuprogen shot. That shot stimulates her bone marrow to produce more of the white blood cells that are quite low. Shot went fine... the side effect is pretty bad bone pain the next 24-48 hours, primarily in the sternum, hips and shoulders where much of your marrow is produced... 

but the additional tough part was with her brother Eric... he works for the City of Pittsburg part time while going to school. At 3pm yesterday, his boss showed up at my work to inform me that Eric had been in a work related accident. He was on a mowing tractor on a steep incline and the mower rolled downhill. Eric was able to jump off enough to keep from being crushed, but was injured. The tractor rolled to the bottom of the incline, about 80 feet and Eric fell down the hill about 50 or so. He luckily had his phone in his pocket... pushed his "send" button, which dials his last call and that happened to be his boss. EMT and Police showed up right away and he went to the hospital. He broke his left collarbone and has numerous cuts on the left side. His right leg has a deep puncture wound that can't be stitched and it has to bleed out and will heal..plus his left knee is pretty messed up. He can hardly walk on it. We will see an Orthopedic doctor on Friday or Monday.  I went over the to site of the accident last night, and I don't want to be overly dramatic here, but Eric is lucky to be alive. It is a very steep incline and he could have easily been crushed had he not jumped off in the correct direction. Normally you are supposed to wear a seat belt on those tractors, but Eric did not have his on... that is what saved him.

Eric is at home... as you can imagine... very sore....but he'll be okay in a week or so... you can't set collarbones, just immobilize them as best you can... it broke where the bone attaches to the sternum... so you can see the break push up towards his skin when he moves in the wrong way... pretty painful!  It will start to reattach within a few days.... we'll keep you posted on his progress as well.

Jan and I took the day off today... I went to the liquor store as soon as it opened this morning and purchased a fifth of vodka... we hope to be drunk by mid-afternoon.... 

Our house is a hospital ward right now... but again "this too shall pass"

Despite all of this... it really could've been a lot worse...

We know we're in your thoughts and prayers and we are very appreciative. 

Treatment #2 9-22-08

Rachel spent last weekend hanging out... went to St. Joe on Saturday with girlfriends to watch Pitt State play.... Her attitude is really great... expecting complete recovery and acts like nothing has changed in her life!

Rachel had her 2nd treatment yesterday...  Took an entire entourage with her... I think she actually would like to go with her friends and sister... Jan and I ask too many questions??!

On to the treatment....the part of her blood count (Neutrophil) that fights infection was pretty low yesterday.  Last week they told us if her Neutrophil count was 1.5 or lower they probably wouldn't give her chemo.  Last week  (her off week) it was at 1.6 and this week  it was   0.2 !!!  Very low-----they surprised us and went ahead with her treatment  - because they really don't want get behind.  Her other blood counts were pretty good, so that is probably why they went ahead with chemo.   She will get a shot today to boost her white blood cell count.    She feels fine, but is staying in for a couple days since she is so susceptible to infection right now.

Typically... the chemo wipes out your white cells... your body replaces them...The nurses told us that Rachel will probably be one that her cell count drops later in the 2-week treatment cycle rather that earlier.   

2 down..... 6 to go!! 

Week after First Treatment 9-15-08

Things are going well.... no major side effects from Treatment #1.  One down and seven to go!!

Rach had some jaw/eye/facial pain which is a side effect, but it only lasted a couple of days. She is resting when needed, but is doing all the things she always does... school, a little work and seeing friends. She went to the PSU football game Saturday and stood in the rain all game... it was miserable... but PSU won in the final minute!! 

Her boyfriend plays Cornerback on the team.

Everyone close to her is supposed to get a flu shot soon and Rach will get one, as well as some other ones.

She had a blood test this week... to check her white blood cell count... no results yet.

She has a great attitude!

First Treatment 9-9-08

Rachel had her first treatment on Tuesday, September 9th.  

She was accompanied by Jan (Mom), Kelly (Sister) and Eric (Brother).... she had visits from friends Kate and Kirsten while she was there.

Rachel's treatments are in the office of her oncologist in Pittsburg... she'll have them every other week.

They gave her a sedative... which is common for patients, especially younger ones.... they also gave her anti-nausea, steroids and benadryl in addition to her chemo treatment.

The treatments take about 2 hours and she slept through most of it... she woke up enough to come home... then went back to sleep until about 7pm.... she woke up hungry and asked for "Bamboo" which is code in our family for sweet and sour chicken... so like I did for my pregnant wife years ago... you shut up and go get in the car!

She ate great all nite... adding ice cream and caramel apples to the list and slept pretty good... 

So far so good!

The Diagnosis of Rachel

Hey everyone... 

Thought I'd relay this update on Rachel... 

 As most of you know Rachel was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma about a week before Kelly's wedding in August. She found a lump below her clavicle on the left side and after a couple of rounds of anti-biotics... it was surgically removed..(it was the size of a golf ball!) So.... we felt we should also get another opinion... we are quite happy with our Pittsburg Oncologist, but we want to make sure..

Jan, Rachel and I travelled to Omaha yesterday (Sept 5th) to meet with an 
Oncologist with the Univ of Nebraska Cancer Research Hospital... 
his expertise is Hodgkins Disease and we were getting a 2nd opinion.

It was a very rewarding trip... one that answered lots of questions 
and provided much hope to all of us about her disease and the short/
long term effects.

Here's the results of the discussion:
1) He agreed with the original diagnosis... Classic Hodgkins  Lymphoma (cancer) and it is possibly in a Stage 2 phase (there are 4 stages with this disease).  The stages are based on how many and which lymph nodes are infected. Her original node in her neck/ shoulder area was removed and that would be Stage 1. The next area 
that could be infected is near the center chest/heart area.. that is Stage 2.  Both doctors are uncertain if this area is infected because young people have an active Thymus gland near the heart that "lights" up under a radio active scan for cancer. This area lit up in Rachel, but they don't know if it lit up because of cancer cells or her Thymus. Despite the uncertainty... they are assuming it is cancer and calling it Stage 2.  BTW... the scan did not show any cancer cells left in the original Stage 1 area after her operation to remove that gland. (That's good news!)

2) Hodgkins is an unusual, but fairly common disease and one that has much research. Young people have an 85 to 95 percent of beating the disease on the first round... clear after 2 years... its 98 percent chance it will never occur again...after 5 years it's 99.9 percent gone forever.

3) Having Hodgkins does not make her "prone" to other cancers. It is a stand alone disease and doesn't mean it will lead to something else later on... the only other issue is the radiation used to  treat it...(more on this below)

4) All other questions related to the "effects" of Chemo were  answered... fertility, hair loss, potential sickness... lots of  good/positive/hopeful answers to our questions... the only negative  was the hair loss, but it will grow back... (except for me!)

5) His treatment options were nearly identical to what was suggested by our Pittsburg Oncologist... except for 1 month MORE of Chemo. Rachel will need 8 treatments of chemo.... 1 every other week.... so it will take about 4 months for the chemo treatments.  She is to carry on as normal as she wants... the doctor expected 
her to still go to school, work and have a social life. After this initial treatment, we'll do another scan and make sure the cancer is in remission. Rachel will then decide what she wants to do with the final stage of her treatment. She has two options: a) 2 more months (4 treatments) of chemo OR b) 15-20 days of localized 
radiation of those two areas in her chest. The radiation has some potential long term effects... mainly an increased chance of breast cancer or an over active thyroid due to the radiation being close to those areas. She has time to decide 
what to do with this...

Rachel will begin treatments on Monday or Tuesday of next week... 
Kelly is now an RN and works in Oncology in KC... she has arranged her schedule to come back and be with Rachel during all her treatments and the days immediately afterward... we're really appreciative of her doing this!

This is the latest news and we're ready to move on... Rachel's attitude is great, positive.... really a bit better than Jan and I have been at times, but we're all on the same page now. Get this over with and let Rach move on with her life.

Thanks again for all of your support, motivation and prayers...
It is all GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!