19 Jun 2008

Lynne made is through her chemo for this month but her blood work shows that her white count is very low, so for the next seven days she will receive daily shots to boost the white count. The doctor also warned her to heed all the precautions associated with neutropenia, such as avoiding large crowds, frequent hand washing, and cooking foods throroughly. Lynne still experiences bouts of nausea, which may last upto three to seven more days. Lynne thanks you all for your thoughts and prayers. Lynne misses seeing everyone but hopes to see everyone soon.

Regards,
Darryl

17 Jun 2008

Lynne resumed her chemo last Friday after nearly a year of no chemo treatments. For three nights straight, we were up nearly half the night with her nausea and vomiting. She spoke with the doctor yesterday, who gave her a three day sample of a stronger nausea medication, which did the trick last night as she slept all night without any nausea and vomiting. She has one more night of chemo for this this month. Please keep her in your prayers.

Regards,
Darryl

14 Jun 2008

Lynne started the chemo maintenance last night. Four hours later, she experienced the dry heaves over the course of the next several hours. The experience was similar to the first night of the chemo last year. She is exhausted this morning. We hope that the subsequent 4 days are a little easier on her.

Regards,
Darryl

12 Jun 2008

Lynne met with her primary oncologist today who also confirms that her post gamma knife symptoms are normal. The oncologist is also restarting her maintenance chemo program. Because of the situation last year where the platelets dropped to critical levels and the stability of her MRI scans, the risk of chemo was not warranted. With the recurrence, the doctor, Lynne, and I believe the risk is worth taking. The doctor will monitor her platelet levels on a weekly basis to adjust as necessary. She will begin her chemo tomorrow. Your continued prayers are welcomed. Also, Lynne and I appreciate the comments you leave to the blog posts.

Regards,
Darryl

11 Jun 2008

Lynne has been extremely fatigued since the gamma knife procedure. She jokes that she is wearing out the carpet between the bed and the couch. The fatigue lasted longer than we expected so she called the radiation oncologist who reported that her post surgical symptoms are normal. Each patient responds differently depending on the individual circumstances but the symptoms should subside after two weeks. She was comforted to know that the situation was normal.

Regards,
Darryl

5 Jun 2008

Lynne underwent the gamma knife procedure today. The doctors used additional contrast for the mapping MRI compared to previous and were pleased to determine that they could distinctively see the area to target. The ability to improve targeting increased the optimism of the effectiveness of the procedure compared to the assessment on Monday. We are indeed thankful for the prognosis. Lynne meets with the oncologist next Thursday to discuss resuming chemotherapy. We appreciate your prayers on her behalf and ask you continue to remember her in your prayers.

Regards,
Darryl

2 Jun 2008

Lynne met with the radiation oncologist from Barrow Neurological Institute who will participate in the Gamma Knife procedure that Lynne will undergo on 5 Jun 2008. The Gamma Knife provides non-intrusive brain surgery and uses 192 beams of radiation. Each beam is relatively low power but when all beam are concentrated at one point the power increases to levels suitable to destroy rouge cells. Since in Lynne's case the enhancement is not clearly defined, the Gamma Knife will not provide perfect results but will help with the larger portions of the enhancement. Lynne meets with her primary oncologist on 12 Jun to discuss chemotherapy options. In Lynne's case, chemotherapy is the systemic treatment. In previous chemotherapy treatments, Lynne suffered from depleted platelets. That issue in conjunction with stability in the MRI scans over the last year, chemotherapy was discontinued. With the enhancement, chemotherapy becomes a primary treatment option.

Regards,
Darryl