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Shauna Blackburn

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Everything posted by Shauna Blackburn

  1. Hi Bridget, so so sorry that i am just now seeing your response. I will ask her oncologist about this med. Mom had a great response to treatment and was walking without walker, doing laundry and decorating for Christmas up until 2 weeks ago. Now off balance and nauseous again. Follow up from MRI today and the spots in brain have doubled to approximately 20 and are in different areas of brain. They are hesitant to do more radiation and her oncologist is looking for meds that would cross the blood brain barrier for treatment. I have seen a new med Zepzelca (?) mentioned in new research for SCLC and will ask about it. I hate that i can't fix this. My Mom is only 72 and my Dad is lost. They have been married for 51 years. I am just heartbroken at thinking what is ahead of us in the next few months.
  2. Thanks for posting this question. Hoping someone has had some experience with this drug. My Mom was diagnosed with SCLC with mets to brain in April. Had 8-9 spots on brain. Has received 10 treatments of whole brain radiation and 6 chemo treatments with immunotherapy. Responded great. Just had follow-up today from most recent MRI....now has approximately 20 spots on brain. Hesitant to do more radiation and was trying to find any new meds, etc., and came across the Zepzelca research. Will be asking her oncologist about it tomorrow.
  3. Thank you so much Tom. My sister and I talk to her everyday and our kids text or call throughout the week. We check how she is feeling, then move onto our "normal" conversations like we always had. I find that those normal conversations are harder to have and I don't know how to fix that. We have to limit any visiting right now because her white cell count is low, but thankful for technology and video calling so we can "see" her. Hoping for some better days ahead 🙏 ❤️
  4. Thank you so much Pam. The radiation helped a lot with symptoms due to reducing the swelling in her brain. 1st follow up MRI is at the end of July. Hoping for some positive news!
  5. Thank you so very much Lou. I feel like I have found the community here we needed and will be able to fight an informed fight now that we are part of Lungevity.
  6. Hi everyone, (long post warning - need to get it out) Just joined tonight thanks to a story we saw on Ninja Warrior with a contestant that had a Dad with cancer and they started Living Wide. I went to their website and Lungevity was listed and here I am I am in a place where my mind will not shut off and I am feeling a breakdown coming, I just do not know when. I feel a bit selfish as I am not the patient, my Mom is. I am researching any and everything to find resources for her. In April of this year she started having issues with balance, headaches and then started not being able to keep food down. She kept fighting us to go to the Dr and saying it was the stomach flu and would pass. Finally, we convinced her to go to the ER. The Dr was saying it was because her BP was high and something else and I was not having it. I looked him in the eye, held my Mom's hand and told him that this has been going on for a month and now she is starting to slur her words. She needs at least a CT of her head because something is wrong and it is not her BP or the flu and to please help her! The results were what we feared and the scan came back with spots in her brain. Fast forward 48 hrs and their was an MRI, PET scan, SO many Dr's coming in and out of her hospital room. Result, small cell lung cancer with 8-9 spots mets to her cerebellum. Discharged from hospital on a Saturday and started EBRT on Monday for 10 tx. 8 days later she started chemo and she has just completed her first round of chemo last week - carboplatin, etoposide atexolizumab (immunitherapy) and cosela (bone marrow protection). She has 3 days in a row of treatment and then 21 days off. She is scheduled for 4 rounds. She is already having issues with a low white cell count and has a history of low hemoglobin even before this all started. She is fighting so hard! We love both her radiation and medical oncologists and trust their treatments. We have been told that with small cell they can extend life by months but not years. I am struggling with trying to figure out how many "months" we have left with Mom, what to do in the right way and the best way to make sure she is happy, what to do to help my Dad (they have been together for 54 years and he just does not know what to do right now), not sure what questions I should be asking, etc., etc. Any help and/or suggestions that any of you might have to share would be so greatly appreciated! I just want to make whatever I can be better for her and for my Dad.
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