niececola Posted April 26, 2004 Share Posted April 26, 2004 Good Morning to Everyone, Not sure what to talk about first, the weekend was both very special, upsetting and stressful at the same time. My mom found out Thursday that the clinical trial drug/Taxotere has stopped working and the cancer had grown. I was not at the onc. appt with her, so I am not sure about how much the cancer has grown. She is scheduled for a full body scan, as she has been having some general pain throughout her body and the onc wants to rule out further bone mets. She was ok Thursday night, seemed to be handling the news pretty well and looking forward to starting the new chemo Friday morning. She had some tough conversations with the onc about time frames and life expectancy, something she has never done before. Her onc refused to give her a time frame, thank goodness, and just said we are going to keep at it and find a chemo that works. My mom has reached a new level of understanding about her LC, so has my father. It makes it a little easier on me, b/c it was getting very hard for me to continue to monitor our conversations, I was always fearful I would say the wrong thing. Friday morning she received the Gemzar, it went very well. By Friday evening she was in the hospital with shortness of breath. By yesterday afternoon they had ruled out heart attack and congestive heart failure. They did find a blood clot in her leg and are treating it accordingly. She was given meds to drain the fluid from her lung. They are giving her an echo cardiogram (?) this morning, but they are leaning more towards a reaction to the chemo. I am very upset by this news as I do not want to have to rule out another chemo that can help my mom. A couple of questions - as upsetting as this weekend was, it seems now that she had a reaction to chemo and it can be treated medically to get rid of the fluid. Will she have any other side effects from the chemo? What about the blood clot? Is that simply handled by meds? I tried to do a search on "fluid", but find a lot of information about fluid buildup from LC, not from a reaction to chemo. They are two different things, right? On some lighter and happier news, Melinda, Geoff and I volunteered this weekend at the TGL Classic in NYC. It was wonderful to meet two of our family members in person and Melinda is as lovely in person as you would expect her to be. 5,000 runners turned out to support the cause and over $500,000 was raised for LC research. ALCASE, WALC, & MSKCC were all there. There were three petitions to various government officials, including Bush and Ashcroft. It was a great day and something I was very happy to be a part of. This foundation is run by family members of Tom Labrecque and just one employee and I think Melinda and I are going to try and volunteer with them on a regular basis. There were also some discussions about similar events around the country, so more information to come on that. To Christina, I am so sorry I never got a chance to meet up with you. I don't get a chance to read my mail on the weekends, so I missed the PM you sent me. I hope you were able to make the event yesterday and that it was not too sad for you. Thanks for listening to me ramble. This past week has been tough, I hope we get some good news soon. Blessings to you all, Denise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hebbie Posted April 26, 2004 Share Posted April 26, 2004 Oh my gosh!! I just clicked off the thread, and then had to click back in to make sure I read it correctly -- $500,000 was raised for Lung Cancer Research????? That is so amazing and wonderful! And here I was thinking that if I could raise $5,000 from my walk I would be thrilled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fay A. Posted April 26, 2004 Share Posted April 26, 2004 Heather, Make no mistake....every dollar counts. Any researcher who is struggling with underfunding would not look down his or her nose at $50, let alone $5000. The big fundraisers are wonderful. But they don't happen on a regular basis (yet), so it is the smaller "meat and potatoes" donations that help keep things going between the big buck events. You have nothing to be embarrassed about, Heather. Every dollar counts. Denise, Melinda and Geoff, thank you for your efforts on our behalf (I take what you do as a personal favor!). Denise, do they give steroids to inhibit the side effects of Gemzar? I know they give steroids before giving Taxotere, so I wondered if they do the same thing for Gemzar. Hoping your Mom receives good news soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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