Chemo Round 6 & a Road Trip!

After a much needed week off of treatment, we're back!  My mom and I spent last Monday/Tuesday in Tampa with family.  A very special occasion took us there--my niece Jael's 15th birthday!--and my mom insisted she wouldn't miss it for the world.  Jael, Monica & Brian's daughter, is my parent's first grandchild so her Quinceañera is a bit of a milestone for us all.

My sister, Monica, arranged a beautiful luncheon for Jael.  She invited many of the older (*ahem*),  wiser women in Jael's life (grandmothers, aunts, friends, etc.) so that we could come together and offer her encouragement, advice and prayer as she enters this next stage of her life.  It was pretty awesome...and pretty emotional, too!

We've had a few other changes in our family this month.  In March we lost our two elder dogs, Mapei and Speedy.  Both dogs lived long and happy lives.  They were 15 and 16 years old when old age and health complications finally caught up with them.  We will miss them very much and take comfort in the fact that we will meet them again some day at The Rainbow Bridge.

This Monday/Tuesday, we were back to business as usual at the Sylvester Center.  My mom felt great after a week off of chemo and her lab works showed that she is progressing nicely.  All blood counts are in the "normal" range and her tumor marker continues to make progress towards "normal."  This is awesome.  Keep up those prayers!

The doctor told my mom that she will go through two more rounds of treatment and then the following week a CT scan to determine next steps.  Next steps could be anything from more chemotherapy to radiation or surgery.  What we're really hoping is that her next step will be REMISSION and that we can eradicate this cancer with chemo & prayer.  That being said...

Praises/Prayer Requests:

• Praise for steadily improving lab work.  We're on the road to better health!
• Praise for a break from chemo & time with family.
• Continued prayer for REMISSION.  Come on folks, let's see the power of prayer and positive thinking in action can do.
• Prayer for my dad.  He does an awful lot to make treatment and life for my mom and our family comfortable.  He's got a lot on his plate these days and a few doses of prayer and relaxation couldn't hurt.

Thanks again for all you do, friends!  One last thing.  Remember that awesome company Feel Good Gowns I mentioned in the last post?  Well my mom is one of their "featured models" on their blog.  Check it out!

Chemo Round 5

On Tuesday, my mom completed her fifth round of chemotherapy treatment in seven weeks.  That means that she gets next week off so that her body can recover.  This is good because even though the chemo is doing its job by killing bad cells in the body, it's also killing good cells and that takes a toll.  In general, my mom is responding nicely to treatment.  Her CA-19.9 (tumor marker) continues to decrease and the expected side effects have been very manageable.

My mom continues to astound with her bright outlook and abundant energy.  Some days she is exceedingly peppy and she tries to do (in my opinion) "too much."  This is when I tell her to "slow down" and "take it easy" but do you think she listens?  It's funny how the roles have reversed.

Last week I mentioned a handmade hospital gown that Mary and Buddy sent to my mom.  She just loves it and we wanted to show some better pictures of her modeling the gown.

This lovely gown was specially made for her by Shalon at Feel Good Gowns.  Mary put my mom in contact with Shalon, the woman who started this wonderful company out of her experience with AVM, and she was incredibly sweet and (like my mom) has an awesome attitude.  It's amazing how something so small can really brighten up a hospital stay.  If you know someone who will be making regular visits to the hospital we hope you'll consider using Feel Good Gowns as a resource.  We just love what Shalon and the gang are doing over there.  (She had this article written about her recently.)

In other news, my mom and I are headed to Tampa for a few days to celebrate Jael's 15th birthday.  Jael is my mom and dad's first grandchild and said she wouldn't miss her Quince for the world.  We'll be sure to post some pictures when we get back.

Thanks so much for the continued prayers.  We've surely felt them.  I know it can be helpful to have something specific to pray for so, here goes.  

Prayer Requests/Praises:

• Praise - We get a week off of chemo.  Yay!
• Restoration of WBCs, platelets, and hemoglobin counts to the normal range for the next treatment.
• Continued decrease of the tumor marker (CA-19.9) numbers.
• Thursdays.  Every week has its highs and lows but Thursday tends to be that day in the cycle of treatment that my mom has been feeling consistently crummy.  It would be nice to have a Thursday that wasn't so bad.
• Remission.  Let's just get rid of this cancer already, shall we?

And now, a word from my mom...

Chemo Round 4

We had a very family-filled time this week.  On Thursday my brother Ricky, his wife Alison, and their kids Ethen, Eliana, Caleb, and Ricardo came to visit my mom (also known as "Boo" to all of her grandkids).  Here's a picture of my mom with Rick & Al's little ones:

After they left, my sisters Rocío and Lula came into town for a quick visit.  Lula brought her two little ones--Timothy and Maria.  Naturally, they love their Boo, too.

In between all this family bonding my mom had her fourth round of chemotherapy.  Her blood counts were still in the target ranges so we were able to proceed with treatment.  Her platelets and WBCs are  looking good, but her hemoglobin counts were a little on the low side.  The tumor marker test (CA-19.9) continues to make it's way towards normal.  All in all, everything seems to be right on track.

My mom continues to stay strong in spirit and in body.  While she has experienced some of the normal chemo side effects one would expect, she really hasn't had too terrible of a time with the treatment.  I know much of her strength comes from her killer attitude and a consistently bright outlook.  Another source of strength has come out of the love showered on her daily by friends and family.  She has been the recipient of many cards, gifts, meals, visits and prayers these past few weeks.  Thank you!

We had to share two things in particular that my mom enjoyed during her last hospital stay.  In this picture my mom is wearing her snazzy, new hospital gown from Feel Good Gowns.  It was generously given to her by Buddy & Mary Peoples.  This gown is much nicer that the generic ones they give you at the hospital and they even got it in purple, the color for pancreatic cancer awareness.  Thanks, Buddy & Mary!

You'll notice my mom is also wearing a lovely red shawl.  This is her "prayer shawl" made especially for her by Wendy from St. Ambrose church.  Can you believe the entire time she was knitting this shawl she was also praying for my mom?  Wow.  Thanks, Wendy!

Chemo Round 3

Look!  Mimi has another team rooting for her in Puerto Rico.  Their shirts say Team Fragosa Corcino and they loooove my mom.  ¡Gracias a todo la familia en Puerto Rico que están enviando su amor a Mimi!  Besos y abrazos a ustedes tambien.

In other news, we want to thank everyone for all the prayers and positive thoughts.  They really do work!  My mom was very diligent last week about staying away from crowds and resting.  We were happy to learn that on Monday when we went in for the usual labs and chemo check-in her blood work was excellent!  Her white blood cells and platelets went way up and were back in the normal range.  Phew.  Even her CA 19-9 (the tumor marker test) has decreased by about 30% just this week alone.  This is all great news.  Praise God!

So on Monday my mom was admitted for her third round of chemotherapy and (as usual) she was fantastic.  She even took time out to say a quick hello to all her friends and family out there.  Enjoy!

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  Prayer Requests/Praises:

• Continued stability of platelets and white blood cells.
• Continued good health (i.e. no coughs, colds, fevers, etc.).
• Major tumor shrinkage!  We won't see a CT scan for another 2-4 weeks, but we are hoping for the tumor to shrink and disappear.  It would be super amazing if we could skip surgery altogether!
• Our friend, Buddy Peoples, is improving daily.  Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.  We know there's plenty of that good stuff to go around.

Again, thank you ALL for the love and support.  It may sound redundant, but we mean it.  You make it possible to deal.  xoxo