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...