My Big, Fat Week Update

Prayer, luck, or kismet. Call it whatever you want, but with a lot of hard work, some incredible friends, and a little je ne sais quoi, THIS MOVE IS DONE!

From moving off the wait list, moving things from and to, getting set up in the new place, and leasing the old place, everything has moved at lightning speed!

We experienced our fastest, most efficient move ever with Sharon, Susan, Jan, my husband Evan and our friends Jenny, Joe, Bryan, Keith, and Luke, and extra help from BCRC volunteers Lorraine and Beth. Extra thanks to Dianna and Phyllis from the Breast Cancer Resource Center for facilitating the volunteer pool.

Many people gave up their entire Saturday to get this thing done. Mom and Megan are all set up in their new first floor apartment, with a much more manageable rent amount. There's also a pool, and a calendar of free fitness classes!  Foundation Communities is a fantastic organization, so if you know people in need of affordable housing in Austin, send them there.

A few other updates:

Stability and Mobility: The imminent danger of Mom losing her ability to walk appears to have been addressed.  Her 5 weeks of radiation were completed last week, and she has gained significant strength and stability in her legs.  Her weight has stabilized, too.  The "bulky disease," pressing on her cauda equina responded well to the radiation.  We don't yet know if there will be any more laser beams.

Today, she went for a physical therapy evaluation.  Net result: 3x weekly exercises to increase leg strength, stay on the walker until otherwise stated.  These are home exercises, so no extra appointments to add to the calendar, yay!

This can't be said enough- the walker is a MUST.  Sheree can walk 3 minutes without the walker before fatigue and poor balance create a fall risk.  Next month we try for 4 minutes. According to Dr. Patt and now the Physical Therapist, fall prevention is imperative.  Any serious injury could derail the entire treatment plan.

Intrathecal Chemo (The Frankenbubble):  She is on week 2 of 4 of twice weekly Topotecan treatments. Saturdays are still the worst, Mondays are still the best (Hello, opposite world!).  This makes sense because she's had Friday, Saturday and Sunday to get it out of her system.

Injections will continue for 2 more weeks this way, then she'll be down to 1 per week for 6 weeks, then 1 every other week for 4 weeks, then 1 a month, probably forever.

I haven't really addressed this in a while, but Sheree's cancer is metastatic, which means she will likely be in some kind of treatment for the rest of her life. May Topotecan always be her CSF cancer guard dog.

Systemic Chemo (Pills and Injections): You know things are intense when Dr. Patt says "Yeah, we'll need to get your bone and lymph mets handled, but first let's radiate the spinal and brain enhancements from December's MRI."  So now we handle the bone and lymph mets.

Tomorrow we go to her Chemo Teach, where she'll learn all about her next regime.  A brand new drug called Ibrance, combined with Letrozole, is expected to attack the small bone and lymph mets seen on her PET scan from last month.  She will also receive an IV infusion of Zometa, which is a bone strengthener.  The duration of this part is unknown right now.  I think the goal is until the mets can't be seen on PET or MRI.

Next Up:  Dr. Conrad (NeuroOncologist) has ordered a new set of MRIs of her brain and cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine.  That is scheduled for Thursday night. Everybody cross your fingers & toes, and pray/talk to the higher power of your choice that this set comes back looking cleaner than the last.

The application process for Social Security Disability seems to be swimming along.  We are now in a 5 month waiting period for benefits to begin.

Needs:  I don't even have words to express the gratitude and humility I feel for the stunning amount of help we've received.  The meal crew, Phyllis and Cathy, have made and continue to make beautiful, healthful meals for mom and I'm planning on teaching Megan how to recreate them soon. Angela, Terri, Darla, Susan, Megan and Ryan have patched together an incredible network of rides that has had mom present and on time for each and every appointment.

I'll talk to Mom tonight to see if there's anything else, but at the moment we don't have any new needs. I still might put a call out for rides if the regulars have a conflict.  If you want to hang with Sheree, and if she's up for it, give her a call or take her to lunch, etc.

I think that's everything for now, thanks for checking in!

Love,

Kelly