Just got back from the appointment with the radiation oncologist.
He said that the MRI they just did and the previous CT scan can't be directly compared because an MRI gives much better resolution than the CT. However the MRI showed a number of nodules, but they are all very small. So it seems that they are not getting any bigger anyway. I will have another MRI in mid-November to check again.
In the meantime I will see the general oncologist on Monday, and the doctor today said to expect that he will want to start hormone therapy, or chemotherapy, or both, for my lungs.
All in all it was not so bad. We weren't expecting to get great news, and we didn't get great news, but it could've been worse. We will hang in there.
Love, P.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Update for Friday
Dallas here with a short update.
Starting from back at the last update...
We had a nice weekend away in Fargo a couple weekends ago. We visited the Fargo Zoo (yes, they have a zoo!) and it was pretty good. There was a building with a bunch of lizards and insects (including a very cool chameleon), a donkey and miniature horse, a cow (!), and camels. The highlight was the Chinese red pandas. The zoo has a breeding pair and in June they had triplets... they had not been out "on display" before the day we saw them. Pretty cute! The zoo also had a pack of wolves and we saw "feeding time" which was very intense, to say the least.
Last Friday Pam had her MRI at HSC. Now we are just waiting for the results that will show what effect the radiation treatment had on the brain lesions. It has been a pretty anxious week and Pam has been feeling not so great, the nausea and vomiting that she had before has returned. She's been back at work for a few weeks now, part-time, and that is good. We are trying to keep positive for the appointment next Tuesday when we get the results of the MRI but it is tough.
Anyway we hope everyone has a good weekend and I will post another update next week.
Starting from back at the last update...
We had a nice weekend away in Fargo a couple weekends ago. We visited the Fargo Zoo (yes, they have a zoo!) and it was pretty good. There was a building with a bunch of lizards and insects (including a very cool chameleon), a donkey and miniature horse, a cow (!), and camels. The highlight was the Chinese red pandas. The zoo has a breeding pair and in June they had triplets... they had not been out "on display" before the day we saw them. Pretty cute! The zoo also had a pack of wolves and we saw "feeding time" which was very intense, to say the least.
Last Friday Pam had her MRI at HSC. Now we are just waiting for the results that will show what effect the radiation treatment had on the brain lesions. It has been a pretty anxious week and Pam has been feeling not so great, the nausea and vomiting that she had before has returned. She's been back at work for a few weeks now, part-time, and that is good. We are trying to keep positive for the appointment next Tuesday when we get the results of the MRI but it is tough.
Anyway we hope everyone has a good weekend and I will post another update next week.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The Long Weekend
I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather this Labour Day weekend! (sorry if it's not so nice where you are ;-)
A little bit of news - I have my MRI scheduled for September 18 (Friday) in the evening. I should have the results by the end of the next week as I have an appointment with the radiation oncologist the following Thursday.
We were in Elgin yesterday for Dallas' grandmother's funeral. She passed away on Monday night at the age of 98. We happened to be in Brandon on Monday and stopped in to see her. We always stopped in whenever we were in Brandon. We got to Fairview around 3pm or so and she was asleep. So we gently woke her and had a short visit, but she was very tired, so we said our "I love yous" and got our hugs, and let her go back to her nap.
The next morning Dallas got a call from his Dad at the office saying that Grandma Ewen had passed away in her sleep. It is sad but we were glad to have seen her the day before.
The funeral was a graveside service in the Elgin cemetery. It was a lovely warm fall day with a strong breeze. It was good to see some of Dallas' family that we seldom get to see.
Today we've had a pretty quiet day but it has been nice. Went to the used bookstore by Assiniboine Park, got books and read in the park for awhile. Planning on a quiet weekend.
Love, P.
A little bit of news - I have my MRI scheduled for September 18 (Friday) in the evening. I should have the results by the end of the next week as I have an appointment with the radiation oncologist the following Thursday.
We were in Elgin yesterday for Dallas' grandmother's funeral. She passed away on Monday night at the age of 98. We happened to be in Brandon on Monday and stopped in to see her. We always stopped in whenever we were in Brandon. We got to Fairview around 3pm or so and she was asleep. So we gently woke her and had a short visit, but she was very tired, so we said our "I love yous" and got our hugs, and let her go back to her nap.
The next morning Dallas got a call from his Dad at the office saying that Grandma Ewen had passed away in her sleep. It is sad but we were glad to have seen her the day before.
The funeral was a graveside service in the Elgin cemetery. It was a lovely warm fall day with a strong breeze. It was good to see some of Dallas' family that we seldom get to see.
Today we've had a pretty quiet day but it has been nice. Went to the used bookstore by Assiniboine Park, got books and read in the park for awhile. Planning on a quiet weekend.
Love, P.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
What I've been up to
Sorry for the lack of updates, but I really haven't had a lot to report on the health front. Things are much the same as ever. Trying to cut down on some of the meds to reduce side effects, but this causes other symptoms. Still waiting for the CT scan that will show how effective the radiation has been.
It seems we've been doing a lot of social things! We had a lovely breakfast last weekend with K. and J. and family at their place. The boys are great and they really laid out a lovely spread of breakfast, thanks again guys! Dallas' parents visited for the day on Sunday and left a ton of raspberries. We had dinner with S. and some friends at Carlos & Murphy's on Monday, and went for gelati after, that was nice. On Friday my sister spent the afternoon at the house and we turned most of the raspberries into delicious jam! (We were pretty nervous though as it was our first time making jam and the instructions seemed rather.. precise!)
Today (Saturday) J. and M. took me out shopping for yarn so I can start a knitting project to keep myself occupied (I'm doing a scarf). Dallas' sister arrived from Calgary and we went to the zoo in the afternoon, that was fun. We were all tired out so we ordered a pizza for a late supper, played some Rock Band on the Wii and visited. But now it is late and time for bed... Dallas' parents are coming into town tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a nice sunny day as they are headed to a cabin at Hecla for the week.
Anyway I hope everyone is having a good weekend and I will try to update more frequently!
Love, P.
It seems we've been doing a lot of social things! We had a lovely breakfast last weekend with K. and J. and family at their place. The boys are great and they really laid out a lovely spread of breakfast, thanks again guys! Dallas' parents visited for the day on Sunday and left a ton of raspberries. We had dinner with S. and some friends at Carlos & Murphy's on Monday, and went for gelati after, that was nice. On Friday my sister spent the afternoon at the house and we turned most of the raspberries into delicious jam! (We were pretty nervous though as it was our first time making jam and the instructions seemed rather.. precise!)
Today (Saturday) J. and M. took me out shopping for yarn so I can start a knitting project to keep myself occupied (I'm doing a scarf). Dallas' sister arrived from Calgary and we went to the zoo in the afternoon, that was fun. We were all tired out so we ordered a pizza for a late supper, played some Rock Band on the Wii and visited. But now it is late and time for bed... Dallas' parents are coming into town tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a nice sunny day as they are headed to a cabin at Hecla for the week.
Anyway I hope everyone is having a good weekend and I will try to update more frequently!
Love, P.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
A Good Day
Hey all, Dallas here again.
I just wanted to let everyone know that today was a busy and good day.
Still no news yet on the further scans (it wasn't that good a day) but it was a day with several positive things, which we will take whenever we can. Pam has been able to cut back on some of her meds which seems to be helping build her strength.
We took Gillespie to the vet this morning for her checkup which went very well, aside from her puking in the car a bit on the way home (typical Gillespie car sickness). She has had a chronic thyroid condition for a few months that she has been taking medicine for, and the checkup today was good on that score, she hadn't lost any more weight, and her pulse rate and blood pressure were good. (As an aside, they actually put a tiny cuff on G's arm to check her BP, which was pretty cute).
Pam sat outside with the cats for awhile before lunch. It was a hot day here today (first day of summer!)
This afternoon we went to an eye appointment for Pam, she had an eye exam (for free it turns out) and got a new prescription for reading glasses, and picked out a cute pair. They will be done by the weekend so she'll actually be able to read again which should help pass the time. It was a beautiful hot summer day and Pam was feeling pretty well, so I skived off work for an hour and we went for ice cream at Sargent Sundae. That was really nice. I made up for it by working until 7pm, in case any GWL people are reading this ;-)
Tonight we had salads with fresh strawberries for dinner, and shared a huge burger from the barbecue. Watched a movie. It was a good day. Like I said, we will take these wherever we can.
I just wanted to let everyone know that today was a busy and good day.
Still no news yet on the further scans (it wasn't that good a day) but it was a day with several positive things, which we will take whenever we can. Pam has been able to cut back on some of her meds which seems to be helping build her strength.
We took Gillespie to the vet this morning for her checkup which went very well, aside from her puking in the car a bit on the way home (typical Gillespie car sickness). She has had a chronic thyroid condition for a few months that she has been taking medicine for, and the checkup today was good on that score, she hadn't lost any more weight, and her pulse rate and blood pressure were good. (As an aside, they actually put a tiny cuff on G's arm to check her BP, which was pretty cute).
Pam sat outside with the cats for awhile before lunch. It was a hot day here today (first day of summer!)
This afternoon we went to an eye appointment for Pam, she had an eye exam (for free it turns out) and got a new prescription for reading glasses, and picked out a cute pair. They will be done by the weekend so she'll actually be able to read again which should help pass the time. It was a beautiful hot summer day and Pam was feeling pretty well, so I skived off work for an hour and we went for ice cream at Sargent Sundae. That was really nice. I made up for it by working until 7pm, in case any GWL people are reading this ;-)
Tonight we had salads with fresh strawberries for dinner, and shared a huge burger from the barbecue. Watched a movie. It was a good day. Like I said, we will take these wherever we can.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Cautious Optimism
Dallas here with an update.
We had our appointment with the oncologist today and got the results of the CT scan from last Wednesday. The scan showed some smallish spots on Pam's lungs but were otherwise clear. This is obviously not a great result, but could have been much worse, so we will take something positive where we can.
The oncologist explained that the primary treatment for stage IV metastatic brain cancer, which is what Pam has, is the course of radiation she just completed last week. That type of cancer apparently does not really respond well to chemotherapy and the many small tumours were not suitable to remove surgically. So the upshot is that what has been done so far is really the recommended treatment.
This means that the next step is a wait of about six weeks for the radiation to have its full effect, then a re-scan to see what effect the treatments had. If the tumours have shrunk or disappeared,that's great, or if only a few of the larger ones are left they may be candidates for treatment by "gamma knife" (focussed local radiation). Once it's been established that the treatment of the brain cancer was successful, we will re-assess at that point and determine what's to be done about the lung spots. For now the oncologist thinks that they are not a real threat and that the focus should be on the brain. He speculated that the cancer may have been growing there for a long time before any symptoms showed, and the ones Pam had were not really that clearly indicative of metastasis. In essence he seemed to say that if the CT hadn't been done and showed it up there would really be not much indicating it was there. Not surprising because she'd seen a senior neurologist in the week before she was diagnosed and he told her he didn't think there was anything wrong.
Before we left, the oncologist told us that in his long experience, he has seen cases of Pam's type of cancer respond well to radiation and that we should be "cautiously optimistic" of a good result on the re-test. We really have to keep positive.
Otherwise the updates are that Pam's weight has stayed about the same from last week despite McDonalds breakfast again on the weekend ;-) Her hair is really going now and we are off to the hairdresser tomorrow night to get the rest cut off. Pam's eyes have been bothering her a bit with a vision change that is making it difficult for her to read, so we have an appointment for an eye test to get her some new glasses. This will help.
Anyway, keep sending the positive waves and I will update when we have more news.
We had our appointment with the oncologist today and got the results of the CT scan from last Wednesday. The scan showed some smallish spots on Pam's lungs but were otherwise clear. This is obviously not a great result, but could have been much worse, so we will take something positive where we can.
The oncologist explained that the primary treatment for stage IV metastatic brain cancer, which is what Pam has, is the course of radiation she just completed last week. That type of cancer apparently does not really respond well to chemotherapy and the many small tumours were not suitable to remove surgically. So the upshot is that what has been done so far is really the recommended treatment.
This means that the next step is a wait of about six weeks for the radiation to have its full effect, then a re-scan to see what effect the treatments had. If the tumours have shrunk or disappeared,that's great, or if only a few of the larger ones are left they may be candidates for treatment by "gamma knife" (focussed local radiation). Once it's been established that the treatment of the brain cancer was successful, we will re-assess at that point and determine what's to be done about the lung spots. For now the oncologist thinks that they are not a real threat and that the focus should be on the brain. He speculated that the cancer may have been growing there for a long time before any symptoms showed, and the ones Pam had were not really that clearly indicative of metastasis. In essence he seemed to say that if the CT hadn't been done and showed it up there would really be not much indicating it was there. Not surprising because she'd seen a senior neurologist in the week before she was diagnosed and he told her he didn't think there was anything wrong.
Before we left, the oncologist told us that in his long experience, he has seen cases of Pam's type of cancer respond well to radiation and that we should be "cautiously optimistic" of a good result on the re-test. We really have to keep positive.
Otherwise the updates are that Pam's weight has stayed about the same from last week despite McDonalds breakfast again on the weekend ;-) Her hair is really going now and we are off to the hairdresser tomorrow night to get the rest cut off. Pam's eyes have been bothering her a bit with a vision change that is making it difficult for her to read, so we have an appointment for an eye test to get her some new glasses. This will help.
Anyway, keep sending the positive waves and I will update when we have more news.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Weekend Update
Hi everyone, just wanted to let you ll know how things are going.
Radiation is over as of last Thursday, but I'm still feeling the effects. Tired, unsteady on my feet, and sore throat mainly, plus the hair loss. My hair is well on its way out which is a bit depressing, but there's nothing I can do about that. I have some head coverings to wear anyway.
I went out for breakfast today to the Pancake House with Dallas to meet some of my friends. I had no idea, though, that the organizer had called quite so many friends to come out! Although it was tiring to be out it was nice to see everyone. I had a good breakfast too - oatmeal and bananas plus some of Dallas' pancakes. We also had a call this morning from one of our old friends from Dallas' law school days, which was nice.
Next steps are to see the general oncologist on Tuesday. Hopefully he will have the results from the CT I had on Wednesday so we will know what we're facing. I would really rather know; I am a planner and I find the waiting pretty upsetting. I'm trying to keep my strength up by going out for a short walk with Dallas a couple times a day, I hope the weather tomorrow allows us to keep that up.
That's all for now!
Love, P.
Radiation is over as of last Thursday, but I'm still feeling the effects. Tired, unsteady on my feet, and sore throat mainly, plus the hair loss. My hair is well on its way out which is a bit depressing, but there's nothing I can do about that. I have some head coverings to wear anyway.
I went out for breakfast today to the Pancake House with Dallas to meet some of my friends. I had no idea, though, that the organizer had called quite so many friends to come out! Although it was tiring to be out it was nice to see everyone. I had a good breakfast too - oatmeal and bananas plus some of Dallas' pancakes. We also had a call this morning from one of our old friends from Dallas' law school days, which was nice.
Next steps are to see the general oncologist on Tuesday. Hopefully he will have the results from the CT I had on Wednesday so we will know what we're facing. I would really rather know; I am a planner and I find the waiting pretty upsetting. I'm trying to keep my strength up by going out for a short walk with Dallas a couple times a day, I hope the weather tomorrow allows us to keep that up.
That's all for now!
Love, P.
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