Reflections of The Heart

Ok so the scans came back clean YaY! I do have a tear in my knee and see the surgeon about that on Saturday but it’s not related to the cancer (though explains why I have sooooo much pain in PT) so I’ll update on that next week (probably Tuesday or after so that I [...]

Hey everyone. Long time no update…sorry…it’s been…well it’s been. I’ve had several inquiries into how I’ve been doing lately (shout out to Jen Ann and Morgan and Amber who’ve most recently asked) so here goes. Well as the one year anniversary of the diagnosis date has approached and past (April 11th), I have realized that [...]

I’m home. I’m in a lot of pain which I wasn’t expecting since I had virtually no pain the first time. HOWEVER, while I didn’t talk to Dr. Allan, he did talk to mom and she is very relieved after what she said he said. She said the first thing he said [...]

Ok so in the last post I mentioned that my PT was on hold because of the fluid in my thigh. Well actually it was fluid in my thigh and well I guess you’d call it pelvis. Went back to the doctor last week to see about starting PT again and just how [...]

have been crazy lately. A VERY brief update
1. Kara fell down a flight of stairs in mid-december and dislocated 2 fingers which were reset but scarring inside her fingers occurred so she will never get full mobility of them back. Can’t drive right now so mama is driving me AND Kara where [...]

So here’s the lowdown…feeling crappy today…tooth pulled yesterday…supposed to be simple…the student dentist broke the tooth and left the roots intact…dental prof had to come in and cut out roots (don’t ya love it when pulling a tooth turns into oral surgery? Note: hearing the dentist say “uh oh” is never good)…anywho as a result [...]

So the challenge:
1. List your top ten favorite films in no particular order.
2. If you’re tagged, post your list and tag 3-5 other people.
3. Link back to the person who tagged you.
4. Give a hat tip (HT) to Dan.
1.  I don’t know how to tag people or link back (well I’m sure I used to [...]

100 posts I can’t believe it!  Anywho…I’m feeling pretty good in comparison to the past 8 months )  We are officially not doing chemo round 7 so here’s how the next couple months are shaping up
1.  Still not released for work (bummer)…major setbacks on knee after the hospital stay and non movement so my [...]

Well, Jo got to leave teh hospital yesterday.  She’s currently at my house waiting on her room to get cleaned out (the kids have been home alone most of October and her room has kind of become a “catch all” place to put things. 
 
Anyway… she’s doing okay… still has the clots, but knows the symptoms [...]

Okay guys, Kara here.  As you can imagine life has been amazingly crazy.  Noone’s getting sleep, and we’re all pretty ready for this to be over.  I’ll try to update again later because I know that everyone will want one (thanks for all the emails and messages.  Sorry I couldn’t respond one-on-one).
Highlights

Donnie and I went to [...]

Well, I finally finished my own anti-biotics so I got to come to the hospital.  Which is good, because I think my mom’s really at her wits-end…
Let’s see:  Good news:  Her counts are up, actually well enough to go home
Bad news:  She looks really, really bad, guys.  I mean really bad.  This is the first [...]

Well right now all I can do is hope that I’m out of here by Friday so that I can make it to my cousin’s bonfire this weekend (if not, I truly may break something b/c I’m so f$&*ing sick of this messing with my life…seriously what am I saying…I have no life currently and [...]

Hey everyone.  Well still in the hospital…BUT good news is fever has stayed steady at 99.5 for 24 hours (YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and chills have stopped.  I actually ate food that stayed down yesterday and the resident said this morning that my WBC count was higher than .001 (which it held steady at Friday and Saturday as [...]

in the hospital right now.  came in yesterday.  high fevers and chills.  currently have zero immune system (quite literally my blood counts showed no white blood cells which is why they immediately put me in the hospital).  Quite common in cancer patients.  Had a rough night last night…fever stayed steady around 103 and chills and [...]

Hi, Kara here…
I wanted to give everyone a really quick update.
Jo’s quite sick… I’m trying not to feel guilty about that as I visited with Strep, but…  Anyway, she’s in the hospital and will be for who knows how long.  Her white blood cell count is virtually non-existant… she ran around 104 temp all night [...]

Oops…I forgot I told Kara she could borrow my laptop to take with her to San Francisco last week, which is why there was no update on Monday…sorry…we did get all the results back and we were good to go (barely good to go, but good to go nonetheless) on chemo round 6…we’re supposed to [...]

Ok so today was the most perfect of fall days…perfect weather…found some perfect carving pumpkins…it was great…:o)  Just thought I’d share that )  On update notes…my counts are down…wayyyyy down…had to have a transfusion on Tuesday and we’ll check the counts again tomorrow and hope it helped enough to continue chemo next week.  (since [...]

Ok so I’m not even going to explain how I stumbled onto this website, it’s long, it’s convoluted, it’s a crazy story. However, ya’ll should really read the interview. I LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED it and it was just a random, had nothing to do with what I searched for, cool page [...]

Hello all.  Sorry, it’s been crazy around here.  Right now I’m battling a hell of a swollen throat and major swollen gums (my remaining wisdom teeth we think which of course we can’t do anything about b/c of a. my lovenox and b. chemo…grrr like more complications were needed)…anywho that’s where I am right now…we [...]

with a couple of prayer requests.
1.  Jo won’t start chemo tomorrow.  At the earliest she will go in on Wednesday.  But tomorrow she’ll go in for some more tests.  Apparently her heart is not strong enough for one of her two chemo meds.  If it doesn’t strengthen, she won’t be able to do that med [...]

Pretty much same old same old here…Thank you to everyone who came out last Saturday and made the benefit a huge success!  I’m sure this won’t surprise any of you who were there, but I way overdid it!  LOL seriously…spent the next 48 hours recouping and then caught a cold…have been pretty much doing not a [...]

Hey everyone.  Things are crazy here so sorry no update sooner.  So why are things crazy you may ask?  Well with the benefit Saturday, last minute things keep popping up so just putting out a few fires and getting all the last minute details taken care of has taken most of my caretakers’ time and [...]

Here’s the low down real quick
1.  staples come out tuesday
2.  had a cold last week so was cruddy and didn’t post or really do anything
3.  Doing last minute stuff for benefit on Saturday (Sept. 6) so will probably not post again this week unless new news from any drs.  As of right now no new [...]

Great news from today: the pathology report came back from the surgery (they sent everything to be looked at to make sure they got all the cancer out).  The verdict is they got it all!!!!!  All the margins were clear meaning that the outside cells had no cancer so they took enough extra from around [...]

Ok so I’m bad at this I know!  But I did want to share some good news from today.
1.  I’ll be able to go to my h.s. reunion this weekend as long as PT and I can get me into a car by then Usually there is a back log on homebound PT [...]

Home again Home again   yay   I’m home again   Ok so here’s the low down…Kara’s post from this morning very accurate…the procedure for putting in the filter wasn’t horrible though it was the fact they didn’t give me any warning and therefore afterwards, when I couldn’t move for 4 hours, [...]

Well, again, I don’t know when she’s going to get out, but I thought I’d do a quick update.
They took Jo in last night and did another surgery, this time to put in a filter for the P.E.s.  It was all very quick.  Mom didn’t even have a chance to call me about it until [...]

Hey ya’ll…I figured out how to circumvent the “blocked” aspect at the hospital so I can post updates here for ya.  We thought we’d be out of the hospital today, but that’s not going to happen.  My RBC’s fell critically last night so we just got done with a transfusion to get those up.  We’ll [...]

Well, if you want to see an update from Jo, check the comments from the last post.
As of right now, we’re not sure she’s going to get discharged today (like was planned).  She did finally get a tiny bit of sleep last night b/c they had her on an oxygen tank while she slept.  But [...]

Sorry it’s taken me awhile to get an update up, all.  Both of the computers I’ve had access to today have decided to be excruciatingly slow
Anyway.  Johnna’s surgery went fine.  No complications.  We won’t know what the margins are yet until the pathology’s back and that will be a few days, but things [...]

Ok kids this is it…12 hours and counting…I have to be at admitting at 10:00 am tomorrow morning for my surgery…still no word yet as to what the surgery will entail…they tell me I’ll find out tomorrow morning…I just know that I keep having horrible nightmares of waking up during the surgery sooooo I’m freaking [...]

So the SJ-R wrote an article about Kara and I.  See it here.  Not much else to share right now.  Feeling ok this week I guess…a lot more tired than normal.  Surgery still scheduled for Monday.  Miss you all   Love and peace out!

http://www.sj-r.com/homepage/x1600193619/Dave-Bakke-Twins-don-t-need-to-talk-to-keep-in-touch

Well, Johnna’s surgery is ONE WEEK AWAY and we’re trying to get as much for the benefit organized and wrapped up by then. But we need help!!!! If anyone is available and/or willing to help out with the following projects, please let me know!
Kara
Project 1: anytime August 4th-August 13th: Solicit donations for the silent auction, [...]

Hey everyone doing better today…went to the doctor…i have bronchitis…go figure…good news is breathing treatments are really helping me to feel much much better   Still coughing but not so much that I can’t function and today I actually feel like I can breathe when I’m not coughing which is a huge improvement from [...]

sorry it’s been so long and this’ll be short.  I caught a summer cold (go figure…the irony is that life threatening illness I can handle…sore throat, runny faucet nose, cough from hell…not so much big baby when it comes to those three!!!)  Anywho, that’s the update right at the moment…in bed being miserable with this [...]

Spoiler Warning…going to discuss the end of the movie here…if you just want an update scroll down
So I rewatched (for like the millionth time) Under the Tuscan Sun a couple nights ago with mama.  Ya’ll know me, I’m more of a Die Hard, Indiana Jones, Lethal Weapon, X-men, LOTR movie girl so finding [...]

Let us know if anyone would like the following postcards to distribute to those they know or flyers to hang up to advertise the benefit.
 

Ok well here’s the scoop peeps…I’m neutropenic, which basically means my immune system (white blood cells and ANC) is so low right now that I’m at risk of developing a serious infection…soooooo I’m pretty much hybernating until that goes up (the neulasta shot I had last week should kick in sometime this weekend hopefully and get that [...]

Ok well this post is mainly to keep my mind off the fact that I feel crappier than I can ever remember feeling in my entire life…apparently chemotherapy is a progressive drug…more effective as you go…and apparently also the side effects grow as you go…no new side effects but seriously kids I can’t remember a [...]

Date of Surgery
Thought some of you may want to know that
I’m liking the symetry of the 11th.  First went to doc on Feb. 11.  Diagnosed on April 11.  Getting out of hospital from last pre surgury chemo tomorrow (July 11) and surgery on August 11 (yay…a full month off not just [...]

That’s the room I’m in   We had to come in yesterday (a day early) because I had to get a transfusion (two bags of red blood cells) b/c my hemoglobin was at 7.8 yesterday morning and falling (7.2 yesterday afternoon).  So now we’re going to start chemo today (the transfusion helped my count [...]

I suck apparently at keeping everyone up to date!  This update is prolly going to be short b/c  lots has gone on in the past couple of days that have quite frankly been totally emotionally draining (and at some times emotionally debilitating) on me so that’s why I really haven’t taken the time to update, too [...]

Ok so here’s the deal…we were told this morning that everything was looking good yay i’d get to go home and get to Sarah’s Bridal Shower!!!!  Then about 10:30 the 4 docs (1 attending and 3 residents) came with the bad news…my platlet counts are down and falling rapidly…this could be a result of either the [...]

Ok well I’m still in the hospital (G408) but hopefully will be out tomorrow.  As Kara updated you all, Wednesday afternoon my “heartburn” started to spread to my left chest and arm really bad so we went into the ER where it turned out I had a larger pulmonary embolism (PE) in my left lung [...]

Ok so last night was awesome.  Kara wanted Avanti’s so she, I and Elizabeth (the unquestionable…albeit reluctant…road trip queen) piled into Elizabeth’s Prius and made the short trip to Bloomington for Avanti’s.  It was great Good food (of course) but even better company   Girl talk all the way up and back [...]

Ok well all is ok here.  I’m doing well.  I don’t know if I’m becoming more accustomed to the side effects so they seem less or what, but really everything’s pretty normal for a post chemo weekend.  I’m nauseous, tired all the time, and feel like mike tyson crawled inside my body and pounded all [...]

Do you like the title?  It’s the name of the ADORABLE stuffed pig my housekeeping staff worker bought me this morning.  That’s right…the housekeeping staff worker.  Her name (the housekeeping staff worker) is Angel and she’s fantastic!  Fun, personable, cleans really well.  Today’s the first day I’ve met her but she’s wonderful.  We’ve been incredibly [...]

Ok so we’re at the hospital (room E298 come visit ).  Also got an explaination from the radiation oncologist today as to why no shrinkage…apparently radiation and chemo are like weed killer…as you actually spray it on the weed doesn’t die…you have to let it sit awhile…or for another analogy…if you [...]

Ok so we’re doing chemo tomorrow.  Dr. Rao convinced me that because it’s obviously working (in that it’s not growing) that it was important to keep it up for the killing the microscopic so it doesn’t spread.  He’s going to call Dr. Allan and have him come to the hospital and talk to me about [...]