SolandMonica.com

This is Sol.  I ran home quickly to get a few things so I’ll make this post short.  Monica has been in the hospital with a lot of pain for the past two nights.  We’ll be there tonight too.  The tumor in her liver has grown to 22 cm (almost 9in).  I don’t have internet access in the hospital, but I’ll be posting updates through Twitter which you can read on the front page of the site here to the right.

If you are a praying person, please pray now.  The doctors said we need to prepare for the worst.  Monica’s family is coming in from Northern California and Washingon DC.

Category tags: Cancer Update, Hospital---- 8 Comments »

Of course the waiting is hard, but finding out that chemo isn’t working again is harder!  According the report, most of the tumors have grown.  The cancer is in the lungs, liver and spine.  I have been having a lot of pain recently in specific areas of my abdomen and back, and those places were the most notable in the report.  It wasn’t just me sleeping wrong – of course not with my new bed and all!  Anyway, we will not be continuing that chemo and I have an appointment scheduled for May 5th at USC Norris Cancer Hospital with Dr. Chowla.  He is supposed to be an expert on sarcomas.  Hopefully he’ll see something with fresh eyes and take a leap with something that will work.

So the pain is getting worse.  I have been taking a time released morphine pill twice a day, now since there is pain inbetween, I am taking 6 codeine pills a day as well.  I still function, but am tired all the time.  My red blood count is still way too low, but all of the cultures and such are coming back negative for anything.  The doctors say it’s related to chronic disease – meaning it’s because of my tumors.  I also have been having fevers every night and have been soaking my bed with night sweats.  It’s crazy!  It’s like someone has dumped a glass of water onto my pillow.  It’s pretty disgusting actually!  All supposedly tumor related!  

Please keep us in your prayers as we make decisions about treatment and everything else.  Pray that my pain would go away.  Pray that I’d be able to eat more at meals.  Pray for Kai as he’s beginning to understand that there is something wrong with Mommy.  Pray for Sol – he’s really having a tough time; he can’t fix it!  Thank you for your constant support in prayer!  

Monica

Category tags: Cancer Update---- 2 Comments »

So my dermatology appointment went pretty quickly ending with a punch biopsy and the waiting game.  He said it would take about 7-10 days to find out the results.  He said he put a rush on it saying that patient’s treatment depends on the results.  So hopefully we’ll hear back sooner than 7-10 days.  I was so thankful to have Sunshine there with me as I was getting the biopsy.  She changed her schedule at the last minute so that I didn’t go alone.  It was a blessing.

After the appointment, I received a phone call from my doctor’s office saying that I would need another transfusion.  Just what I didn’t want to hear.  I was in a restaurant and didn’t want to cry.  When I don’t want to cry, the muscles in my abdomen tighten up and I am in a lot of pain.  That happened to me at that point.  I wanted to scream, and for some reason I couldn’t relax to stop the pain.  Sunshine was with me, she was very calm, and I finally relaxed.  

Heather went with me to chemo today.  We had planned on going to lunch, but spent most of that time before chemo at the hospital getting ready for the transfusion tomorrow.  We did go to lunch at this little Mexican place…my new favorite… and just decided that if I was late to chemo, so be it!  😉  We were only about 20 minutes late.  Yummy Fish Tacos!!!

At the doctor’s office, it is routine for them to check your vitals before chemo and sometimes they won’t treat you if things aren’t at the right levels.  My blood pressure – low, but that’s been pretty normal since starting chemo.  Then they took my temperature.  It was 102.2 degrees.  Ummmm, to me it would seem that’s a little too high.  I’ve been having fevers, but I don’t seem to have all the symptoms that usually come along with the fevers.  So I didn’t look sick but had a pretty high fever.  I think they normally wouldn’t do chemo, but my doctor said go ahead, so we did.  They also didn’t give me the anti-nausea injection that knocks me out, so I wasn’t totally out of it which was nice.  When I was done, my fever was down to a low 101.9.  Not down too much at all, eh?   We decided to leave the port connected so that they don’t have to do it tomorrow at “My Favorite” hospital.  

I’ll write more after tomorrow.  

Some fun things we’ve done in the past week are go to a 90th birthday party (cowboy theme), Sol got his latest CD mastered (really a big deal), and we went whale watching (didn’t see anything worth writing home about).  We’ve been talking about doing things we’ve never done but always wanted to do.  Whale watching was on my list!  (I’ll post some fun pictures of these things soon)

Today was really busy.  Tomorrow will be full, but I won’t be going anywhere except the hospital.  There is no one who can stay with me the whole day, so people are coming in shifts starting at 7:45 when Gwynne will pick me up and take me there.  🙂  I have such great friends around me.  

Well, I need to get to bed, it’s going to be an early morning tomorrow.  Sol has to be at work at 6:00 and I have to h=leave for the hospital at 7:45 – early for me these days!  🙂  

Love you,

Monica

Category tags: Cancer Update, News---- Comments Off on Biopsy, Navelbine #6 and Transfusion

I have two minutes before I have to leave for the dermatologist.  Yes, I am going to see a skin doctor.  Since taking Nexavar, spots have been popping up on my chest where the cancer originally was.  The Oncologist says, “Let’s watch it”, I say, “Let’s figure out what it is”.  It looks like small blood vessels protruding out of the skin.  I just want someone trained in skin things to look at it.  I’ll let you know.

I am also scared that they are going to tell me I need another transfusion.  I don’t want that.  I am scared about finding out the results of the tests they ran last week.  

Please pray for peace.

Got to go!

Monica

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Last Tuesday, I was sitting on the couch before chemo when the doctor’s office called and told me I needed a transfusion, so when the phone rang yesterday morning, my heart skipped a beat.  I was relieved to hear that I wasn’t being scheduled for another transfusion, but for some reason the transfusions, the shots, and the extra iron pills aren’t raising my red blood count to normal levels.  I don’t know how much these things are supposed to raise the level, but I do know that the normal range is 11-14, and I was a 7 before the transfusion last week and only 8.4 this week.  They told me that they’d be drawing more blood before chemo to run some other tests on it to see what else might be keeping my levels from raising.  

This was one of the quickest treatments ever.  It took just under an hour, but still knocked me out!  I slept the majority of the afternoon and evening, which affected my sleeping last night.   I was up every 2 hours just laying there awake… (Sol been having a tough time sleeping last few night as well).

Other than that, things here are going pretty well.  We had a wonderful Easter with family.  Kai began getting baskets on Thursday and received one every day up to Easter.  He LOVED it!  Now there is way too much candy around our house.  I have been throwing it away – yes, tossing it.  Boy does it take self-will not to eat it or stash it away for a rainy day (honestly, I’ve been eating it so it needs to go!!!).  Here are a few pictures from decorating eggs and Easter Sunday.

Decorating eggs with Watercolor – you could rinse the egg off and decorate it again and again!!!  🙂

The Loot!!!

The Egg Hunters

A Lady Bug Friend.  Kai loved having the ladybug crawl all over his arm.

We love you all and hope this finds you well.  Happy Easter – Christ has Risen – Death has no Victory!  Alleluia!!!

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I was sitting at home on Tuesday looking forward to a relaxing lunch with my friend Traci before chemo.  As I was sitting there, I received a phone call that I needed a transfusion, and then they asked me if I wanted to do it all in one day.  I said, “Definitely no!”  Well that relaxing lunch turned into running around the hospital getting things ready for the transfusion the following day.  We ate at Del Taco…nice and relaxing, and then headed off to chemo.

Chemo went smoothly.  Once again, it knocked me out.  I slept through the whole thing, and then slept until dinner after coming home.  They were able to leave the port connected, so that I wouldn’t have to be stuck by the nurses at the hospital where they’re still learning how to do that.  

My mother-in-law, Oralia, came last night; I am glad that she was going to be here for the unexpected transfusion.  She also took Kai all around the festival in uptown.  He jumped in the Pirate Jumper, aka Yo Ho Pirates, he held and chased a squealing pig, and he rode the ponies.  That’s what Nanas are for right!  He is so spoiled!!!  He even came home eating Kettle Corn!  What an outing!  🙂  

This morning I started to get a little bit nervous because they couldn’t get blood from the port.  Finally, it worked.  Whew!  I slept a lot today.  My red blood count was the lowest it’s been at 7.0!  I guess that explains a lot of the sleeping I’ve been doing.  It continued as I slept a lot of my day away.  Once they got it going things ran smoothly; even removing the port went well this time, after I coached them through it.  🙂  

So tonight I am doing well.  I don’t know that I feel more energy yet from the transfusion, but hopefully tomorrow I will.  

Thank you for all of your prayers and support over these past two days.  They really have been tough ones.  Two more chemos and then a CT scan.  Please start praying over those results as those determine the path of treatment.  I’m praying for a clear scan…NOTHING there, nothing there, nothing there…

Love to you all,

Monica

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I just received a phone call saying that I will be having a blood transfusion.  I guess that means my count is still low and that it maybe even went down a bit from last week.  They wanted me to do it right after chemo today, but that’s just too much!  So tomorrow morning around 8:30 I will report to the Short Stay floor at my “favorite” hospital for my second transfusion – two more units.  Please pray that the experience will be much better than last time.  I am scared to have them access my port at all, so I am going to see if I can stop by my chemo office and have them stick me instead.  Thank you for your prayers.  If I feel up to it and am not knocked out tonight, I’ll let you know how Navelbine #4 went.

 Thank you to all of you who donate blood – you are saving lives and helping people like me get and feel better.

Much Love,

Monica

Category tags: Cancer Update, Hospital, News, prayer request---- Comments Off on Pre-chemo news…

Washington D.C. was a lot of fun.  Spending time with my sister and her husband was a real treat.  We were busy every single day.  I don’t think we went to bed before midnight while we were there, however, we did sleep until 10…at least I did!  We have a ton of pictures, and I have included some below and in an album, but there will be more coming as soon as I can look through the million pictures we took of the Cherry Blossoms.  They were gorgeous!  I’ll write more tomorrow, but I just wanted you to know that we had a great time.  Thanks for the prayers, and thank you Karen for making sure we had a wheelchair!  I wouldn’t have made it through the week without it!  🙂

While I was in D.C. (Actually, Alexandria, VA) Sol survived home alone with Kai!  He’s an awesome father!  He took Kai to Disneyland on Sunday and had a great (tiring) time.  He said to say thank you to all who brought meals; you made it that much easier on him.  So, thanks for feeding my boys while I was gone!

Below are some of the pictures from the trip…

Us at The White House..Hello, Obamas

Me in the blossoms

Sisters in the Cherry Blossoms

Me and my good pal FDR…Wheelchair Buddies

One of the 3,000 Cherry Trees planted around the basin…friendship gifts from Japan

Goodnight Friends and Family…It’s 9:30, and I’m going to bed!!!  🙂  Yay!

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Picking up Kai was so fun.  As soon as he saw us, he ran to give us hugs. It was Awesome!  He had so much to tell us about his time with my folks and the airplane ride.  He looked so much bigger; I think they always do when they’re gone for a little while and you see them again.

Yesterday we took my mom to Disneyland.  She hadn’t been in over 23 years, so there was a lot to see.  Kai had been wanting to go to Disneyland for a while, so he was so excited to go.  He was running circles in the living room saying, “Disneyland, Disneyland, Disneyland!” over and over.  We were able to do a lot, but it turned out to be too much for me, and by the end of the day, I was in a wheelchair just so I could stay.  I just got too worn out – too much walking, and it was a crowded day, so we stood in a lot of lines.  I did sit down for a little bit, while my mother took Kai on a ride.  Sol was able to meet us around 5:00 pm, and we had fun.  I am a bit sad that my mom didn’t get to ride “Soaring over California”.  I think it’s one of the most unique rides they have, and she really would have enjoyed it.  We were in line with a 45 minute wait, then they came on and said they were having technical difficulty, it would another 15 minutes on top of the wait time.  It was late and cold, and I started feeling really bad, so we decided it was time to go home.  Someday she’ll go on it.  

Today was my third treatment of Navelbine.  It went smoothly and didn’t knock me out as much, but it did knock me out for a while.  I think the excitement of going to D.C. is helping to wake me up.  My mom and I leave tomorrow morning to go see my sister and her husband in D.C. and stay until Tuesday.  The weather is supposed to be rainy or chances of rain the whole time we’re there.  We’ll see what happens.  Maybe it’s God’s way of saying, “Slow down, Monica”. 

Pray for Sol as he’s home with Kai alone, and we’re getting glimpses of the terrible twos.  He’s a good boy most of the time, but there are those precious moments we’d love to forget and someday will – I hope!  

Thank you for your prayers.  My red count is still low, but another transfusion wasn’t mentioned for this time – maybe next time but not yet.  🙂

I’ll post from D.C. and hopefully Sol will too to let you know what’s going on with us.

Love and blessings,

Monica

Category tags: Cancer Update, Fun, News---- Comments Off on Kai’s home, Disneyland, Navelbine #3

So it’s been a while and many things have happened.  Many of you know how excited I was to have my friends coming to visit.  It did not disappoint.  I had a great weekend, feeling great, hanging out, catching up, praying, and eating a lot of food!  Oh, how wonderful it was to have them here – close by to hug me and serve me for the weekend.  It’s been hard on them to not be close by.  So I know for them to be able to clean my house, make me food and just take care of me meant a lot.  They were DOING something!  I know for many of you, you feel the same way!  What can we do so far away?  Pray, pray, pray!  🙂  

Well, something we decided last minute to do was to send Kai to Paradise for a week.  He flew on an airplane with my cousin, Rachyl, and loved every minute of the flight!  He LOVES airplanes!  We woke him up on Friday morning and told him we were going on an airplane and he was wide awake in seconds!  🙂  He’s such a good boy.  He’s been having fun at Grammy and Grandpa’s house.  He got to hold and feed chickens and cleaned turtles at Auntie Janelle’s house!  He’s played with Skippy (my parent’s dog) wanting to carry him around the house, much to Skippy’s disapproval!  Boy do we miss this kiddo!  He’s coming home on Sunday with my mom.  Yes, on another airplane!!!  He’ll be so excited!  🙂

On Monday night a few couples from church came over and anointed my head with oil and prayed for Sol and I.  It was a very special time and meant a lot to us!  We feel so blessed to have people in our lives who will take the time out and just cover us in prayer!  

Something else amazing is that we have been made into a serve project through our church.  Project #129 (I think).  Anyway, it’s just people from the church signing up to pray for us on certain days of the week, write a note of encouragement, or donate money to help us cover the costs that are heading our way with insurance and whatever else there is.  I have loved reading every single note and seeing the list of people praying for me every single day!  It’s unbelievable.  The amount of money that has been donated is simply astounding!  I am blown away and in awe of God’s people!  People have been giving through the website, the mail, church drop box or other means.  It’s simply amazing!  I wish I could thank all of you personally, but I don’t have that much time, and I don’t know who gave cash!  So here is my thank you!  You are all so dear and precious.  Words cannot express the deep, heartfelt thanks that Sol and I have for you all!  Thank you!

Wow, wow, wow!  That’s all I have to say about this next piece of news.  My mom and I received free tickets to go see my sister in Washington D.C..  How amazing is that!!!!  Sol’s mom was able to get ahold of some frequent flier miles and get us tickets (Thanks, Harold)!  Unbelievable!  Thank you so much!  Blessings are coming from all sides!  God is good!  

Tuesday, I had my 2nd Navelbine chemo.  It was strange in that I was pretty knocked out by the anti-nausea drug.  My friend, Keri, said that my eyes glazed over and I was out of it.  I ended up sleeping the whole afternoon and evening away!  That really hasn’t happened to me before!  Keri thought she’d have to drag me up the stairs to my apartment!  Good thing she didn’t have to!  

So I think I’ve caught you up on the happenings here!  Sorry it took so long.  

Peace and Blessings to you this week…

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