Starting Chemo Again

This is the Mamma again!
Good News, Surprising News... and I am adjusting.
My liver counts are still high (400) and should be at 80.

They cannot risk the cancer cells multiplying and so they are starting the chemo tomorrow.
They will give me a lower dose to try to compensate for the liver levels...
For those of you praying... the request would be for my liver to take and process the chemo doses, without creating more halucinagetics or other side effects!

They are also doing a Spinal Lumbar tapp tomorrow morning. I will have 4 appts. this week with two kinds of chemo, (one which has a side effect of nausea) and 4 appts. next week.

Thank you for remembering us! We are blessed!
Lorna

Meals

First of all, thank you so much to those of you who have provided us with delicious meals over the last few weeks-some of you more than once. It has been such a blessing!!

We have begun to settle into more of a routine, especially as Mom has more home days than hospital days. The need to coordinate meals has diminished so Ericka Taylor will no longer be organizing a meal schedule for us. If you would like to bring a meal by you can call us at the house and let us know what day you were thinking.

We have appreciated each of you as you have come along side us in your own way, whether that has meant bringing a meal, driving Mom to the hospital, visiting with us or sending encouraging notes, and especially praying. Each of you are an invaluable part of our journey. Thank you!

Amy

StarBucks Blessing!

Hello Friends and Family
From the Leukemia Mamma!


This is the Photo to go with the posting about the Starbucks Fundraiser! A very blurry cellphone photo of Angela and her Starbucks Co-worker, Leah.... Before they had their hair cut off for the "wig". I do not have good "after" shots yet, but will send when I do. I read my last posting and have decided I am writing like I talk right now.... Nonstop with a fuzzy brain dictating what comes out! Sorry for the endurance test!

My Liver counts are still high and toxic. So, it is a waiting game to begin the chemo again. I did get a long weekend off though! Praise God! 3 days home without going to VGH! So good to be in church today for the servcie! I am feeling much better just a little shaky and still tire easily. But my heart is rich and full of such blessing!

Thank you again to EACH one reading, praying and writing notes! Hmmmm... I cannot even tell you how powerful you have been to our hearts! What a Great Blessing YOU are!

Lorna with Love!

No Hair

My Rob Rande Cyndy Lavoii and Murray Hay, all taking off their hair for me!! But please do not take this as a suggestion for you to do the same!! But for those of you who have....
I cannot help but weep!
Thank you!

Lorna

You prayed that "God would be with me, wherever my body takes me". Yes, where my body takes me.... on the weekend that ended up being an "out of body experience' as my body produced toxins like LSD!! It felt like my brain was on top of a mountain and my body was 55 miles away down in the valley! I had this thick layer of insulation between what was happening and what a "felt". Very Odd, each day it is better.

But I wanted to tell you about an exciting event. This last Tuesday Evening, Angela and her co-worker at Starbucks; Leah had a fund raiser for the Canadian Cancer Society. They both had their hair cut off into pony tails with the intent of making a natural hair wig for Angela's Mom. These girls both so blessed my heart.
What a gift! And about 20 plus Starbucks Employee's all came out to have a bowling game, watch the hair cuts in process and to donate to the Canadian Cancer Society. Starbucks matched what they gave and it is a tidy sum! THANK YOU to each one who gave..... (you will find a big box of Purdy's Chocolates at Clayton Crossing Starbucks, for you today)! What a blessing each one is!

AND I was able to go and be there.
Thanks to finding out that if I keep horizontal, I will not be sick!

I found 0ut at Out Patient on Tuesday with Heather that if I stay laying down the nausea and headaches will go away. Also taking caffeine will help the headaches that have now come...
and, as I am not a coffee drinker or black tea drinker... that means "Chocolate".... So it is now part of my "medication" to eat a square of dark chocolate before I travel!! How funny!
But they are concerned as my liver counts have jumped up even higher from Sunday to Tuesday.
So, no more little blue pill to help me sleep. They have said I can take the little white pill that you put under your tongue... Can I remember the name?? Amy can. She is 'dispensing all my meds'. She really is a great nurse and has been changing the dressings for my Hickman line and being a real Gift from God. How grateful I am to have her home... but yesterday she was getting a little weary with all that Mom needed. Some of you may not receive what my heart would like to give you.... be patient with us! You are loved.

Lorna... the Leukemia Mamma!
Photos to come!

waiting

Some days it seems like there's just nothing to write about; it's all we can do to keep up with the "new normal". Right now we are waiting until Mom starts her next round of chemotherapy, but there are some changes to let you know about.

I think I mentioned earlier that we are waiting to start chemo until Mom's liver has recovered from the last bout of chemo. Her counts were improving and coming back to normal ranges and the doctors, after seeing the results from Mom's bone marrow biopsy, were able to decide what course of treatment they would follow. On Friday Mom went in for her spinal tap, or lumbar puncture, called so because they insert the needle between the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae-below the point at which the spinal cord stops so there is minimal risk of injury. They removed some spinal fluid for analysis and replaced it with some chemotherapy just in case there are free roaming cancer cells in her spinal column. I think Mom wrote about the procedure. Everything went really well.

Mom's WBC counts have been really high so Mom went to church yesterday morning. She has really missed worship and being at church since she's been sick. It was a very full morning, with wonderful worship and Gretchen dancing during the service. Mom began to get a headache and feel nauseated so she left right after church. At VGH that afternoon for her routine blood work and fluids she found out that her liver counts have gone back up showing high toxicity, likely because of the chemo she received in her spinal column on Friday.

Today Mom is again feeling headachy and nauseated and has thrown up several times. I am not sure if this is because of the chemo she received in her spinal column on Friday or because she has been doing too much and her body is reacting to the over stimulation. Please pray that Mom will begin to feel better. There is a delicate balance between fluids and electrolytes in your body and it is very important for Mom to maintain that balance, but it gets difficult to do that when you are losing fluids by throwing up!

Thank you so much for the support we have received from you, it means a lot to us to know that you are carrying us in your prayers.

Amy

Here is my Jessica who also shaved her hair off for her Mamma... with my dear friend Lynn! They are in the Out Patient room with me!

The beautiful photos in the background are taken by a couple of photographers. One, from BC and one from Ontario. They are part of the renovation of the "Krall Center" that was done a few years back after some huge fundraising done by Diana Krall, after her Mother had been to the "Bone Marrow Transfer Out Patient Unit" when her Mother had Leukemia.

So every room has beautiful photos in them. It is so lovely to have such inspiration to look at each day! (Especially while waiting for platelettes or blood to arrive! )

The nurse I had yesterday; ( Robert, or "Nurse Bob")
who has a website giving movie reveiws and had some great recommendations of beautiful movies to watch, from a photographers view point! ( I had shown him some of my award winning images, which he loved!) www.nursebob.ca
"Piercing Reviews of Movies You've Never Even Heard of!"
Said that they should have named "The Krall Centre" ~ "The Krall Space" but it didn't go over with the rest of the Administration! He was really quite delightful and entertaining... which was such a good thing.... as Heather and I waited from 8:30 when we got there (with IV drip and meds given until 10:30 or so) till 1:30 before they did the Spinal Lumbar Tapp!!! I guess the Doctor who was to give me the procedure got sick and had to be replaced and the chemo that they inject into my spine when they take the fluid out to check for the cancer count.... did not arrive either till about 12:30! So, we had a 7 or so hour day, listening to 'Nurse Bob' tell us about 5 different movies that we would enjoy artistically!

Oh, and the Spinal Lumbar Tapp, was absolutely fine... a little poke when they first put the freezing in, and that was it, just to lie really still in a curled up position with Heather speaking the verses of Psalm 23 into my ear as I stayed still and "relaxed". And the beauty of "green pastures and still waters" filling my thoughts! God is so good! And I appreciate all of your prayers!! What a delight to be a child of the King!