July 30th Update

Nancy has one more day of pain medications (our guess).  The SBRT treatments start next Monday with a noon check-in.  In theory, she will be done on August 16th.  Yesterday she had her monthly Zomeda treatment.  She is not getting any chemo treatments at this time.  Basically, she is tired but is feeling a little better each day.  Thanks for the support, BC

July 27th update

Nancy completed the final fitting and set up for the SBRT.  She was in more pain again yesterday. We also made another visit to Dr Anthony's.  The weekend is about rest and no medical appointments.  We should find out next Monday or Tuesday when the radiation actually begins.  Let's all have a good weekend!

July 25th Update

Nancy met with Dr Anthony yesterday.  Basically now she is stabilized as far as her numbers which is good news.  She did have the MRI procedure yesterday so part 2 of the SBRT preparation is now complete.  During the MRI Nancy had some severe pain.  They gave her morphine to get thru the test. After that went back to Dr Anthony's.  The pain is caused by the blood that is in her system caused by the bleeding liver last Saturday.  She will have up to another week of the pain caused by the body clearing this out of her system.  So she now has a portable pain system where she can push the button and get pain meds on demand.  It looks like a fanny  pack.  It works really well.

Friday means the last part of SBRT prep.  Nancy should have a restful weekend.  Thanks for the wonderful support. 

July 24th update

Forgive me for saying Nancy would have 2 days off.  Tuesday night Nancy had some delayed reactions to the blood received at the hospital (shortness of breath, higher blood pressure, etc).  Called the Doctor and agreed to go in Wednesday am first thing.  So, today spent over 5 hours with the Docs and getting IV's.  Nancy's blood pressure was still high when we left.  At 5:00 got a call for Nancy to go get a chest X-Ray...so we did. We then went to Walgreen's and she now has an inhaler. The X-Ray's showed some fluid in her lungs.  Not much of a day off........

Tomorrow we start at the Doctors at 9:00, then leave by 10:00 for part 2 of the SBRT process.

So it has been a journey......thanks for the calls and texts........and sorry if I did not get back to you.....

July 23rd update

Nancy just got a new schedule for the SBRT.  She will have part 2 on Thursday at 10:30am check-in, Part 3 is still Friday at 2:00 check-in.  This gives her the next 2 days off.......which is a good thing.  Thanks BC

July 22nd update

Nancy is home.  All her numbers were good today.  She is currently sleeping soundly in her own bed.  They did reschedule Part 2 of the process to get ready for SBRT.  It is due now tomorrow and is an MRI starting at 2:15. 

If you must be in a hospital, Sacred Heart is a good one.  Nancy was treated very well.

Thanks for all the support.  I am sorry if I did not get back to everybody......it was a busy replanning weekend for both of us. 

July 21st update

Nancy had the markers placed into her liver Friday around noon. After the procedure, Nancy had some troubles. When she tried to get up to get dressed, she got pale, dizzy, and her blood pressure dropped. They suspected it was hydration or maybe needing more to eat. Over the next 3 hours they tried two more times and got the same result. So Nancy was admitted to Sacred Heart Hospital for Friday night. Nancy also started to have significant pain on Friday night; they gave her morphine. Saturday morning Nancy’s blood pressure was normal but the pain was very high (She was getting morphine every 2 hours). It was determined to do another scan to see if she had internal bleeding. The scan showed internal bleeding, so they wheeled her into surgery for an angiogram. This was successful as they found a damaged vein and blocked it. Nancy had to lay flat for 5 hours post-surgery. She was given 2 bags of blood and more pain med. Sunday morning Nancy needed no pain meds at all. However her labs showed some numbers out of range, so today was pills and drip bags (calcium was one of them). She is having a third bag of blood tonight. She is in no pain and she has no appetite. We are trying to get her to eat more. Our hope is tomorrow morning after review with the Hospital doctors and Dr Anthony that she will be released. We are scheduled tomorrow afternoon for part two of getting ready for SBRT. This will probably be rescheduled.


We have had many texts and calls and emails. Thank you all for wonderful support. Hopefully Nancy is home tomorrow.

July 17th update

Today Nancy met with Dr Jason Call of Cancer Care Northwest. He is a radiation oncologist. Nancy will start the process Friday for SBRT or Stereotactic Body Radiation Treatment. This will be for pinpointing radiation to 3 specific spots on Nancy’s liver. The process is as follows 1) Placing markers. Nancy this Friday will have 3 metal markers placed next to the spots in her liver (outpatient and done at Sacred Heart Hospital) 2) MRI will be done Monday at Sacred Heart 3) Friday July 26 the CT Scan with additional RF camera set up will be done at the Cancer Care facility downtown. These first 3 are required to make set-up for the treatments. 4) Planning by the Doctors which will take 7-10 days. Treatments will start somewhere around the first full week of August. There are 2-3 treatments per week, and it will take probably 5 treatments over 2 weeks (it is possible it could take 10 total treatments) for Nancy. There is a 2 week sabbatical of no treatments after radiation has been completed. Nancy would then resume chemo with Dr Anthony.


Dr Call says Nancy starting now is optimum as she has not had chemo for 2 weeks. The sooner the treatments start, the better the result.

July 15th update

Nancy had her appointment today with Dr Anthony.  The liver spots are smaller now, and Dr Anthony would like to focus on this area now.  So Nancy did not have chemo today and will not have white count boosters tomorrow.  Wednesday afternoon we are meeting with a Radiation Oncologist to discuss radiation treatment of those liver spots.  We really do not know much until the Wednesday meeting as for timing, frequency, etc.  Nancy's next appointment with Dr Anthony is for Zomeda (bone builder upper med) on July 29th.  We will try to keep you up to date on next moves. Thanks, BC

July 1st update

Nancy had her appointment with Shanna today, we see Dr Anthony next time.  The scans were as expected; the liver was much improved over the last scan......maybe 5-10% down from around 25%.  There are no new spots.  Nancy and I thought the hips were maybe not as good; we will review with Dr A in 2 weeks.

Nancy had chemo and zomeda today........along with the support meds.  Tomorrow she will get the Nulasta booster.  We hope the new plan for pain meds will do the job.

Happy Fourth of July.........thanks for all your support.