Bringing You Up To Date

Some of our readers may know the latest that is going on in our family, but for those just tuning in, I will do my best to bring you up to date. My goal is to find more computer time to keep this current.

The first weekend in March: My (LeAnn) mom (Sherrie) was tired all of the time and started running a fever. We didn't think much of it as the kids all had something similar. We thought she caught it from them.

March 16/17: After not getting out of bed all week and eating nearly nothing, I gave her the choice of me taking her to the hospital or calling an ambulance. She let me take her to the hospital. We arrived at the ER at 2:30pm, she was finally seen at 11:30pm. They started running several tests. I decided around 4:00am that they were going to keep her, so I left at daylight and went home to get a couple hours of rest. I was back out there at noon and stayed until they admitted her at 3:45pm. There was obviously a mass in her chest area and were suspecting pneumonia, blood clots, and/or cancer.

March 18: She had several blood tests, X-rays, CT scan, and other things that I don't know about. They then decided to take a scope down into her lungs and do a biopsy.

March 19: We were told that she had lung cancer. They still suspected the pneumonia and blood clots so they were treating her with antibiotics and blood thinner.

March 21: She was finally released from the hospital and referred to the Brown Cancer Center at University of Louisville hospital.

March 23: We met with the radiation oncologists and get her ready to start radiation.

March 25: We start daily radiation for a course of 7 weeks.

March 27: They do a PET scan.

March 30: They do another MRI, this time of the brain.

April 1: We meet with the whole team of doctors that will be treating her cancer. They tell us that she has a mixture of small cell and non-small cell lung cancer. It is not possible to do surgery as it encompasses the entire chest wall and blocks a major airway. It is a very aggressive cancer, and she's probably only had it a month or two. The good news is, this type of cancer is generally responsive to chemotherapy and it has not spread to any organs, bones, or the brain (stage IIIb). While they wouldn't give us a prognosis, the doctors did seem somewhat hopeful.

April 3: Mom goes in to have a port placed. This will supposedly make receiving chemo a lot easier. Aside from the tape on the dressing bothering her, she's come through this quite well. I ask her ahead of the chemo what she would like to have to eat. Her request was steak. Of course, the family didn't complain. We had steak, baked potatoes, french fries, and pasta salad. Yum! She did begin to get some acid reflux Sunday afternoon.