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Mon. - Wed. - 3/29/04-
3/31/04
The week started out like the previous with Marge
experiencing pains in her
back, big muscles, knees, ankles and hands. She still has the sinus
infection but the antibiotic seems to be working.
Her appetite is improving and she's beginning to be able
to eat foods she hasn't had in many months. The oxygen situation
is about the same and she can only go without it for a couple of hours.
On the social side, a couple of things happened that
helped improve her attitude. The first was a visit and lunch with
some friends we hadn't seen in a couple of years. The second was
visit from Lana from Cranberry Quiltworks and she brought Marge a new 5'
long sign for her studio that read "We Are Quilters, Not
Magicians!!!". These two events seemed to motivate her off the
couch and up to the studio for a couple of hours late Wednesday.
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Sat. - Sun. - 3/27/04-
3/28/04
It was a bad weekend with Marge having severe pains in her
back, big muscles and in the bones of her knees and ankles. She kept
saying that her legs didn't seem to belong to her. A couple of times
I had to help her walk from one part of the house to another. The
only positive is that the antibiotic seems to be working on her sinus
infection.
Her appetite is
continuing to improved and for the first time since November, she was able
to eat some pizza. The oxygen situation did another reversal and she
had to be on the oxygen most of the time.
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Wed. - Fri. - 3/24/04-
3/26/04
Marge continues to complain of sinus headaches in
addition to her big muscle pains. On Wednesday we went to the lab
for her weekly blood work. Because her blood count has remained
within the ranges they want, the visit to the lab for blood work will be
cut back to every three weeks -- the day just prior to her chemo
treatments.
Thursday Marge had chemo treatment #4. Her lab
results indicated her white count was a little high but within the range
for the chemo treatment. Weekly injections of Procrit still
continues at 60,000
units. For the first time Marge was really nauseated after the chemo
treatment and she complained of a lot of pain in her big muscles --
especially those in her legs.
Friday we visited the doctor and overall she was pleased
with Marge's treatment progress. We discussed the nausea and lack of
energy and was told that this is normal for many after the third chemo
treatment. She also thought the high white count was due to a sinus
infection and gave Marge a prescription for antibiotics that she'll take
for 10 days. This is a med that Marge has taken before so hopefully
there will be not reaction.
Her appetite is
continuing to improved and when they weighed her during the visit to the
doctor, she had gained back three of the pounds that she lost. The oxygen situation is about the
same and she can go
about 5 hours without it.
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Sat. - Tue. - 3/20/04-
3/23/04
Well Spring is here and along with it comes allergies for Marge
to contend with. She's now having to contend with sinus headaches in
addition to her big muscle pains. Someone told us that said the pain
and lack of energy that's she's had the last two weeks is consistent with
what others have after their third chemo treatment. Her appetite is
continuing to improved and she's trying to eat
more to regain the weight she lost. The oxygen situation is about the
same and she can go
about 5 hours without it.
The bight spots in her days lately has been the visits
from friends or going out to eat. This helps tremendously with her
cabin fever. This past weekend she was surprised and really enjoyed
a visit with Jan and Rick Turton from Northern California when they were
in town for a wedding.
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Mon. - Fri. - 3/15/04-
3/19/04
Marge is finally over her cold but is still coughing up a
lot of junk. Her appetite has also improved and she's trying to eat
more to regain the weight she lost again. She continues to
have pain in her big muscles but we back to the point where we don't have
to use the wheel chair when we go for her weekly blood work.
The oxygen situation has also improved and she can go
about 5 hours without it. She feels well enough to work on her
sewing and quilting projects but can only work at them for a couple of
hours before she runs out of gas.
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Thu. - Sun. - 3/11/04-
3/14/04
Things improved at the end of this week. Marge
continues to
have pain in her big muscles but it's improving. The antibiotic we
got on Monday seems to have worked and she's about over her cold but still
coughing up a lot of junk.
By Saturday she felt good enough that we made a short
visit to the new Cranberry Quiltworks location to help with her cabin fever.
She also regained some ground on the oxygen situation and is back to about
4 hours doing without it. By the end of the week she was also
feeling well enough to make it upstairs to work on her sewing or quilting
projects.
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Sun. - Wed. - 3/07/04-
3/10/04
It continued to be a bad week. Marge continued to
have pain in her big muscles of her arms and legs. And on top of
everything else both Marge and I managed to catch colds from some
place. Rather than take a chance on her getting pneumonia again we
saw the doctor on Monday and he gave a prescription for a strong
antibiotic. We were a little apprehensive because the med was one
she had taken in the hospital and when she was having an adverse reaction
to everything. Fortunately she didn't have a similar reaction this
time and she is slowly beginning to feel better but is still taking it
easy most days.
When they weighed her they found she had lost more weight
and is now below the weight when she entered the hospital in
December. So her skin is "not fitting" again and we're
back to finding foods that will bulk her up :-).
Because of her cold she also hasn't made up any ground on
being off the oxygen and is still holding at about two hours.
The only positive thing to report is that we managed to
put together our tax stuff and we'll be receiving refunds for a change.
Several have asked and I just realized that I didn't post
the date for her next "virtual CT scan". It will be April
2nd in Los
Angeles and we hope the scan shows the radiation and chemo treatments have
killed off the tumor.
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Wed. - Sat. - 3/03/04-
3/06/04
It was a bad week. Marge continued to
have days when
she didn't feel well and just took it easy. A couple of days she did
make it to the quilting room but only was able to work a couple of hours
at either the sewing or quilting machines. She was again having
trouble eating and the big muscles in her arms and legs hurt
constantly. She also lost some ground on the oxygen and could only
be off it a could hours at a time each day. She also had a medication
reaction one day and an appointment was scheduled with the doctor about it
and the eating problem.
As a result of her latest blood work, at her chemo
treatment they increased her Procrit. So each week she'll now be
getting 60,000 units instead of the 40,000 units. They still seem to
want to have her own system generate the red blood cells instead of giving
her another transfusion.
On Friday we saw her doctor about the eating problem and
the medication reaction. They also weighed her and she's lost 7
pounds -- back to where she was in early February. As a resulted of
these two things they've changed her medication again.
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Mon. - Tue. - 3/01/04-
3/02/04
Again not too much to report. Marge continued to
have days when
she didn't feel well and just took it easy. On the oxygen she's
still only able to go without it for
only 4-5 hours.
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