A TheraSpherific Update

Greetings Loyal Readers,

When you need the news, the real news, where do you turn? CNN? Pfft. NBC? Rank amateurs. The New York Times? Surely you jest. Fox News? Well, if you're watching Fox News, YFC wouldn't even know where to begin...Suffice it to say your #1 place for news is right here, The Chemo Chronicle. And here's the latest...

Mom will not have chemo this week 'cause she's getting ready for her TheraSpheres (radiation) treatment next Friday, May 30th (it's also the same day as the premiere of the new Sex and the City movie, just in case you were wonderin'). But the Monday thereafter, Mom will be back on the chemo wagon, so much fun and hijinks await.

That's all the news that's fit to print, no fluff today kiddies.

Be good...

Faithfully,
Corey

Good News!

Greetings Loyal Readers,

Your Faithful Correspondent is coming to you a bit earlier this week to bring you some VERY GOOD NEWS.

Mom received a call from her oncologist today and received a very positive post-PET scan report.  Per the doc, there's not much activity in the pancreas (phew! this is what we were most worried about) and things are looking better in the liver too.  The doctor said that her scan looked much better than it did in June of last year and that she was very happy with Mom's progress.  And as YFC always says (well, always says starting today at least), if the doc is happy, then he's happy.  So, even if complete recovery is taking a little bit longer than we'd like, this is still a cause for a little celebration.  Anyone care to join Yours Truly for a celebratory glass of vino?

In other news, Mom and YFC passed some time at Fox & Obel today.  It's worth mentioning because 1) it's uber chic and 2) they apparently have good chopped liver and good whitefish salad.  Who knew?

In other news, this weekend Bubby turns the big Ocho-Cinco.  For those of you who don't speak Spanish and/or who aren't very good at math, that means that my darling grandmother will soon be entering triple digits.  Or something like that.  So we'll be off for brunch (whitefish salad perhaps?) and hopefully that should be delish.

And speaking of delish, YFC made ice cream for the first time in his new ice cream maker (previously he made a couple of sorbets and some blueberry frozen yogurt, but that's another story).  Anyhow, would you believe he made Nutella ice cream?  Tis true!  And it was only 2 ingredients too -- Nutella (an impossibly smooth chocolate-hazelnut spread) and evaporated milk.  Unbelievably yummy, though a tad sweet (oh, and it looked a bit like poo, but this is a family blog, so we won't get into that).  For his next attempt YFC will use a different brand (lower sugar) of chocolate-hazelnut spread and will substitute maybe 1/3 of the chocolatey-hazlenutty goodness for some peanut butter.  Ah yes boys and girls, it's getting mighty exciting round these parts!  And if you sign-up now to be a Chemo Buddy, you  too might win your very own pint of YFC's home made ice cream.

Well, that wine is a callin'.  Thanks again for all of your kind words, thoughts and prayers. 

Be good...

Faithfully, 

Corey

PET Scan Update

Greetings Loyal Readers,

Your Faithful Correspondent is back!  I'd say "and better than ever" but given how good I was before, being even better would be a theoretical impossibility.  Chew on that for a while...

A quickie update about Mom's PET scan...it went off without a hitch.  In fact, they apparently have some new fancy-schmancy machine so instead of taking 1.5 hours the scan only took about 25 minutes.  

We should get the results by Tuesday so keep an eye out for more news soon.  In the meantime, have a lovely weekend and remember to THINK SHRINK.

Faithfully,

Corey

Happy Mother's Day (Belated)

Greetings Loyal Readers...

...or should I say Loyal Readers of Your Faithful Correspondent? As you know, these updates are most often penned by the mysterious YFC, the nom de plume (pen name...it's already been established that everything sound better in French) of...well, me. This is all getting a wee bit confusing, maybe I should take a step back and explain...

(left: Mom and Sis)

Today's posting is not going to be written by YFC or the Favorite Child or #1 (you do realize those are all one and the same person, right?); instead, it's being written by me, Corey. And let me tell you, it feels mighty strange.

Here's the latest: on Monday, Mom had an appointment with Dr. Mellott (you probably know her better as the Cotton Troll, but today everyone gets to be called by their real names). We received some news that we didn't really expect: the last CT scan revealed that there was a 1.2cm x 1.8cm tumor in Mom's pancreas. Now this was pretty shocking news for a couple of reasons. First, we thought that Mom had rid herself of the pancreatic tumor. For the last few months we've been concentrating on healing the liver. Moreover, when Mom met with Dr. Sato last week, he never mentioned that anything was wrong with her pancreas. In fact, he said that the right side of her liver (the part that was most recently treated) seemed to be responding well to the TheraSpheres treatment (radiation). So what gives?

(above right: Mom at chemo)

Unfortunately, in the shock of the moment I think a little was lost in translation. I can't really report whether the tumor was there all along and it was somehow "missed" (seems unlikely) or whether it grew back. We also don't really know about the state of the cancer itself. Apparently CT scans have limitations, like not being able to distinguish between dead cancer cells and live ones. That's why Mom is scheduled to have a PET scan Friday (tomorrow), so the doctors can get a better sense of how effective her treatment has been.

(above: Mom, Cousin Nanci & Michelle)

Often times YFC will let you know where Mom's been (for example, he might inform you that Mom's neighbor Mark took her to Ruth's Chris to make sure that her hemoglobin levels stayed nice and high) or where she's planning to go (the Royal George Theatre to see some bloke named Mark Nadler perform a one-man show called "Russian on the Side"...edit: we went last night...quickie review - meh). But since this is Corey writing and not my alter ego, I'm not going to get into that (at least not anymore than I already have).

(right: Mary, Trudy & Mom)

Instead, I thought I'd say a few words about Mom, seeing how last weekend was Mother's Day and all. Wow...this is hard. YFC never gets writer's block when penning The Chemo Chronicle, but all of a sudden I'm at a loss for words. Well, instead of writing to you the reader, I hope that you'll indulge me a bit and let me speak directly to my Mom...

Mom,

Over the years you've taught me many important lessons. Be nice to others. Look both ways before you cross the street. Always wear a clean pair of underwear...just in case. But perhaps the greatest lesson of all is one that I'm not even sure you realize that you've shared. In fact, its the one that you're teaching me right now...

It's the lesson on how to deal with adversity. It's a lesson that you teach me every day. You've persevered under the most difficult of circumstances and you've done so with incredible grace and dignity. I don't pretend to understand why you were afflicted with this awful disease; but I like to think that G-d will not present us with challenges that we cannot handle. You are a fighter. A Warrior Woman. A Survivor. And I am incredibly blessed to call you my Teacher. My friend. My Mom.

I love you very much,

Corey

Needless to say, tomorrow is a big day. We should probably get the results of the PET scan early next week. As soon as we get word, someone (be it me or YFC) will be sure to post the results. Now there is a possibility that, depending on the results, the doctors might want to explore different treatment options, but at this point it seems that Mom will be continuing with her current course of treatment. So, we expect that Mom will be continuing with her bi-weekly chemotherapy treatments and that she will be going in for further radiation treatment (TheraSpheres) at the end of the month (we don't have the date yet -- of course once known, it will be posted in The Chemo Chronicle).

(left: Mom at chemo)

Mom's had a pretty rough go of things lately. The doctor put her on a mild steroid to try to reduce some of the side effects of the disease. Hopefully that will be effective in reducing the frequency and severity of her fevers. Unfortunately, Mom's sleeping schedule has been severely disrupted as of late. I know that many of you have called to wish her well. Please try to call between the hours of 9:30am and 9:30pm because Mom's sleep schedule has been pretty erratic. In general, it's best to telephone in the morning, when possible.

Please say a prayer (or two) for Mom and keep her in your thoughts.

Faithfully,
Corey

PS

If you happen to talk with her, please don't mention the contents of this posting to my grandmother, Beverly (you may know her better as Bubbles the Clown), She'll be 85 in less than 2 weeks and to celebrate, we're going to have a small get together for her at The Drake Hotel (many thanks to Uncle Phil for helping out with the arrangements). Anyhow, we're going to hold off on telling G-Mom any details for a while. Plus, she'd kill me if she knew which picture I picked out for the blog.

Thanks for understanding.

(right: Bubby)

The Unvarnished Truth

Greetings Loyal Readers,

Your Faithful Correspondent has the latest, if not the greatest to share with you today. Let's get right to it, shall we?

Of course, you're used to YFC putting a nifty little spin on things, but this here is the cold, unvarnished truth. Since her last dose of radiation (April 4th), Mom's been getting a lot of fevers (at least daily). When Mom gets feverish, she also has a corresponding drop in energy and typically gets the chills. Oh, and we wouldn't want to forget about the night sweats either. So, as you can imagine, Mom's had a pretty lousy month. She had a brief respite right around my birthday (again, thanks for all the cards and presents) but otherwise it's been downright yucky (that's a medical term).

Monday, Mom had a CT scan and yesterday she saw Kent "Cotton Stork" Sato, her interventional radiologist (that's him, at right). We got a bit of a mixed report. Lettuce start with the good news (get it lettuce, let us...c'mon people lighten up a bit. On second thought, you're right, it really wasn't very funny)...it looks like the most recent dose of radiation has been working like a charm. As you recall, Mom got the radioactive seeds (a/k/a TheraSpheres) directed to the right side of her liver last month. The tumor on that side appeared to have a bit of a rim around it and now that rim has gone the way of the dodo (to my non-zoologically inclined readers, that means it went bye-bye). The Doc thought that it meant* (* - more on this in a bit) that the radiation was doing it's job; or, as Zoe might say, the radiation was "kicking the tumor in its butt."

Unfortunately, things don't seem to be going as well for the tumor on the left part of Mom's liver. The left part was treated first and does not seem to be responding as well to the TheraSpheres. Ok, this might seem like odd timing, but YFC just thought of a song that Melvin used to sing...something she learned at overnight camp -- I hate liver/Cause liver makes me quiver/Liver makes me shiver up and die, die die... Finally, YFC and his sibling can agree on something...YFC also hates liver. Come to think of it, YFC thinks all offal is awful (by the by, at left is a Russian offal chart that YFC has so graciously posted for your benefit). Get it, offal...awful? Yeah, we'll stick that in the crisper right next to the lettuce joke.

Now, remember that little asterisk above? Well, it was there for a reason. The Doctor based his opinions on the results of Mom's CT scan. However, the CT scan cannot really distinguish between living tumors and a dead ones. But a PET scan (Positron emission tomography...glad you asked?) can, so 2 Fridays from today, Mom will...you guessed it...have a PET scan (the machine looks like that picture, at right). After the Stork reads the PET scan, we'll have a better idea how things are progressing. However, barring something completely unforeseen, Mom will have more seeds implanted on the left side of her liver (this hasn't been scheduled yet, but we're shooting for the end of May). Most likely Mom will get a larger dose of the seeds than she got last time cuz, you know, she's getting kind of tired of this whole tumor nonsense, so she wants to irradiate that little bugger into oblivion.

Incidentally, Dr. Stork (can't believe this didn't come to YFC sooner...Doctor + Stork = Dork. Coincidence? Methinks not. But to be clear, he's a very likable sort) said that Mom's fevers weren't necessarily a good sign or a bad sign. They might not be a bad sign, but all the same, Mom would just as soon get rid of 'em.

Finally, by popular request, YFC will again dip into his reader mailbag:

Dear YFC,
You are sooo great! I think about you all the time. Your Mom is so lucky to have you...
(Note: the superlatives went on for 6 single-spaced pages, but in the interest of time, this has been severely edited)
Is there any one quality that makes you #1?

Signed,
Your Faithful Fan

Dear YFF,

Thank you so much for your kind words. Now to answer your question: YFC is #1 for oh so many reasons, but perhaps the main reason: selflessness. YFC had dinner with Mom this Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. He also accompanied her to her appointment w/ Dr. Stork and her chiropractor. But does he do it for glory or adulation. Of course not. YFC does it because he loves his Mommy. That alone is reason enough.

Thanks for writing.

Well at any rate, it's soon to be the witching hour (no, that wasn't a comment about my Sister...although it could be). Do your bit and keep Mommy in your thoughts, k?

More soon...

Faithfully,
Corey