Continuing my story

Hello again!

In writing my first Blog, I forgot to mention how blessed I am! When I went to the hospital for my surgery on March 1 I had 6 family members and 5 close friends there with me. Most people have 1 or 2 people with them. The nurse who took me back for surgery was amazed that I had so many people with me. More people came while I was in surgery as well. My family and friends took over half of the family waiting room and it was a big room. No one else had that many people supporting them in person. I also had several family and friends with me around the clock the whole week and my sister and sister in law took turns spending the night in the hospital with me. They told me I would tell them to leave my room so I could sleep and go to the family room right down the hall. Then I would wake up and call them and ask why did they leave my room to come back. Got to love drugs! : )

Those 5 days in the hospital are a little bit blurry. I remember being in a lot of pain and the nurse made we walk around the hall every day. I am told it was more like a shuffle than a walk, but I remember I begged not to do it and had to anyways. I was on 1 painkiller that I cannot remember the name of, but it is considered hospital crack. I was also on a morphine drip for pain.

I was told the morphine drip only releases every 6 minutes regardless of how often I push the button. Well, I thought they said every 6 seconds! My family and friends were very entertained! I pushed the button non stop and was constantly putting chap stick on my lips as I kept telling them I was afraid the chap stick would come off. I am told the nurse said I broke the hospital record for how many times I pushed the morphine drip button. I said, well I don't know when 6 seconds or mins are so I am going to keep pushing it. They said I even hit the button non stop in my sleep!

Once I got home my grandma and grandpa where in town from AZ to take care of me. It was so wonderful having them around to help me with everything. I was still in a lot of pain, but had good days and bad days. I had Many friends and family visit and bring food, so again I am blessed with so many people to help! I was trying not to think about chemo coming up, but I was learning what to expect and what it would be like.

Next up was chemo. I decided with my Dr and family to take part in a clinical trial. There are 3 arms to the clinical trial and each patient is randomly put into one of the 3 arms. The chemo meds are the same chemo meds every Ovarian Cancer patient gets. They are called Carbo and Taxol. The difference is that in 2 of the arms you get some of the chemo in your belly and the side effects are worse. In one of the arms it is only just above the chest, just right below the shoulder. Then there is the test drug that is also received that has been shown to stop the blood from spreading the cancer. This drug is already approved in breast, lung, and colon cancer and is in the final stages of approval for Ovarian Cancer as well. The test drug is called Avastin. I really wanted to be on the test drug and I felt like that by taking part in the study I would also be helping with research for other patients. Another factor was that I felt like I was leaving it up to God as to which of the 3 treatment arms I would receive. This way, trying to decide which regimen to take, as there are 2-3 options was no longer in my hands.

I went back to work on April 12 part time. The plan was to work M-W. Chemo was on Thursday and I would need Friday to Sun to rest. Chemo started on April 15, 2010.

More about the chemo process later~