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| Mom, Dad, Kris & Granddog Clyde |
After a leisurely drive home and a great lunch at an old school house in Dell, Montana, it was time for me to mentally and physically prepare myself for tomorrow’s test. The thought of having this done made me feel both anxious and excited at the same time. Anxious because the results could be not such good news and excited because any positive news gives you renewed hope and encouragement. In preparation for the test, I was to drink 8 ounces of Bar-o-cat, a liquid contrast to help enhance the images of the scan. This was done at 10:00 pm the night before and then repeated the morning of the scan. Joey got up with me and went to the hospital. He was a great support and stood my side the entire time. The scan was completed in less than 30 minutes and we were on our way back home. The most difficult part was now waiting for the physician to call with the results.
That afternoon, each time the phone rang, I would answer with eagerness hoping it was my physician and good friend waiting to tell me the hopefully good news. After all, it was a Friday afternoon and the Radiologist would have to read the scan before it would be available to my three following physicians, whom I had learned to trust and have complete confidence in. It was now 4:00 in the afternoon and I was convinced I wouldn’t hear anything until Monday morning. I was wrong. At 4:30 pm, the phone rang and it was my physician with the following news, “Nothing bad. The pericardial effusion remains moderate to large. The pleural effusion remains small. The mass-like area of consolidation showed a decrease in size…YEAH!!! The CT of the abdomen and pelvis are negative. The excess pelvis fluid that was seen previously on CT was completely gone.” He was pleased with these results and thought that we were headed in the right direction. Chemo was doing its thing.
I have to be honest with you…I was a bit disappointed and
discouraged by this report. Dennis could hear it in my voice. I thought to
myself, “I have gone through three rounds of chemotherapy and I still had a
large pericardial effusion and continued fluid within the pleural sac of the
lung. But…when I really thought about it, I had a lot to be thankful for. Of
all things, I did not expect the consolidated area in the left lower lobe of
the lung to decrease. The chemo must be doing something right. I quickly did an
attitude adjustment and looked at the positive things in the report.
The following Tuesday, I had my routine appointment with my
Oncologist, prior to my 4th and last scheduled chemo of Carboplatin
and Alimta. Again, I had mixed feeling about
this being my last chemo with the BIG gun, Carbo. I even asked my physician,
Dr. Adams, if it would be possible for me to continue with both, as the combination
of the two drugs seemed to be working and my bone marrow was responding nicely
to the Neulasta injection I received after each chemo round. His reply was, “No,
the Carbo is too toxic on the body. We will just be doing the maintenance with
the Alimta.” Ok, I thought. I trust that he knows what he’s talking about,
which I did. I did have a discussion with him about the continued moderate to
large pericardial effusion and how I continue to feel my heart pounding,
especially with any exertion and at night while sleeping. He was just as
concerned and talked to Den and I about the possibility of doing a pericardial
window. This was a surgical inpatient procedure where, under anesthesia, you go
to the operating room and they remove a section of the pericardium to allow the
fluid to drain. This sounded like a major event and quite scary to say the
least. We left the appointment with him going to follow-up with Dr. Gorman, my
Cardiologist. From there, we went over to the hospital to have my blood drawn prior to chemo. I just happened to run into Dr. Gorman who had just gotten off the phone with Dr. Adams. He felt that it would be best to do a pericardialcentesis, inserting a needle into the pericardial sac and draining the fluid, instead of the more aggressive surgical procedure. After all, it was much less invasive with fewer complications. Prior to this procedure, he wanted me to have a repeat Echocardiogram to get a more accurate reading of the fluid around the heart. He explained to us that when you measure a pericardial effusion on CT, it’s not always accurate due to the contraction/relaxation of the heart muscle itself. He wrote a prescription for me to have this Echo and pericardialcentesis on Thursday afternoon. I went ahead and had my 4th scheduled chemo Tuesday afternoon, April 23, and all went well.
Thursday afternoon came around quickly. I was still recovering from Tuesday’s chemo and Wednesday’s Neulasta injection. We arrived at the hospital and slowly made our way up to the 2nd floor of the hospital where the Cardiology Department was and where we registered for the outpatient procedure. We were escorted to Cardiac Pre and Post holding area where the Echo would be performed. An IV was started and things moved rather quickly. The Echo was completed and again we waited for the results. Time passed…Dr. Gorman was on call and was trying to fit us in in between his scheduled appointments/procedures. We finally got the report and good news it was. The Echo showed a significant decrease in the pericardial fluid and pericardialcentesis was not going to be needed. Procedure was cancelled and we were able to go home. Again, things were moving in the right direction and something to be so grateful for. I know I was.
Today, May 3, I have much to be thankful for. I’m 10 days out from my last scheduled chemo and I still have my hair, although it is quite thin. I’m getting pretty good at comb overs to cover those thin spots. We celebrated Den’s birthday May 1 by going out to dinner with our dear friends, Bill and Kelli Reed. Mom and dad arrived yesterday and we opened the cabin today. Yeah…lots of fishing to be done. Joey’s graduation from college is next weekend. Den and I are now proud grandparents of Kristi and Greg’s three egg laying hens. Yes, LIFE IS GOOD!
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