Celebrating Aunt Rosemary's birthday

Saturday mom and I drove to Kewanee to have lunch with Aunt Rosemary on her birthday. She is now officially 70 years old, and wears it well. Aunt Carol and Alaina also drove in so we had a nice crowd for lunch at Good's. She got a lot of nice gifts... one was a large statue for her garden that all of the sisters chipped in for. It was too heavy to take out of the bag so Aunt Rosemary was going to take a picture of it when she gets home and send it to mom and Aunt Ruth so they can see what it looks like.

The aunts have started to sort through their photos, so every time we get together we each get a small batch of old photos to take home. I now have my third set of kindergarten through high school portraits. Aunt Rosemary brought a good photo of a gathering at Aunt Netties. Everyone was sitting outside but couldn't really tell what the occaision was about. I picked out the back of mom's head and Aunt Carol in a tank top. Given the style of clothes it must have been from the early eighties. Alaina got some photos of David and Travis in their cute years... we both were lamenting about how fun it was when our kids were young and did what we told them to.

As many pictures as we took on Saturday - I can tell the aunts are going to have a lot of photos to sort through for awhile.

Insurance company strikes again

The insurance company put the kabosh on mom's Boniva prescription for her osteoporosis, so she is going to start taking Fosamax once a week. Apparently Boniva is too expensive and the company wants her to try the cheaper prescription to start. Fosamax doesn't come in IV form, so she has to take it in pill form. Dr. Porubcin would have liked her to start on an IV with the Boniva as it would have given her a jump start in reversing the bone loss. But, as it stands, insurance companies don't seem to make the best decisions for patients and only do what is in the companies best interest.

Last week she seemed to be achy all over and didn't go to Jazzercise for a few days. Hopefully this week will be a little better. She is still doing the Lovenox daily, and will go in for a port flush I think next week. I'm sure once the weather warms up and the sun comes out for more than an hour at a time, her body will start feeling better.

We're going to Good's in Kewanee next Saturday for Aunt Rosemary's birthday dinner - 70 years old! Despite all of the trials over the last year there always seems to be something to celebrate.

Osteoporosis

Mom got the results from her bone density test back last week, and it showed signs of osteoporosis. This was a bit of a letdown, as she really doesn't want anything else to think about or have to take another prescription for. But, it is a fact... and therefore once a month she will be taking Boniva to build her bones back up.

The osteoporosis could have been there for quite awhile, as this was her first bone density test believe it or not. The chemo didn't help either, and make her weak all around.

She went to Trinity last week to get her port flushed and they were talking about doing the Boniva through an IV so that it would get her going sooner. After awhile she would take the pill form. BUT, it all depends on what the insurance company says! If they will pay for the IV prescription of Boniva, she'll do that, if they won't pay for it, she will take the pill. I'm dumbfounded on how much say an insurance company has over medications.

And recently, (couple of months ago), the insurance company told Mom where she had to go to purchase her prescriptions. She had always had her prescriptions filled at Northside, a family-owned pharmacy in Geneseo. Mom has known the Shannon's (owners) for decades and Tim has always been so helpful and went above and beyond for all his customers. Now she has to go fill her prescriptions at Walgreens (yes there is one in Geneseo now) because the insurance company says she has to, or they wouldn't pay for the prescriptions.

I know, I know... let's not get started on how this broken health-care system doesn't put health-care first...

Jazzercise here she comes

The Iowa City visit went very well today, the doctor gave mom the clear to go back to Jazzercise. Her CA 125 level came in at an 8, which is an increase over the last CA 125 test she had a couple of weeks ago, however Dr. didn't seem too concerned. There will be fluctuations from time to time, a few points here and there, and is not an issue. If her CA125 level reaches 20 (the very highest mark is 35) then they will start to find out what is going on and discuss options. She'll be keeping her port in for awhile. No one is ready to take it out. She's ok with that as it doesn't bother her much.

She will go back to Iowa City in three months for another review. So, between now and April she'll be bouncing between Dr. Porubcin, getting her port flushed every four weeks, and then visiting Iowa City. The doctors are all keeping very good check on her, and that makes me feel better as they will be on top of it if she starts exhibiting other symptoms (bloating, etc.). For the time being, she's good to go and looking forward to Jazzercising her heart out.

Iowa City visit tomorrow

Mom had her bone density done yesterday - Dr. Porubcin wanted to see what those results would bring. It's an easy procedure so she was in-n-out. We go to Iowa City tomorrow to see Dr. DeGeest for a check-up. He wants to check her post-surgery progress and talk about anything she needs to talk about. Mom is hoping that Dr. DeGeest will give her the green light to go back to Jazzercise.

Yesterday she volunteered at Hammond Henry Hospital and clocked 2.5 miles on her pedometer! I don't know what they had her doing but she did a lot of walking around. And handled the activity pretty well although she said her hip was sore this morning.

Scotty and I went out to see her on Sunday and we went out for lunch (Culver's of course) and she was feeling pretty good despite the cold weather. The hair that has grown back thus far is mostly gray (if not white) so it will be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of months.

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Through the holidays

We had a nice Christmas last week, all of the boys were home and mom stayed at our house for a couple of days. I made some stick-the-meat-on-your-bones lasagna and mom brought a couple of desserts, so we were full and happy.

Mom had an appointment with Dr. Porubcin yesterday to follow up on her blood counts from the week before. She clocked in at 103 pounds! I'm very happy that the weight is staying on... it makes her look a lot healthier. She has been feeling good the last couple of weeks since the last chemo treatment, minus the arthritis aches and pains.

Dr. P. was very happy to see her doing so well. The CA 125 count was down to 3.75 (all time low) and her other levels were just fine. He discussed the pros and cons of staying on the Lovenox for at least a year. The anti-clotting effects may inhibit the "sticking" of any cancer cells to any specific area, which in turn would discourage any tumors from forming. If that is the case, then I would say just keep mom on the Lovenox forever. One of the drawbacks is that she has to give herself a shot everyday, and also watch what she eats as far as foods that have a high Vitamin K content, like dark leafy greens. Vitamin K provides the blood with the clot properties, so she wants to stay away from that so the Lovenox will function properly.

She is going to have a bone density test next week and then her port will get flushed the week after that. They are going to leave the port in for now... as a precaution. They just want to be prepared down the road in case they need to access it for one reason or another. The nurses take her blood draws from the port so mom doesn't have to get stuck with a needle.

Mom is already thinking about a trip to Arizona for early spring. Even though she will have to have regular blood tests, no reason to stop her traveling plans for 2010. We are both ready to be done with 2009 in a big way!

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Almost done

This morning has been pretty smooth for the most part. The Benedryl drip made her jittery (apparently it has a "restless legs syndrome" effect) but other than that, her treatment is going well. She should be done by 2:00 p.m. Tom is going to come in later and take her home and spend some quality time with his mother-in-law.

Mom bought all of the nurses an ornament from the Willow Tree collection. They are very cute. She also bought an Isabel Bloom for the chemo room so everyone can enjoy it. The room is full again today, different people again. Neurotic woman in the next chair told me that now that she has retired she wants to get back into the "Clown Troupe" that she was involved with a couple of years ago. That says a lot right there.

The experience at Trinity has been a good one. The nurses in the office and in the chemo room are wonderful and very empathetic to patients no matter what stage of cancer or series of treatments. They are there to help and comfort and make the treatments go as smooth as possible. One of the nurses, Marty, actually lives near my house in Rock Island. I see her with her dogs in Longview park and we stop and chat for a moment if our dogs let us :) She told me that they really miss the people after the treatments are over, and that the nurses will miss my mom after she is done. That really means a lot to know that your family is in good hands when you are going down a road that you don't see an end to. Quite frankly I don't know if we are at the end of the road or off the road or on a different road than before, but the people we have met on the way have taken very good care of mom and I can't ask for more.