Sugar, spice, and everything nice

As part of our Christmas, Megan and Alex told us that their baby due mid-May will be a girl. So with Daisy dog, Megan and baby girl Campbell, the balance of power in their household will shift to the feminine persuasion. Yeah!

Christmas eve chemo

Got two lines into my port today as I wanted to get out of the chemo ward early. One took the premeds and Taxol while the other gave me 4 grams of magnesium, which I have been needing each time I get chemo. The magnesium takes two hours for 4 grams while the Taxol is only an hour.

I got a CA125 and it dropped to 31.3 which is in the normal (0-35) range. This is the lowest it's been since the summer of 2007 so am hopeful the Taxol is eating my cancerous cells throughout my body. Will probably have to finish series #5 and do #6 in January before having a PET scan to actually see if there are cancer cells anywhere.

After I left chemo at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore, went to visit my ex-husband at nearby University of Maryland Medical Center. He was still in ICU from procedure to drain his bile ducts. I stayed with him while Megan & family, Deborah Krisko & family (who had driven down from Boston) and Dylan and girlfriend Christine grabbed some dinner in the Krisko's hotel room nearby. UMMC moved Lloyd back to a quieter room on the 13th floor around 7 p.m. and he was able to have instant coffee for the first time in a month. He also got green jello and some apple juice; he was happy to have something other than IV nourishment. Once Lloyd was settled in his room, the kids arrived to sing Christmas carols with Lloyd. We then went to Megan's to open gifts. Brian, Teresa and her boyfriend Mike joined us there.

Sad and tired

Friday Megan I went to University of Maryland Medical Center to visit Lloyd. He had difficulty finding a comfortable position to sleep. Noises from street (despite being on the 13th floor) and talking from nurses' station across from his door don't help. Underground parking neccesitated walking a block in the cold and rain to get into the building. I'm not impressed with the UMMC facilities & care. But am hoping, for Lloyd's sake, that they're better than they appear.

I think the week exhausted me mentally and physically because on Saturday I slept most of the day. I kept turning on a movie/TV show only to wake to the music from the end credits.

Neuropathy in my feet and fingers is worsening, and the Taxol (chemo) is continues to do a number on my fingernails. Colorless iodine really helps prevent infection underneath so I put it under my nails several times a day. I've also shortened my nails so they don't catch on anything and possibly pull off.

By Sunday I was rested enough to continue my gift wrapping. I had wrapped and UPSed all my gifts to Massachusetts, Illinois and New Jersey earlier in the week. As I get older and have less energy, I understand why my step-mother used to send me a check and ask me to purchase/wrap gifts for my kids.

Awful news

Drove to Baltimore late Friday (12/12/08) to get my Neulasta shot (promotes white blood cells). Megan phoned in evening to tell me her father had phoned with bad news. He has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. A tumor is pressing on his intestine. His GP got him into the local hospital for a PET Scan to determine extent of cancerous cells; afterward he was transferred to University of Maryland hospital in Balto where specialist is doing a procedure this afternoon to unblock his intestine and insert a stent.

A parent has been diagnosed with cancer shortly after each of Megan's pregnancies. She offered to never get pregnant again. I advised that her preganancy was not the cause. In either case.

Not good news at any time but especially before the holidays. Lloyd's wife Jeanne thinks he'll be home mid-week so we will be able to spend Christmas Eve as a family enjoying Tyler's 2-year old antics.

Glad this week's nearly over

This week's been a doozer. Monday began prep (all clear fluids for the day) for Tuesday's colonoscopy. I'd had one in 2001 and this was my 7-year follow-up. All was clear with reports to that effect sent to my oncology surgeon and my primary care nurse practioner. Nice to confirm a necessary body part is AOK!

Yesterday had Taxol 4C, the last in my 4th series of 3 weeks on and one off. Nurse Ellen was my caregiver and all went ok. Port worked well, and I was out of the parking garage and into rainy Baltimore rush hour traffic by 4:40 p.m.

Stopped at BJs on the way back and got gas for $1.45 and lamented I only needed 6 gallons. Also picked up some staples as I'm always jazzed after chemo because of all the anti-nausea meds (steroids) that precede the chemo. Even with all the stuff in a rolling cart, the neuropathy (numbness) of my feet bothers me walking up and down aisles. Was glad to put my feet up when I finally got home.

Next week is my "bye" week. I only have acupuncture (relaxful pin-sticking to help my immune system) scheduled and a local blood draw which sends the lab results to Weinberg. And our office Christmas party catered by the Saucy Salamander, which offers some of the best food in Annapolis including my favorite sandwich, Hearts and Sprouts.

Taxol 4B opens December

Thursday I continued my fourth treatment of Taxol. Chemo nurse Donna drew me so drew blood from my lateral lumen (the outside of two places in the port to my vein) and sent if off to the labs at 10:20 a.m. By 11:30 labs had come back, I'd been visited by Dr. Im who had ordered the chemo to proceed. I got Benedryl by mouth, then a bag of Dexamethasone and Zofran by IV (to quell nausea) followed by a bag of Cimetidine (to calm gastric juices) before Taxol was started at 1:11 p.m. It was done by 2:04 and then had to wait for the magnesium (important to keep muscles--including the heart muscle--functioning) to show up. I got 4 grams of mag by IV; they take two hours to go in.

In the morning I read my Washington Post cover to cover, ordered my lunch (from the same choices every day) and usually pull out my earphones (kept in my Mercy travel bag to prevent the hospital the cost of supplying them and throwing them away each week) to watch TV while I eat lunch.

We sit in Lazy-Boy-type reclining chairs with tables on the sides of each arm; can have warm flannel blankets they keep in a warming oven; have access to a coffee/tea/ice water bar and a fridge usually stocked with sodas and juices. IVs are on portable, unplugable with battery backup, when you have to walk your "friend" with you to the bathrooms. Visits from other nurses, the wonderful social worker Sally, Reverend Baker or one of the lovely Sisters of Mercy are frequent.

Or you can talk with other patients. Cynthia stopped by. She had been on Taxol a week or so before I started it, but it wasn't working for her so they switched her to another drug. You'll remember I had three chemo drugs that didn't work for me before the Taxol. So you never know which one will work for you. Everyone is unique. And each cancer is tricky. Trial and error.

But success is great to see. And I think I'll have a good Christmas. I start chemo 5A on Christmas eve (12/24) so I'll have another CA125 then. If the Taxol can take my numbers down another 51% as it did last month, it should be in the 20s and the "normal" range is between 0-35 you may remember. That should make for a very Merry Christmas. And Tyler too! What joy!

Taxol nails

Noticed several fingernails on my right hand have dark pink "stains" on them. Chemo nurse Ellen said these are Taxol stains. Then I noticed two nails on my left hand appeared to be coming loose from the underlying tissue. One even started "leaking" clear fluid. So I got out the handy dandy clear iodine that I used to stop my nails from bleeding when I was initially on taxotere and carboplatin.

Sure enough, the leaking stopped and the nails toughened up. I'm hoping the iodine will allow me to keep my nails this time. Only problem is that you can smell the iodine when you bring food up to your mouth.

But the taxol is doing some damage to my taste buds as well. Not as hungry, and some of my favorite foods no longer taste as yummy as they did. Fruit and fruit flavored drinks are more tolerable. So those fruit smoothies are a treat still.

Good news for T-Day

Had chemo #4A on 11/26, the day before Thanksgiving. My chemo nurse, Terri, was out sick so another nurse, Ellen, filled in. The port is working like a charm. At the start of each series of three chemos, they pull a CA125 which measures cancer activity. I told friends I would either be elated for T-Day or bummed out, depending on whether the measurement went up or down.

Turned out I have lots to be thankful for. My CA125 went down 43.3 points (51%) to 41.8, the lowest it's been in more than a year. (Between 0-35 is good.)

And I've been given permission to tell all that I will become a grandmother again in mid-May. Tyler just turned 2 on Nov. 11 and is talking up a storm. When Megan asks him where Mommy's baby is, he points to her stomach. Not sure if he realizes what that means just yet. But we are all very happy at the news.

Saw Dr. R

Saw Dr. R. on Saturday. He was pleased my CA125 had gone down from 239 to 85. Said I have "chronic" cancer. So I will always be fighting it.

Latest info

Just realized my last update was mid-September so figured I owed you a status report.

I’ve been on Taxol since 9/4/08 when my CA125 (cancer activity count) went up to 323.9. (It’s supposed to be between 0-35 for “normal”). After three consecutive Thursdays of Taxol and then off for a “bye” week, my CA125 was 239.0 on 10/2/08, the day I started my second series of 3-on and 1-off. It was going down—the right direction—but I didn’t want to get my hopes up as previous drugs had produced an initial “down” but then turned back up again.

Nurses were having trouble finding viable veins in my arms to use for chemo so I scheduled surgery to have a “port” installed 10/8/08. The surgeon was instructed to leave the port “accessed” which means two lines in the port were already installed for chemo the next day.

The next day I got Taxol in one line and magnesium in the other. As bad luck would have it, as I leaned down to pick up my purse and get my cell phone when Megan phoned, I caught the chemo line on the briefcase I bring with me. Didn’t realize that the line had backed out a little and the Taxol was leaking for about 10 minutes. Neither my nurse or I realized anything was amiss when she switched the line over to a saline flush. When I went to the bathroom a little later, realized my sweatshirt was soaked on the right side. Turns out I got second degree burns on the right side below the port.

By the following Wednesday when I went back to Weinberg, I was prescribed Silverdene, a burn cream which became my new best friend. I got chemo via an arm vein rather than disturb the blistered area below the port.

When I started my third series of Taxol on 10/30/08 my CA125 measured 85.1 points, the first time in more than a year that the number has been in double digits. It had gone down 64%. Yeah.

Other than the accidental skin burn, side effects from Taxol haven’t been too bad. It’s taking my hair so I’m wearing a very short white pixie cut. As the weather turns colder, I may start wearing my wig regularly. I have more numbness in my feet and fingers so am careful going up and down stairs. Taxol continues to lower my magnesium so I usually get 4 grams of magnesium each time I have chemo.

The past two weeks I’ve been also fighting a chest cold. After a week of combating it with Mucinex DM, I called “uncle” and went to my nurse practitioner for some good drugs. She gave me 10 days of antibiotic pills and a cough syrup with codeine so I could sleep at night. I’m still tired but am slowly feeling better.

My grandson Tyler turns 2 on Nov. 11, Veteran’s Day, and is talking up a storm. His favorite play thing is his Uncle Dylan, who celebrated his 27th birthday Nov. 1. To him, I’m “Oma,” which is granny in German. Tyler adores Tonka cars and trucks and carries as many as he can around the house. Uncle Dylan got him a Tonka racetrack Saturday and they played with it forever. What fun!

Lea and Rob are one

On an unusually cold day in mid-October, Lea became Mrs. Rob McFall. And they're loving it!

Dylan & I share a drink in Richmond

Prior to the evening wedding of Ellen's lovely daughter, Lea, and Rob, a 2005 USNA grad who I Yenta-ed, Megan, Alex, Dylan and I enjoyed lunch at a brew pub in downtown Richmond.

At the pumpkin patch

Jo, Diana and Kate enjoy a hayride to the pumpkin patch.

Dylan gives Tyler a ride in the pumpkin patch.

Niece Diana and daughter Kate visit

Alex, Tyler, Kate, Megan, Jo, Diana and Dylan enjoyed a meal together at Ledo's in Severna Park. Kate, 6, hadn't met Tyler and was dying to play with him so they hopped a flight from St. Louis (across the river from their home in Belleville) and spent a long weekend seeing the Campbell's new house.

Now on Taxol

As of 9/4/08 my oncologist, Dr. Dwight Im, took me off Cisplatin/Gemzar after my CA125 spiked 89.9 points to 323.9. He put me on Taxol. They’re giving me small doses of Taxol on three successive Thursdays with a bye on the fourth Thursday (blood draw only with labs sent to Weinberg). The 3-on, 1-off series is considered one treatment. So yesterday I received Taxol 1B as well as four grams of magnesium.

Taxol has its own set of side effects: low blood counts (increased risk for infection); hair loss, pain in joints and muscles, numbness and tingling of the hands and feet, nausea/vomiting; diarrhea, mouth sores, and reactions such as fever, facial flushing, chills, shortness of breath, or hives. Lesser common effects are edema, increases in blood tests measuring liver functions, low blood pressure and nail changes.

So just as my head hair has regown into straight, white, baby-fine threads less than an inch long and I’ve recovered 9.5 fingernails, it looks like I’ll take a hit on them again. Time to dig out the wig and baseball hats.

Because they’re doling out this first treatment in thirds, it’ll probably be after I complete the series next Thursday before I have to buzz my head to prevent hair in my shower drain.

The 14th of this month marks the second anniversary of meeting with my oncology surgeon and getting his verification of my stage IIIC ovarian cancer diagnosis. And I’m now on my 5th chemo protocol. As the joke about the former elementary teacher turned hooker says, “We have to keep doing it until we get it right.”

More blood!

Figured when they gave me two units of whole blood last month (7/17/08) that would be an annual event. I had chemo 7/24/08, then had a bye week 7/31/08 and started another round of chemo (session 3A) on 8/7/08.

When I showed up at 9 a.m. yesterday, expecting part 3B of chemo, the nurses had several tries at finding a working vein. After wrapping both my arms in warm blankets for 15 minutes, my chemo nurse, Terri, got an IV in my right inside wrist.

About noon, Dawn, my other chemo nurse, informed me that the labs had come back on my blood work. My blood count was down again, and I was getting two units of whole blood and 4 grams of magnesium rather than chemo. So she had to collect another vial of blood for typing and send it down to the lab.

When you get a unit of blood, two nurses have to verify in writing that you are who is supposed to get the blood. Paperwork has to be signed and vitals have to be monitored throughout the 2-hour process to put one unit into one’s body. Last time I got two units of A negative, but yesterday I got two units of A positive. I’m A positive so I can get both A positive and negative as well as O. Four grams of magnesium takes about 1 ½ hours to get.

Your body needs magnesium in order to perform a variety of functions, from energy, enzyme, and hormone production, to bone, muscle, and neurological health. I’ve been getting magnesium by IV pretty routinely lately. I left Mercy at 8:30 p.m. along with my two nurses, leaving the cleaning crew to its work. Traffic in Baltimore was clear but it was still 9:30 p.m. before I got home. Long day.

But I’m pretty perky today. Having oxygen will do that for a person.

Terri says blood transfusions are routine for someone who has been on chemo nearly non-stop for almost two years. Chemo is cumulative, damaging my bone marrow and interfering with my body’s ability to manufacture blood. The primary function of red blood cells is to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide. Hemoglobin is an important protein in the red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to all parts of our body. The primary function of white blood cells is to fight infection. So getting transfused, while it delays getting chemo, helps in the long run.

And I’m in this for the long run.

The Campbells new home

Mid-August Tyler moved from the townhouse where he was born to 4 miles SW, still in Columbia, but a single family home with a huge back yard. Behind that is a hiking/bike trail with playgrounds. The neighbors have an apple tree which drew a mother deer and her 3 babies, groundhogs, squirrels and rabbits all summer. The family room window and/or screened in porch at back offered daily views of a variety of wildlife. The house also offers more room, garage with auto doors and more bedrooms. Tyler took to it immediately as it offers many more nooks and crannies to play in.

A unit of blood takes 2 hours!

Last Thursday (7/17/08), my blood count was in the toilet so they cancelled my chemo and instead pumped in two units of whole blood and a unit of magnesium. Each unit of whole blood takes 2 hours to go into my body. Problem was because of my low blood count, it was hard to find a vein. Took them four tries to get an IV line in and get blood out for lab work.

When the lab work indicated I needed whole blood, they realized the chemo line was too fine to use for putting in the fatter blood globules. So they had to get in someone who put a fatter line in my right arm (the first four were in my left) for the blood. When they started the first unit of blood, it started to be painful. Turns out the blood was leaking out of the vein into the tissue surrounding it. Not comfortable at all.

So they had to stop that one and call in another nurse who put in another Fat line into my right arm (hole #6). Fortunately this one worked but it was nearly 3 p.m. by this time and nearly four hours required to seep two units of blood into my body. Fortunately the thin line was still in my left wrist and Terri (my chemo nurse) got the bright idea to start the magnesium into my left arm simultaneously with the blood going into my right arm (think Marionette puppet when I went to the bathroom!!) otherwise I wouldn't have gotten out of there at 8 p.m. when I did.

I kidded my chemo nurses that they kept me so I wouldn't get caught in Baltimore’s rush hour traffic. Chemo (part 2B) is slated for next Thursday.

Fortunately, with two units of blood and a unit of magnesium in me, I felt great this past weekend when my cousin Deanna and her husband Paul arrived for the weekend. Deanna's mom and my mom were sisters. She and Paul live in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis. They headed back home Monday morning. Paul said he thought his gas mileage returning to Missouri will be less than the 40 mph he got coming out as both he and Deanna will be much heavier after we ate a lot this weekend. Also visited with my kids and grandson and spent a lot of time enjoying the breeze blowing into shore at my community beach. Check out updated photos at http://campbellbaby.blogspot.com/.

Also pictured on the blog is step-son Brian’s photo and his newly launched sailboat Problem Child which he CAD-designed and built. He plans to begin racing it on the Bay and hopefully the new PC will garner more pewter and first-place finishes than his previously designed and built Problem Child.

Missouri cousins come to visit

In July, my cousin Deanna and husband Paul drove out to spend the weekend enjoying crabcakes and other Chesapeake good food as we ate our way thru the days. Megan, Alex and son Tyler joined us for dinner at Adam's Ribs in SP before heading to my community beach front. Tyler enjoyed the playground while the more sendentary types enjoyed watching the sun set over the headwaters of the Severn River in Round Bay. I still had some hair (left), Megan getting slimmer chasing a son, Alex--my other son, Deanna (our mothers were sisters) and Paul, her talented husband who's cooking for his still-working school nurse wife. A treasure for sure.

Cisplatin/Gemzar and hole in roof

OK. Where did we leave off? After 12 sessions of Taxotere/Caboplatin, I was declared clear of cancer activity and given a 3-month reprieve from chemo. Then cancer came back in two nodes and a pleural effusion (lining of the lung). After four sessions of the drug Topotecan, the doctors determined it wasn’t working so they switched me to Doxil. After the fourth session of Doxil (which, by the way, has some really nasty side effects like scabs, rash, and/or blisters where clothes touch your body) they blessedly pulled me off of that chemo.

June 19 they started me on a combo of Cisplatin/Gemzar which is given on two consecutive Thursdays with the third Thursday just blood drawn for labs. The 3-week cycle is considered one treatment.

Not sure how much my past weekend’s nausea/vomiting/diarrhea is related to the Cisplatin, notorious for causing same. Recently Tyler brought home a diarrhea bug from daycare; several people at work have complained of stomach flu recently; and gather a virulent flu bug has been going thru Severn Park.

Nauseous and vomiting over the weekend, I called out of work on Monday, but dragged myself to work on Tuesday looking like death warmed over, according to some. My acupuncturist said my energy level was extremely low when I saw him at noon so he left my needles, etc. in longer, I think, to give me more chi. I admit I felt better after my appointment so hope the worst is over.

Today is Induction Day at the U.S. Naval Academy; more than 1,200 plebes report to begin their journey through the Academy. Just prior to all this, the Public Affairs Office and our Publications Office got new carpeting and office furniture. So the past few weeks, everything has been in an uproar at work. Am back in my office but still have to unpack boxes and put everything in new places.

On the home front, Megan and Alex sold their townhouse and were briefly without a home until their offer was accepted on the second house they bid on. They move to a single family home several miles west of their old TH in Columbia in mid-August.

June 6 several tornadoes hit the area, with one tearing up huge trees in a community a few miles south of my home in Round Bay. One family lost their back porch as well as the three family autos to various trees. The next morning Dylan and I heard a huge thud on our roof; a dead limb had fallen onto our roof. Dylan initially told me it hadn’t done any damage to the roof, only had torn the gutter away from the end of the flashing. A week later when he went up to throw the limb off the roof, he realized the limb had gouged a fist-sized hole into the roof. He tarped and sandbagged it until I was able to have it repaired before torrential downpours could damage the dining room ceiling. Never a dull moment at the Joneses.

Father's Day Brunch

Christine and Dylan joined all of us at the Double T Diner in Pasadena.

St. Patrick's Day Greenies

On St. Patrick's Day, Alex took this photo of our favorite people, Megan and Tyler, dressed in green for the occasion.

Which one is mom's favorite?

The joy of being a grandmother

Celebrating my 39th birthday day (again) on January 31, I enjoyed reading to grandson Tyler while the Campbell's dog Daisy, a 20-pound Cocker, looks on.