25 Sept - Treatment Week

Quick update - Sarah recovered from her cold just in time to get chemo this past Thursday as scheduled. Due to an allergic reaction to the Carboplatin she's getting Taxotere alone now. She feeling a little queasy but not too bad so far. Just the fatigue that comes along with chemo so far. She also got tumor markers pulled on Thursday and we'll get the results next week. Other than that, we're just making it through one treatment at a time. Laying low this weekend, of course.

21 Sept - Delaying Stent Procedure

Ok, well Sarah didn't get her bile duct stent procedure (called "ERCP") done today. She got a cold that's had her running a mild fever for a few days - and it's making its way around the family. Started with Sam, went to Sarah and now I'm getting it.
Anyway, the policy is not to do the ERCP if you're sick and have any level of fever - that's because they can't tell if you develop an infection and fever from anything related to the procedure if you already have one.
So, we're on hold and will have to reschedule the ERCP for after Sarah's treatment this Thursday - that bumps it out a few weeks. Not a huge deal but the stent is called temporary for a reason and we're at the far end of the window with it so we don't want to delay any more than necessary.

19 Sept - Stent Replacement

An update on Sarah - she got the ultrasound of her port and blood clot. The determination was that although it was still there, it wasn't getting worse right now and we can defer the port removal surgery for now. That's a big relief for Sarah because the surgery is fairly painful to recover from since they cut through muscle. She'll stay on Coumadin for now.
Sarah also got a CT scan which was mostly good. It showed no indication of the liver and lymph node tumors visible on the last PET scan. But we're not sure if that's a limitation of CT scanning or whether there really isn't anything. The scan did show something in her lungs but we're not sure yet whether that is mets or something else so we're trying not to freak out until we can talk to the doc about it. Our plan is to push for a PET scan to investigate these questions.
The next thing on the agenda is Sarah's bile duct stent replacement (or just removal). That's happening this coming Monday. It is supposed to be a day surgery so we plan to go in in the morning and return home by the afternoon. If the CT is to be believed, she may not need a new stent placed for now. She then has treatment again next Thursday.

31 Aug - First Day Of School

Ben and Sam love school. Ben got a fresh and short haircut which he likes and Sam is now really liking Kindergarden, although he wasn't at all sure about that on his first day as you can see here. We're still not quite sure what was bothering him but after a few days he was fully in the swing of things. :)

25 Aug - Vacation to St. Joseph

We all had a great time in St. Joseph, which is on the eastern coast of Lake Michigan. It took us just around 2 hrs to get there by car and we did quite a bit! Here you can see pics of a windy day that made some great waves, a nice pic of Sarah and the boys on a cooler day, a fun peach-picking day, burying the kids in the sand (with friends Tyler and Reece) and finally one of the great sunsets we saw.

9 Sept - Tests

Sarah has made it through another treatment. She had chemo last Thursday and is now mostly recovered. She had an ultrasound of her medi-port to see if the blood clot there has reduced in size - we'll find out tomorrow whether the clot is clearing or whether she needs to have the port pulled out and replaced (on the other side). Also next week she will get a PET scan which will help decide whether she'll continue on Taxotere or whether we need to look at other options. As if this wasn't all complicated enough, Sarah is scheduled to have her bile duct stent replaced in less than two weeks! When you pile on the start of school and some upcoming travel of mine, it's making for a very busy time ahead of us in Oct and Nov.