We are on to the 1st week of the second cycle. John will be home tonight. The smell of the hospital now makes John sick before he even gets the chemo (anticipatory nausea). I'll have to check with the nurses to see if I can bring in a diffuser with essential oils to help the smell during our next stay. We used peppermint essential oil on John's pillow this trip and it seemed to help.
My mom was watching my boys but my little sister went into labor, so I left John at the hospital to get my boys so my mom could go be with my sister and brother-in-law. I'm so grateful for neighbors who have offered to watch my boys tonight so I can go meet my new nephew! I contacted a few people to call John today to help keep him company over the phone. Word got out to his dad and Dan showed up to spend the day with John!
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Friday, November 21, 2014
Special Thank You
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| Thanks to Kyle, Josh, Jed, Randy & everyone at Cornerstone for the Christmas lights this year! You guys are awesome- something we will never forget! |
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Cancer Diagnosis
For those of you wanting updates on John, here is the whole story in a nutshell:
Mid-August, John noticed two small lumps behind his jaw bone. Within a couple weeks we noticed that pretty much his whole left side of his neck was enlarged.
Mid-September, he had a biopsy done. It took about a month to get back the results. The diagnosis was Metastatic Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma. While we were waiting for the test results to come back, John had several scans and a couple MRIs done. They found tumors in his left arm bone marrow, in his nasal cavity, and they classified his neck/jaw as two separate tumors. (They also found reason to do a colonoscopy but that came back clean-no cancer in his colon.)
Because this is a rare childhood cancer, we weren't sure if Huntsman had the necessary experience treating it in an adult, but we are glad to have found out that the treatment they recommend is the same as the hospital that probably sees the most cases of this cancer in adults.
Now here we are at mid-November. He has completed one cycle of chemotherapy at Huntsman Cancer Hospital. The tumor has already shrunk 2 inches. Even though the tumors might appear to be gone within the next couple of months, there may be traces of cancer cells, so treatments will continue until about October 2015 just to make sure all the cancer is killed.
One cycle of treatment is:
1st week - overnight stay in hospital for 4 different chemo drugs. (These made him really nauseous, tired, and sore for the whole week.)
2nd week-half day in hospital for 1 chemo drug. (This just made him tired)
3rd week - 5 day stay in hospital for 2 different chemo drugs given every day. (This first time with this treatment turned into a 6 day stay in hospital due to some changes in how the drugs were given. He got home Saturday and was really sick, but is already at work today. He has been able to eat somewhat normally and has mostly just been tired from this treatment.)
4th week - no treatments
I'm not sure what else you all are interested in knowing, feel free to call/text/or leave a message here. We really don't mind answering questions or talking about what's going on. Thank you all for your continued prayers, love, and support!
Mid-August, John noticed two small lumps behind his jaw bone. Within a couple weeks we noticed that pretty much his whole left side of his neck was enlarged.
Mid-September, he had a biopsy done. It took about a month to get back the results. The diagnosis was Metastatic Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma. While we were waiting for the test results to come back, John had several scans and a couple MRIs done. They found tumors in his left arm bone marrow, in his nasal cavity, and they classified his neck/jaw as two separate tumors. (They also found reason to do a colonoscopy but that came back clean-no cancer in his colon.)
Because this is a rare childhood cancer, we weren't sure if Huntsman had the necessary experience treating it in an adult, but we are glad to have found out that the treatment they recommend is the same as the hospital that probably sees the most cases of this cancer in adults.
Now here we are at mid-November. He has completed one cycle of chemotherapy at Huntsman Cancer Hospital. The tumor has already shrunk 2 inches. Even though the tumors might appear to be gone within the next couple of months, there may be traces of cancer cells, so treatments will continue until about October 2015 just to make sure all the cancer is killed.
One cycle of treatment is:
1st week - overnight stay in hospital for 4 different chemo drugs. (These made him really nauseous, tired, and sore for the whole week.)
2nd week-half day in hospital for 1 chemo drug. (This just made him tired)
3rd week - 5 day stay in hospital for 2 different chemo drugs given every day. (This first time with this treatment turned into a 6 day stay in hospital due to some changes in how the drugs were given. He got home Saturday and was really sick, but is already at work today. He has been able to eat somewhat normally and has mostly just been tired from this treatment.)
4th week - no treatments
I'm not sure what else you all are interested in knowing, feel free to call/text/or leave a message here. We really don't mind answering questions or talking about what's going on. Thank you all for your continued prayers, love, and support!
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