Aug. 30 - Mom's First Treatment

Well, Mom had her first Treatment on Thursday, Aug. 30th. Everything went pretty good. She didn't seem to be too nauseated by the treatment. Of course they do give them nausea medicine before they started treatment and she has pills to take at home, not to mention the fact that her body hasn't built up the chemo medicine yet.

She started the day by going to SIRA at 7:30am and finally getting the PET scan. We were told they wouldn't have results for at least 48 hours. I'm sure we won't know anything until she goes to see the Nurse Practitioner on Thursday, September 13th.

Next, she headed straight over to IMA. It was about 9am. First thing they did was draw blood to take a CBC. Her White Blood Cells were a little low, but they said considering all that she's been through with the two surgeries (one for the Gall Bladder and one to place the port) that that is typical and they weren't concerned about it. Her Red Blood Cell Count was fine. Her Platelets however caused a great deal of problems. Apparently a healthy person's platelet count should be between 150k - 400k, well mom's......hers was 16k. That's right. Sixteen thousand. One hundred and thirty-four thousand less that what they should have been.

The nurse came back over and pulled another tube to make sure that the count was right....sure enough.....it was. So concerned, she went and talked to Dr. Dayton. They pulled another tube so they could place it on a plate for him to look at under a microscope. Apparently, in some peoples blood, rare as it is so they say, the platelets sometimes clot together, throwing off the platelet count. Well, this is what Dr. Dayton believed to be the problem. So for the 4th time they drew more blood, but this time placed it in a tube with Heparin, so the platelets wouldn't stick together. Well that did the trick. Her platelet count was fine. I never did hear what the count was though.

Through all of this, we were there for about 1 hour and 45 minutes! Talk about a long morning!! They hadn't even started her Chemo treatment yet! Finally about 11:00 they hooked up the first bag which contained some type of Anti-histimine mix including Benadryl. That bag took about 15 minutes, then they gave her the Nausea medicine. That took about 15 minutes. I left the infusion center shortly after they hooked up the Nausea medicine. I had to go back to work, so I wasn't there for the treatment itself, but all went well. Mom said the nurses told her she did excellent!

Angie, my cousin, was sweet enough to send mom flowers. I think those really brightened up her day. I could almost hear her smiling through the phone as she told me about them. Ang had meant to have them sent to the infusion center, but the powers that be, aka the internet, weren't so friendly, so she ended up having them delivered to mom at home.

Afterwards, Mom and Roger went to Stoll's Country Inn in Linton to eat their "Birthday Dinner" she called it. (Roger's B-Day was August 4th and Mom's 60th birthday will be September 25th. shhh....don't tell her I told you how old she will be. LOL) Apparently some little ol' lady in the infusion center told them that her husband always takes her out to eat after a treatment, so that's what they did. Mom said she got a little queasy when she walked through the door, so she had the waitress bring her some water with a lemon and crackers (I think). She drank that and felt a little better. She said she didn't eat too much, but she was able to eat a little, including Ice Cream, and keep it down.

Roger had taken the day off to spend with her this time, so that was good. I'm happy to say that her treatments will all be on Thursdays, which is good. I'll be able to go to her house after work and stay with her so Roger can work. I'm thrilled. I feel so helpless that I can't be there every minute. But I will be there at EVERY doctors appt. I told Mom and Roger yesterday, "You know I love you both VERY much, but as much as I love you, I know I don't always get all the info from you, which is why I WILL be at every Doctor's Appointment." It's a good thing, because had I not been at that first one with Dr. Dayton, Mom wouldn't have gotten her PET scan BEFORE Chemo started.

Anywho, that's about all I know. It's a three day weekend and I'm so happy about that. I need an extra day off work. Keep in touch everyone. Be sure to scroll all the way down. If you don't want to leave a comment on the blog, I've added a scrolling comment section you can use. You don't even have to sign up for Blogger.

Keep Mom and Roger in your prayers and don't forget that Mom's 60th birthday is coming up. I've got to think of something really mean to do.... :P Joking.

God Bless and Have a great weekend.

Tammi