Time Flies When You're Having Fun...

Hello Everyone!

Today marks the end of our two week break, and like last time it came and went with the blink of an eye. We didn't have to move at a rapid pace, but we were still very busy. That must be why it felt so fast.

During the first week, mom was completely wiped. She would just pass out mid sentence, from what I observed she was more tired this break than the last. Friday last week we were able to get mom squeezed into a PET/CT appointment. On the drive home we received a call from Mom's primary care physician (pcp-Dr. Jabbarpour) office, and they were just given the preliminary report from the radiologist saying that Mom's scan showed "remarkable improvement" they will fax a report to Dr. Chawla's team, and that we would have to go the PCP office to run over the full report and just to get everyone on the same page since she has been out for three months on maternity leave. But while she was out all of this was happening, so her WONDERFUL team of nurses, schedulers, and her subs while she was gone (Dr. Allos & Dr. Coyle) have been so incredibly helpful, very understanding, quick to get things approved, and have helped gotten us plugged into the places that we need to be.

During the second week, we met with Dr. Jabbarpour and we found out that the spots on her lungs have completely dissolved, the masses that were all over have shrunk, including the big massive mass on her right side has gone from 14cm down to 7cm, and that the cells no longer look like they are dividing, which means it's frozen until it dissolves but it neither grows, or is alive anymore.  Mom was slightly upset at first that everything wasn't clear immediately, it took her a couple days to finally accept it takes baby steps and that this step is headed in the RIGHT direction. You don't have to bat 100/100 right out of the gates and that it takes time to heal and finally get back to 100%.

We had a very great two week break, the good news kept flowing in. When you have tricky medical issues, the insurance company and the hospital have a division of nurses who are Complex Case Managers, who help fight insurance, get approvals faster, and help you navigate this delicate healthcare system. We have two awesome ladies one from insurance and one from the hospital who have been so helpful and when issues arise I give one of them a call and they speak with one another and try to figure out a plan to help make our lives easier. We were able to change labs, because we went to our local LabCorp and I would NOT recommend you go there for urgent matters. We had a STAT order and a note from the doctor asking that we are given a hand copy to give to doctors. We thought it would be right away at the earliest to maybe a couple days... Yes, we are still waiting for results from two Tuesdays ago and all the others after. Luckily, while we were at Dr. Jabbarpour's she set us up in one of her patient rooms and had a Lab Tech come up and get Mom's blood instead of making her sit downstairs with everyone! We found out 30 minutes after we left with a personal phone call from Dr. Jabbarpour herself that Mom's counts are back up WBC of 16 and HGB is at a 9 so her numbers have finally balanced back out. As soon as her numbers were back up she asked for one and only one thing to see her medicine, and we happily obliged. Joelson came over for a couple days for a couple hours to hang out with "Amma" and she loved every bit of it.

 

We start bright and early tomorrow, and hope to bring more good news from the oncology team and hear what the game plan will be as we proceed. We will most likely continue the same chemotherapy regimen, since we see a major improvement. But we will wait to see what Dr. Chawla has to say.

We are so so so so so thankful for all the continual prayers, positive vibes, energy, and LOVE being sent our way. We continue to keep all of you in our prayers, and thoughts. We love you all so much.

XOXO