No More Fevers and Still Waiting for Results

Since last night Erika has not been getting anymore fevers. Her coughing has been under control and she is breathing slightly better but is still on oxygen. Her biopsy from her bronchial tree is still waiting for a complete growth to get an answer, but it is growing. Hopefully today we'll know what is in her lungs. Judging by Erika's tone of voice and her breathing pattern, she is getting better. 

Chatting about her nephew and niece and Clash of Clans, with her older brother Ernie.

Post Bronchoscopy

Post Bronchoscropy in Endoscopy floor at LDS Hospital

Photos of Erika's vocal cord, bronchial tree left and right, and her nostril.

As you can see above, from the bronchoscopy (starting from the top left to right), photos 2-4 shows signs of infection in the bronchial tree, in both sides of her lungs. They suspected that her nostril would also show signs of infection due to the rhino virus, the common cold, but it appears to be clear (last two photos). The doctor scraped off some samples from both sides of her lungs for the lab. Tomorrow morning we'll find out what exactly she has that is causing her shortness of breath. Currently she is still fighting a fever. Dr. Pearl, Pulmonologist, told the bone marrow doctors that Erika needs to be closely monitored for she is considered borderline ICU due her breathing. 

Persistent Fevers with Pneumonia and Bronchoscopy

Yesterday, when Erika was admitted, she was given Vancomyocin, a Gram+ antibiotic that would destroy the type of blood infection she had. Cultures show she had a type of staphylococcus bacteria in her blood. One hour into her infusion of Vancomyocin, she began to breakout in hives and was very itchy all over. Luckily they took her off of the antibiotics quick enough before it would have done more damage. Once Erika was stable again, they put her on a different type of antibiotic. 

Throughout the night Erika was coughing non-stop, with fevers of 103-104, and was having difficulty breathing. She is on oxygen right now. Every time she gets that high of a temperature, nurses draw blood for culturing and to check for lactic acid. Based on a scale of 1-4 for lactic acid, when Erika was checking in, she was at a 2.8. A 4 would put her in ICU. She was at a 1.8 last night and now at a 2.3. She has had three x-rays done on her lungs, but they didn't find anything abnormal. Just recently she just finished a CT scan on her lungs and doctors found evidence of pneumonia. At 4PM today Erika will have a bronchoscopy done to figure out what may be the cause of her difficulty breathing. The pulmonologist said that if there is one thing that will put her in ICU before the lactic acid, it will be her difficulty breathing. I hope they find whatever it is in her lungs quickly with a solution.

Admitted for Blood Infection

She is back in the hospital and it has been a very long time since she was last admitted. Since last week Thursday, Erika has been fighting a fever ranging from 100 to 104 degrees at home. Erika's new cycle, which was scheduled last week on Friday, had to be canceled because of her sickness. Blood cultures taken Friday showed positive on Saturday, evidence of the "rhino virus," a common cold. Her fever was persistent and went up to 104 early this morning, so the doctors decided to admit her. As Erika was checking into the hospital, the doctors got more blood results and found that her blood had a bacterial infection. She is now getting strong doses of Gram+ antibiotics via IV. They took more blood from her port to see if that may be causing the infection and also to test for fungal infection. We will get the results in a couple of days on those. 

I hope everyone had a fantastic summer and is excited for the change of season. I know we both are. Thanks for checking up on us.

A New Port / Neuropathy / Hip Replacement

End of 2013

Since she is on her last phase of chemo treatment, which only requires one line to inject chemo into, they decided to replace her central line with a port. The procedure was done on December 31st 2013. A port is subsurface the skin and allows her to shower, bath, swim, etc. She still goes in for chemo weekly, now every Friday.

First time using the port.

Once done with the days chemo, the special needle is taken out. Easy peasy.

This is where the central line was once dangling out.

Incision below the bruise is where the port sits. This was taken two days after the procedure.

2014 Reintroducing Vincristine

For about 3 months, Erika has been off of Vincristine due to neuropathy on her feet and hands. In January they brought it back into her treatment of chemo, since her neuropathy has gotten better. As of today, the neuropathy is crawling back down to her feet. Nothing on her hands yet. Next week we'll see if the doctors will approve the continuation of it.

Our Second Visit with the Orthopedic Surgeon

Last year doctors noticed necrosis in her hip, which was causing her extreme pains from walking, sitting up, or simply rolling over on the bed. They believed it may have been caused either by the high doses of steroids (which is commonly known to happen when used as a chemo treatment) or from Peg-Aspariginase (the clinical trial chemo).  For a period of 2 months they stopped Peg and the steroids, and later reintroduced the steroids at a lower dosage then later the PEG to completion. In mid January 2014, Erika was suffering from hip pains again. They did a 2nd MRI of her hip and found that it has gotten worse  than before. Today we consulted with an orthopedic and he said a hip replacement is inevitable. The pain will get worse and the hip will not get better for the chemo has damaged it to the point of no return. Erika is going to tough it out and see if she can live with the pain in combination of medications. We both feel if any surgery is going to happen, it will be after the treatment is over. The steroids has been taken out of treatment. Tonight, we are just taking in the results. I can tell Erika was getting real bummed reading the materials given regarding the surgery and all the pictures were of people in their golden years. Yet, as usual, she is a tough one and holds herself together. 

For her age, if she decides to get one, a ceramic ball was recommended for longevity. 

Tomorrow marks Erika's anniversary of being in remission. Happy Valentines Day to all.

The Beginning of the Ending

I know it's been a while since I've updated the blog. Nothing really has changed. Erika was plowing through Consolidation 2 phase like a machine, dealing with the effects of chemo like a warrior, and has finished it. Now Erika has officially started her last phase of her treatment, the Maintenance phase.

The Maintenance phase dropped her steroids down to a 1/3 of what she normally would have taken, on the same schedule every three weeks, for a week and a half long. The reason for the decrease in dosage was because it took Erika a long time for her blood to recover. They also completely dropped Lovanox, the blood thinner which I had to inject twice a day. Thank goodness! Weekly she gets chemo of Methotrexate. They are still holding back Vincristine since she is still dealing with neuropathy. Although it does appear that it's getting better so I suspect she will be getting Vincristine in the next few weeks. This phase will last until she's been in remission for exactly two years. This makes her final day of the treatment sometime in February of 2015.

There have been talks about Erika getting her central line replaced with a port, which allows her to bathe and swim. This is exciting because she has been wanting to submerge herself in a hot-tub to maybe help relieve body pains...as well as getting a sense normality.

Regarding normality, after all of this non-sense, nothing can go back to normal. Going through something like this embeds a certain wisdom, a kind of knowledge that one can only obtain not by choice but thrown at through tears and pain. When a beam of light speckles at the far end of the tunnel, you learn to hope and not give up. Every step of the way through may be our last steps together, but we push through to the end, enjoy every moment, make the best of every situation with gratitude. Happy holidays everyone and thank you all for your love, care, and support.

Nausea Back In Force

It's been over six weeks since Erika had a day without the need to vomit. She was admitted last night so they can figure out a method to get a handle on this nausea. Her blood was low as well so she is getting another blood transfusion.

Trying to hold down hospital food while nauseated. Now that is tough.

Erika hopes to get this nausea managed before the Light the Night walk this weekend. She is extremely excited for it and does not want to miss the event. She is determined.