Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Future plans

Hi Friends and Family--

Hope all is well with everyone.

I don't usually like to send group email... but I know a lot of you are waiting for some news about my mom....and I have not had a chance to call or email most of you in last few weeks, so i am doing impersonal group email!!

We have good news...we are moving in the right direction...no cancer spread outside her liver...she is still candidate for a transplant (we met w/ transplant surgeon --Dr Hart--and o, so many other docs-- in last 2 weeks). Her tumors have shrunk way down, and or been killed off completely. The chemo has worked on tumors from the inside out (due to chemo being injected in from her treatments), so she has a couple tumors that docs described as dead in the center with edges that have some cancer cell viability.
She is now scheduled for surgery ---RF ablation via laparoscopy--on Sept 3rd --where they will stick rods in through skin directly into liver and microwave edge of a couple tumors. Dr Hart will do this. She will be in hospital about 3-4 days then.
Dr Hart, who i love, says this is another step toward a transplant for her...he feels she is on that road still and feels pretty confident she will get there.
So, again, good news...scary stuff on the horizon still of course...no guarantees of anything, but taking it day by day...glad she is with us now, and happy about the most recent news. And she feels good now, but still a bit more tired than "the old" grandma joanne.

take care

Love,
Tracy

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

great news!

Joanne had a CT scan of chest, bloodwork and MRI all this week (8/1)

So far, docs have told us that the bloodwork and the CT scan look good (with no cancer in chest, lungs, lymph nodes---basically area above her liver).

We will get definitive news about the liver MRI next Tues the 12th when she has more appointments with transplant surgeon and interventional radiology.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Some fun in the park yesterday

Joanne's feeling good!
Doctor appointment next week.


Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Yippee!

Had a good appt. w/ good news. They said based on her last 2 procedures that 1 tumor had been killed off w/ no viability, and the other tumors " took in the chemo well and are still responding" --"burning" was another word she used. They will know more about the tumors...how much they have shrunk or whether they have been killed off over next month or so.

They are not scheduling TACE procedure at the moment---there is nothing to address right at the moment----will wait to see how much damage the last chemo did. They even mentioned that the one tumor he had trouble accessing last time appears to have taken in some chemo drugs as well. She said another TACE is likely in the future, but to just keep recovering in the meantime! (her blood work looked good from last week)

They are scheduling an MRI in a couple weeks, which will give a better picture before we meet w/ transplant surgeon again (aug 12th). A lot of vagueness from docs about transplant, but she did say that the MRI would be important part of this evaluation and they always want to "leave this door open."

We are feeling happy, but almost a little weird about not doing anything at the moment....i think it is hard to get used to some good news as crazy as that is!!
Planning to have a lot of fun in next few weeks!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Old friends get together




Sue and Jennifer ventured down from Thousand Oaks for a visit.

Friday, June 27, 2008

WOO HOO!



Joanne's feeling "great".

A fun day for Ann: