Home!

Maura should be able to go home tomorrow! Hurray! After nine days, home will be especially welcome, and she is happy to be reunited with her puppy. 

Ten

The count is up to ten bags hanging from her IV pole. Maura should win a prize.

Stay

We found out this morning that Maura will stay in the hospital until at least April 1. She feels "blurry," as she puts it, from the chemo, but the other medications are doing their job to make her feel okay and protect her from the toxicity of the drug.  I am very thankful that she feels okay, and it's nice to know that she is in good hands, as they monitor her closely and keep her electrolytes in sync. Her IV pole has had as many as eight bags of goodies decorating its arms. Hard to keep all of that straight.  

Hospital

Maura was finally admitted to the hospital at 10:00 p.m. on Monday night.  The hospital is crowded, and we had been waiting for a bed since 9:00 this morning. Believe it or not, chemo will begin in the middle of the night.

The Scoop

It turns out that the new chemo drugs are not working. The CT scan showed that for the first time since beginning treatment at M.D. Anderson in May, the tumors have grown. So, Maura will be going back to one of the previous chemo drugs but at a much higher dose. She will be hospitalized on Monday for about a week so that they can keep a tighter control on the dosage and her response, basically wanting her to have as much as she can tolerate but no more. We are thankful that Dr. B. is not afraid of aggressive treatment. Maura, as always, is amazing.

Die, Sarcoma, Die

Another CT-Scan on Monday and the results on Tuesday. This will be the first scan since before the long chemo break in January and since starting the new chemo meds, so we are all a bit on edge, wondering what her insides are going to look like this time. Of course, we are praying for the tumors to be "more dead" and that this new chemo regimen works as well or even better than the first.

More Platelets

Maura had another transfusion of platelets yesterday. And we wonder why she is taking the fancy boostherplatelets shot every week if it doesn't seem to be working.

Bleh

Maura is feeling lousy. The docetaxel is taking its toll. Fever, nausea, achy all over, low platelets (sigh). Hope the tumors feel as lousy as she does.

Scare

When Maura came back from a few days in Austin, she told me of a pain in her side that had been there for a couple of weeks, but had only recently become more than just a bother. In fact, she hadn't been able to sleep for the last couple of nights. Two weeks! Pain in her abdomen is scary, especially with the recent delays in chemo and the switch to a new chemo regimen. We were frightened. We prayed. We worried. We once again felt some of those dark moments from last spring. Two days later, Dr. B. said he couldn't feel anything, but that, of course, was no guarantee. He ordered some lab work and sent her to chemo as scheduled. Two additional days later, the nurse called to say Maura had an infection. An infection? Really? A garden variety UTI? Relief washed over us as we nearly danced our way to the pharmacy to pick up the prescribed antibiotic.
"People aren't usually this happy to hear they have a UTI," the nurse observed.
Perspective. It's all a matter of perspective.

Ho-hum

A few people have asked why I'm not writing as often as I did a few months ago. There's not much to write. Things have been so calm recently. Maura has been busy living her life: online classes, voice lessons, friends, more friends, and MDA.

Chemo 11 starts tomorrow.

Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day to you, Maura. So many people love you and are glad you are a part of their lives.
This week it's been daily lab work and her weekly shots. And the stitches had to be replaced on her central line--two of the three little stitches that anchor the device, holding it in just the right place on her chest, had broken. Ouch. But not too bad. Maura said that this time the lidocaine worked. Oh, and Maura had a transfusion of platelets on Thursday.

New Chemo Part 2

On Wednesday Maura received the second part of the new chemo regimen. She came home feeling fine, but by Thursday morning, the dreaded effects of her new drug were in full swing. Since then, everything has gotten worse, but still within the norm, we think. We had relatively short jaunts to the hospital on Thursday and Friday for shots and lab work. The only freaky thing this cycle has been an extremely high white blood cell count on Friday--quite the opposite of what we are used to. No fever, but lots of swollen cheeks, swollen throat, swollen glands, swollen joints, swollen everything. She spent the weekend in bed.

So far...

Maura had one of her new chemo drugs today. We were only at the hospital for four hours! And she seemed to feel pretty good after it was over.

New

Maura starts chemo tomorrow, but things will be quite different. She will take two new chemo drugs, and she will no longer take the two chemo drugs she had been taking since May. Not sure exactly what the new regimen will look like, but it appears there will be no more chemo-filled backpack to take home each night. Yippee!

Kings

Maura is home. New York was awesome, hanging out with her sister most of the time, and she saw some friends there, too. On Monday she spent the day on the set of Kings, a new TV show, loosely based on the life of David, set to air on NBC in March. How fun!...sitting behind the director during the shoot and getting to use his headphones; making small talk with the actors, receiving a kiss on the cheek from Ian McShane, and taking lots of pictures with Chris Egan. How cool is that?

Doctor appointment this Tuesday to find out where she stands.

Waiting in New York

We are still in a holding pattern for at least another week. Dr. B. is giving Maura's heart a chance rest and heal. For the first time in nine months, Maura's schedule showed no appointments for almost a week, so Lydia's friend arranged for her to fly to New York on a buddy pass! Thanks, JoAnne! Maura is freezing, but free. She's feeling pretty strong, given that it's been five weeks since her last chemo round. Not quite sure about what she's doing, but she and Lydia are having fun, and I believe Lydia has a few surprises planned.

Good News/ Bad News

Maura's most recent CT Scan showed that her tumors continue to shrink. However, her heart scan and lab work show that her heart muscle may be starting to weaken due to the toxic effects of one of the chemo drugs. She starts some heart medication today, and chemo will be delayed for a couple of weeks pending further evaluation. Platelets are still languishing.

MD Anderson Blood Drive

I haven't confirmed this yet, but I was told that Gateway Baptist Church in Spring (corner of Rayford and Fox Run Blvd.) is having an M D Anderson blood drive this Tuesday, January 6, from 10-4. If you donate at this blood drive or at another MD Anderson location, email me for Maura's medical record number.
And, again, if you can find the time, please think about making the extra effort to donate platelets. I know I sound like a broken record, but I was shocked last week when I observed first-hand the effects of a shortage of blood platelets at the hospital.

Donate Platelets or Whole Blood 713-792-7777

Here's my plug for blood donations, especially platelets, at M D Anderson:

     M D Anderson transfuses more blood and blood products than any hospital in the country. The need never declines, but the donations do.  Maura was lucky yesterday because she was able to get platelets when she needed them. Others weren't so lucky. One patient had already received his pre-transfusion drugs, but the blood bank postponed his order for platelets because he did not meet the criteria for critical need. Another man waited for hours, hoping that the blood bank would acquire more donated platelets, but finally gave up at about 8:00 at night.  

     Donating blood is easy and the pain is minimal. Sure, it hurts to get stuck with the needle, but that's it. The whole operation, from needle stick to band aid and free orange juice, takes 25 minutes. You can donate as often as once every eight weeks. 

     Donating platelets is a little more time consuming, but with no additional pain nor additional needle stick.  In about 60 to 90 minutes, they take your blood, separate out the platelets, and return your red blood cells and plasma to you. Your body makes platelets a lot faster than red blood cells. You can donate platelets as often as every other day. 

     Chemotherapy kills blood cells--red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets--all of them. But the most critical need at MDA is platelets. It takes the platelets of eight donations of whole blood to equal one donation of platelets alone. Low platelets can cause bleeding and bruising, which doesn't sound earth shattering until you realize that internal organs can spontaneously start hemorraging if the body is low in platelets. You can't just apply pressure to your brain to stop its bleeding. 

     So, if you can, please donate platelets or whole blood. If you can't donate, get other people to donate. MDA prefers that people make an appointment the day before donating platelets, since it takes longer. The number to call is 713 792-7777. If you can't get to an MDA donation site, please contact your local Blood Center.

     

Merry Christmas!

Maura had a great Christmas! First, both her sisters are here for Christmas and beyond. She loves to be with her sisters. We had to spend much of Christmas Eve at the hospital for lab work and lab review, but we were together, so we were happy. Missed church, though. Maura checked about returning on Christmas day, but the nurse said more than once that she did not have to come. We knew the nurse had made a mistake, but, we stayed home anyway--I mean, come on, it was Christmas!

Maura's cousins live mostly in California. They all stay in touch fairly regularly and draw names for their own Christmas gift exchange each year. The 2008 Hoggard Cousin Gift Exchange became the 2008 Let's Cheer Up Maura Gift Extravaganza. The cousins and sisters gave her a large boxful of presents of every kind, including a Wii game system and Rock Band. Maura was ecstatic. We drummed, strummed, hummed, and wailed away for hours yesterday. Today, we got home from the hospital at 11:30 pm and the family is rocking out again. Nice.
I love my nieces and nephews. I love their thoughtfulness and their willingness to give up their own present to make Maura happy and show her that they care about her.

Today (well, actually yesterday, since it's after midnight) we spent about thirteen hours at the hospital only to leave without receiving the transfusion of red blood cells that she needed. It was the perfect storm of delays and mishaps. First, it took four hours just to get the lab work results, which showed that Maura needed both plenty of platelets and red blood cells. Then it took hours to get a slot in the transfusion center. She almost didn't get her platelets because of an acute shortage. Their were only 15 bags of platelets in the whole hospital. Only those with platelet numbers under 10 (low normal is 140) or active bleeding were considered critical. Maura's platelets were at 6 today, so she got one bag of the precious golden liquid (okay, it's not golden--it's more of a pukey yellow, but it IS precious). Finally, the lab neglected to do a type and cross, a necessary test before a red blood cell transfusion. Okay. fine. Send a phlebotomist to draw more blood from her torn up veins. The phlebotomist forgot to immediately send the blood to the blood bank. More delays. Our nurse figured that there was no way at this point to get six hours' worth of red blood cells transfused before closing. Duh. By the time the blood bank had finished its protocol and sent the two units of rbc upstairs, we had already been rescheduled for the next morning and were walking out the door.

Our faith in the Promise of Christmas has carried us through these last eight months. My favorite Christmas card received this year is one with the following written on the inside: "This Christmas season and in the new year may you rest in the deep assurance that in knowing Him you have everything."