Mom Update - June

From Mom's friend Eli:

Hi everybody,
Last Saturday we went to the hospital for Rebecca to have bloodwork and cat scans on her 60 day follow up, and today she had an appointment with the oncologist to get the results. I'm glad to report that the news is all good. The medications she's taking for pain haven't had to be increased for several weeks now and the amounts seem to keep the pain managed pretty well. Each morning she takes a morphine tablet and again just before bed, and if she starts to feel it during the day, she has a choice of vicodin or aleve (the Dr. prefers that she take the vicodin over the aleve to cut down on any kidney damage) whenever she feels she needs one or two of them.

The CT scans looked good - the cancer doesn't seem to have spread since the scans from 60 days ago which means the daily "cancer" pill - the hormone inhibitor - seems to be slowing down the growth and doing what it's supposed to do. She will continue to take the monthly injections to keep her bones from softening as quickly. Her breathing has improved tremendously and he didn't hear any fluid in her lungs - much better than when she went into the hospital in March. The one area that has changed is the left arm lymph nodes where the breast cancer originated - they seems have had some changes and growth - he plans to continue watching that area. She'll go back in 60 days (August) to be x-rayed and have blood work again. I'll let you know immediately when we get any results.

The bloodwork, overall, was good too. The red and white blood counts still indicate the cancer is there but in 60 days it hasn't dropped by a large amount - very small decrease and he was pleased with that too. He encouraged her drink lots of water to keep her body flushed out, to keep walking as much as possible and not rely totally on the wheel chair in order to try to keep her strength up (she's been doing better at pushing the wheelchair until she gets tired, then riding the rest of the way). This afternoon, she walked all the way from my car to the front door of the living center - further than she's been able to for a while.

Overall, the reports were all good - and she is very relieved about it. I think we were both a little worried at what we'd hear. Lots of prayers have been sent up for her for healing and it seems to be working - keep it up :)