Adrienne had her 9th chemo yesterday. About a half hour after the infusion of the first drug (gemcitabine) started, I noticed that it was running really slowly so I asked the nurse. Apparently, Adrienne's nurse practioner wrote the orders wrong so the chemo ran over one hour rather than the usual half hour. The day hospital nurse called the attending on call who said it was okay to run the chemo over one hour but after that, the drug loses its effectiveness. I sent a message last night to Adrienne's doc to let him know that I'm really unhappy with what happened. This is not the first time we've had problems with this nurse practioner, who often writes orders incorrectly, doesn't return phone calls, and so on. Over the years, Adrienne has had many nurse practioners and other professionals care for her, and we've never had a problem until this particular person, and now it seems to be one thing after another.
Adrienne is feeling particularly bad from yesterday's infusion, maybe because it ran over a longer time. She was very nauseated last night, needing Zofran, Benadryl, and Ativan to get the nausea under control. She feels pretty bad this morning too. Luckily, we rescheduled her finals so she has no exams today or tomorrow.
On Sunday, I did the San Diego Rock 'n Roll marathon. I'm tired but luckily my feet held up really well, with only a couple of small blisters. As I was getting ready to fly home yesterday morning, Daniel called on my cell phone with extreme stomach pain. He'd been to the doctor the previous Friday for continuing stomach pain and fatigue. His blood work this weekend was normal. He is having a few upper GI tests this week, but the doctor thinks this is stress related, real pain brought on by stress. Daniel is drinking Pepto like it's going out of style so hopefully this will resolve soon. He is supposed to go to football camp on Saturday and he is really looking forward to it.
Adrienne's graduation is this Friday. We are SOOOO excited.
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Adrienne was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease in 1996 at age 9. She had multiple relapses, two bone marrow transplants, and a range of chemos and radiation therapies, and passed away on October 1, 2009. We are heartbroken.
Out with the Girls
About Adrienne
- Adrienne
- Adrienne was very much like others with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, the most common cancer in teens and young adults. What was unusual is that she had it for more than half her life and ultimately, it took her life. Hodgkin's is curable for about 80% people, but Adrienne was one of the 20% for whom a cure was elusive. She considered herself lucky since treatments had been there for her with each relapse but she ran out of treatment options and her body just couldn’t take any more. As she said, "Though I’ve now had cancer for most of my life, I no longer plan my life around it; instead, I try to plan cancer around my life." We hope you can take inspiration from her and how she lived her life.
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