Stand Up to Cancer

I'm sure most of you watched the Stand Up to Cancer special on the major networks last Friday night. I wasn't sure what to expect but was impressed with Hollywood's support for this event. I've often thought that if we could get celebrities as involved with cancer as they've been for AIDS, we might make some more progress. I was pleased that they showed the many aspects of cancer, from people like Adrienne living with it for many years, to kids with these diseases, to the many people who are dying. My dad died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, my mom had breast cancer, her new husband had colon and prostate cancer, Curt's dad died of colon cancer, his mom died of lung cancer. It's depressing to think about and even more sad to live through it and watch people suffer. I've spent more than my fair share of time in hospitals and clinics, experiencing every type of suffering from these diseases. While I'm happy to see a united effort, I'm concerned that none of the money will go toward research into Hodgkin's. It's that orphan disease that affects so few that drug companies and researchers have little interest. At the end of the day, research dollars are spent on the big cancers: breast, prostate, lung. I get it that those affect the most people but, still, I'd like to see far more money going toward the diseases that affect few but still have a long way to go, especially pediatric cancers.

Adrienne is almost back to normal after last week's events. She took it easy over the weekend, slept a lot, and now feels nearly back to normal. It seems like another crisis has been averted, thank goodness. When you see young people living such normal and uneventful lives, it breaks your heart to see what she deals with on a daily basis. I'm so proud of her, determined to have as normal a life as possible. I hope others living with cancer can use her as an example and live each day to the fullest.

Phew!

Adrienne did great today and they were able to do the less invasive procedure. She may still need a hysterectomy but we'll deal with that when we come to it. The only strange thing was she almost stopped breathing when they gave her demoral so I had to keep talking to her. Tonight she is fine, eating a little bit, and not in too much pain. Thank you for all the notes and e-mails. It really helps.

A Quick One

I'm beat so this will be quick. Adrienne's bleeding really got out of control today and she could barely stand up this morning. Thankfully, she had an appointment with a gyn surgical oncologist first thing. He quickly ordered two units of blood, which she got today, and preop, with surgery tomorrow. Hopefully the surgery will be routine but there's a possibility that she will need a hysterectomy. We spent much of day discussing this possibility and getting used to the idea. Adrienne already has ovarian failure and her heart wouldn't support a pregnancy so this wouldn't change much, but it's still upsetting. Plus, she wants to do the least invasive procedure possible. We're doing our little trick, packing a bag, pretty much guaranteeing that she won't be staying at the hospital tomorrow night.

Missing Stanford?

Sometimes we really miss Stanford where you have everything you need in one place. Here in Las Vegas, sometimes we need to go several places to get anything done. When you add in referrals and insurance approvals, it can make life really difficult. Adrienne has had trouble with vaginal bleeding since the start of the trial. The onc told her to see a gynecologist, he ran all the standard tests including an ultrasound, and the answer was for her to double or triple her birth control pill, which is used for hormone replacement in her case. Adrienne started bleeding again 9 days ago. By Saturday, it was so heavy that I took her to the ER to get her platelets checked. In most places, you can go somewhere on the weekend just to get blood checked but in Las Vegas, you have to go to the ER. After a $100 copay and three hours of our Saturday afternoon, we found that her platelets were low but not that low and we were sent on our way with instructions to see the gynecologist on Tuesday morning (today). Adrienne had early clinic at NVCI and I had them call the gynecologist to figure out what to do. Sometimes, you get caught in the finger pointing where no one wants to do anything and that obviously isn't working here. The gynecologist said this was beyond him and they referred her to a gynecological oncologist. I'm not sure why NVCI can't help since they must have a few of those, but they can't. After waiting a few hours for a call about an appointment, I made several phone calls only to find out that no one can see Adrienne until Thursday afternoon. Not good enough. After a bit of begging, she now she has an appointment tomorrow morning (Wednesday). Her counts are low, not quite low enough for a transfusion, but low enough to make her feel pretty lousy. Hopefully we'll get some answers tomorrow morning.

Gus is still entertaining us. We've actually been weighing him on a kitchen scale (yes, he's that small) and he's gone from about 2 pounds to almost 3 pounds. Wow. We gave him a bath and trimmed his hair this weekend. Now he looks a little cleaner and still just as cute.

Adrienne's school is going well, a bit easier than CMC but still time consuming. CMC will accept all of her credits and she'll still be able to graduate in May, so we're all happy about that. Some friends of her's from CMC came by on the weekend on their way from the midwest back to school and we enjoyed some interesting political discussions. I thought Adrienne might be sad that she wasn't going with them, but she seems to be taking everything in stride these days.