I had an uneventful day today. It was my first day of no chemo in two weeks, I finished my 14 days yesterday. Unfortunately, I had to drug myself with allergy/cold medicine to try and beat this thing before it lingers too long. I wish this cold whatever would go away, this is supposed to be my one healthy week during my treatment! My appointment at the island today was cancelled b/c they ended up taking out my central line yesterday at my appointment. Which was nice of them to do so I did not have to return again today. I am booked for my port-a-cath surgery Monday at 8 and we have to be there at 6, which means we have to leave around 5, yeah happy second day of the new year for me and my poor Dad who agreed to take me!

I had a restless night last night too. I think I am coming down with an upper respiratory infection or a cold, I have been coughing a lot today and my chest feels tight. I will hit my medicine cabinet and hope that it is just a 24 hour thing. I hit the Nyquil twice last night, I hope to find something that works better tonight.

I spent 4 hours at the island today. I got my central line removed and I am booked for my new port-a-cath placement next week. Yeah me, I can actually take a shower like a normal person and not worry about water proofing my entire upper right quadrant!

I got the sweetest gift today from my old pal Alina. She gave me a softball that all of our old co-ed team had signed for me. Alina and I played with the same group of guys for several years, our team name was Gabronis(named by Marc Ferruzzo). Which I am sure means something horrible in Italian, I think it is from The Godfather??

I didn't sleep too well last night, my throat kept bothering me. I am going to blame it on allergies and the crazy weather changes we have been experiencing. I was given the okay to take a decongestant and antihistamine for my congestion and sore throat. We finally had our Christmas with my parents and Sandy tonight, my Mom made lasagna and we all swapped gifts. I am wiped out, who knew opening gifts could be so exhausting? Back to the island tomorrow (with my fancy new iPod) for a couple more appointments.

I guess I over did it yesterday because I started feeling sick last night and I haven't felt good all day today. It was my first outing that lasted over 4 hours in about a month, besides my trips to M.D. Anderson. Oh well, it was worth it. At least my energy wasn't wasted on another trip to the island. I have to go back tomorrow, Thursday and Friday for appointments with the doctor that is to implant the port-a-cath and I have to meet with my anesthesiologist and I have to have my current port removed. Tuesday I am scheduled for the surgery to put in the new catheter and then it's time for my second round of chemo. again on Thursday, the 5th. I can't believe how fast the weeks have flown by lately, it helps to have the holidays as a distraction.

Today was so much fun! All of us girls met up at Evangelina's house, she is in town from Cape Cod, Sara M.H., Kelley B.S., Sarah C., Brittney K. and Suzanne joined us, in town from San Francisco. We visited with E.T.'s kiddos and then we went to lunch and the girls surprised me with an ipod downloaded with everyone's favorite songs all ready to go to keep me entertained on the island (M.D. Anderson). It was the perfect gift, I had been bugging Joel for one since they came out with the video capability. So many people pitched in, I have the best group of friends ever! Seriously, I could not ask for a better support group! I am the envy of cancer patients all over the world! :) It really makes me feel special when so many people go out of their way to be nice to me and offer support in so many different ways.

After lunch we went for ice cream and then we had manicures & pedicures together. It was great to have all of us together again, it's been a while since all of us were in town at once. I desperately needed some girl time!

Thanks to everyone who pitched in for my wonderful gift...Britt, Sara, KKB, Sarah, E.T., Suzanne, Alina, Megan, Alison and my best guy friend Doug!! Thanks so much for thinking of me and organizing the whole thing on the sly, hard to keep a secret in our group!

Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah(Keith)!

I hope everyone had a very Merry whatever you celebrate! The Plummers and The Lesters met down on Tiki Island for Christmas on the Bay. My cousins Karen and Tom made a ton of food and threw a great party, thanks for taking on my entire clan, everyone enjoyed themselves. It was a nice, laid back Christmas with no fuss.

The last couple of days I have actually felt like my old self again. Joel has definitely noticed I have regained my snap, that's a nice way to put it, right? I think the first week is the doozie with the Oxaliplatin I.V. and once that fades off, I gradually get healthy again. Well, healthy with cancer, does that make sense?

Today Joel's Mom fixed us up a nice Christmas dinner with squash dressing, my favorite! We exchanged gifts tonight and tomorrow we are off to Tiki Island to spend the day at my cousin's house on the bay, I hope this nice "Winter" weather holds up again tomorrow. Nothing like crisp 75 degree weather to put you in the Christmas mood!

Merry Christmas Y'all!!
Love, Kelly & Joel

Sorry I skipped a few days there. Nothing really new to report. Same cancer, different day! On the whole, I am actually beginning to feel better, I think the I.V. drug has finished wreaking havoc in my body and now I only have to deal with the oral drugs, which alone, don't seem to be as bad as the combination of the two.

Yesterday I actually had some energy and I got hungry which was really weird. I thought I just felt sick at my stomach again and then the idea of food sounded okay to me, so I had soup and salad. I know, crazy talk adding a salad to my boring food routine, but this is what becomes newsworthy in my life these days!

The in-laws are coming in town from Atlanta, Texas for the weekend, so we have been trying to get the house in order and plan for their arrival. I finally got out of the house for a few hours yesterday, Joel took me Christmas shopping, I was stressing about getting it done and we managed to knock out a significant amount last night. I have about a 4 hour window of feeling somewhat normal each day, but unfortunately, it lasts from about 6-10 in the evening, right before I am due for my evening round of pills and right when Joel gets home from work and wants to wind down. So, I am going to try and tinker with my pill taking times to try and make that magical 4 hours occur earlier in the day, so I can make better use of the time.

Tonight, we have our annual Steak & Ale Holiday dinner with my parents, my Aunt Sandy and my Aunt Elleen and her husband, Red. This year there will be 9 of us, including Joel's parents, I am banking on them having some sort of soup on the menu. I can't even begin to entertain the thought of cutting into a giant piece of red meat right now, gross!

I hope everyone travelling has safe and traffic-free travels!

I had a bad night last night. The cancer pain hit hard at about 10ish. For some reason, several of your abdominal organs have referred pain in the right shoulder. So, I guess the chemo was working hard last night to kill the bad cancer cells b/c I was hurting. I took a baby Morphine pill, which usually knocks me out, but last night it decided to make my mind race. Finally at about 2:00, I took an Ambien to help me fall asleep.

I managed to get 1/4 of a sandwich and some chips down at lunch today, but now I am paying the price for it. I have felt sick ever since and now I have to eat something again this evening to take my pills again. I am not looking forward to it.

Happy Birthday Sarah Clinton! You don't look a day over 35!

I have managed to stay awake all day, just barely. I can't get over how tired I have been. I am able to manage all the fun side effects of the chemo as long as I take the anti-venoms as soon as I begin to feel ill. I think I have been letting them set in for too long before I take something. There is a pill for everything and the doctors are adamant about taking anything available instead of trying to manage the pain or whatever on your own. I am still not too keen on the whole food thing, I manage to eat just enough to get the chemo pills down and that is all I can tolerate. My Mom sent over some soup for dinner last night and it actually tasted good to me. (Mom, don't take that the wrong way, you know what I mean.)

Uncontrollable exhaustion is the best way to put it. About an hour after each dose, I can barely hold my head up. I have been sleeping 12 hours every night, with no sleep aid and another 2-4 hours during the day. I have to take the anti-naseau pills every 6 hours to try and even think about eating and holding the food down. I wouldn't eat anything at all if it were up to me, but I have to take the chemo pills with food. I have about 3 hours of feeling somewhat normal right before I take my evening dose. I am trying to keep track of what side effects occur when so I can plan out a possible time frame during the day to try and get back into the swing of things at work. I just can't believe I can still be so wiped out after sleeping 12 hours at night, I am probably still in sleep debt from the last 3 weeks, who knows? I can't believe Christmas is a week away, I have not bought a single gift!

It took me a good hour and a half last night to try and fall asleep, until I finally realized I had Phenergan and Ambien sitting next to me on my nightstand calling my name! One of each of those and I was out in 5 minutes and I slept for 12 hours, I haven't slept more than 5 hours a night since this cancer drama arrived. I woke up feeling great, I was ready to run errands and Christmas shop, until I took my AM dose of oral chemo pills. About 30 minutes after I took them, I hit a wall. I got very flushed and so tired that I couldn't even sit up, I had to lay down. I finally crawled into bed for a short nap, I woke up burning up I could have sworn I had a 105 fever, I had 98.5. My cold intolerance is crazy, I can't have any part of my skin exposed from the neck down, everything is freezing, but my face is hot and flushed. I have to microwave any beverage b/c even tap water is intolerable, some crazy side effect of the chemo., I was warned of this so it was not a surprise. I was told this would last around 5 days, if this and the fatigue are my only side effects I consider myself extremely lucky! Bring on the chemo!

My friend, Evangelina and her family are coming in town this weekend from the Cape, I am very excited to see all of them!

First day of chemo went fine, we arrived at 7:00am and finally left at 7:00! We are both exhausted. The biopsy of my "distant" lymph node tested negative, which is good news but not a definite outcome. The biopsy is very hit or miss, they only use results that test positive for cancer b/c it could be that the cells removed happened to be benign, but there could be cancer cells in the node that did not happen to be extracted at that particular time.

The chemo was to have started at 1:00, but the doctor had not sent the consent form to the clinic so we had to wait an hour to begin. I was quoted 2 hours for the procedure. Turns out the whole thing takes around 4 hours, 1 hour for the flush, the anti-naseau, saline and some other drug I can't pronounce, then 2 hours for the chemo (Oxaliplatin) and then 1 hour for the flush and other stuff again.

About 30 minutes into the pre-chemo stuff, I started coughing, wheezing and feeling strangely congested. The nurse came in and said I was having an allergic reaction, most likely to the anti-nausea drug (Zofran), well, isn't that my luck? I started itching and breaking out into little hive spots on my face and chest. I hadn't even started on the stupid chemo yet and I was having problems, as if my anxiety wasn't already about to send me over the edge! She immediately hooked up a bag of Benadryl into the I.V. and I felt back to normal within 5 minutes and that knocked me out cold! She said Benadryl administered via I.V. really knocks you out good. I slept solid and pretty much sleep-walked to the bathroom every 30 minutes on the dot, they pump so much fluid into you. And anyone who knows me, knows I pee every 5 minutes as it is. Other than the allergy drama I feel okay, just really tired and I look kind of green, all the color is gone from my face. I started taking my oral 14 day course of chemo this evening (Capecitabine, commonly known as Xeloda), 3 pills, 2xday for 14 days.

I hope to return to the island before my 3 week due date to have my PICC line removed and have a port-a-cath inserted. My new good doctor friend Axel Grothey (Sara Mooney Hinkley's brother in law, who happens to be a kick-butt colon cancer oncologist at The Mayo Clinic) counseled me a little last night and re-assured me that a port-a-cath would make me happier. I had requested a port-a-cath over the PICC line in the first place, but my doctor told me to try the PICC first. I hate the PICC, not to mention the stress I went through to have it placed. Basically, the PICC is a 5 inch catheter that hangs outside your body where you can have blood drawn and drugs administered very conveniently for the nurses and docs. But, you have to flush it daily and it is an medical miracle to actually waterproof it for a simple shower, and you have to change the dressing once a week with a long crazy sterile procedure. The port-a-cath is much more user-friendly, it is subdermal and there is no constant care involved, you can swim, shower and even sweat if you care too! The only drawback is that it has to be surgically implanted and if there is a problem with the line, you have to book a surgery to fix it as opposed to a PICC, where you can just pull it right out if there is a problem. The PICC makes you completely dependant upon a care-giver, which is not my cup of tea. The last thing I want during all of this is to be robbed of my independance and feel like I am a burden to my husband. Not to mention, I hate showering at night and my hair looks terrible in the morning!

Lots of info. today, I am about to fall asleep writing this, I hope to have a nice night with no side effects. Thanks for all the kind words and constant support from all our friends and family. I wish I had time to talk to each of you personally, I will try and catch up on phone calls next week.

Love,
Kelly & Joel

Tomorrow's the big day! 7:15 blood draw, 11:00 Dr. Appointment and 1:00 Chemo for 2 hours. Can't wait to spend another day at Cancer Camp!

Arrived at the island at 10:00am to check in for the biopsy. I was ready to go with my I.V. in place and everything by 10:30, didn't get called back until 12:00. The one hour procedure actually lasted 2 hours b/c they didn't get enough cells the first go-round so they had to do a second biopsy. This supposed sedative drug they talk about must be an urban legend b/c I have not been successfully sedated at the right time for any procedure. This time I snoozed again until the doc showed up then I was wide awake for the whole 2 hours. I begged for more drugs b/c I could feel them wearing off completely and I was told my blood pressure dropped too low and they would not give me anything else. This was before the first biopsy was complete. So I laid there as still as possible while he shoved the guide needle in and during the 2 biopsies. I could feel him digging in my insides, it was horrible! I was certain he had gone all the way through my back and out my stomach. I was told this was a painless procedure and I would sleep through the entire thing. Next time I will bring my own sleeping medicine in case of emergency! We should have the biopsy results in a couple of days.

We missed our noon appointment for Joel's test on changing my central llne dressing and daily flushing. We had our first bite to eat and sip of water at 3:30, then we took our demo and of course Joel passed with flying colors. They take the sterility thing pretty seriously when you have an open port to your aorta.

I am hoping to find some comfortable sleeping position, with a new catheter in my right shoulder, cancer referred pain in my entire right side, and a nice hole in my back from the biopsy. I am hoping either my mini-morphine pill or my Ambien can help me with my predicament.

Thanks to everyone's emails today in response to the blog. If we can keep everyone in the loop this way, we may be able to have some cancer down time!

I was supposed to be sedated for this one but their timing was off, I slept until the doctor came in for the procedure. I was awake during the entire thing and then fell back asleep afterward, just my luck! This one only took about 15 minutes, I couldn't tell you how many times I thanked the doctor for being so speedy. After the sedative and the local anesthetic wore off I started to have some serious pain. The doctor told me to take one of my mini-morphine tablets and come back in 2 hours for another chest x-ray to make sure they hadn't punctured a lung or anything MINOR like that! Joel and I had lunch in the cafeteria and I downed a pain killer and it did nothing for my pain in my shoulder, the rest of me was numb and happy but not the one area I was aiming for! The chest x-ray turned out fine, the doctor said I should not have this kind of pain at all and she was worried maybe the line was hitting a nerve in my shoulder. If so, I would have to have a procedure to remove it completely and a separate procedure to re-position it or possibly move it elsewhere, PERFECT!! This is supposed to be the easy part of chemo and I seem to be having a rough time, not the most favorable indication of what is to come.

Tomorrow I will have an extremely long needle shoved into my lower back to biopsy a lymph node that is no larger than a centimeter, sounds like fun to me!

Hung out with Suzanne all day. We went to visit Sharon and her family, we played outside with the girls for a while. Very relaxing weekend away from the crazy hospital routine for a change. Monday I have my central line scheduled and a pre-biopsy appointment.

Last night Suzanne came to visit for the weekend from California and all of us girls, and Joel, met for sushi. It was nice to have everybody come to my side of town for a change, I guess all you have to do for that to happen is to be diagnosed with a terminal illness! Who'd have thunk it? :)

Joel and I tried to catch up on our rest all day then we took the dogs to the park to play for a while.

Met with the surgeon this morning, I have been told that he is literally the world's top liver surgeon! Only the best for me! He was really nice and he told me that he wanted to biopsy a lymph node that appeared large on my CAT scan and he would like to perform surgery after 2-3 rounds of chemo if the lymph node tests negative in the biopsy. Surgery is not totally out if this node is malign, but I would have to wait a little longer and see if the cancer in the lymph node can be completely eliminated by the chemo.

At 12:00 I went in to have my central line put in. They like to put them in your upper arm on the inside. I was not too thrilled about this b/c it is permanent until you are completely done with chemo for a while and I would have this plastic tube hanging outside my body. I also found out that I would have to flush it EVERY day with a blood thinner and that I would have to change the dressing twice a week. The line runs up your arm and into your aorta, so the constant care is very important to prevent a serious infection. We also have to take 3 hours worth of classes and do a demonstration to be certified to change the dressings and flush it on our own at home, otherwise we would have to go to the hospital daily.

2 hours later, 2 nurses later, 7 shots of Lidacane and 2 ultra sound machines later I told the nurses that I was done and they had to stop digging in my arm to thread the line. Turns out they do not sedate you at all for this procedure and they just jam needles in your arm to find a vein while using the ultra sound machine to guide them all the way through to your aorta! After 2 hours of this torture I had a meltdown and made them stop. I supposedly have small veins and they were spasming which made it impossible for them to run the line through the vein without torturing me with the most horrendous pain imaginable! I scheduled myself for a new line to be put in just below my clavicle bone by my right shoulder. This was scheduled first thing Monday morning.

Met with my oncologist again and he went over my chemotherapy plan. 21 day cycle, the type of chemo he wants to use is used primarily in colon cancer patients but it has proven to work extremely well on my type of cancer and it has less side effects. Less naseau and only a small percent of just hair thinning, not hair loss. I may be a candidate for a study in which my oral chemo pills would be free as part of the study. I have to have a PICC line (central line) put in to administer the chemo.

The 21 day cycle consists of I.V. chemo for 2 hours on day one, then 14 days of oral chemo pill 2xday, then 7 days off. Then the cycle begins again with I.V. on day one and so forth. They will re-run my CAT after 2-3 cycles to chart the progress of the chemo. If I am not responding properly, then they will switch to a different type of chemo. If I do respond favorably, I may be a surgical candidate where they would just cut out the tumors from my liver. They will only perform the surgery if the tumors have shrunk significantly from the chemo treatment.

Oh, did I mention he wants to begin Thursday, the 15th? A lot of information for one day!

Long day at Camp Anderson! Mammogram, chest x-ray & CAT scan--Oh My! Everything went fairly smoothly, got my mammogram out of the way 10 years early. Aren't I pro-active?

First day at M.D. Anderson. Joel and I were checked in by 8:00am, filled out the paperwork and they took my vitals. We were done with that by 8:30, my appointment was scheduled for 9:00. We didn't get called back to see the doctor until 12:30! We met with a physicians assistant and the medical oncologist over the course of 3 hours. Dr. Brown's preliminary assumption is that I have cholangiocarcinoma, which is cancer of the liver bile ducts. He does think that it originated in my liver. This cancer is very rare and most commonly seen in people over 60, it is extremely rare for a 30 year-old.

Joel and I had a lazy day today, we slept in and took it easy after a long week! We were looking forward to our first appointment at Anderson, Monday at 8:00am. Joel's company Christmas party was at 6:00, we drove down to UofH for a nice, quiet dinner and socializing. Everyone at his office is so nice and supportive. We really enjoyed ourselves.

Had sushi today with my neighbor, Sherry and then we went shopping to buy our gifts for the gift exchange with the girls at Sarah Clinton's house. It was really nice to be distracted with lunch and shopping and normal non-cancer chit-chat. The party at Sarah's was so much fun. Sarah is the best hostess, ever! Martha Stewart has nothing on her! We had great food, gossip and a gift swap.

Friday was a great day, I needed it more than I realized!

First visit with an oncologist, Dr. Abramowitz at Memorial City. Turns out he is friends with Dr. Trabanino. Visit went well, lots of medical history reviewed. He said he would send me to M.D. Anderson if I wasn't already going there. He was not ruling out that the cancer did originate in the liver and he mentioned possible cancer of the bile ducts.