Hello all, I have returned from the dark side of anesthesia. I have finally been freed from my hallucinations and imaginary friends. I was so bummed to hear the news, but it is for the best and the surgeon seems to think that a little more time off from chemo and the PVE will definitely get me ready for the big deal. He said he could have gone through with it, but it was in my best interest to have a healthy liver to fall back on, I agree. I was just so exhausted preparing for the surgery with only 6 days to get everything in order. I needed to catch up on my beauty sleep. I finally stopped throwing up and I held down some Gatorade and a Boost today, and I have done a complete 180, I took a much needed shower and I have finally moved from the bed to the couch downstairs and the sunshine is doing me some good. I can't believe they are doing the PVE tomorrow and I will spend another miserable night in the hospital! I had one nurse who thought it was fun to count my incisions every 30 minutes during her rounds, I finally told her there were 5 and she shouldn't worry anymore about them mysteriously escaping her during the night! She was a wacko! It was in the nurses best interest to keep me drugged b/c I was about to brawl with the next one that came at me while I was semi-lucid! Thanks for all of your kind words of support and I loved reading the Net Notes in between pain meds! Thanks to all my girlfriends that came up to help me throw up all over them, I am sure my next nickname will be Exorcist Girl!

More fun stuff tomorrow, we'll try and keep everyone up to date, I think the PVE is scheduled for 11:00?

Kelly is fine. Disappointed ,but fine. The doctor went in first to look around via laproscopy and during this process he found that the left lobe of Kelly's liver ( the good one ) was unhealthy. The left lobe has been through alot including 6 rounds of chemo not to mention pulling the slack for the right side of the liver. The doctors will help the left side regain strength by performing a PVE ( portal vein embolization) this is a procedure that shuts the supply of blood of to the right lobe of the liver providing the left lobe with more blood. This will make the left lobe regenerate and become healthy. The doctors are very positive that with this procedure and sometime off chemo that they will be able to reschedule the surgery in about 3 to 4 weeks.

Kelly is having some problems getting over being put under ,but I will let her tell ya'll about that.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the prayers, email, cards and flowers that all our friends and family have sent. We can not do this with out ya'll.

Joel

Tomorrow is the big day! I am currently doing my "prep" work for my surgery, won't get into too much detail there, but it is no fun!

We check in at 5:45 tomorrow morning and the surgery is scheduled to start at 7:30. I will be at M.D. Anderson Alkek Hospital. The surgery lasts 4-6 hours and I may be in ICU for a while during recovery until I get a room. I hope it has an ocean view! Someone will post all the other details as they become available. I am including a web address where you can send email messages to me and the volunteers will print them and bring them to my room. Sounds like a genius idea, I guess that means I don't have internet connection in my room? I have been told to expect to be in the hospital for 7-9 days, I am banking on 7, who gets any rest in a hospital anyway??

I can't wait to post cancer free very soon! I know all of your prayers and overwhelming support has made this possible for me, keep up the good work! This will be a long recovery, but it will be sooooo worth it.

Thanks & Much Love,
Kelly

Oh, you need my name, birthday (01/30/1975) and my patient # (0666995) to send a message.
Messaging Address: https://www2.mdanderson.org/sapp/contact/message.cfm

Well, surgery day is fast approaching! I am so psyched to finally get to this stage! I have posted a picture of the liver b/c a lot of people have asked me where it is, what part is being resected, etc... So, I thought I would write a brief educational lesson about my surgery. Since I am having an "extended" right lobectomy they are taking a little more than half of my liver. In the picture, the "right" side is actually my right side, which in the picture it appears on the left. Basically they are cutting out everything to the "left" of that main artery that divides the liver into two lobes. I know I am boring you, just humor me! :)

Thanks for all of the prayers and support lately, we are a little nervous about such an extensive surgery. But we know everything will be great after a few months of recovery. I have included a very informative link about cholangiocarcinoma, the pictures are interactive so you can see exactly where they are cutting the tumors out. http://gastro.nts.jhu.edu/therapy_bile.cfm

I will post one last blog tomorrow before I hand over the reins to my husband and friends for a while. I will try and give the specifics as I get them, they won't give me an exact time until 3-5 tomorrow. I will post a link where you can leave email messages to us in the hospital and the volunteers will print them out and deliver them to me in my room. I will need some outside interaction while spending 7 days in the hospital! We will do our best with updates, please take it easy on Joel's cell phone for a while, he will need his rest too. I feel like we are both having surgery Thursday, he is more nervous than I am.

This is a picture of my most dear friends, we were all actually in the same spot for once, so this one is very precious to me. From left to right, Britt, Sarah, me, Kelley, Suzanne, Evangelina, and Sara. I am so grateful for each and every one of them and for all of those not in this particular picture. Sara gets the most credit, she has been putting up with me since 6th grade, I can't believe we have shared more than half of our lives together! The rest of my clan was formed in high school, all girls and Catholic, we managed to keep it very interesting! We have all kept in touch since high school and we are all very close, I am so lucky to be a part of such a wonderful group of "young" ladies! We all got together for this picture back in December, I think, right after my cancer diagnosis. Not the best picture b/c I think we all shed a tear or two during lunch. I couldn't have made it this far without this amazing group of gals, I hope to post a cancer-free picture of all of us very soon! I love you guys, and watch out b/c I will be back in full form very soon!

Well, they are not wasting any time getting me on the cutting board! I am scheduled first thing Thursday morning! I know, shocker, huh? We had no idea it would be so soon, less than a week away. He had a cancellation and I got first dibbs on the opening, so we are in a little bit of a panic as far as making arrangements to be in the hospital for 7-9 days. But we are all very excited, scared and anxious all at the same time! The surgeon is going to do a little laparascopic exploration to take a look at the left lobe of my liver and make sure there are no tumors that the CAT scan did not pick up. He said there is less than a 5% chance there might be something there, but he wanted to rule it out before he did the big incision b/c then I would be recuperating from a wasted procedure. The procedure I am having done is an "extended right lobectomy", he is removing the entire right lobe of my liver. The left lobe of my liver appears to be tumor free and is already regenerating itself as a result of the dead tissue in my right lobe, so I already have a head start. And lucky for me, this cancer picked the one organ in the body that regenerates itself, so in no time, I will have a full liver again! Thanks for all of the support, it is going to be crazy for the next few days and I will make sure to find someone versed in blogging to fill my shoes while I am on blog vacation, so we can keep everyone up to date. If you are in Houston and want to stop in and visit, we will post the specifics later. The surgery takes 4-6 hours, so I don't imagine we will be up for visitors until Friday or the weekend.

Drumroll please....
Great news!!! My scans show 40% decrease in a small tumor separate from the big tumor and about 20% shrinkage in the big tumor, and my tumor markers are down from 230 to 150. My oncologist said he has been in contact with my surgeon and he is almost positive that tomorrow the surgeon will tell me his ready to cut this crap out of me! I am so pumped and I could not have asked for better news. Thanks to everyone for all of your support. Thanks to my perfect husband, my wonderful family, the best friends in the whole world, my coworkers donating their sick/vacation time to me to cover my hours missed at work, Joel's coworkers for being so supportive about the work he has had to miss because of me, all of my blog friends that send me the kindest notes and words of encouragement, and all of my fellow cholangio friends who are all fighting the fight along with me! I am so grateful for everything, I could never have made it this far without my extensive support group! Hooray for shrinkage and surgery!!!

Today went as well as any day could go when you start off with a barium breakfast and a barium enema both before 10:00 in the morning. They were miraculously on time today. My appointments were at the new building where everything is nicer and runs so much smoother, the main building is like being stuck in the 70's and the new building is futuristic compared to the main building. I did stick with the berry flavor today, I was tempted by another patient to try the banana, but I had to stick with what I knew. I do have a funny from today, the nurse that went over all of the questions they ask before you begin the prep, asked me what flavor barium I wanted and I told her berry and immediately after that she asked me if I was "aware" of the fact that I was having an enema today. I told her yes, it was going to be the highlight of my day, then I asked her if I could pick a flavor for the enema too, she almost fell for it and then she realized what I had said, we had a good laugh. It's really hard to make some of those nurses laugh sometimes but I guess she couldn't resist my tacky humor!

I was so tired from today's activities, I took a nap this afternoon and I guess I was a little more tired than I expected b/c I slept for 4 hours. Yes, that is why I am up so late blogging. The pictures from today are from the Garvan Gardens we visited in Hot Springs, everything was in full bloom. I sneezed the entire time, even through my allergy meds, but it was worth it, the weather was beautiful!

Tomorrow is part one of the surgery saga, so I am banking on reporting some great news tomorrow and even better news from part two on Friday. Thanks for the comments, keep 'em coming!

I have posted some pics from our travels to Hot Springs and Sheridan, Arkansas. We had a great time visiting with Joel's parents and his sister, Belyn, her husband, Robbie and their two girls, Audrey and Corinne. It was my first trip to Arkansas and I really fell in love with the landscape, everywhere we traveled was beautiful and I loved Bath House Row in Hot Springs. We stayed in the carriage house of an old home(that is now a Bed & Breakfast) that was built in 1890 and was the first home in Hot Springs to get electricity way back when. In Sheridan with the family, we went crawfishin' under a bridge off the side of the road, which I must say was a first for me. And we went to an all you can eat catfish buffet where they serve the catfish fresh from the ponds on sight, it was the best catfish I have ever eaten. We did the Easter egg hunt on Saturday and the girls had a good time hunting for eggs, while the adults had fun hunting for money filled eggs!




Gotta run, I need a good night's sleep so I can chug down my Berry Barium Breakfast bright and early at 7:30AM! With my CAT scheduled for 9:00AM, I hope to be off the island at least by lunchtime! My MRI was on time today, only b/c I checked in for it an hour earlier than I was scheduled, so that means they were really running about an hour behind. Hopefully, I will have internet access in the waiting room like I did today, that really helps pass the time! Thanks so much for all the comments, I LOVED THEM ALL, I truly get pumped up reading everyone's kind words! I have the best support group, I am so lucky, I couldn't do this without all of you out there supporting me and praying for me.

I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend. Joel and I had a great time in sunny Arkansas, the weather was beautiful. I will try and post some pictures tomorrow.

Schedule this week:
Tuesday--11:00 Blood draw, 12:00 Chest X-ray, 1:00 MRI
Wednesday--7:30 Cat Scan Prep(Barium Breakfast), 9:00 Cat Scan
Thursday--11:30 Dr. Brown, Oncologist to receive results from CAT
Friday--9:30 Dr. Vauthey, Surgical Oncologist to tell me when he is going to cut this cancer out of me--BIG MONEY, NO WHAMMIES!!!

Of course these appointment times are a figment of someone's warped imagination over on the island. Everyone keep their fingers crossed for good news this week.

I am calling for a Comment Contest. I can see that 80-100 people from all over the world are reading my blog on a daily basis, but I don't seem to be hearing from many people lately. I could use some words of encouragement this week, so don't be afraid to hit that little comment button and drop me a line! I really enjoy hearing feedback from the blog, right now Brittney and The Hinkleys have racked up the most points to date. Thanks to everyone for all of the continued support, I am sure all of this cancer talk has to be getting boring by now!! I know I am ready to finish this chemo chapter and move on to the surgery chapter!

I was able to take Abby & Pearl to play at the park today, they are wiped out! We wanted to make sure they were good and tired before we dropped them off at Kathy's for the weekend. I hope they behave for you Kathy, and thanks again for your help!

Still trucking right along, counting the days until my next scan! Food is still not agreeing with me too well, but it is getting better. Joel and I leave for Arkansas tomorrow to spend Easter with his family. We are going up one day early so we can have a little R&R in Hot Springs, then we head down to Sheridan Friday morning. We haven't seen his parents since Christmas and it has been much longer than that since we have seen his sister and her family. We are very excited to spend some time with them in their new home.

I will be on blog vacation through Sunday. I hope everyone has a good and safe holiday weekend.

This weekend was pretty good. The weather was perfect, I even got a little chilly. My appetite is increasing and my energy is starting to pick up again. I did have an "I'm gonna hurl" moment in Quizno's on Saturday, I thought a sandwich from there sounded good, but something smelled awful in there. For some reason, I stuck it out and still got a sandwich and I managed to keep it down. I don't know why I still ordered and ate a sandwich from there when the smell in the place almost knocked me over?? We'll just blame it on the chemobrain! My funky side effects with the tingly fingers and toes and overall aversion to all things cold are still lingering. Unfortunately, I am noticing they hang around a little longer each time. Maybe this will be the last time I ever see them?? My doc likes to use the terms "cautious optimism" and "overly optimistic" when I get anxious about cancer issues. If he heard me saying this was my last chemo, he would definitely bring me back down to Earth with one of those terms. That's his job, I guess. It is extremely likely that even if(when)I have the surgery, I will still have to re-visit chemoland again. But hopefully, for just a short visit next time!

Today was the complete opposite of yesterday. This chemo stuff is so unpredictable! I woke up feeling good and I got a little lunch down. I had some energy, so I strolled around Foley's for a little while, it was too hot to stroll around outside today. Dinner didn't go over so well, I ate a roll and that is all I could handle. I am so glad to put yesterday behind me and wake up to a good day, I hope it lasts through the weekend!

Today was awful and I would like to forget it real soon! Definitely a horizontal day, I can't remember feeling this crummy in a long time. I still feel sick and food is my enemy right now. I woke up sick at my stomach around 8 this morning, fell back asleep and woke up again around 9:30, sick again. I went downstairs to try and eat to take my medicine but that didn't work out too well for me. I took a Phenergan(anti-nausea) and crashed until about 4 this afternoon. I still felt sick when I woke up and I am struggling to hold down a few graham crackers to take my chemo with. Fourth day into it, I hope the worst is over soon!

Joel and I have modified the Aggie version of the Longhorn Texas Fight song, to express our feelings toward cancer today. Just replace "Texas" with "Cancer". No offense to my Longhorn friends out there! Sorry, this song is PG-13. It is very fitting for the day I had today.

Cancer bites, Cancer bites, Cancer can jump up and bite my a*#!
C-A-N-C-E-R-B-I-T-E-S, Cancer can bite my a*#!!

I will save our chemo cheer for another "special" day. Yes, I am delirious, don't worry, I am sure I have meds for that too! :)

I got my necessary 12 hours of sleep last night. I was still pretty wiped today, I started feeling nauseous around 7ish so I took an anti-nausea pill and it seems to be helping. Still not interested in food yet, I had a half of a bagel and about 5 strawberries today, I hope I can hold something down to take my evening dose of chemo with. My stomach seems to be revolting against the chemo! My teeth and jaws have been hurting too, which is a new issue. I will have to do some research and see if this is a common side effect of my type of chemo. I think our dryer just blew up, it smells like burnt plastic and there is some smoke coming out of it, gotta run!

Well, chemo went well yesterday besides getting a late start. My appointment was for 9:30 and I didn't get called back until after 11:30. Which only happened b/c I had a few choice words with the 14 year old desk clerk. Apparently, they only had part of the labs back from my bloodwork taken earlier that morning, so they were waiting around and not telling me the problem. Well, the bloodwork I had run on Thursday is what cleared me for the chemo and my doc had already written the orders and given me the all clear for chemo. The bloodwork from Monday morning was specifically for tumor markers, that is why they only had "part" of my labs b/c that's all that was taken that day. Anyway, it's so annoying to have to stay on top of everyone all the time to get stuff done at any hospital!

Enough complaining, as you can see from my pictures, we finally scored chemo in the new building where the new breast cancer wing is. I had to go out in style after what was hopefully my last round of chemo! The room was more than double the size of the other rooms, the bed was also twice the size of the little stretchers in the other building and it was so soft and comfy, there were 2 chairs and an armoire with a TV, DVD and VHS player in it. They even had a library of DVD/VHS movies that you could rent for free while you are taking chemo. There were 2 bedside tables and a nice decorative sink and vanity, there was even a little coat closet. Joel and I couldn't believe we had missed out on the good stuff this whole time. You have to "know somebody" to get switched to the ACB building, I finally got the hookup!

Last night I played the fever game all night, I was determined to manage in the comfort of my own home and not in the ER! When I checked in for chemo, my temp was 97.8, which is my normal, I rarely hit 98. When we got home, I could feel it setting in, I hovered in the low 98's for a while, then I got up into the 99's right when I was headed to bed. I had become so weak, Joel had to follow me up the stairs b/c I could hardly get one foot in front of the other. I hit the bed around 8ish and took my Tylenol and then I spent the next 6 hours trying to get my fever down with more Tylenol and cold washrags, blankets on and off, yadda, yadda, yadda... Finally around 2ish I took an Ambien b/c I was so exhausted and I couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep. That worked for about 6 hours and then I was wide awake when Joel got up for work and I am still awake, I think this is a chemo first. I don't know how I am still standing, I have had a long day! But I still feel good, not much of an appetite, I had a half of a bagel this morning and a couple of pieces of roasted turkey for dinner, how exciting! I did manage to get some enchiladas down last night at Chuy's and a bunch of that creamy jalepeno sauce love!

Joel and I had a pretty busy weekend. I had a ton of energy, so I was on the go! We did a bunch of fixer upper projects around the house, I am finally wiped out, but in an accomplished, good way. I am so happy to have an extra hour of daylight now. The pups are happy too b/c that means longer days to play and more trips to the park during the week.

Tomorrow is chemo #6, big day! My goal is to not end up in the ER this time. My oncologist suggested I take Tylenol just before my infusion to ward off any crazy fevers, so I have added it to my chemo bag of tricks and we will see if it works tomorrow. My MD Anderson schedule is packed for April, I just checked it online and I am booked for 10 appointments between tomorrow and the 21st! I have my second CAT scan progress check scheduled for the 19th, I get my results the following day and the 21st I meet with my SURGICAL ONCOLOGIST, finally!!!! I am banking on a smooth sailing chemo #6, more good shrinkage news and then moving on into the surgical phase. Keep your fingers crossed for me!