Should be on a Cruise....

Wendi's gone one full week now as chemo patient.  As reported earlier, she 
survived day-1 and 2 pretty well, overall.  It has been a struggle since then 
with nausea, dizziness, stomach ache, mouth sores, etc.  Not able to sleep well either.  

The nausea hasn't progressed to the point of an actual bathroom visit (similar to her 
pregnancies), but it must be miserable to feel like that all the time.

At times, it seemed like she was about to 'turn the corner' and start to feel 
better, but then she'd slow down again.  She tires more easily, so after doing 
much of anything, she needs to take a break and rest.  Not easy to keep this one 
down, though.  She wants to be contributing and helping and serving.

We've had a quieter house this week with Jenna serving a 'mini-mission' in 
Wiesbaden and Alex on a cruise with our friends the Adams.'  It's the cruise to 

the Baltics we were all going on until our summer schedule came crashing down, 

unfortunately.   We think he's in Stockholm right now....  So, Kade is at home 

'taking care' of his Mom and doing a great job (most of the time....).

Since each successive visit for chemo is supposed to get worse, we had hoped to 
sneak away today on what will probably be our last trip.  But, Wendi was running 
a bit of a fever last night and was feeling pretty lousy, so we are delaying a 
day or so and we'll see what happens.  That will likely define our next few 
months - take it one day at a time.

Mark K.

Pregnancy??

Once we got home yesterday, Wendi wasn't feeling too bad.  She made a few phone calls and we had a fairly normal evening.  Then, she got pregnant --  or at least she felt pregnant....

Wendi's perennial April Fool's joke for many years was "I'm pregnant!"  Well, this year on April 1st, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  We didn't feel like joking much after that.

So, later in the evening she started feeling queasy, bloated and nauseous.  She felt like vomiting, but never got to that point.  She didn't really feel like eating anything and nothing sounded good anyway.  We both are having flashbacks to pregnancy days!  She climbed up into bed and was unsure of what the night would bring.  She managed to get some sleep, though, and felt a little better this morning.  That's just like the pregnancy days as well - felt "OK" in the morning and slowly got worse as the day wore on.

She's done OK today.  Moving slowly and spent some time reading.  I have to give her a shot this evening.  We're hoping it will get better over the course of the next few days.

This first round is every two weeks for eight weeks, so next visit is 2 July.

Marküs

Chemo 101

Professor Doctor Link called Wendi just after 0800 this morning.  He said that the CT scan looked clean!  It has some spots that could be blood vessels or small growths of some kind, but supposedly, we all have those types of things.  They were just being justifiably cautious because of Wendi's diagnosis.  We will have another CT in about 3 months for comparison.  Dr. Link planned to contact the Landstuhl oncology department and get the results to them as well.

Wendi called oncology and they said to 'come on down.'  So we are here now learning more about the process and Wendi is about to be administered the first round of 'AC' (the chemo cocktail...).

Everyone here has been very nice and supportive, including my office.  They have been very understanding and have allowed me a LOT of leeway to handle whatever I need to do for Wendi.  It is very much appreciated.

Here she is.  Thanks everyone.

Another Delay?

Yesterday, Wendi went to the "Westpfalz Klinikum" (the German hospital in Kaiserslautern) and did her additional CT scan.  A few weeks ago in the American hospital, she was given the fancy 'contrast/dye' ahead of time.  She drank it at home, then went to the hospital, they scanned her for about 20 minutes total, then she was done.  At the Westpfalz Klinikum, she arrived in the morning and drank the magic potion there, and then waited the requisite 2 hours or so before the scan could begin.  She 'fessed up to getting a rash on her leg after the previous CT scan, which was a mistake, just so you know if you're ever in a hurry.  This caused a bit of a stir and she had to take some kind of additional medication which would prevent her from driving.  Since the last CT scan had been so quick, I didn't go this time.  So, she called me and I went down there to give her a ride home.

It really turned into an all-day adventure at the hospital.  It did seem like there were a lot people in there just waiting around in the hallways.  The CT area was kinda backed up with a few gurney's lined up outside with older patients hanging around waiting for something.  We felt bad for all those folks!  It allows us to appreciate the American hospital and the care we've received there.  We really have run into some wonderful people at Landstuhl and they have done a great job busting all those stereotypes of 'military medicine.'

The plan was to meet with Professor Doctor Link this afternoon and hear the results of the CT scan and he would triumphantly declare that we should continue on schedule and start chemo tomorrow, Wednesday.  Well, we arrived at 1330 and the receptionist seemed surprised to see us.  We reminded her that Dr. Lind did want to see us and we were hoping to get the CT results.  After a bit of shuffling, we learned that the CT results are not ready yet.  Dang it!  They said maybe later today, but asked if we could come in tomorrow morning.  The answer from us was "no, we won't come back tomorrow.  We are going to Landstuhl to start chemo."  They claimed that they would get the results in the morning and call us with a telephone report.  Also, they could fax the results to Landstuhl.  We left disappointed and called right away to Landstuhl oncology.  They really want to wait until the results are back before starting chemo.  It's frustrating, but looks like we'll be waiting again....

We might get everything back in the morning, then head down to Landstuhl and get started, but we're skeptical.  They do have a slot for us on Thursday if we get the go-ahead, but not in time to start tomorrow.  Again, I need to say that we're not that excited to start poison treatments, but we feel like we need to start something.  This all assumes the results are 'normal,' or at least not significantly different from the previous scan.  If an issue pops up, it could all change again.

Waiting around is really frustrating.

But, we're keeping busy.  I'm the new YM 2nd Counselor and we had a productive scout activity tonight helping Alex with his Eagle Project.  We went to the base laundromat and washed all the clothes that we've picked up from the local school lost and founds.  They were actually quite helpful.

I'll try to provide an update tomorrow as well on whatever happens with the scan....

Mark K.

Progress--

We met with the German oncologist again today, Professor Doctor Link (yes, I wrote that correctly).  He was very nice.  He met with the other specialists in the hospital yesterday for their 'cancer board' to discuss all the new and existing patients and recommend treatments and adjustments to treatments.  He told us that, based on the CT from Landstuhl and the other documents that we provided, there is no metastasis!  He thinks the 'abnormalities' on the CT are too small to biopsy.  He recommends that we do a scintigraphy (some kind of detailed bone scan) and that we repeat the CT, but in the German hospital.  That way, we can confirm the scan from Landstuhl and update it with the German scan with their better resolution capability.

So, Wendi will do the scintigraphy tomorrow.  The CT is scheduled for Monday.  We were concerned about getting all the results back and staying on course with our chemo schedule for next Wednesday.  He understood our sense of urgency and set up an appointment with him on Tuesday so we can discuss the results of the CT the day before.  Not bad for a Germany hospital!  He said if the results aren't officially ready, he will get the verbal from the radiology and thus keep us on track for Wednesday.

We want to get going on that chemo - kinda...   Wendi met with the women from the local breast cancer support group last night and they were honest in giving her the low-down on chemo.  We want to hear the straight story, but it was hard for Wendi to listen to their tales of wo.  It's not pretty.  Maybe we'll share some of them later.  She came back a little shell-shocked.  It took a couple of hours for her to open up and share what she had heard.  Chemo is no picnic and she is in for a very rough ride.  This will be huge burden on her and the family.  So, yay, we get to do chemo next week....

We called the Landstuhl peeps and they are OK with us staying on track for Wednesday.  Of course, something could come up.  If the CT shows something unusual, or worse/larger than previously thought, we may delay for a biopsy or something.  Hoping we're OK though.

Thanks to everyone for your love and support.

Mark K.

German Oncology

We met with the German oncologist in Kaiserslautern yesterday.  It was a bit odd going to a German hospital, but he was a good guy and the receptionist was great too.

We waited for almost 2 hours before getting in, but it wasn’t because of German socialized medicine.  We brought a CD of the CT scan and they were having trouble reading it in their computer.  Also, they wanted us to bring all of our records and pathology and such, but we didn’t get that word.  He met with us anyway and we told him the story.

He wants to get another CT scan, which we’re actually OK with.  The Landstuhl hospital can only scan at 5mm slice resolution, where the German system does 1mm slices.  It should get us a more accurate view of the areas that are in question.  He also wants to do some kind of spinal scan and another ultrasound.

Also, as we asked questions and discussed options, we were glad to hear that pretty much everything that Landstuhl had told us about treatments and protocols matched what the German oncology would do.  It seems that traditional medicine’s view of cancer and various treatments is quite standardized around the US and the western world.  We bounce most things off the American Cancer Society website and it all matches up.  I will say, though, that if we end up being stage 4, we will be looking hard at other, non-traditional options….

We’re tired of delays and we don’t want to rely on anyone to get Wendi’s records over to the German hospital, so we drove over to Landstuhl and picked up copies of everything in person, then drove back to Kaiserslautern and delivered the documents in-person to Dr. Link’s office.  He is meeting with all the other specialists on Tuesday, so we wanted him to have everything.  We will meet with him again on Wednesday.

I have to say I thought about the significance of this particular date in history.  I'm so proud to be a member of our nation's military as we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Normandy and those great men who sacrificed so much for me, my family and our country.  I reflected on that as I walked through the streets of Germany on my way to visit a German doctor to help treat my wife for cancer, 70 years after my military forebears invaded their turf.  Interesting.

All of this made us a bit tardy getting to Jenna’s high school graduation!  We had perfect weather for the ceremony in FCK stadion, a German professional soccer stadium.  She did GREAT and we are very proud of her!

More wait-n-see

We arrived at Landstuhl this morning for the first day of chemo, but it was not meant to be.  Our oncologist called yesterday and told us that she wanted to meet with us at 0830 before our chemo session.  It turned out to be a counseling session to out-brief the results of the CT scan last Thursday.

Apparently, there are some small 'areas of concern' that need to be addressed.  The CT narrative described some suspicious areas in the spine, the liver and the lungs.  There was also a very suspicious spot under the clavicle on the left side.  That didn't really surprise anyone, since the surgery back in April found 19 cancerous lymph nodes in that same general area.  As expected, there are a few more in there, but they are quite deep and difficult to get to.  When they are seen in the same region as the original mass, it doesn't change the diagnosis and the treatment plan would continue as prescribed.

However, the nodules, or radiographic shadows, or whatever they are, in those other areas could very much change the treatment plan.  The oncologist was hesitant to make that call - she's not a radiologist - so she wants to postpone chemotherapy until we see a invasive radiologist specialist on Friday at the German hospital in Kaiserslautern.  So, more waiting, more 'pins-and-needles' (literally) and more uncertainty.

The German doctors may say that the areas are too small to biopsy and then we just return back to Landstuhl and begin chemo next week.  If they decide to biopsy one or more of them, we will do that next week and wait again for the pathology on them.  We'll see what they say on Friday.

The possibility of metastasis into these other areas was big blow today!  We're so thankful for our friend in the ward who works in radiology.  After leaving oncology, we went to see him and he gave us MUCH useful information and a step-by-step explanation of what it all looks like from the radiologist point of view.  We were in his office and he showed us the CT scan and the areas that his colleague had tagged as potential cancer sites.  He was able to explain the situation and we felt a little better when we left his office.

So, we are still nervous and unsure of what to expect.  As much as we did NOT want to do chemo, here we are waiting another week and maybe letting all that bad juju in there keep growing and spreading.

Hard day.  Sad day.  We can't help but think worst case and contemplate bad outcomes, all the while trying to be positive and see the best in the situation.  We appreciate our Bishop stopping by and assisting with a blessing.  We are grateful and strengthened by our family, good friends and Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Mark K.