Successful ABC Festival

Madison and her friend Abigayle have been working VERY hard over the past two months organizing a fundraising event, the "ABC Festival" standing for ALS and Breast Cancer.  Abigayle has an uncle who is battling ALS and since Lori is battling breast cancer they came up with the idea this summer.  The girls spent many evenings on procurement, organizing volunteers, jumpers, games, raffles, food, etc...  October 6 it all came to fruition with great success.  We were incredibly proud of their hard work and persistence. 

Patience...

Lori went back to the Ortho doctor this week.  Unfortunately the bone is still not healed.  It seems to be progressing very slowly (which could be from the chemo).  The good news is the doctor does not want to do surgery at this point, but instead give it more time.  So...6 more weeks of the same (non weight bearing, walker, bone stimulator and recliner...).  We're really hoping now that chemo is done the healing can progress.  The doctor said 8-12 months of healing for this type of injury (a little longer than we had thought originally), but he still expects full use.  At this time we just continue to pray for no surgery and healing on its own. 

Chemo is Done!!! Woohoo!!!!!

Lori had her LAST chemo appointment yesterday.  What a celebration!  The nurse sang to us and threw confetti and although is was a cute, fun song it brought tears to our eyes!  "Chemo is done, no more needle no more pokes, on with your life off you go...." (to the tune of Looney Toons - clever!). 

We must compliment the nurses and staff at the clinic.  They are so amazing.  They take a very yucky experience and make it as positive and enjoyable as possible, but in all honesty we are so glad NOT to have to see them on a regular basis anymore. :)





First Chemo Appt.



Last Chemo Appt.



Admittedly, a few changes in a few short months - hair loss and lots of weight gain (about 35 lbs!!!).  Gotta love those steroid effects - round face and round belly!  We remember all too well with Madison. 

Mom got the cute shirt - it says, "Yippee! No more Chemo for me!".  It was a big hit yesterday.  

Lori celebrated her .... yikes.... 40th birthday yesterday!  Nice relaxing night with dinner in and yummy cupcakes!

Then on to a busy weekend and week ahead.  James and JJ are heading up north for a Cub Scout campout.  The girls will be having a girls weekend with some friends.  Madison and her friend have been working very hard on a fund raising carnival for ALS and Breast Cancer.  They've been organizing jumpers, games, food, etc...  Quite a tiring undertaking for two 11 year olds, but they've been doing great!  Madison has a choir concert, carnival, and then on to a good friend's wedding. Busy, but a good busy!

Not a whole lot more to update on the medical end.  Still waiting patiently for follow up x-rays on Lori's leg (October 9) where we'll find out if the stimulator worked.  Last chemo next week (Oct. 4) - yeah!  Then no cancer doctors for 3 months - woohoo!  What will Lori do with her extra time??? 



Madison joined me for my Chemo appt and helped celebrate
my birthday with cake at the clinic.



Hopeful...

A gentleman came on Friday and fitted Lori's house arrest anklet....uh...bone stimulator.  Ha!  It is a little embarrassing because it does seem to look like a house arrest anklet, so luckily it needs to only be worn 3 hours per day on each site so no going out in public like that!

 

The good news is that the bone stimulator needs to be worn 3 hours a day, however more does not hurt, so we're going on 9-12+ hours a day.  Let's hope for the best!  The medical representative that fitted the device said that they have proven to see a 80-85% success rate.

Physical Therapy has now stopped/been put on hold until further notice.  Nothing changes other than the slight weight Lori can bear on it and stretching, so we're in a wait pattern until Oct. 16 when the x-rays and doctor visit take place.  In the meantime, Lori has been busying herself with scrapbooking to pass the time -  having fun and miraculously catching up (well...kind of). 

Bummer News

Unfortunately we received some bummer news yesterday.  Lori went to the orthopedic doctor for xrays and check up.  Although the muscle and skin graft are doing quite well, the bones do not seem to be healing on their own.  The two breaks are still quite clear, so the doctor is starting a bone stimulator which will be worn on Lori's lower leg, and will hopefully trigger the body to begin repairing the bone again.  It is unknown what has caused this.  The doctor commented that with this severe of a break it could be the lack of blood flow to that area, or the fact that Lori's body was giving all efforts to the muscle and skin and the bone basically got the back seat, simply the chemo could have played a factor or all of the above.  No matter the reason, we are hopeful that the stimulator will work (works about 50-60% of the time).  After 6 weeks time of the stimulator, the doctor will redo xrays to determine the next step.  If the bone does not repair, a bone graft will be required.  This involves another surgery (ugh!) to remove bone from Lori's hip, and lifting the muscle and skin graft to graft the bone underneath (ick!).  We are hoping and praying this won't be necessary, but nonetheless it's still 6 more weeks of waiting and patience! 

Here's the xray from yesterday where you can see the two breaks - one very obvious about midway up and the other is just above the horizontal metal plate.  Notice the resemblance to ... say The Terminator???

We are officially in the groove of school!  Yeah!  Madison and JJ are in a great routine for drop off, pick up and yes, even homework!  It's amazing how much homework a 4th and 6th grader have, but we are so proud of their hard work.  Madison is very responsible for getting everything done, and other than a few checks here and there, she's very independent.  Both kids definitely have the strength area in literature and love to read.  JJ is learning Greek, Latin, and total submersion Spanish - AY CARAMBA!  We're all going to be learning some new concepts this year!

Lori had another chemotheraphy treatment yesterday and all went well.  Treatments take about 4 hours of infusion, but watching a movie and a little sleep makes the time go quickly.  No serious side effects, just a little achiness after day 5 or so, but still feeling so fortunate.  Now only 6 more treatments left - October 4 will be the final one!  Great news too - Lori's hair started growing back during the 6 weeks off of chemo, and so far it's staying!  It's even longer than James' already - hee!  So far it looks pretty dark, no curls yet, but we'll see...

So far chemotherapy does not seem to be slowing the leg healing, although doctors are still expecting it to take a little longer over the long run.  The plastic surgeon was VERY pleased with progress yesterday and told us that about 2 months from now the wound part should be completely healed.  The final surgery most likely will be optional if everything continues to heal over.  There are still a few parts where the skin needs to grow over, so as long as that occurs, the final surgery would be more cosmetic smoothing and a final skin graft to lessen the scaring.  Really hoping this happens so that final choice is up to us - just not sure if Lori wants to go through yet another surgery after all of this.  We see the orthopedic doctor in 2 more weeks to check the bone healing, but he was also very pleased with progress 4 weeks ago. Today physical therapy comes and Lori will be able to put a very small amount of weight on that toe to help with walking and balance.  Hoping to get to outpatient physical therapy soon and walking and driving soon after that!   

First Days of School

Madison and JJ both started school this past week.  Madison is officially a middle schooler, and obtaining a locker was the highlight!  She was excited to start school 3 weeks ago, and we're so proud of her organization and excitement for learning.

JJ entered 4th grade this year.  He wasn't as thrilled about starting school as Madison, but had a great first week and is liking it and getting into the routine of things - especially more homework this year.  Unfortunately, he is missing his first day of school after only 1 week due to strep.  Poor guy, but he'll be getting back into the grind tomorrow!

It has been extremely hot here - hitting in the 110's and lots of monsoon action.  Luckily we haven't been spending much time outside due to the heat and Lori's injury.  Not too much excitement there - Lori's leg is healing very nicely.  The doctors switched the bandaging so the wound is drying out and finally starting to look human again (not like the hamburger meat it once looked like - we'll spare any pictures!  For those of you curious ambulance chasers - hee! hee! You can view some similar photos online if you google 'split thickness skin graft'. This is a process they use for severe trauma like burns or unlucky broken lower legs).  Lori's chemotherapy also started back up this past week and we're back to the countdown - only 8 more weeks to go.  Doctors are keeping a very close eye on things to be sure the chemo does not compromise the healing process or cause infection of any kind.  In about 2 weeks Lori will begin putting very small amounts of weight on her leg, then work up with physical therapy.  There may be one more surgery involved to smooth out the leg scaring, but for now we're just patiently waiting to see how the healing takes place.  If we can skip yet another surgery, we would be thrilled!  For now, it's more sitting, leg exercising and doctor visits.  Hopefully by Christmas things will be back to normal, and 2013 can be our lucky year!