Wednesday.....September 1st...2010

Big day today..big day tomorrow...

Today Linda had her CT scan done at OHSU.....results will be known tomorrow when we meet with the Oncologist...is there more tumor growth....or was the 10% increase noted in the last scan due to the Alimta "wearing out" or is the new drug...Tarceva...ineffective...tomorrow we find out....Linda admits to being a bit nervous about the whole thing.....

Today we also met with a Palliative Doctor at OHSU......such a doctor deals with quality of life issues...it used to be a part of terminal patients or under hospice but now the doctors are being involved at earlier stages....in fact, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine...just this August showed metastic non small cell lung cancer patients (ie Linda) are doing so much better and have a longer life when under early palliative care. It is amazing this article came out after Linda was directed to this doctor by her Oncologist....the article can be seen at http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa1000678 or Google "non small cell lung cancer palliative care".

Anyway, Linda was referred because of her eating difficulties as well as the blood pressure/pulse issues which were having negative effects on her quality of life....and then the blood pressure/pulse issues ceased (after a couple of years of struggles)...with the theory being the impact of the chemos over time.....but the Alimta being the last chemo as Tarceva is not a chemo....and the med she was given increased her appetite and both led to a greater disposition and mood.

Anyway, the Palliative Doctor today was simply amazed at how well Linda was doing...her mood...her care giver...her reltionships...etc..etc....he used the word "grace" to describe how she was traveling through this illness....in fact there was not much he could add to the meeting as Linda has a pretty good handle on things....he said what happens is the illness/disease causes the patient to lose eating, sleeping , exercise, etc., and that's where he comes in.

He did give her a prescription for stomach acid/heartburn which she has had problems with since she can no long take Prevacid as it counteracts the Tarceva. We will see him again in 5 weeks...

Again tomorrow we see the results of the scan......

We will be taking the motorhome into Portland to the Oncologist at OHSU as we then will be traveling up into Washington to a campground we belong to as part of Liesure Time/Thousand Trails.....Daughters Wendy and Janine will be there Friday to Monday as well as son in law Chris and grand daughter Taigen.....

Monday we return to finish up the many little things on the house and plan on getting our furniture and moving it in the following weekend ans\d formally move into the house from the motorhome.....today we finished the kitchen sink, faucets, garbage disposal and dishwasher installation.....

ps..just got a message on the cell phone that Linda's surgery for the Ostomy "take down" will be October 14th..originally it was scheduled for the first of October but we had it changed so Linda and Dave could attend/assist the couples workshop in Wings (Listening Heart)..which they have participated in for the last two years..yea!