Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 32

Hi everyone!

Hope you're all doing well and getting through the cold/flu season. I've managed to catch some type of bug this week that's causing the typical cold symptoms. I hope to get better by next week so it doesn't delay my treatment.

I decided to do an update this week because I lost a good friend of mine, Marie, about a week ago to AML (leukemia). Marie and I went through our first and second bone marrow transplants together at Stanford. Marie was a fighter just like me and never gave up. I always looked up to her when I was struggling through my own treatments. In memory of their daughter, Marie's parents are sponsoring a blood drive. The details are below for any of you interested.

Marie H. Airey Memorial Blood Drive

Friday, February 4, 2005

3:30-7:30pm

Location: 33 Village Lane, Colma (cross street is Edgeworth)

Confirmed donors please RSVP at (650) 756-5334 for time slot.

Also for any of you interested, I ordered some of the Hendrick Marrow Program (www.hendrickmarrow.org) wristbands a while back and have finally received them. The funds raised from the wristbands help add more marrow donors to the national Registry and assist recipients and their families with post-transplant expenses. The wristbands are a dark blue color and I have both adult and youth sizes so let me know if you would like some!!

Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 31

Hi!

Not much of an update this week, things have been going smoothly and I didn't see my doctor's during treatment yesterday so I don't have any updates. I got my 8th round of chemo yesterday. I did get a nasty fever again through the night reaching 103.8 or so, but was able to control it better this time around. Today I'm feeling much better, although I'm staying in bed and resting. Besides that I've been trying to keep busy during the days by doing some scrapbooking and cooking.

Well that's all I have to say this time, hopefully next time I'll have a more detailed update. Have a good one!

Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 29

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a safe and fun New Year's! As for Chris and I, we went out to dinner on New Year's eve with family and then went over to a friend's house for dessert. Unlike the last few years, we actually managed to stay up past midnight this time. I really enjoyed having Chris home so much over the long holiday weekends, it's been so lonely being back at home during the week! Well, here's the latest news...

• I went in for my 7th chemo treatment last Wednesday. The infusion went great as usual and I met with both my oncologist and BMT doctor. Both said I looked well and my counts were great as have been the past few weeks. They were pleased with my CT scan results (more so than I was). Basically the CT showed that the tumors in my lung have decreased by about half and the main mass in the middle of my chest has stayed stable or possibly decreased slightly (it measures 4.3cm). There were a few tiny new spots in the lung that they weren't too concerned about, because they could have easily been missed on the previous scan. There's also a small spot in my liver, however its characteristics are very much of a cyst rather than a malignancy. Overall, the chemo has been controlling my disease which the doctor's are happy about. They have decided to continue with this same treatment until it stops being effective. Although the infusion went smoothly on Wednesday, that night was a different story. I started getting some intense chills around 11pm, which was the first sign of a fever. The fever continued to climb through the night and morning hours (even after taking Tylenol every 4 hours) until it reached 104F around 3:30am. Chris had to call the emergency doctor on call and lucky for me they didn't make me go in, but had me do cold compresses and ice packs until the fever went down to about 102F. My temperature finally reached a normal range by Thursday afternoon, however the whole experience was a little scary. I'm hoping the next round of chemo doesn't bring a similar adventure. I'm scheduled to be back at Stanford for round 8 on January 19th.

That's the latest on my treatment. I've mostly been keeping busy during the days watching the Food Network, cooking, and baking. I'm looking forward to a day of sunshine, I feel like it's been cloudy and rainy too long!