Update on Mom

Greetings Everyone,

I wanted to send out an email to everyone with updates on my Mom. For some of you, much of this is old news, while for others all of this will be new information. I haven't been the best at keeping in touch with many folk, but those who live close or who have been really involved in the process have been pretty much in the loop.

First, the good news. About a month ago, we learned that Mom is in a full remission from multiple myeloma. We are overjoyed! Our family took her out to celebrate at a French spot with amazing crepes and just had a ball.

Now, for the updates on what is coming up in the next few weeks. Duke is going to harvest Mom's stem cells and store them so that they are available to her when the cancer comes back, if she decides to have a bone marrow transplant. This is a very long and involved process. I'll give it to you step by step.

Tomorrow, I drive Mom to Duke where she will have some tests done. My uncle Eric's other half (Indra) will be flying in to Raleigh's airport, where we'll pick her up. She will be staying with Mom during the very high dose chemo treatment, since I am pregnant and can't take chances. Chemo is excreted in bodily fluids and having such a high dose could be risky to the baby if I were to get a large quantity of bodily fluids on me. We decided not to take that chance and Indra is beyond sweet to be flying in to be with my Mom during this process.

Thursday, Mom will have a Hickman port placed in her chest that allows the clinic easy access to her veins for administering chemotherapy and harvesting stem cells. Thursday evening a home health aide will go to Mom's hotel room to administer IV fluids in preparation for chemo.

Friday morning, Mom will receive her very high dose of Cytoxan, a chemotherapy drug. Even though Mom is in remission, they administer chemo to make sure as many cancer cells are gone as possible. The cleaner her stored stem cells are, the better a transplant will work, if she ever decides to have one.

Duke is going to be administering lots of anti-nausea medication and pain medication to Mom during the chemo and afterward. She will remain on the IV with fluids in her hotel room. Sunday, Allen, Will and I will drive to pick her up and Indra will fly home.

Beginning Monday (the 30th), Mom will be going to have bloodwork done every other day and will be giving herself a neupogen shot every single day. The neupogen makes more stem cells available in the blood stream. Since Mom isn't allowed to drive during this process, I'll be driving her to her appointments.

Sometime the weekend of the 4th/5th, my aunt Marilyn will be flying in from CA to help with the second time-frame where Mom will have to be at Duke. They'll drive up to Duke and starting Monday, Mom will have stem cells harvested through a process called aphoresis. They hook her up to a machine that circulates her blood and filters out the stem cells before pumping the rest of the blood back into her body. This process can take anywhere from one to five days, depending on how many stem cells are freely available in the bloodstream. Due to the unpredictable length of the process and Allen's limited available time off from work, along with Will not being allowed in the bone marrow transplant center, it would be pretty hard for us to be there. So, we are eternally grateful that Marilyn is going to be here and that she will be able to be with Mom during that process.

Following the stem cell harvesting, Mom will have a one to two week recovery period. That process usually makes people feel pretty tired and since the drugs leading up to it are pretty powerful, they do take a toll on the system.

Mid-September, Mom will begin her maintenance chemotherapy regimen. She will cycle between three different chemo drugs. One month it will be Velcade, the next melphalan and the next Revlimid. This cycling will continue for up to two years, as long as she remains in a remission. The goal of this therapy is to extend the length of her remission as long as possible.

I will be updating about Mom daily at a blog that I have set up. Please check there for updates. I think that is the easiest way for me to keep people informed.

Now, on a different note, many of you know that I am 23 weeks pregnant. We are extremely excited to be welcoming a new baby to our family in late December. My due date is December 22nd and we are working with a wonderful and skilled midwife who will be attending the homebirth of our child. We have not found out the gender and may end up keeping it a surprise this time. Everything is going well so far and we are overjoyed! In the next few months, we are also excited to be building an addition onto our home with a baby room, two offices and a second family room. There is never a dull moment around here! :-D

Thanks so much for all of your support and prayers. We feel them daily and even though I'm not always able to stay in touch the way I would like to, I really do love and appreciate all of you. I anticipate that things here will settle down a little after the next few weeks and that it will be easier for me to catch up with you and to stay in touch.

Much Love,

Anne