Had to share this picture of Lenore's leaf bags. There's at least 40 here. Dave, Kathy and Julie raked and raked and stuffed and stuffed and then hauled all these bags of sopping wet leaves into the garage (minus the ones cute little Steve schlepped in there for me earlier in the week just before it rained) for safe keeping -- conveniently positioned to ensure that Lenore doesn't try to drive before the doctor says it's OK. Poor little Pepper Bubbles (that's Lenore's Mini) was trapped. Lenore recently found out she's got *four* layers of internal stitches. That's a lotta cat gut!
Lenore and my mom met with Dr. Cao today, who is the local doctor that will be overseeing her treatment at St. Joe's. Lenore said she feels good about his expertise and perspective, and he's willing to work with Dr. Dolan. He's going to work on getting insurance to do a full-body PET Scan*, and he'd like a new CA-125 before starting treatment as well. Bottom line is it's going to be rough at times, but older and spindlier patients have come through it just fine and so will Lenore. As I told Seattle Pat, underneath that sweet, angelic facad, our Lenore is one tough broad. Dr. Cao is anticipating four to six treatments every four weeks (they like to do every three weeks, but that is probably unrealistic from a body recovery standpoint), if she can tolerate it, and probably four- to 5-day hospital stays for each treatment so they can infuse the nasty stuff slowly and keep a close eye on blood levels (I guess?). His protocol is slightly different in that he likes to hydrate for a full day before starting treatment. Dr. Cao said she's going to live a long time, but there is still a chance that she'll have to go through this again within the next five years. Hopefully as new drugs become available, the fight will get easier (easier being a relative term!).
This weekend we have lunching plans Saturday and Sunday with friends, plus we have to make multiple visits to Starbucks and other favorite eateries while Lenore's still got unadulterated taste buds. I'm happy to assist in this endeavor, because I am, after all, a giver.
*What is a PET Scan you might be wondering. Turns out it has nothing to do with your cat walking around on your person at 3 a.m. It's this:
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans measure emissions from positron-emitting molecules. Because many useful, common elements have positron emitting forms (carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen), valuable functional information can be obtained. This is the main difference between the CT and MRI scans. The PET shows molecular function and activity not structure, and therefore can often differentiate between normal and abnormal (cancerous / tumor) or live versus dead tissue. Like SPECT (single photon emission tomography), PET also can product three dimensional images, and is usually used to compliment rather than replace the information obtained from CT or MRI scans.
You learn something new every day at Perky Potholders.
I liked your definition of a PET Scan better!!
ReplyDeletehas my sister EVER racked her yard? does she even own a rake?
ReplyDelete-or did said friends cart leaves over to make it look like they did all of the work???? :-)
I remember how much I enjoyed my early morning PET scan from Hoops, the Wake-Up cat, a couple of christmases ago.
ReplyDeleteThanks for keeping us updated.
Laura
I subconsciously purchased a left handed rake so I cannot use it. My lawn mower usually does the hard labor mulching the leaves for me. Xena and Hoops have both offered free PET scans.
ReplyDelete