The San Antonio Ladies Empowering Group on Friday Night!!!

Hope to see you there!
Friday, March 30, 2012
7:00pm until 10:00pm
Al Bustan Mediterrenian Resturant, 4841 Fredricksburg Rd San Antonio, TX 78229 (210) 525-1231

Start of the week was in the hospital, but everything is good and mom is okay!!!

So mom was doing alright over the weekend after getting fluids last week, but was really fatigued and feeling weak. Then on Sunday she was having difficulty breathing and was having pain. We called the on call doctor at the START center and they told us to go ahead and go to the Methodist hospital ER. They also called ahead and let them know we were coming. The difficulty breathing was brought on by fluid building up again around the lung. When we arrived they brought us to the back and put us in a room where mom was able to get IV fluids, be put on oxygen, an ekg was done, and x-rays were done. The consensus was that the fluid needed to be drained, but being that it was a Sunday night in the ER they wanted to go ahead and admit mom for the night so that she could easily have the procedure done the next day. Monday morning, our oncologist confered with the hospital and it was decided that not only would the fluid be drained but an outpatient surgery where they install a pleural tap (a tube that is inserted through the back in the pleural space outside the lung). This pleural tap will provide a constant drain for the fluid being produced so that it won't build up and crush the lung. She is feeling sore and it is uncomfortable, but it has helped her to be able breathe easier. They kept her overnight on monday again for observation. She was released tuesday morning and then she was off downtown to work that afternoon. She is strong and continues to fight.

Please if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

God bless and good night!

-Vanessa

Dehydration is a major issue, here's why...

So, last wednesday (the 14th) mom started chemotherapy again because the trial drugs just haven't been working. Her cancer has grown in her lungs and all the medications she had been taking were affecting her liver. Her liver is okay though. Its just been working really hard to process all the medications. She is very dehydrated, and so the doctor has ordered her to get fluids every couple days when she feels up to it. Her vitals also show that she is malnutritioned- low albumin levels (when they test for albumin levels in your blood, they are checking your protein levels in the blood plasma that are water soluble).

*Dehyrdation: "The two types of dehydration, chronic dehydration and acute dehydration, can be caused by many things. The most common are: flu, vomiting, diarrhea, blood loss, malnutrition, and plain old failure to replenish liquids lost from sweating and urination (Not drinking enough water). Many illnesses and diseases can trigger acute dehydration due to the increased body temperature and sweating that usually occur. This is why your doctor tells you to drink plenty of fluids when you are ill. Your body uses fluids to expel toxins as well as to keep your system flexible, lubricated and running smoothly. Dehydration and blood pressure problems often go hand in hand due to the loss of electrolytes.

If the dehydration is allowed to continue unabated (without reduction in strength or intensity), when the total fluid loss reaches 5% the following effects of dehydration are normally experienced:

• Increased heart rate
• Increased respiration
• Decreased sweating
• Decreased urination
• Increased body temperature
• Extreme fatigue
• Muscle cramps
• Headaches
• Nausea
• Tingling of the limbs

(information from http://www.symptomsofdehydration.com/ )"-all legit information.

Let it be known that mom has been experiencing all of these side effects. This morning I picked her up and drove her to START so that she could get IV (intravenous) fluids to help rehydrate her. Every time we arrive the first thing the nurses do is take blood to check her vitals and they get her blood pressure, heart rate, and O2 (oxygen) levels. Her heart rate was at 181. This is an extremely high heart rate for someone who isn't at the gym and doing an extremely hard cardio workout. To give you an idea of what this means I will explain maximum heart rate:
Maximum heart rate is the highest heart rate an individual can safely acheive through exercise. Maximum heart rate depends on a persons age. To find your maximum heart rate subtract your age from 220; e.g. 220 - 39 = a maximum heart rate of 181 for a person age 39.
Mom is 56, so you can see that 181 is way too high of a heart rate for her age as well as the fact that she was in a state of rest and has been very weak. Needless to say, the nurses gave her a liter of fluids and that really helped. Her heart rate lowered and when we left they checked her again and her HR (heart rate) was at 108. 108 is not ideal, but it is A LOT better. They only gave 1 liter of fluids because really when you are trying to hydrate a person, you don't want to give more than that as the person will just pee it out. That is why 1 liter a day or every other day is good as it will slowly absorb into her organs. If we were trying to flush her liver or get something out of her system then the nurses would give more than that and then the goal would be to pee it out. So, we will go back tomorrow and get more fluids in the afternoon. She is feeling much better this evening and I will pick her up in the morning and take her to work. She's fighting this with all that she is!!!!
God bless her!!!

Thank you all.

-Vanessa

Walk, Run, Wag 5K by the Petco Foundation on April 1st

Mom and I will be walking this 5K on April 1st, 2012 (a sunday) at 8am. I encourage everyone and anyone who like to join us to come out. It is in support of local charities for animals. We are animal lovers and will be out there to help support and of course it will be wonderful to just be outside with mom and our German shepherd/lab doggie, Bathsheba.

The official website is www.walkrunwag.com
Walk or run a 5K or 1 Mile course with your dog, or without a dog. Register for either 5K or 1 mile. A portion of the proceeds from your registration will benefit local pet charities in the San Antonio area through the Petco Foundation.

Be sure to sign-up and receive your member DISCOUNT CODE for 20% off any registration through the website early!

Additional Date Information

5km & 5K9 Run/Walk - 8am
1MI & 1MI K9 - 9am

Address

PETCO Headquarters
654 Richland Hills Drive San Antonio, TX

Fees

5k9 & 5km-$39/ 1M K9 & 1M - $24

Enjoy and we hope to see you out there!

-Vanessa

Chemotherapy again - 5th line treatment.

Today I picked mom up and took her to the doctors for chemotherapy again. No more clinical trials right now because of the growth of the cancer and the pain she has been experiencing. We believe that because she did so well with the chemo last year, she will again have success with it. This time she is getting Carboplatin (she had it last time as well and worked) combined with Taxol (she has not tried this one and I will post info later). She did well today. They gave her pain medicine and she was a little loopy, but she seemed better today than she has in a couple days. The chemo does wear you down and she may loose all her hair now (they told her she would last year, but she didn't lose it all. It does fall out so it most likely will, but after chemo is out of her system, it will grow back!). I don't know how many rounds of it she will have to do and radiation may become a suggestion down the road for a few hot spots where most pain is, but for now we wait and see what happens. She will also experience nausea (which has already started) and a side effect of the Taxol is mouth sores. She may not be able to talk as much because of the dehydration and dryness, but her energy is up and she looked great this morning and of course she is still going everywhere in her high heels!!!!

-Vanessa

More obstacles this week, the most pain yet, but doctor is positive about finding a solution!

Hello everyone, I apologize first for the delay in posting. I have been having a problem with my laptop the last week and a half, besides helping mom in the current battle against her constant pain and frustration.

Today I picked up mom at the house at 7am and we made it to the Doctors for an 8am bloodwork. Mom has been in so much pain that it has been really difficult for her to get up and get ready. The pain is really taking a lot out of her. Perhaps part of the problem is finding a solution for managing the pain and trying to stay ahead of it rather than waiting for the pain to get so bad that she waits to take it.
When we made it to the doctors, the nurses saw how much pain she was in and even though our doctor appointment wasn't for another 2hours the doctor came out and ordered CT scans. She wasn't supposed to get the CT scans for a couple more weeks with the clinical trial she was on, but the amount of pain she was having suggests that the cancer has grown. We waited a few hours to get the scans and sure enough the cancer has grown rather aggressively. Fortunately it has not metasticized elsewhere though. So the cancer is not attacking any other organs or bone or brain! Though it has gotten bigger and is encroaching on the liver and rib. The doctor said no more of this trial drug and tomorrow I pick her up in the morning again to take her back to the doctors so that she can start conventional chemotherapy again. This time she is going to take a combination of carboplatin and taxol! Both are very good. She will have side effects, but as we have seen throughout this journey she is kicking cancers butt!!!

Anyway I am tired and will edit this post tomorrow. I haven't had much sleep in.... I couldn't even say. So, till tomorrow.. may everyone have a good night and keep your spirits up! God is with us and with my mom!!!

-Vanessa L. Hudson

Last weekend was the most difficul yet. 3/8/12

Friday night was okay with mom. We had a good night together talking and hanging out and spending time on the computer. Saturday, I was at house and was doing yard work while mom rested and was having pain and fever. Sunday, mom was not able to get out because the pain was becoming too much. It was hard to see her cry because of the pain. Monday, mom was not able to get up and go to work. It was very hard to see her so frustrated and hurting. I know she is sad and feeling awful. I know she is angry and depressed. There is no answer why, there is no answer of how this happened. Her cancer is the rarest of the rare and so is she is. She is fighting and has surpassed so much through all of this ordeal. She is amazing.
We went to the doctors on tuesday and we met with Dr. Rassco. He is a wonderful doctor at the START center and he informed us that "tumor fever" isn't necessarily good or bad because it is hard to determine what the cause is actually. He also noted the pain and suggested getting CT scans next week is a good idea see what is going on in her. She did receive fluids and was remarkably better on wednesday!!! She was able to get out and go downtown for work.
She is strong and stubborn! And determined to beat this!!!!

God bless!

-Vanessa Hudson

Hmmm....its friday night and this weather isn't helping..

Well, mom is resting after a long week of pulling through and getting downtown to help others. She is having this fever at night and it is now every night with night sweats and chills. Tonight she has started a cough. Its hard for her to sleep because she is in discomfort always. We see the doctor on tuesday and will find out what her vitals were from the blood draw this week and of course she will have more blood drawn and we will talk with the doctor about what this fever is. Mom wants to work tomorrow, but I feel that getting some rest will be good. We are planning on going to CBC on sunday to the 11am service. Continue with prayers. I'm hoping its just the weather....

Thank you

-Vanessa

Tumor Fever ... what is it? and does mom have it?

So we are in week 3 of the 4th treatment and the second clinical trial drug. Mom is probably taking 15 pills a day and that doesn't include the vitamins she should be taking (or the 7 that I want her to take anyway) and she definitely needs to hydrate more. Anyway, she's been having fever at night and last night it rose to 102.6. The fever is relatively new. It has been off and on, but it is now more frequent. Mom called the doctor this morning and he said it could be "tumor fever".

I am trying to research what "tumor fever" is and so far I'm not coming to a very conclusive discovery of what it is. I have discovered that it is difficult to diagnose because there are too many potential causes and it is hard to exclude them. Some of the potential causes include all the different meds she is taking and how they react with each other as well as individually their side effects alone could cause fever. Another possibility to include is the dehydration. Anyway, the point is that it may not actually be "tumor fever" and just a fever.

Now that I have said that, I will first explain the negative meaning of "tumor fever" and then I will give the good explanation, but try to keep in mind that it may not be "tumor fever" and know that mom is still getting up every day and continuing to stay strong and fight. She is in control of her life and this cancer is not controlling her. She will not succumb to it and she knows that God is with her and healing her too.

The bad:  'In solid malignancies, tumor fever is commonly associated with rapidly progressive metastatic disease and a limited survival. Liver metastases are present in many of these patients and some of them may display significant systemic inflammation. We report two unique patients with adenocarcinoma of the lung associated with tumor fever, necrotic liver metastases and granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) driven leukocytosis(Conn Med. 2010 Aug;74(7):389-91).' This basically is just saying that when fever is caused by the tumor it means that it may reflect the growth or spread of a tumor and meaning it has spread to the liver.
*I would like to point out that mom's vitals show that her liver enzymes are in range and that is a good thing.

The good: I found one site where a patient noted that their oncologist stated that "tumor fever" is when the tumor cells start "melting" the toxins are released and that can cause fever. I also found another patient who has stated that "tumor fever" is a good thing and it means that the tumor is dying and that the dead tissue ends up in your liver and colon and this is what causes the fever.

Finally, the immune system in cancer patients is compromised and weakened so it could be caused by environmental factors. Right now in San Antonio the weather has been weird and its a cool humidity, wet, and overcast which is a perfect environment for bacteria and molds in the air and plenty of people are feeling sick and being affected by allergies.

If you have any more questions, concerns, or your own input I welcome it always.

Thank you and God bless!

-Vanessa