Update from Bob

Noreen was able to bring Maureen home by plane, after we decided that a 9 hour ambulance ride would be very traumatic. Maureen was pretty worn out as expected, and was taken right to the hospital, and she had a 102 fever the next day and was started on very powerful antibiotics, which she is still on. Dr Hess plans to keep them going a long time in case there is a hidden area of infection that has recurred. Things have been going very slowly. She has not been able to support any weight at all, but the head of PT told me today that she did walk 50 feet with a walker today, which is actually very good news. Dr. Maysonet, anesthesiologist and pain specialist, is injecting 3 areas under fluoroscopy today-right shoulder, left hip, and cervical spine---if this is successful, it may decrease the amount of pain meds she needs. Also, her MRI of the brain with contrast was negative for any spread of cancer to the brain. Her very high tumor marker of 271 has come down to 217 and then 171, still high but going in the right direction, possibly due to Faslodex, a monthly anti estrogen injection which does not cause serious side effects. She is too weak for any other chemo at this time.
She is in Reynolds Memorial Hospital, Glen Dale, WV 26038, Room 524

Thanks alot to John M, who did Ti Chi exercises with her that seemed to help.Janet was also a huge help and her expertise in wound prevention was very helpful.I really enjoyed the opportunity to sit and talk with her more than I have in a long time. Anna Mae was fantastic as usual--what an amazing person, high energy and always looks at the bright side. All of Maureen's sisters and brothers have put their own lives on hold many times to help her---And in case I havn't said it enough, I am deeply appreciative and I know many, many families who would not do the same. Noreen came for 2 weeks and we are really grateful for that. Kathleen is here now and doing her best to keep me in line and help Maureen as much as possible.
I will try to update sooner next time
Bob S.

Update from Sara

Well all of the tests that the doctors at the ER did were normal -- head CTscan, left leg/hip xray, various blood tests and urine scans, and i'm not sure what else. They are thinking there may be an imbalance with the pain meds and the ER doc suggested changing from Percocet to Dilaudid for Mom's breakthrough pain. We have been in touch with Dr. Hess, her doctor in Wheeling, throughout all of this. He thinks it would be best if she got back to Wheeling and he could try to determine the cause of the confusion and rapid mobility decrease.

My Aunt Janet came to help us on Saturday night and has been a big help. My dad got a stomach bug and was out of commission for a few days, so it was really nice having an extra set of hands. Now that Anna, her boyfriend Chris, John, and Brenndan are all gone, having Aunt Janet here is a big relief. She has been helping mom with her physical therapy and been a good listening ear for her. Plus she has given me a break to get work done and sleep :-)

We are in a holding pattern right now. Mom is sleeping a lot and still is having a lot of pain, but her mobility is starting to increase a bit. She is still pretty confused, but does have moments of clarity where she is very clear.

Will update as soon as we have a gameplan. Thanks for all your support.

-Sara

Update from Anna Marron

Hi everone Anna Mae (Maureen's niece) here. I just wanted to make a
quick blog update since it has been a while!

Maureen had been working hard on her rehab since the last time we
updated. She is currently in Virginia Beach at Sara and Nick's house
for the holiday. However it has been a bit of a tough week. Last week
she arrived for thanksgiving with significant weakness and confusion.
Although it has improved in the past two days, it has not completely
resolved. So today after speaking to her her doctor in wheeling she
decided to ER to get a full workup to see what exactly is going on.
Hopefully it may just be a simple infection, and she will probably
back home at Nick and Sara's this evening.

Luckily there was plenty of help here because of the holiday. John and
Brendan came in from California, and I was able to come up from
Florida . My mom got in last night and will be staying until later in
the week, and Maureen's brother John will arrive on Tuesday.

We will update the blog this evening after we a thorough report from the ER

Update and Google Calendar Address

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to give a quick update. I am up in Wheeling and have been here since early this week. Aunt Kath and Mom went to WVU on Monday and met with the orthopedic oncologist, Dr. Lindsay. Mom really liked him. He ordered a bone scan and the plan is to move forward with radiation on her back and leg beginning next week. We went to Wheeling Hospital to meet with Dr Pollack, the radiation oncologist, yesterday and he did all of the xrays and markings that he needed to do to enable them to start next week. Next Tuesday, we have to go back to WVU to meet with Dr Abraham, the medical oncologist, and then radiation here in Wheeling begins on Wednesday.

We are still planning to take Mom to Baltimore to attend her 40th Nursing School reunion this weekend. She is very excited about seeing her friends and getting out of the hospital for a few days. It will be a tough trip, but one that she really wants to make. The doctors said that she can do this and we will make sure to take enough pain meds with us to stay on top of it all.

I am scheduled to be here in Wheeling until Wednesday night, Oct 5, but am going to change my flight until Friday morning, Oct 7. We are going to work on getting a home health aide and transportation to the doctors appts, but this is a time that we could REALLY use help from our friends and family. Many of you have offered to come help, but we didn't know when we'd need you -- well now is that time. She will have daily radiation treatments until the end of October. She has been in the hospital working on her strength, but is still weak and cannot stay at home alone. Returning to the hospital may be an option as well, but she'd like to be at home if possible. So to help with trying to schedule visitors, I created a Google Calendar. The link is below. I don't know if you need to subscribe to it to be able to change it -- if so, just email me sshalowitz@gmail.com and I will add you to it. Any help, even for just a day or two, would be a HUGE help!

https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=1dj6f1ci787ocmqbdjktp7huqk%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York



Thank you all for your continued love and support of our family throughout this rough time. We all really appreciate it!

-Sara

Update from Bob S.

Well, we definitely have hit a stumbling block. Marti's MRI shows the entire upper 2/3 of her right femur involved with cancer. We saw Dr. Pollack, our radiation oncologist, and he recommends radiation to the right leg and hip, and to two places in the spine. Marti is also seeing an orthopedic oncologist at WVU, Dr. Brock Lindsey, this coming monday afternoon--he sounds like a really nice guy on the phone and called me right away. We overnighted the MRI cd to him already. I am waiting for a call back from Dr. Abraham as far as recommendations for other treatment while this is going on, to keep other areas, especially the right pleura (chest) in check.
On a better note, she has been doing well in PT and is walking with a walker approx a short block 3 times a day--a marked improvment from not even being able to stand, 2 weeks ago. She is off of antibiotics and off of reverse isolation too. She been started on a pain patch to try to get her off of pain pills and control the pain more continuously, instead of the ups and downs with pain pills.
The local Catholic priest, who is IRISH, came in and spent quite a bit of time last night and we all really liked him.
We are thinking she might be going home tomorrow after PT, since there is no PT on weekends.
She really wants to attend her Nursing School reunion on 10/01 if she is physically able to go that--she will make that decision on a day-to-day basis, and start her treatments when that is over. In the meantime she will work on getting stronger, concentrating on arm strength and the left leg, and taking it easier with the right leg.
Debbie and Ed visited this past weekend and now Kathleen is back and she is a godsend, I would be helpless without her. Sara also plans to come soon.

We will keep you all posted as soon as we know the next step.
Maureen loves getting visitors--it really keeps her spirits up.

Love Bob

Update from Bob S.

Its been a stressful week to say the least, especially when Marti was doing so well a mere 8 days ago.
We went down for the consultation with Dr Abraham at WVU. He agrees that we have gotten all we can out of Taxol. He went over other options to switch to. She may be a candidate for a clinical trial which I think has an excellent chance of helping her. The problem is she would definitely have to go to WVU (Morgantown, WV) on a weekly basis--2 hours there and 2 hours back, plus whatever time she is there, probably several hours. We would definitely need significant help to do that.
However, before that decision is made, he is concerned aboout what is causing the significant weakness and the sudden major increase in need for pain meds.

Therefore, an MRI of the spine was done yesterday. I would really super worried about it, but it's nowhere near as bad as I thought it might be. The radiologist went over it with me vertebra by vertebra: Two vertebrae appear to have LESS cancer than on the January MRI. Of course 2 or 3 have a little more, also, but the overall impression is that the changes are not very much since January, and there is no spinal cord compression.

So now we are going ahead with an MRI of the R hip and R leg, where she is having a lot of pain--hopefully thurs or fri.
Debbie and Ed are visiting this weekend.
More to come soon-
Love, Bob S.

Update from Bob S.

Maureen is doing a little better--her temperature is normal but her white count is 2.2, and below 2 is dangerous, so she was given a medication to raise the white count. Her legs are still very weak but I saw her able to stand and walk a little with a walker. This all happened very suddenly, and she had been able to walk a few blocks with just a cane just a few days ago, so I hope it will also get better quickly.
She was just moved to the 5th floor which is a rehab unit, to try to increase her strength.
Sara just sent a photo album from the wedding--and Marti really enjoyed seeing that. Kathleen is here and I would be up a creek without her right now.
If Marti keeps improving, she will be able to go to her consultation with Dr. Abraham at WVU on Monday.
Sara and I will continue to post as often as possible.
Love, Bob

Update

I just spoke with my mom on the phone and she's hanging in there.
Aunt Kath is there with her in the hospital.  My dad's office is
literally across the parking lot from the hospital, so he has been
able to be there a lot today, but is back to seeing patients this
afternoon.  Mom is getting very good care and special attention.
Right now, they still don't know what the source of the infection is
and they are giving her two very strong antibiotics.  Her fever has
been fluctuating but has dropped a bit from last night.  Her white
blood count level is quite low right now, around 2.6, down from 4.0
yesterday, so people are supposed to be wearing masks in her room to
limit her exposure to other infections.  She sounds very tired, but
seemed to be coherent and even was a little positive with her "Well,
the good news is..." statement that she threw into our conversation.
For the time being, she will stay at the hospital to rest, hydrate,
and figure out what's causing the infection.

Aunt Kath plans to be in WV through early next week.  Right now, with
her current WBC levels and energy levels, it's not the best idea to
have lots of visitors and phone calls.  She is at Reynolds Memorial
Hospital, 800 Wheeling Avenue, Glen Dale, WV 26038 and their home
address is 33 Hubbard Lane, Glen Dale, WV 26003.

My dad and I will try to keep this page updated as much as possible.
We all appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

-Sara

Update from Bob Shalowitz

Maureen has been doing clinically well up until now. However, her tumor markers have been rising. She recently had a combined CT/Pet scan and we have an appointment with Dr Abraham at WVU this coming monday. There is almost certainly going to be a change to a different treatment, as we seem to have gotten the most we can out of Taxol. She may be candidate for a clinical trial through NIH, but we will know more after we see him.
However there is a new setback, hopefully temporary. She had Taxol yesterday, seemingly with no problems except for fatigue. Last night she was doing fine for a post-chemo evening. Then this morning she could not stand at all--she could not bear ANY weight on her legs, even with a lot of help. All I could do by myself was lay her on the floor, and she could not get up. I did not want to call 911 because they would have insisted on taking her to a different hospital which is closer. So Wendy, the RN from my office came over and was able to get her organized, using nursing skills which I don't have, and we got her to the Reynolds Hospital ER. When she got here she had a temp of 101.9. She is being evaluated and is being admitted to the hospital. So far her CT of the head is fine and her labs are OK. An infection is suspected so she is being put on antibiotics. Dr David Hess, our internist will be in charge, and we have a lot of confidence in him. Dr Mehotra is also consulting. She is fine so far except for being very tired.
I called Kathleen for help and she is coming. More soon.
Bob Shalowitz

update from Bob Shalowtiz

Martia is clinically doing better. She has walked as much as 4-5 blocks with a cane and hardly ever needs the walker. However some of her labs don't look quite as good as how she personally is looking. Therefore we went for a consult with nationally known breast cancer specialist at WVU, this past monday, and Kathleen came with us. He feels that she looks a lot better than she did when he saw her 3 months ago. He has recommended a repeat combined PET/CAT scan and then we are seeing him again in about a month. She will continue Taxol until then. This coming week is her week off of chemo, so she should do pretty well this coming week.
Will keep everyone posted soon. Visitors would be welcome over the next 4 weeks so she has more to do when I am at work.
Best regards
Bob S.

From Bob Shalowitz

Marti had a really great week last week. She is on chemo 3 weeks on/1 week off and last week was her week off. She was stronger and was able to walk with a cane instead of a walker about 95% of the time. Then on saturday we drove to Baltimore and spent 2 night with our friends Sheldon and Marsha Freed. We had a great time and went out to 2 of our favorite restaurants, and Marsha took Marti out shopping. Then on 7/4 we went over to Bethesda and saw Grandma Florence for a few hours. After that we drove back to WV. This was a lot of traveling for Marti compared to her usual and she did really well. We met up with Kathleen on the way home and had dinner just past Frostburg on route 68. Kathleen took her to chemo on Monday and of course she is more tired this week,but overall, this is the best she had done in quite awhile. Now we only need help on MOndays to take Marti to chemo and we are doing OK by ourselves for a few days at a time, although it is nice to have visitors longer so Marti has visitors on other days while I am at work. If any friends or relatives would ever be available to come from a SUNDAY NITE THROUGH TUESDAY, we certainly would appreciate it, since Kathleen is being pulled in a lot of directions now, with Uncle Bill and Aunt Terry are having some problems in Philly.

Thanks to all our friends and relatives for your support--we could not do this on our own, and everyone's help has really been appreciated.

Love, Bob S.

from bob shalowitz

Hello everyone-Maureen is doin pretty well this week. She had chemo on monday and she was started on a new drug, XGIVA, yesterday. This is the same drug as Prolia, an osteoporosis drug, in a higher dose, which has been shown to retard the growth of bone metastases in Breast Cancer. The greedy pharmaceutical company charges $1850, WHOLESALE, per shot and the treatment is monthly---ridiculous drug costs are probably the worst part of medicine today.
We also had a consult with Dr Pollack, the Radiation Oncologist, and he went over all of her recent pictures in detail with us. There is some cancer in 2 vertebrae-T-8 and T-11, but it is small and he does not feel he needs to radiate them yet.
She is also going for another consult to WVU to see Dr Abraham soon.
She is using mostly a cane around the house instead of the walker, and yesterday was able to get up off the sofa on her own propulsion, which is definitely an improvement.
Will do another update soon.
Love Bob

From Bob S.

Hello everyone. Marti had about a 5 hour scan last friday, a "sodium floride combined CAT and PET scan. We are still waiting for the results because we had to get the results of her other PET scan in 2009 for them to compare it to. Marti also hit her head and got 5 stitches, done by general surgeon Dr Tadros, who is a really nice guy. She is doing fine , just tires easily as usual. She is now getting chemo 3 weeks on/1 week off and seems fairly stable.
Sara was here for the weekend and got to stay another day because the electricity in her DC office was off so she could not go to work there. She and Marti both went and got pedicures on sat.
Our awesome godson, Elliot Freed is graduating from Medical School Sat morning-we are incredibly proud of him--and also of his parents who did such a terrific job raising him! I am driving down to Blacksburg VA today---Marti can't do that long of a trip at this time, and is very dissapointed to miss it. Kathleen arrived last nite and will stay while I am gone. Barbara was here last week and was a huge help, especially since she had chem on monday as well as the all day stuff on friday noted above.
Best regards to all our relatives and friends
Bob Shalowitz

All in all, Marti is stable and in good spirits.

from bob s.

Marti has had a decent week. She has been in a good mood and trying to do a little bit more walking with a cane. She, Kathleen, and I went to the casino one night and won enough to pay for the nice dinner we had, so it was all free!
Marti had a second opinion consult at WVU on Friday with Dr. Jame Abraham, who is a nationally known breast cancer specialist. He says that he agrees with what has been done so far. He wants to get a special scan, known as a Sodium-Flouride-CT-PET scan. He also recommends switching from zometa (bisphosphonate drug for osteoporosis that may also help suppress bone metastases in breast cancer) to a new drug which is similar to Prolia, which has the advantage of not requiring an IV, and which may be slightly more effective and have less risk of side effects.
He will see her again after the above scan is done and make further recommendations-in the meantime she should continue the weekly Taxol which she tolerates fairly well.
Noreen is ariving today, which we are really looking forward to.
More soon
Thanks to all

Thanks especially to Kathleen for all her efforts and devotion to her sister.

Love
bob

Today's post

Hello everybody-I did an update approx April 12 but Sara tells me it did not post.
Marti had an MRI and xrays on Saturday. The tumor in the lower spinal canal looks the same, but Dr Pollack says that is good, and what we are probably seeing is just residual scar tissue, what he called a "scar-ball" that will always be visable. He recommends repeating the MRI in 3-4 months to be absolutely sure. The xray of the right should shows arthritis, which is what causing the pain, and Dr Pollack doubts that there is any residual tumor in the shoulder. The xray of the left hip looks fine. Marti has been on taxol chemotherapy for about 3 weeks and we plan to meet with Dr. Mehotra , hopefully tomorrow, to discuss the plan going farward. We have also decided to go ahead with a second opinion with Dr. Abraham at WVU which will probably occur in the next 2-3 weeks. He is a nationally known Breast Cancer specialist.
Marti is tired alot, but otherwise pretty good. She got to see a great movie, Soul Surfer, this past weekend and we strongly recommend it. Her appetite has been semi-decent and she is in fairly good spirits.
Sara was here last weekend which was great. Nina was here the previous week and besides being a great cook, is a great person too and I have really enjoyed getting to know her. Kathleen is here this week and is great as usual. The only thing we disagree about is that she is totally excited about the "royal wedding", whereas I could not care less about it!! Kathleen and I may sneak out to the Casino for an hour tonight.
I hope this gets posted when I push the post button this time.
Love to all our friends and relatives
Bob S.

From April 12th

Marti and I would like to thank the idiots in Congress for not shutting the country down!
Marti is doing well with her port-it is functioning well and makes getting chemo alot easier. She took one monday off from chemo on 3/28 so the port site could heal and so we could spend some quality time together for my 60th birthday. She felt well enough so that we could go to Avenue Q the following night, 3/29 and also have dinner with our friends Rick and Bethanne Hinig.
She did well with chemo the next 2 monday's, including yesterday. I believe that after one more chemo, Dr. Mehotra is going to do some scans and see where we stand.
We put our bed on the floor without a frame (just like when we were in college) and the decreased height makes a huge difference for Marti getting in and out of bed.
We both had a great time when Debbie and Ed were here just before my birthday, and we hope they can visit again soon.
Nina helped us for a week and she was terrific and what a cook!
Kathleen is here and we are really enjoying being with her as usual.
Thanks to everyone for all the moral support
love
Bob S.

From bob shalowitz

Hello to all of our friends and relatives. Marti had some minor surgery yesterday and a port was inserted by Dr. Kew, cardivascualar surgeon. She was starting to run out of good veins and Dr. Mehotra advised getting a port at this time. Sara and Anna are here for a couple of days and this was very helpful. Marti slept like a log from after supper until today. Having Sara and Anna here really cheers her (and me) up.
Sara has become quite an accomplished cook, by the way. By the time Nick gets back from AFganistan, he will be eating gourmet meals three times a day!
More soon
thanks to all
Bob S.

Mom's new look! Makeup all done and doo-rag on :-)

She started chemo again yesterday and said she's hanging in there. She has Zofran to help with the nausea and is resting a lot to combat the fatigue. My Aunt Kathleen is there now and I will be going up there next Monday night for the week. Thanks everyone for your support!

from Bob S.

Marti saw Dr. Mehotra (medical oncologist) yesterday. He thinks she is doing better and he is going to restart her chemo this monday. She is switching to mondays so that hopefully she can feel better by each weekend. The skin burns are 95% healed and the shingles are resolving very nicely. She is still weak and gets tired easily. She can sometimes use a cane around the house but most of the time uses a walker. Short term memory is a problem and can be somewhat frustrating. She has a appointment with Dr. Pollack on 3/22 for evaluation of how successful the radiation treatment has been. We can see that the chest mass is essentially gone, but for the right shoulder and base of the spine, she may need an MRI or CAT scan.
Barbara is leaving today and Kathleen is coming. We really appreciate the amount of time and effort that Barbara has put in to help us.
Thanks to everyone for the moral support.
Bob S.

From Bob S.

Marti is doing fairly well. The skin burns and the shingles are both healing nicely. Her hair was fairly tattered so she had it all buzzed off and it feels and looks much better. She actually has a very nice skull! She got a beautiful wig on monday and has 2 others that Marsha loaned her. She also got some nice scarves and a really cool bandana that is like a pirate hat. She is doing more walking to get her legs stronger and Barbara is trying to get her out of the house every day to do something other than just watch TV.
Thanks to all our friends and relatives.
Love
Bob S.

from Bob S.

Marti had a difficult evening saturday and was very disoriented, at one time thinking she was in Virginia Beach. But she did much better on sunday and was more alert and oriented. She was able to go out to a really good movie and to dinner. The shingles are drying up nicely and the skin burns are improving. Barbara is here and is a huge help.
Love
Bob

From Bob S.

Marti's chemo was cancelled yesterday because of the shingles she has. Dr. Mehotra plans to hold off on chemo for 2 weeks to let her build up her immune system before starting again. Her appetite is good, but her memory and concentration is off. I hope that will get better later. Eileen is here and is a great help. I heard that John Marron may be visiting tonight.
More soon
Love Bob

From Bob S.

Friday was the last radiation treatment. We had a nice meeting with Dr. Pollack and he feels she has done well. We won't know the final results of the radiation for between 4 and 10 weeks, and the treatment continues to have effects for that range of time. The mail problem is fairly bad skin burns in the right armpit. The burns on the chest are healing faster. Dr. Pollack says the skin should be better in about 2 weeks. Marti will continue to have chemo weekly on thursdays. A new problem is that she now has some shingles on the left sides of her back and we immediately started the medicine for that last night. Shingles is a re-outbreak of chickenpox, so ANYONE WHO HAS NOT HAD CHICKENPOX SHOULD NOT VISIT RIGHT NOW, until this is healed.
Eileen is coming for the next 2 weeks. Kathleen has been a tremendous help.
Thanks to everyone
Love Bob

From Bob S.

We really enjoyed spending the weekend with Sara and Nick--it really cheered Marti up. She was fairly chipper most of the weekend, but is having problems with skin burns at the radiation sites. We are putting various creams on, which partially helps but not completely--The nurse at the radiation therapy office says this is expected and she has seen worse.
Marti had another radiation treatment today and there are only 4 more to go. Kathleen is back, which we greatly appreciate.
Marti did get to go out to dinner sat and sunday, and she even went to the casino for a short time sat nite and won about $10. Marti and I went home, but Nick and Sara stayed and played poker for a few hours, which they said was really fun.
Thanks to everyone and I'll be back later in the week.
Love Bob

From Bob Shalowitz

Marti had her tough date yesterday (both radiation and chemo) and came through it very well, with major assistance from Kathleen. She also saw Dr Hess this week and she is now off of almost all of her BP medicine. she was on 3 different BP pills and now she is only on half of one of them.
She has some skin burning in the right axilla and the central chest, which is not unexpected--We have started topical skin creams which help.
She having her last "regular" radition treatment today. Next week she gets 5 more radiation treatments to much smaller, focused-down areas, called a "boost", and then she will be done with radiation, but she will continue weekly chemo.
Sara and Nick are coming for the weekend, while Kathleen goes to visit her friends in Frostburg-obviously we are very happy to be seeing our prodigal kids.
Best regards to all our friends and relatives, and thanks for all the support.
Love
Bob S.

From Bob Shalowitz

Better news today. Once we got Marti's blood pressure a little higher, whe was back to her old self. She was much more chipper over the weekend and was able to talk and think much better. Short term memory is still less than normal, but Kathleen and I both thought she was much better. Also, her MRI saturday, does not show any tumor in the brain, so that is very good news. Today, she is having blood tests and will see Dr Hess, our internist, tuesday to follow up on the blood pressure and see if other adjustments are needed.
Kathleen came friday, and Barbara did not leave until sunday, so all 4 of us were able to go out to a really great dinner on saturday, which we all thought was very nice. Then we had a 3 person Super Bowl party on sunday which was also nice.
So things are a lot better than they were most of last week.
Radiation is today at about 4 PM.
Best regards
Bob S.

Update from Bob S.

Marti has continued having a good attitude, but there have been some chalanges this week. She has been more tired, having more trouble walking, and sometimes getting dizzy and light headed when standing. She has more trouble finishing a sentence, or thinking of a word, and somtimes just stops and gives up trying to finish. Short term memory is definitely more of a problem.-----Some of this may be due to low blood pressure. She has had difficult to control high blood pressure for a long time and now that she is on so many meds, her blood pressure is low normal, OK for most of us, but not enough for her---plus her labs 2 days ago showed that she was dehydrated. ----so she recieved extra IV fluids yesterday, and her blood pressure meds have been cut in half---it may turn out that she can get off of them completely for awhile.-----She is also having an MRI of the head sat at 3:30 to make sure everything is alright there.-----------She has been eating OK but we are trying to encourage more fluids, not just water--I wish she liked gatoraid but whe hates it for some reason---
Barabra has been here almost 2 weeks and she has been fantastic--it would have been impossible without her, and Marti loves cuddling Luke, too(Barbara's very large Bijon).
I will do another update this weekend, after the MRI--
Love to all our friends and relatives
Bob S.

update from Bob S.

Marti is doing fairly well today. We all went to see "The King's Speech" yesterday afternoon and it was great. Today Marti and Noreen went to church this morning and they are excited about watching the 2 football games later today. Noreen hates the Steelers---I am not crazy about them either, but I have always hated the Jets more because of what they did to the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl 3. We were all happy that Sara and Nick got to spend time together this weekend. Marti starts radiation again tomorrow afternoon. Barbara is coming tomorrow or tuesday and we are looking forward to seeing her (and the dogs too).
Thanks to everyone
Bob S.

Udate from Bob Shalowitz

Maureen has had a decent week. She radiation to all 3 sites, each day from monday to friday, as well as chemo with taxol on thursday. We had about a one hour meeting with Dr. Pollack, the Radiation Oncologist on wed and this was very helpful. We both are extremely comfortable with him. He also started Marti on a course of decadron (strong type of cortisone) to try to decrease the pain in her right shoulder. Noreen has been here since sunday and she has been awesome-great sense of humor and great cook, too. We were going to go to the casino last night but it was 0 degrees and we lost our desire to go outside.
Also, Marti had a cat scan of her left hip because of pain---this was done yesterday and I reviewed it with the radiologist, and the rod looks good, and there does not appear to be any cancer in that area--nice to get a piece of good news once in a while.
So we start all over again monday. Thanks to everyone for all the support. She gets tired easily and sometimes suddenly, but her spirits are good.
Best regards,
Bob

Update from Mom via Sara

Hello everyone! I just spoke with my mom and she asked that I write something on the blog -- she is doing well and her spirits are strong...she's completed 2 chemo rounds and is starting her second week of radiation. My aunt Noreen just got up to WV this weekend and will stay for a week. This is short I know, but Mom just wanted to say hello and pass along that she's fighting hard and doing all right.

-Sara

From Bob Shalowitz

Radiation treatment #3 was done today--She is doing fine with that so far--side effects usually start happening about the 3rd week. Chemo #2 is tomorrow--a tough day because she has to get up early, have radiation first at one hospital, then chemo at another hospital.
Pop-Pop Danny used to say "Always something to keep life interesting"--and that is exactly what happened this past sunday night, when Marti broke a tooth! So I got her in with the dentist as an emergency monday morning to get that fixed--about 2 1/2 hours in the chair--and then radiation later that day.
So Anyway, tomorrow is a long and busy day00I will try to update everyone tomorrow night.
Love Bob

From Bob Shalowitz

The first chemo, on thursday was really tough, because, they insisted on doing it very slowly, over 6 hours the first time. It was very enervating for Marti to lay there that long. She was very worn out when she got home.
Fri morning she had more xrays and a cat scan at Dr. Pollack's office as part of the calculations to aim the radiotherapy as accurately as possible. I thought Marti and Kathleen were going to be meeting with Dr. Pollack, but that did not happen.
She did fine last night, Kathleen and I went to the Casino for about an hour and had dinner.
I expect an OK weekend. The radiotherapy is supposed to start monday on a daily basis, with chemo again on thursday.
It is a life saver having Kathleen here, as it is impossible for me to stop working.
Have a nice weekend everybody, and I hope you are having better weather than us.
Love, Bob

Chemo #1 down!

Hello everyone!

I talked to mom today briefly and she sounded great! I was telling her about how my training for my half marathon is going and about the different movies that are out right now -- she is trying to save up strength to be able to go see The King's Speech.

She is in very good spirits and said it has been great having her sister Kathleen there along with my dad -- they have all been getting to spend time together and keep each other positive :-)

That's all for now!

-Sara

From Bob Shalowitz

We had an extensive consult with radiation oncologist Jondavid Pollack yesterday, and Maureen had an hour of measurements, xrays and markings. Dr Pollack works today on plotting the radiation plan and then she goes in for more measurements and a cat scan tomorrow. This is all to make sure the radiation goes to the exact right places and avoids the good areas as much as possible. Radiation treatment may be starting monday, daily for about 5 weeks.
In the meantime, she is starting chemo with taxol this morning. Kathleen arrived last night which is really great.
Again, I am asking everyone not to ask her to go over all this-she had to do it three times on the phone last night. Please check the blog for medical info and call her to discuss typical everyday stuff, argue about politics, etc. I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE EVERYONE'S UNDERSTANDING ON THIS.
Love
Bob

radiation doctor update

I got a brief update from my dad tonight, he will write more later -- Mom's radiation oncologist appointment went well today. Dr. Pollack took many xrays and measurements and he will take more on Friday so that they can determine precisely where to radiate. They plan to begin radiation treatments Monday. They anticipate doing the radiation treatments everyday for 5 weeks on her right shoulder, sternum, and lower back.

My Aunt Kathleen arrived in Wheeling tonight and will stay over the weekend. We're going to need help as the weeks go on with getting Mom to her chemo and radiation treatments, especially as she gets more tired. My dad has to keep working and I live too far away to be there everyday. I have built up a lot of sick leave so I will be able to use it to as necessary to help out.

Thanks for all of your support and love -- we really appreciate it.

-Sara

From Bob Shalowitz

Sara's summary was completely accurate. Maureen will be starting chemo on thursday morning with Taxol, once a week in relatively small doses until Dr. Mehotra sees what she can tolerate. A large dose of IV decadron (strong form of cortisone) is give before the taxol to reduce side effects. OUr appointment with Dr Jondavid Pollack, the Radiation oncologist is at 3:30 this afternoon. He trained at NIH and knows most of Marti's doctors that took care of her in Bethesda. We are very impressed with him, he also is a PhD and has a great personality.
Unfortunately, I can't help being somewhat discouraged by how frail and weak she is now. I hope that this improves as the amount of cancer (tumor burden) shrinks with the treatments.
We also found that she has a very low Vit D level and we are starting a regimen to alleviate that to prevent osteoporosis.
It is very important that people call to discuss everyday stuff, NOT quiz her on her cancer, unless, of course, she brings it up and wants to vent.
Thanks to everyone for their support
Love,
Bob S.

Chemo starting this week

I just got off the phone with my parents and my dad asked me to go ahead and post what they find out at the doctor's appointment today. He will write a more detailed post tomorrow sometime, but here's briefly what happened today. The radiation oncology appointment had to be rescheduled for Wednesday this week, but they were able to see the medical oncologist. Mom will be starting chemotherapy this Thursday. She will be taking Taxol, which is the same drug she had the first time eleven years ago. I was under the impression that Rather than administering it monthly, they will be administering it weekly in smaller doses. The doctor thinks that she will be able to handle it better this way and it has also been shown that this method is more effective at treating the disease as well. As of now, they do not think they will have to install a port to administer the drugs, but that is a possibility depending on how she does with it. Radiation will begin soon as well, but we will find out more information regarding that on Wednesday.

Mom has been extremely tired lately - needing to lay down and rest more than she is awake throughout the day. But she is very positive about this plan and is ready to fight. My Aunt Kathleen will be arriving in West Virginia on Wednesday night and my Aunt Noreen will be coming up from Florida for a few days next week.

We will see what the next few days and weeks will bring, but we are all trying to stay positive and appreciate your love and support as we tackle this as a family and try to help Mom get through it.

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! Mom and Dad had a great weekend with our friends, Marsha and Sheldon Freed. They got to kick back, relax, and enjoy the weekend not thinking about the trials that lie ahead in the upcoming weeks and months. They are back in Wheeling now and have appointments with both the radiation and medical oncologist tomorrow. My dad will write an update after we know more. We appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers.

-Sara