"You've won the race..."

Well, according to Dr. Morris, Meighan has "won the race."  We're not exactly sure what the race is, and how she won it, but it means that she is done with chemo treatments!  Kathy, Meighan's chemo nurse, just came in and told us after her blood work came back her doctors decided she would not be receiving her 6th round of chemo treatment.  Evidently it's not worth the risk of possibly sending her into the hospital to be hooked up on fluids for 24 hours a day and at this point, the implant radiation is going to be the treatment that finishes off her cancer, not the chemo.  Additionally, as challenging as her implant radiation is going to be, it would be counter-productive to knock her even further on her butt than what she already is.  As I so lovingly told her this morning, "It doesn't look like you've hit a wall, it looks like you've hit ten walls and then were broadsided by a truck..."  She is feeling pretty good in regards to her nausea and discomfort, but she is physically exhausted and barely has the energy to get up the stairs.  I told her the problem isn't her treatments, it's that she is out of shape.  So I've decided we are having a workout session when we get home this afternoon...there is a large hill by our house.  I think six trips up the hill will be a good start followed by some ab work.


With chemo out of the way, we can officially set our sights on the implant radiation treatments, which start on Monday, November 7th.  It will be five rounds of treatment starting on Monday, and continuing Wednesday, Monday, Wednesday, and Monday.  This type of treatment will be a high high dose of radiation delivered for a short time directly to the cancer cells.  As Dr. Duckert explained to us (more so to me, the biology teacher) cancer cells are most susceptible to the radiation at different times of their growth and development.  And all cancer cells aren't in the same phase of development at the same time.  If you would like a more detailed, biological explanation, don't be afraid to ask but I will spare you the "boredom" as Meighan described it.  If the treatment is done only once then you run the risk of targeting cells that aren't susceptible to radiation.  Five treatments  are needed to increase the chances of targeting the susceptible cells.  The actual radiation treatment won't take too much time as she will only be exposed to the radiation for a total of 6-10 minutes on each day.  The problem with the implant radiation is the preparation work that needs to be done by Meighan and by her radiologist.

Meighan will be on a clear liquid diet for the 24 hours before the treatment.  I'm sure this will really bulk up her already small--and getting smaller frame.  The implant radiation is an out-patient procedure, which will require her to be put under a "light" general anesthesia--Michael Jackson's drug of choice, according to her radiologist.  On the day of the treatment she needs to be to the hospital by around 7:00, which will not be easy for her.  Once she is here, they need to do some preparation work before she is put under.  Once she is given the anesthesia , she will remain under for about 4-5 hours!

Why so long?  If she is only receiving the actual radiation treatment for 6-10 minutes, why does she need to be out for 4+ hours?  Well, once she is under they are actually going to wheel her to a different location in the hospital to have a CT Scan performed.  This is necessary for the radiologist to determine the "physics" of the implant radiation.  He needs to determine exactly where to place it, and calculate how much of a radiation dose she is going to receive on that day.  Obviously it is a very complicated procedure but it goes way beyond "sticking a device up there" and turning it on.  Obviously Dr. Duckert was very happy that the tumor is rapidly shrinking for our sake and Meighan's health, but I know he was equally happy for his own sake.  With a smaller tumor he isn't going to need to place the implant radiation so incredibly close to her bladder, ureters, and sigmoid colon, which was a very real concern a couple of weeks ago.  That's great news to all parties concerned because the implant radiation can cause some serious problems to those areas and have long-term side effects.

Meighan here to wrap things up.  I've never been much of a runner, so I think this is the first race I've won (well besides some 7 flight hurdle races in junior high.)  I definitely don't feel like I've won a race, but rather ran a really long race and have nothing left in me.  They keep pumping me full of fluids, and I'm also drinking lots of fluids to hopefully gain a little more energy.  I told my nurse yesterday, "I feel my best (pretty good actually) when I'm laying down."  She said, "Yeah, that's not good."  I thought it was good that I actually felt good at some point?  As Jerrid said, I don't have any nausea or discomfort (this is good) just zero energy.  The littlest tasks take it all out of me and I'm down for the count again, so hopefully this issue starts to look up soon before implant radiation starts on Monday. 

Yesterday, after four hours of fluids I went down for radiation.  This weeks radiation is a little different than it has been.  They have narrowed the field they are treating since my tumor is responding so well.  My mom and Aunt Nancy were with me and they got to talk to Dr. Duckert.  He told them that my tumor doesn't like radiation, is "melting away", and has "drastically reduced."  It never really gets old hearing these sorts of things!

Even though I'm not getting my last chemo treatment today, I am enjoying spending some quality with my husband.  Through all of this you'd think we'd get a lot of time together as I really haven't left the house much, but that isn't the case.  He is always so busy caring for me, caring for Brayden, caring for Mogi, doing laundry, picking up the house, trying to catch a mouse (don't even get me started), coaching, planning, grading, teaching, and the list goes on while I am so busy laying in bed.  Our schedules just really aren't matching up, so today is nice and a great way to end chemo treatments!