Sigh gasp smile sigh gulp smile scream.
the tumors are reduced by 1/3. that's 33.33.33333333%
holy fucking terrific!!!
So we are just so so happy over here, I can't tell you.
the phone has been ringing off the hook, people stopping by the whole nine. its so great.
But there is still a lot to do before we are completely ready to celebrate.
Next week we will start the "heavy duty" chemo. the theory is, kick em while they're down. We weaken the little bastards and then hit them with the big guns and blast them to smithereens- and that just what we aim to do.
We are all really looking forward to getting her healthy and getting all this behind us, but we still have a little while to go before we get there...
For now I have got get off this computer and go get dinner on the table and get her fed (thank you gracie for cooking for us).
I will write more with all the details tomorrow. But for now, just know that all your big bad voodoo daddy vibes have worked.
so keep em comin!
thanks all
Chase
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sunday, May 20, 2007
CLAUDETTE UPDATE
Hello all,
Greetings from the Carter clan. It is a overcast Sunday morning and we are all having a lazy quiet morning.
Things are going along fine here- I haven't written for a while because I wanted to have some fun little antidote for you all, but the truth is, there isn't a whole lot around here that is particularly fun or antidotal.
We wake up around 7, have our chemo pill, have breakfast about an hour later. Nap a little, shower, rest. Vitamins, protein shake, lunch, maybe a doctors visit, maybe a visitor at the house, the mail comes, we get cards and presents from all you amazing people. I do laundry, dad does dishes, Carter and Nikky make a snack from all the leftovers, around 4 the doorbell rings and Gracie or Mimi or Gail or Brett or Brad and Molly arrive with dinner for us (they are true champions that lot)... we have dinner. We rest. Perhaps a movie, still more pills, and then it's bed, and time to do it all again.
The only real thing that changes around here is how Claudette feels. Some days we wake up and her neck doesn't hurt too bad and the headache is mild. Other days not so much. And so we maintain. We rub tiger balm and put moist heat, she sits in her favorite chair, and spends a lot of time in bed. (more than she would like, she would love to be out and about, taking long walks with the dog and getting fresh air.) But we're not quite there. So we remain patient.
Tate and I and the cats moved in downstairs. I was arriving at 7am and leaving at 11pm, it just seemed easier to stay here- and Tate is my hero, cuz he just came along... he walks joey now... he's such a good man.
Dad is starting a job this week, which is a distraction that I think is well deserved. He had a fantastic art opening this weekend at the Santa Monica Museum of Art on Friday night- there was such a good turn out and his work looked really really great, I was extremely proud of him.
And finally, and this is not such a small little note. We sold the house. And in the next few months we have to move. (Ha! Thats still just about the funniest thing I have ever heard.) Before mom's diagnosis we accepted an offer on the house in Santa Monica and being that this is a shit market, and it's a good offer, we have decided to move forward. We have identified a building in Basalt to buy as an office and a studio. And on July 15th when we close on this house we will move into a house that we are going to rent for 6 months or so. Meanwhile the front apartment in my building is coming up, so we will renovate that and when that is done they will move in there.
Sound easy enough right?
Honestly its the best thing. It is long past time to downsize, and mom can lie in bed and think about moving and packing and what furniture will go where (which is her favorite thing to do) instead of wondering if some random pain in her foot is a worsening of her condition.... she is thinking about the future and getting better. Because she knows that even though we will do a good job in moving her, she knows she had better hurry up and get better, else leave the decorating to us!
As for now, we are in a waiting period. Just taking the Tarceva (the chemo) and waiting until the 29th of this month when we go in and have our big doctors appointment. We get blood work, a new cat scan, and another dose of Zometa (the bone strengthening drug).
So if you are one of the people that has offered to help or wants to help or whatever, I have a job for you:
Send your serious good vibes to us on the 29th. We need all the love and light and positivity and other new agey hocus pocus voodoo shit we can get... that scan is gonna tell us so much. With any luck the tumors will have shrunk, and in the words of Dr Natale, "if this drug works, we are home free".
So heres to freedom.
Thanks all for the support,
until next time, as always, we will remain,
the carters.
ps: I attached a sketch dad did last week.
Greetings from the Carter clan. It is a overcast Sunday morning and we are all having a lazy quiet morning.
Things are going along fine here- I haven't written for a while because I wanted to have some fun little antidote for you all, but the truth is, there isn't a whole lot around here that is particularly fun or antidotal.
We wake up around 7, have our chemo pill, have breakfast about an hour later. Nap a little, shower, rest. Vitamins, protein shake, lunch, maybe a doctors visit, maybe a visitor at the house, the mail comes, we get cards and presents from all you amazing people. I do laundry, dad does dishes, Carter and Nikky make a snack from all the leftovers, around 4 the doorbell rings and Gracie or Mimi or Gail or Brett or Brad and Molly arrive with dinner for us (they are true champions that lot)... we have dinner. We rest. Perhaps a movie, still more pills, and then it's bed, and time to do it all again.
The only real thing that changes around here is how Claudette feels. Some days we wake up and her neck doesn't hurt too bad and the headache is mild. Other days not so much. And so we maintain. We rub tiger balm and put moist heat, she sits in her favorite chair, and spends a lot of time in bed. (more than she would like, she would love to be out and about, taking long walks with the dog and getting fresh air.) But we're not quite there. So we remain patient.
Tate and I and the cats moved in downstairs. I was arriving at 7am and leaving at 11pm, it just seemed easier to stay here- and Tate is my hero, cuz he just came along... he walks joey now... he's such a good man.
Dad is starting a job this week, which is a distraction that I think is well deserved. He had a fantastic art opening this weekend at the Santa Monica Museum of Art on Friday night- there was such a good turn out and his work looked really really great, I was extremely proud of him.
And finally, and this is not such a small little note. We sold the house. And in the next few months we have to move. (Ha! Thats still just about the funniest thing I have ever heard.) Before mom's diagnosis we accepted an offer on the house in Santa Monica and being that this is a shit market, and it's a good offer, we have decided to move forward. We have identified a building in Basalt to buy as an office and a studio. And on July 15th when we close on this house we will move into a house that we are going to rent for 6 months or so. Meanwhile the front apartment in my building is coming up, so we will renovate that and when that is done they will move in there.
Sound easy enough right?
Honestly its the best thing. It is long past time to downsize, and mom can lie in bed and think about moving and packing and what furniture will go where (which is her favorite thing to do) instead of wondering if some random pain in her foot is a worsening of her condition.... she is thinking about the future and getting better. Because she knows that even though we will do a good job in moving her, she knows she had better hurry up and get better, else leave the decorating to us!
As for now, we are in a waiting period. Just taking the Tarceva (the chemo) and waiting until the 29th of this month when we go in and have our big doctors appointment. We get blood work, a new cat scan, and another dose of Zometa (the bone strengthening drug).
So if you are one of the people that has offered to help or wants to help or whatever, I have a job for you:
Send your serious good vibes to us on the 29th. We need all the love and light and positivity and other new agey hocus pocus voodoo shit we can get... that scan is gonna tell us so much. With any luck the tumors will have shrunk, and in the words of Dr Natale, "if this drug works, we are home free".
So heres to freedom.
Thanks all for the support,
until next time, as always, we will remain,
the carters.
ps: I attached a sketch dad did last week.
Monday, May 14, 2007
STRANGE SIDE EFFECT
5/14/07
bizarrely,the radiation has must have been more powerful than we anticipated....
Hope you all had a nice mothers day.
We are doing just fine over here!
We go to see the doctor today, so when I have more news to report, I will.
Much love
Chase.
bizarrely,the radiation has must have been more powerful than we anticipated....
Hope you all had a nice mothers day.
We are doing just fine over here!
We go to see the doctor today, so when I have more news to report, I will.
Much love
Chase.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
CHEMO ROUND ONE
Hello to all our incredibly supportive and caring friends,
Today was our first round of Chemo and I am very pleased to report that it all went remarkably well. We spent several hours at The out-patient Cancer Center at Cedars Sinai. We were there from about 8am to 5pm. We had a private room, with a TV and a DVD player and mom was in a bed (as opposed to a recliner chair which is what most chemo patients are in). It was actually, a totally pleasant experience. We watched a couple of movies in our fancy room, I did the morning shift, Dad and Nikky came for the afternoon shift... it was relatively pleasant.
And so mom actually felt better today... the side effects (if and when we get them) will happen in the next few days... hair will fall out in the next few weeks... but right now she feels great. She is as peppy and happy as I have seen her in weeks. Which, is really welcome because we had a pretty hard weekend- a lot of pain, anxiety about today, nervousness, and non stop, serious head aches. I wouldn't say that the pain as any worse than it's been for a while, it's just that the consistency is unrelenting. And THAT is the rub. Imagine- having a stiff neck and a head ache for three months straight. It's getting pretty old, and she has just about had enough.
That being said, as I write this now, she is sitting up with Dad, Carter and Nikky, not in pain, and downright agreeable. We are enjoying tonight.
One thing I want to tell you all, because a lot have people have been asking, is that we ARE seeing a nutritionist, and we are on tons of supplements and she IS doing a protein shake. She is also seeing a acupuncturist several times a week. Dr Ha is his name. We love Dr Ha. He is a Chinese acupuncturist that is amazing- he makes mom feel so much better. He is like a human fortune cookie- he says the greatest things that make us smile...
The main thing that we are dealing with right now is that her neck still hurts like a mother fucker. And it's not just her neck. The stiff neck causes a headache, and so she gets in bed to relieve the headache and she gets a stiff back and then she tries to take a walk to relive the back and that makes her headache worse, and it goes on and on and on, and all she can do, literally, is stay in bed. And, if you know my mom, you can imagine why that just doesn't work for her. And so, it's painful, and obviously frustrating.
Her further frustration is, that she wants to get physical therapy, because, before the cancer diagnosis PT (Physical Therapy) was the only thing that gave her any relief. But since we discovered the tumor, we have not been (at doctors advising) doing PT. Claudette is (as many of you know she can be) CONVINCED that PT will help and she will tell just about any doctor or nurse she can get her hands on all about how right she is and how wrong all her doctors are. (which they probably are but I tend to agree with the people with degrees...)
But Claudette, as she always has, knows what is best for herself- and I am pretty sure that she will get her way in the end- even if we have smack a few doctors around to do so.
But thats what we love about her isn't it?
Other than all of that- the move is on- we have one of 11 rooms packed. Good god. Angela Foster is coming this week and I am looking forward to giving Dad and I some quiet time before the real shit hits the proverbial fan. Tate, the cats and I are moving back home for now- and hopefully mom will be strong enough, soon enough so we don't have to move back in. (not that its bad here, but home is always home).
And so.
We will keep you posted- people always say cancer sucks, it's brutal and long, it's a fight, and you have your good days and your bad days.
And I guess I never knew what that meant. I mean, how could I? But its true. All of it.
But the support helps. And we know the treatment is working now, and that helps. And the good days help, and so does all your friendship.
So thank you.
Till next time,
as you already know,
we will remain,
The Carters.
ps- Attached is what dad made this week.
Today was our first round of Chemo and I am very pleased to report that it all went remarkably well. We spent several hours at The out-patient Cancer Center at Cedars Sinai. We were there from about 8am to 5pm. We had a private room, with a TV and a DVD player and mom was in a bed (as opposed to a recliner chair which is what most chemo patients are in). It was actually, a totally pleasant experience. We watched a couple of movies in our fancy room, I did the morning shift, Dad and Nikky came for the afternoon shift... it was relatively pleasant.
And so mom actually felt better today... the side effects (if and when we get them) will happen in the next few days... hair will fall out in the next few weeks... but right now she feels great. She is as peppy and happy as I have seen her in weeks. Which, is really welcome because we had a pretty hard weekend- a lot of pain, anxiety about today, nervousness, and non stop, serious head aches. I wouldn't say that the pain as any worse than it's been for a while, it's just that the consistency is unrelenting. And THAT is the rub. Imagine- having a stiff neck and a head ache for three months straight. It's getting pretty old, and she has just about had enough.
That being said, as I write this now, she is sitting up with Dad, Carter and Nikky, not in pain, and downright agreeable. We are enjoying tonight.
One thing I want to tell you all, because a lot have people have been asking, is that we ARE seeing a nutritionist, and we are on tons of supplements and she IS doing a protein shake. She is also seeing a acupuncturist several times a week. Dr Ha is his name. We love Dr Ha. He is a Chinese acupuncturist that is amazing- he makes mom feel so much better. He is like a human fortune cookie- he says the greatest things that make us smile...
The main thing that we are dealing with right now is that her neck still hurts like a mother fucker. And it's not just her neck. The stiff neck causes a headache, and so she gets in bed to relieve the headache and she gets a stiff back and then she tries to take a walk to relive the back and that makes her headache worse, and it goes on and on and on, and all she can do, literally, is stay in bed. And, if you know my mom, you can imagine why that just doesn't work for her. And so, it's painful, and obviously frustrating.
Her further frustration is, that she wants to get physical therapy, because, before the cancer diagnosis PT (Physical Therapy) was the only thing that gave her any relief. But since we discovered the tumor, we have not been (at doctors advising) doing PT. Claudette is (as many of you know she can be) CONVINCED that PT will help and she will tell just about any doctor or nurse she can get her hands on all about how right she is and how wrong all her doctors are. (which they probably are but I tend to agree with the people with degrees...)
But Claudette, as she always has, knows what is best for herself- and I am pretty sure that she will get her way in the end- even if we have smack a few doctors around to do so.
But thats what we love about her isn't it?
Other than all of that- the move is on- we have one of 11 rooms packed. Good god. Angela Foster is coming this week and I am looking forward to giving Dad and I some quiet time before the real shit hits the proverbial fan. Tate, the cats and I are moving back home for now- and hopefully mom will be strong enough, soon enough so we don't have to move back in. (not that its bad here, but home is always home).
And so.
We will keep you posted- people always say cancer sucks, it's brutal and long, it's a fight, and you have your good days and your bad days.
And I guess I never knew what that meant. I mean, how could I? But its true. All of it.
But the support helps. And we know the treatment is working now, and that helps. And the good days help, and so does all your friendship.
So thank you.
Till next time,
as you already know,
we will remain,
The Carters.
ps- Attached is what dad made this week.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
CLAUDETTE #2
5/3/07
Hi All-
Thanks to everyone who has been sending flowers, emails ,phoning in, mailing ,coming by etc etc. All the support has been really overwhelming and much appreciated. Claudette wants you all to know how much she is touched by this outpouring of love. It has helped us build a great positive vibe around here! Hope you all will excuse the mass emailing of this info but it's impossible to call everyone individually given the numbers of people who want to know how Claudette is doing. So....
To update every one from the last email, Claudette continues to feel better each day. Of course some days are better than others and we will surley have our share of fucked up, miserable days ahead. All your support helps us get thru these times.
The last of the 10 Radiation treatments was yesterday (Wed 4-2) They have apparently helped her quite a bit because her pain has become much less, much more manageable and the Vicodin much more palatable. She is really alert, lucid, mobile and thinking clearly. (She is already thinking and planning real estate deals! Yikes.)
We had a very good meeting with Dr. Ronald Natale at the Outpatient Cancer Center at Cedars Sinai on Monday. He had been highly recommended to us by a number of folks as the outstanding Lung Cancer specialist in SO CAL. We wanted to get his opinion on her treatment. We were really impressed with him. He spent a lot of time with us and seems to really be on the front lines of treating Lung Cancers. Just as important, he is a nice guy and easy to talk to and is a good listener etc etc. We just feel right with him. So we have started his recommended treatment plan which is somewhat non- standard in design. He has treated many women who have the same disease profile as Claudette. That is, she has a rare type of non-small cell adeno carcinoma that is not smoking related that had spread and she had not had any other chemo treatments before meeting with him. Coincidentally this fit the profile of a class of patients he has had a lot of experience with.
She started taking a drug monday: Tarceva. Which is normally a second line chemo treatment but he has had great success using this immediately in cases like Claudette's as a first line treatment. She will take this for a month and then get re-scanned and we will see where we are. Additional chemo might be necessary or not. There are some side effects with this drug but losing hair or great fatigue are not one of them.
She will also get an intravenous infusion of a drug called Zometa, later today that will help rebuild the damaged C1 vertebrate that has caused all the pain and mobility problems with the neck. We need to get that stabilized asap so this will help do that along with Calcium/D etc.
Next up we will be talking to a few practitioners of more eastern thinking medicines acupuncture and dietary programs designed to help minimize the effects of the Chemo and all the drugs. She is very anxious to get with someone with that knowledge of healing to help her get thru this. We have several recommendations we are considering at this point.
We'd like to thank everyone who has sent along names and info for Doctors and Healers for us to research. There have been a lot, and while it is all a bit overwhelming to sift thru to find the one that are a good fit- we sincerely appreciate all the support.
At the moment she is having a little nap. We just had some lunch and she took her mid day meds. (her appetite has been good so far). We re-sorted all the flowers a little earlier- making new arrangements, to keep the flowers around as long as we can- they are all so beautiful! We had a walk around the block this morning, and took a brief drive to look at a couple of properties this afternoon.
All things considered we are doing really well and taking excellent care of each other.
A special thanks to all our local friends who have been bringing dinner by for us each night. It's such a treat to be loved so much.
So thank you all, and know that we will be in touch again soon.
Much love, and until next time we will remain,
the carters.
Hi All-
Thanks to everyone who has been sending flowers, emails ,phoning in, mailing ,coming by etc etc. All the support has been really overwhelming and much appreciated. Claudette wants you all to know how much she is touched by this outpouring of love. It has helped us build a great positive vibe around here! Hope you all will excuse the mass emailing of this info but it's impossible to call everyone individually given the numbers of people who want to know how Claudette is doing. So....
To update every one from the last email, Claudette continues to feel better each day. Of course some days are better than others and we will surley have our share of fucked up, miserable days ahead. All your support helps us get thru these times.
The last of the 10 Radiation treatments was yesterday (Wed 4-2) They have apparently helped her quite a bit because her pain has become much less, much more manageable and the Vicodin much more palatable. She is really alert, lucid, mobile and thinking clearly. (She is already thinking and planning real estate deals! Yikes.)
We had a very good meeting with Dr. Ronald Natale at the Outpatient Cancer Center at Cedars Sinai on Monday. He had been highly recommended to us by a number of folks as the outstanding Lung Cancer specialist in SO CAL. We wanted to get his opinion on her treatment. We were really impressed with him. He spent a lot of time with us and seems to really be on the front lines of treating Lung Cancers. Just as important, he is a nice guy and easy to talk to and is a good listener etc etc. We just feel right with him. So we have started his recommended treatment plan which is somewhat non- standard in design. He has treated many women who have the same disease profile as Claudette. That is, she has a rare type of non-small cell adeno carcinoma that is not smoking related that had spread and she had not had any other chemo treatments before meeting with him. Coincidentally this fit the profile of a class of patients he has had a lot of experience with.
She started taking a drug monday: Tarceva. Which is normally a second line chemo treatment but he has had great success using this immediately in cases like Claudette's as a first line treatment. She will take this for a month and then get re-scanned and we will see where we are. Additional chemo might be necessary or not. There are some side effects with this drug but losing hair or great fatigue are not one of them.
She will also get an intravenous infusion of a drug called Zometa, later today that will help rebuild the damaged C1 vertebrate that has caused all the pain and mobility problems with the neck. We need to get that stabilized asap so this will help do that along with Calcium/D etc.
Next up we will be talking to a few practitioners of more eastern thinking medicines acupuncture and dietary programs designed to help minimize the effects of the Chemo and all the drugs. She is very anxious to get with someone with that knowledge of healing to help her get thru this. We have several recommendations we are considering at this point.
We'd like to thank everyone who has sent along names and info for Doctors and Healers for us to research. There have been a lot, and while it is all a bit overwhelming to sift thru to find the one that are a good fit- we sincerely appreciate all the support.
At the moment she is having a little nap. We just had some lunch and she took her mid day meds. (her appetite has been good so far). We re-sorted all the flowers a little earlier- making new arrangements, to keep the flowers around as long as we can- they are all so beautiful! We had a walk around the block this morning, and took a brief drive to look at a couple of properties this afternoon.
All things considered we are doing really well and taking excellent care of each other.
A special thanks to all our local friends who have been bringing dinner by for us each night. It's such a treat to be loved so much.
So thank you all, and know that we will be in touch again soon.
Much love, and until next time we will remain,
the carters.
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