Wednesday, 18 July

Karen was in the hospital yesterday for about 12 hours; thankfully all went well so I was able to bring her home. Due to the chemotherapy’s affects on platelets (clotting mechanism in the blood) it’s not uncommon to need a transfusion of platelets only during treatment. Chemotherapy attacks most rapidly dividing cells (bad ones and good ones) in the body and Gemzar (chemotherapy Karen is taking now) is especially tough on platelet counts. The transfusion center at Northside (a city within itself) is state of the art and very nicely appointed with many of the comforts of home.

The next and final procedure on the schedule was a lumbar puncture. One of the last things to be ruled out (hopefully) is if the numbness, tingling and general loss of muscle control Karen was experiencing last week was due to cancer cells being present in the spinal fluid. The result of this procedure will tell the doctors this information. If the cells are there, then more steps are necessary if Karen chooses to treat the cancer. I won’t go any further on this subject because I praying for a break for Karen asking there to be no cancer cells present (now or ever) in this area of her body.

She is scheduled for a visit with the oncologist on Thursday, 19 July. At this time it should be for the usual testing and another infusion of chemotherapy. She is scheduled next week to see a neurosurgeon to discuss the cancer in the brain and depending on the results from the lumbar puncture what next steps are available to treat any cancer present in the spinal fluid.

Today, she is having some pain from where the lumbar procedure was performed and has been extremely nauseated. Please pray for her to be able to eat without getting sick and continue to pray for healing, wisdom, peace and rest.

Until next time…