Saturday-Happy news!

Yesterday was exhausting but we did get good news. The radiologist Dr. Crawford showed us the x-rays of mom's lung and it is much clearer now than it was, so it is opening up for her to breathe better. He gave mom the option to wait on doing more radiation or going ahead with more, the benefit to continuing it was making sure it remained clear. Mom said do whatever you gotta do! So we have more markings for radiation scheduled, followed by actual radiation. The oncologist Dr. Razia tested her white blood cell count and it was fine, so that was more good news. Razia set up her next chemo which will be in less than 2 weeks. She will be doing it in utica right at slocum dickson. Mom is getting some more side effects more sores and thrush, I believe that was from chemo. She also has a very sore throat from the radiation but she has this cool new medicine for that which she can take 3 x a day.

Dad Update

Got some good news yesterday about Dad. He did NOT have a heart attack on Wednesday, even though it had all the appropriate signs. He had chest pain that started moving up his neck and into his jaw. He got the nurse's attention and received nitro right away so that it probably helped to avoid any further problems. His doctor referred to it as an "episode" and they still plan to do a chemical stress test today, but if the results of that don't show any anomalies, then he may get to go home later today. If he doesn't get out by tomorrow, he'll likely be stuck all weekend because they don't have a lot of activity on the weekend.

More later once we have more details.........

Wednesday

Sorry I am slacking with updating, been busy. Everything is going ok, last radiation thursday with an appointment friday with the radiation guy. He will let us know when the radiation will continue. There is also an appointment with razia the oncologist friday so that will be a big day with lots of talking about lots of important stuff. Mom is doing ok, she has started losing some hair. We are getting on the whole cutting of the wig thing soon. I will most likely update again saturday morning when I come to work. Please continue to pray for mom, dad and anne. Also please pray for the rest of us cause our luck is getting pretty bad lately.

Craig's dad

Well if all hasn't been bad for this family - now Ron is in the hospital too. He went in on Friday with pnemonia and had a heart attack while in the hospital on Tuesday. Please keep him in your prayers as well.

WE were able to visit with Liz, Jen, Tim and TJ over the weekend - it was a lot of fun. Nate had a blast with his cousin, grandma and aunt Jen and Uncle Tim. He was able to play with some of TJ"s trains too.

Liz seemed to be doing really well over the weekend. Tired of course - but it was a nice visit. We even got to see Uncle Bill too.

Again - keep the whole Backus clan in your prayers.
Gail

Saturday

Mom is doing a little better. She was picking up her room this morning, sorting things so that is a good sign. She is having a hard time right now because she can't go see Anne in the hospital. For those who don't know Anne is in the CCU at St. Lukes and she is not doing all that well. Mom can't go due to all the germs. Mom is scheduled for radiation up to thursday and then thursday or friday she meets with a doctor to see where we go from there.

Thursday

Mom was tired today becuase TJ was up last night with nightmares so none of us slept too well. Plus she has been more nauseous. Luckily they gave her a pill for that too and it seems to be helping. She actually made two phone calls today so I was impressed but then she was exhausted.

New Nate picture

Ok - when on the blog - go to the family photo link. the "album" is - 200604 - its from Easter Sunday most are showing Nate with his cousing Travis and the easter egg hunt and blowing bubbles (our newest favorite thing). Note the LONG shirt Nate is wearing outside. We left the house that morning in a rush and forgot his jacket. So good thing Uncle Marcus could lend Nate a t-shirt to wear for a little warmth. Too funny - it was HUGE.

Talked to Liz last night too - that was good. Finally good to hear her voice. She's getting more energy - but sounds great. We are excited to go visit her this weekend - we'll see her Saturday morning.

Enjoy the pictures and please continue your prayers for Liz!
Love,
Gail
PS _ today is Craig's Birthday - he's again 1 year older than me! yeah

Wednesday

Mom was slightly better today. She was awake a little longer after her treatment. She is making a good effort at eating enough she is just not that into eating many different things. Cheerios or rice crispies with bananas rock right now.

Jen

Tuesday

Today was mom's first radiation in herkimer and it went fine. She will be going Mon-Fri at 9:30 am. She is still very, very tired. I have been busy with mom and TJ too since this was spring break week (bad timing for that). I am just making sure she eats at least something now and then and gets her meds when needed. She really isn't up for phone calls at all, she isn't awake long enough yet. I hope she gets a bit of energy by friday.

Jen

Good - NO.... GREAT NEWS

Liz is home! She came home from the hospital today. We are all very thankful. It sounds like the radiation and chemo treatments have her tired out. But in my mind - unfortunately that will be normal. And in my mind - SHE IS HOME! So that has to be GREAT NEWS! I can't see how they would let her go home if she wasn't doing good at least. So we are all very happy.

Craig, Nate and I are planning to head out to the valley this weekend to visit for a while. We are excited she will be home and hopefully up for some quiet visits with us all. Yeah - I know - Nate being quiet - won't be easy. But I'm sure it will be a happier noise than the hospital.

Please continue to keep Liz in your prayers and the whole family. Especially Craig, Jen and TJ right now. I think having Liz home will really be good for TJ to see her every day again. And pray for Liz's doctors that they have the guidance they need to treat Liz to a full recovery. We are all expecting that at the moment.

Love,
Gail

Mom is Home!

Yesterday mom was not doing well, just feeling the effects of the chemo. She was extremely tired and nauseous . Today mom was able to come home. She is still very tired and not really up to visitors for at least a few days. Phone calls will probably be short since she is so tired. I am glad to have her home where she can get some good rest without the hospital noises going on. She will continue radiation at the herkimer clinic monday through friday most likely. We will find out tomorrow. Thanks in advance for everyones continued prayers.

Bad Day Yesterday

After talking to Mom for about an hour late Saturday night, I thought that things were on a positive course as she seemed to not have any side effects from the chemo. She mentioned that she took some newer drugs that were intended to diminish the side effects from the chemo, and we thought they were really doing their job.

I tried calling last night between 8.30 and 9.00 and didn't get an answer, so I tried Jen on her cell phone. She said that Mom wasn't up to taking any phone calls yesterday. She was feeling really nauseous and tired. She was normally hosting a constant stream of visitors and phone calls, but yesterday she needed to rest. Hopefully it will pass in a couple days and then she'll have a couple weeks to recover before she has to have it again.

Craig

Treatments have started

I spoke to Mom last night, and she sounded good. She had the latest round of radiation treatment during the afternoon, and then the first chemo treatment afterward. She said that there were two IV bags of fluid that they infused and each bag took about an hour. She might feel some side effects today, but they have many new medicines available now that weren't around 10 year's ago, so the side effects will hopefully be minimal.

Mom's best friend, Anne Tanguay, has been staying at the St. Luke's Home which is just across the parking lot from the hospital. She has been having a rough time with her dialysis lately, but is determined to visit Mom today. I guess Anne's sister DiDi is going to come and get her and have one of the doctor's sign off so that Anne can go on the visit. Anne has designs on a great escape from the whole hospital scene, but I think they both require additional care, and are getting the help they need.

We added Jen as an official contributor to the blog, so that we won't have confusion like we did the other day when a number of people thought I popped over from Michigan on Thursday to go with Mom to Faxton. Jen will be able to post under her own identity now so it will be easy to know who is who.

With tomorrow being Easter, there will be lots of people in church tomorrow, so anyone that has a church with prayer lists, please make sure that Mom is on there. Maybe it will be like at the beginning of "It's a Wonderful Life" and so many people will be praying for her that God won't know what else to do but deliver us a miracle!

Happy Easter!

Love

Craig

Chemo starts today

Mom moved up to the sixth floor at St. Lukes today which specializes in cancer care. The room is set up to accommodate two beds, but right now it only has one, so she'll have some privacy as she recuperates from these procedures. She's going back to Faxton about 2p for the next radiation and that will continue for two weeks. The chemo is a one time thing that will be repeated again in 21 days. I'm sure at some point they'll do additional MRI testing and cat scans to see what impact all this is having, but she's definitely moving forward quickly with the treatments, and we'll hope for the absolute best outcome.

They haven't said anything about going home yet, but depending on how her system reacts to the chemo, it might be possible that she could go home next week. One doctor mentioned to her, "sorry to keep you through the Easter weekend," which seems to me that she might be able to go home soon thereafter. She'll need to get back up to Faxton for the radiation treatments each day, and Jen has been able to arrange her schedule to be there a lot during the day and will be able to assist with transportation. (Good thing she got her driver's license!)

Gail and I will be traveling back to Happy Valley next weekend with Nate, so we're looking forward to spending time with Mom again and letting her see how Nate has grown.

As TJ's almost 5, he's understanding more and knows that something is up, and he's having some difficulties. He seems to have some kind of bug right now as he's running a fever, but the stress has likely impacted his immune system and made him more susceptible to illness. Please include him in your prayers as he's going to need support through all this as well.

Craig

second radiation treatment today

Today mom had her second radiation treatment today. I rode over with her in the ambulance and waiting in the waiting room and she was in and out in about 20 minutes. There has been no talk yet as to when the chemo is starting but the port is there and is ready. It is nice they can run her iv through the port and they don't have to poke her arms or hands anymore. She is in very good spirits and is very positive. She will be moving to the 6th floor which is where the chemo unit is, we are not sure when though.

Jen

Progress

Mom was back to her room at St. Lukes last night. She didn't get to eat anything after breakfast, so she was pretty hungry. She went over to Faxton Hospital in the afternoon for a radiation consultation and treatment. They discussed doing the targeted seed radiation, but the decision was ultimately made to use external radiation. They described it as something similar to the machine that takes the X-Ray at the dentist's office. It's a very targeted tool. She's going to be getting radiation treatments every day in this fashion, but she's not yet certain how long this will continue.

She also had the port installed that will be used for the chemotherapy regimen. She will likely be in the hospital until their at least finished with the radiation and to see how she reacts to the overall treatment plan. If all goes well, she'll be able to go home in between chemo treatments to rest and recuperate.

The staff at the hospital told her that they can't believe how healthy she looks, so we're considering that to be a positive. The radation and chemo will be challenging for her body to take, so it's good that she's in good health otherwise.

Bad News

I'm still hoping for some good news to report, but so far, we just keep getting more bad news...

I spoke to Mom last night and she got the results that the growth on her adrenale gland is also cancerous. She didn't hear any results from the lung tap, but since the cancer has spread to the adrenale gland, then that rules out surgery to remove her lung.

The next step is radiation treatment to hopefully reduce the size of the tumor in her left lung and allow it to function normally again. The concern there is fluid developing in the lung that can't get cleared because it's currently collapsed. After that, she'll start some type of chemotherapy regimen and should be able to do most of that from home.

Her spirits are high and she's going to hang onto every hope for a miracle so that's what we'll all have to hope for.

Tests were run as planned

I spoke to Mom last night, and she sounded good. They were able to do the two tests they had planned for yesterday. They drew some of the fluid that has collected around her left lung, and they did a biopsy of the growth on her adrenale gland. If these are negative for cancer cells, then they'll likely proceed with removing one or both of the left lobes. If they are positive for cancer cells, that means the cancer has spread and they'll move right to chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

We're hoping that the cancer HAS NOT spread, as surgery is the preferred option at this point. Gail read that the non-small cell cancer is slower to advance, but it sounds like this tumor has been growing for some time, and the doctors have just had difficulty in diagnosing it.

We'll just keep thinking positive and hope for the best. The test results should be back by tomorrow, but since they performed the test yesterday morning at 8.30a, then we might hear something back later today.

Latest News

News from this past weekend. We got the news on Friday, and Mom had a lot of visitors this weekend. We got a lot of news, which clarified some earlier issues.

There is a tumor in her left lung which has closed off the windpipe, and the lung collapsed as a result. This made it difficult to determine how big the tumor is at this point. We heard yesterday that it is a non-small cell lung cancer, which is the type which is supposed to be slower to spread, but it's still questionable as to whether or not it has.

There is fluid around the lung which is not typically present, and there is a separate growth on her adrenale gland. Each of these things could be unrelated, or they could also be cancerous. Mom is having both of these tested today. They will be drawing fluid from the lung, and performing a biopsy of the growth on the adrenale gland.

We're hoping that these both come back as negative, which will mean that the cancer has not spread beyond the lung. If not, then it sounds like they plan to do a radiation treatment to reduce the size of the tumor to allow air into the lung. This will reduce the chance of pneumonia developing and allow them a better view of how big it is.

They will then proceed with removing the one or both lobes of the left lung. She has been breathing with one lung all week and by this past weekend, her body has seemed to adapt well, and her pulse ox was normal with no supplemental oxygen and just one lung!

If the cancer has spread, then they will proceed with a combination of radiation and chemotherapy.

The results of today's tests should be available by Wednesday and that will outline what the next steps are.

Please keep her in your prayers and we'll hope for the absolute best. She is determined to beat this and will need lots of support to do so.

Love

Craig

Liz Backus updates

Well here we go again - this sucks. Anyhow - Liz was diagnosed with lung cancer late yesterday - the 7th. We were getting some conflicting information about having to remove her entire left lung and if or how they will do treatments.

The doctors have determined that the cancer has spread and therefore will NOT REmove her lung. So that doesn't sound good. However, they will be doing treatments chemo and probably radiation - I assume all over. We do not know where the cancer has spread at this time.

Liz is staying at FAxton - St. Luke's hosptial in Utica, NY and her room number is 173.

Please tell friends about this website that may know Liz. I realize most people that check may be our family - but we'll pass this along to the Backus gang as well.

Its important we keep her in our prayers - she's a wonderful woman and very strong. If anyone can beat this cancer- its Liz. She's a fighter and has a LOT to look forward to in life and she's young. So we are focusing on all those positives right now.
Love,
Gail