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.