A trip to Colorado, new chemo begins

Tue 05/27/08
We returned from a terrific visit to Colorado where we attended the wedding of our niece Heather Romberg and her new husband Nathan Tebedo. They had a beautiful courtyard ceremony overlooking a picturesque valley near Palmer Lake in Monument CO. Lexie and I had the privilege of singing our first duet together at their reception. Susan had a bit of a trip-buster brewing on Thursday afternoon due to swollen ankles that raised the concern of blood clots. After a hastily-arranged ultrasound revealed no clots, she was cleared to travel. The swelling is caused by her high-dose steroids.

The whole weekend was another great family event that reunited Rombergs, Shipleys, Underwoods, and others, including lots of young and young-adult kids. We also had some precious time with Susan’s cousin Kelly (O’Toole) and James Dykema and my cousin Stephanie (Joeckel) and Gabe Arcuri. Colorado’s stunning views are everywhere and an obvious reason why so many want to live there, although my uncle Ray Joeckel said he moved from CO to CA after forty years because you don’t have to shovel rain.

I took part in a couple of “how’s it going?” conversations concerning Susan’s condition, one with Dwayne Underwood at Brian & Nancy’s and another with Stephie and Gabe on Sunday at their home in Brighton. Dwayne happened to be in LA the week after her first surgery at LB Memorial and spent many hours over several days in attending his lifelong friend. My cousin Stephie and Susan are both breast cancer survivors and share a special kinship in their experiences. It was good to be connected with them again. We’re so grateful for their love and support.

While we were in Colorado on Saturday, I received a call from Floyd DeBoer letting me know his wife Joanne’s brain cancer has continued to advance. She is on hospice care and may pass away any day. Floyd thanked me for our calls and visits and wanted to let me know how much they helped Joanne and him. He said she’s sleeping most of the time and not able to communicate much. He said even in this state she’s still here, and he’ll miss her terribly when she’s gone. We prayed together on the phone and I hoped we could see her at least on more time. Susan and I were able to visit them tonight, meet some of their family and pray together. We were so impressed to see how Floyd is trusting God with the outcome and how the peace of Christ is present with them for strength.

Wed 05/28/08
This was a big day scheduled for Susan at UCLA with a 7:30am MRI, a 9:00am blood draw, a 9:30am neuro-oncology visit, and an 11:00am chemo infusion. The day went well overall with good MRI results and a smooth chemo infusion. The nurse couldn’t get any blood return from Susan’s new port catheter, so we had to revert to a stick in the arm from the phlebotomist – a point of confusion for Susan since the reason it was implanted was for blood draws and infusions. We were told that once in a while a new catheter doesn’t work properly the first time. Later, a nurse got it flowing both ways, so we should be in good shape for next time. The good news from our visit with Dr. Nghiemphu is that the tumor has not grown since over the past month. The high-dose decadron has done its job to counter swelling, but it’s only a stop-gap measure until the CPT-11/Avastin therapy begins to work.

The chemo infusion is quite the process – saline to flush the line, heparin to prevent clotting, Zofran for nausea, and then a bag of Avastin followed by a bag of CPT-11. The whole deal takes about 3 hours. We were told to watch for possible side effects like bleeding and high blood pressure with Avastin and nausea and severe diarrhea with CPT-11. Both drugs can lower blood counts because the production of blood in the bone marrow gets suppressed. Fewer white cells (neutropenia) compromise the immune system and can lead to infection; fewer red cells (anemia) can increase fatigue; and fewer platelets (thrombocytopenia) prevent clotting and can lead to bleeding. Now we appreciate how mild the side effects of the oral Temodar were. Aside from the fact that it cuts off blood flow to tumors, one thing I like about Avastin is that its generic name (bevacizumab) reads about as easily backwards as it does forwards (bamuzicaveb).

In a surreal moment on the 405 freeway near Culver City, John McCain and I waved at each other today. Traffic was crawling on both sides of the freeway as we moved southbound in the left lane at about 4pm. I saw a CHP motorcycle escort creating space in front of some vehicles across the low wall in the opposite northbound lane. Knowing McCain is in LA today, wondered aloud to Susan if it could be his motorcade. I lowered my window and we slowly passed several CHP and dark sedans filled with serious-looking men in suits. In a moment, as we paused next to a Chevy Suburban without darkened windows, I found myself exchanging glances with the candidate behind our respective sunglasses. I waved at him. He waved at me. Then we moved along. A charter bus brought up the rear of the procession. Only in LA, I guess.

We were so saddened to get an email from Jayne Nord today saying Jeff’s brain tumor has continued to grow in spite of the latest chemo treatments and there is nothing more the doctors can do. They are recommending hospice care for Jeff and have estimated his survival at a couple of months. This news just took our breath away. It’s just crushing. We love our friend Jeff and his wife Jayne and their children. We commend them to God while continuing to ask for a God-glorifying, miraculous healing if that’s His will. Even though heaven is far greater, it’s hard to accept the end of the fight for this life. We pray for mercy and peace.