those long promised updates
+ RL: My mom
Like I've mentioned, the lobectomy was successful and her lymph nodes were clear. The semi-glowy things on her CAT scan that they thought may be affected lymph nodes turned out to be her aortic artery. The tumor was just big enough to qualify her as being Stage 1B (it was 3cm and that's the cutoff point). She was stage 1A the first time. The composition of the tumor was quite unusual -- it was primarily adenocarcinoma cells, but there were these things called spindle cells mixed in. My mother's pulmonologist said she's never heard of such a combo before and after doing some research, she found out that is indeed very rare. So, as a result, slides of the tumor have been requested by and sent to universities and research centers all over the nation. Hell, even the Mayo Clinic wanted a piece of the action. I, of course, find this to be awesome. My mom, of course, finds this to be kinda disturbing.
As soon as the mass showed up in her lung, my mother decided to go off of Enbrel, which she had been taking to treat her rheumatoid arthritis. Since RA is an autoimmune disorder, the medications work to basically shut down your immune system in order to slow down the damage. She'd been self-administering the shots since early June, but it didn't seem to do much. Well, not anything good, anyway. See, Enbrel can cause such lovely things as lymphoma and, yes, lung cancer. While her doctors have been hesitant to say whether the drug may have contributed to the tumor growth, that it was so large when they found it may indicate that Enbrel had a hand in the process. So my mom is just taking Celebrex to help with the inflammation and Vicodin to help ease the pain. She has an incredibly high pain tolerance, but the disorder is truly starting to get to her. Her feet no longer hurt as much as they once did (because the damage has been done), but they definitely aren't the prettiest of things and the neuropathy is still quite bad (and permanent). It's starting to really affect her hands now, and she's losing the strength to open things like sealed bottles.
Nonetheless, she is doing remarkably well. She was being stalked by two well-meaning oncologists during her hospital stay. They used to never attempt chemo with adenocarcinoma because it was shown to be ineffective, but they are starting to see some results in recent studies. Problem is that one, it's only a 3-5% increase in survival rate over five years and two, chemo causes peripheral neuropathy. For Stage 1B adenocarcinoma, five-year survival rate is something like 50%, thus the 3-5% increase really isn't worth all the pain and complications of chemo. And the primary oncologist's demeanor completely changed when he found out that my mother already has neuropathy because of her RA. So, yes, chemo is not going to happen. She's unsure about going back to work -- hopefully she'll be able to be disabled-out.
+ RL: Grad School
I managed to earn an A- in Adv. Adult Psychopathology, but I had to take an incomplete in my Learning seminar. I was having major concentration issues this semester (for obvious reasons). I wasn't able to truly concentrate until there was less than a month left of class. I kept putting things off in the seminar because I could, and though I tried to get everything done in time, I eventually admitted defeat.
+ RL: My brother
He entered a rehab center the second week of December and left on New Year's Day. We visited him on Christmas, and he looked wonderful and was doing great. On Saturday, my parents went to see him at his new home in Hollister, and according to my mom, he seemed kinda anxious. He is attending daily AA meetings, though. My mom thinks that he wants/needs to hear our father say that he's proud of him. But my father's an alcoholic and doesn't think he has a problem himself, so we all know that's not going to happen.
+ Fandom: Lost
I haven't watched a single episode this season. I'm officially done with it.
+ Fandom: House
You know, if I had actually known that Robert Sean Leonard was on the show, I would've started watching last season. But the thing is, I didn't know this and so I didn't watch it. My mom watched it and because I had only caught snippets of the show, I thought that House was a complete asshole and therefore, I was turned off. Then I started to think that maybe I should give the it a chance, as my mother kept saying that I would really like it and I knew that several people on my friends list really enjoyed the show. But I still wasn't really decided.
Then I caught "Love Hurts." And saw RSL. And died. And died a tiny bit more during the "you're worried I'm going to break *his* heart?" Cameron-Wilson scene. Then I watched the first few episodes of the current season as they aired. And then I rented the first season, and each episode made me love it a little bit more and by "Babies and Bathwater," I was completely convinced House/Wilson was the slashiest thing ever. I'm now completely and utterly obsessed with the show, which amuses my mother since I was protesting so much before.
+ Fandom: nip/tuck
I saw a promo for the season 2 DVD about a week before my mother's surgery, and you know what caught my eye? Well, the bit that's showcased in my current icon, that's what. Rented the first season and loved it. Then I rented the second season and became obsessed. This all happened in less than two weeks' time. Then I converted my mother to the series and proceeded to watch the majority of the second season and all of the third season with her when I probably should've been doing school-related things. It was bonding experience. She's a Christian-girl, I'm a Sean-girl. She saw all the Ava-stuff coming a mile away. She doesn't understand why Sean and Christian would be fighting over Julia. After Sean's anguished "I loved you the most" to Christian, she said, "What does he mean by that? He loves him more than he loves his wife?" To which I smiled and replied, "That's one interpretation."
(whew. that took a while.)
Like I've mentioned, the lobectomy was successful and her lymph nodes were clear. The semi-glowy things on her CAT scan that they thought may be affected lymph nodes turned out to be her aortic artery. The tumor was just big enough to qualify her as being Stage 1B (it was 3cm and that's the cutoff point). She was stage 1A the first time. The composition of the tumor was quite unusual -- it was primarily adenocarcinoma cells, but there were these things called spindle cells mixed in. My mother's pulmonologist said she's never heard of such a combo before and after doing some research, she found out that is indeed very rare. So, as a result, slides of the tumor have been requested by and sent to universities and research centers all over the nation. Hell, even the Mayo Clinic wanted a piece of the action. I, of course, find this to be awesome. My mom, of course, finds this to be kinda disturbing.
As soon as the mass showed up in her lung, my mother decided to go off of Enbrel, which she had been taking to treat her rheumatoid arthritis. Since RA is an autoimmune disorder, the medications work to basically shut down your immune system in order to slow down the damage. She'd been self-administering the shots since early June, but it didn't seem to do much. Well, not anything good, anyway. See, Enbrel can cause such lovely things as lymphoma and, yes, lung cancer. While her doctors have been hesitant to say whether the drug may have contributed to the tumor growth, that it was so large when they found it may indicate that Enbrel had a hand in the process. So my mom is just taking Celebrex to help with the inflammation and Vicodin to help ease the pain. She has an incredibly high pain tolerance, but the disorder is truly starting to get to her. Her feet no longer hurt as much as they once did (because the damage has been done), but they definitely aren't the prettiest of things and the neuropathy is still quite bad (and permanent). It's starting to really affect her hands now, and she's losing the strength to open things like sealed bottles.
Nonetheless, she is doing remarkably well. She was being stalked by two well-meaning oncologists during her hospital stay. They used to never attempt chemo with adenocarcinoma because it was shown to be ineffective, but they are starting to see some results in recent studies. Problem is that one, it's only a 3-5% increase in survival rate over five years and two, chemo causes peripheral neuropathy. For Stage 1B adenocarcinoma, five-year survival rate is something like 50%, thus the 3-5% increase really isn't worth all the pain and complications of chemo. And the primary oncologist's demeanor completely changed when he found out that my mother already has neuropathy because of her RA. So, yes, chemo is not going to happen. She's unsure about going back to work -- hopefully she'll be able to be disabled-out.
+ RL: Grad School
I managed to earn an A- in Adv. Adult Psychopathology, but I had to take an incomplete in my Learning seminar. I was having major concentration issues this semester (for obvious reasons). I wasn't able to truly concentrate until there was less than a month left of class. I kept putting things off in the seminar because I could, and though I tried to get everything done in time, I eventually admitted defeat.
+ RL: My brother
He entered a rehab center the second week of December and left on New Year's Day. We visited him on Christmas, and he looked wonderful and was doing great. On Saturday, my parents went to see him at his new home in Hollister, and according to my mom, he seemed kinda anxious. He is attending daily AA meetings, though. My mom thinks that he wants/needs to hear our father say that he's proud of him. But my father's an alcoholic and doesn't think he has a problem himself, so we all know that's not going to happen.
+ Fandom: Lost
I haven't watched a single episode this season. I'm officially done with it.
+ Fandom: House
You know, if I had actually known that Robert Sean Leonard was on the show, I would've started watching last season. But the thing is, I didn't know this and so I didn't watch it. My mom watched it and because I had only caught snippets of the show, I thought that House was a complete asshole and therefore, I was turned off. Then I started to think that maybe I should give the it a chance, as my mother kept saying that I would really like it and I knew that several people on my friends list really enjoyed the show. But I still wasn't really decided.
Then I caught "Love Hurts." And saw RSL. And died. And died a tiny bit more during the "you're worried I'm going to break *his* heart?" Cameron-Wilson scene. Then I watched the first few episodes of the current season as they aired. And then I rented the first season, and each episode made me love it a little bit more and by "Babies and Bathwater," I was completely convinced House/Wilson was the slashiest thing ever. I'm now completely and utterly obsessed with the show, which amuses my mother since I was protesting so much before.
+ Fandom: nip/tuck
I saw a promo for the season 2 DVD about a week before my mother's surgery, and you know what caught my eye? Well, the bit that's showcased in my current icon, that's what. Rented the first season and loved it. Then I rented the second season and became obsessed. This all happened in less than two weeks' time. Then I converted my mother to the series and proceeded to watch the majority of the second season and all of the third season with her when I probably should've been doing school-related things. It was bonding experience. She's a Christian-girl, I'm a Sean-girl. She saw all the Ava-stuff coming a mile away. She doesn't understand why Sean and Christian would be fighting over Julia. After Sean's anguished "I loved you the most" to Christian, she said, "What does he mean by that? He loves him more than he loves his wife?" To which I smiled and replied, "That's one interpretation."
(whew. that took a while.)