These last few days have been quite challenging...read on..

The Lord said to him, "Peace be to you; do not fear."--Judges 6:23

and this is how my story continues......

Last Friday, 3/19 I woke up sick to my stomach. The couple of days before that I was beginning to feel pretty good, so I wondered where this nausea was coming from. I'm just about ready to leave for work, it's 6:45am and I decide to take a Zofran (anti-nausea drug) to help my stomach. I took it and left for work. By about 10:45am, I'm sitting at my desk and start getting really cold. I look in the mirror and my face is tomato red, I look at my arms, they are red and splotchy, I look at my stomach and my legs, the same thing. Obviously, my first thought is crap, hives again, will this ever end!!! Then all of sudden, I thought again...HIVES! I have HIVES...wait...it's got to be the Zofran I'm allergic to after all.....not the Temodar! OMG...you can't even imagine how crazy happy I was. I call my oncologist, I tell her what happened and we agree, as rare as this type of reaction to Zofran is, this has to be my culprit. I confirm my appointment with her for Monday morning and we decide I will try taking my next regimen of treatment starting Monday, 3/22 by capsule form instead of IV, but not take Zofran prior to my dose. Over the weekend, the hives disappeared and all was right with the world.

Or so I thought!

Monday morning, 3/22 I go out to the Cancer Center at St. John's, get my labwork done and see Dr. Partridge for my 8am visit. We talk more about the Zofran reaction and we agree to be cautiously optimistic as we move forward with taking the Temodar by capsule. I leave her office with a new anti-nausea perscription just in case I need it. We agreed that I would try taking the Temodar without taking an anti-nausea pill so that we can officially rule out the Temodar and/or the dye in the capsule. Nervously, at 8:46am I take my 225mg of Temodar, by 9:06am I begin to tingle, itch and burn. I grab an Allegra pill and take it. After about 15 minutes, the Allegra seems to help...somewhat, but still red and itchy. I decided to lay down to sleep to attempt to ward off potential nausea. I napped for awhile then woke up vomiting and I have never been so cold in my life. I was buried under 2 electric blankets set on high, 3 regular blankets and a hot field corn bag and still could not get warm. This kept up for what seemed liked forever. At 12:20, my daugher Alison talked to my sister,Nurse Tracy and told her that I was turning beat red and purple, freezing and vomiting. Tracy called my doctor and was told that I should go to the emergency room right away. I was getting weaker and weaker, so we called 911....it's a good thing we did.

By the time I got to the emergency room, I was running a 103.5 fever (no wonder I was so cold!), my pulse was 120 and my blood pressure was 88/56 and my hands, feet and lips were deep purple....not a pretty sight and quite a dangerous, life threatening situation. When I was finally stabilized, I was moved to ICU Monday evening. I stayed in ICU until Tuesday afternoon and was moved to a room on the Oncology floor. This morning, I had a MRI to determine how things look in my head with the radiation and chemo treatments I've had so far. I was released from the hospital late this morning, but I am totally drained and spent. There is no possible way to sleep in a hospital, not to mention being drained from the trauma I just endured.

After much conversation with her collegues, my allergist and other oncologists from WashU and Duke, my oncologist feels that it is just too risky and way too dangerous to use Temodar anymore without causing life-threatening reactions. Of course I totally agree that we don't want to take that risk. After more discussion, there are some other drugs we can try.

So on Monday, 3/29, I will start a chemo drug called "Carboplatin". It can only be administered through infusion and can be taken once a month at full dose strength or twice a month with the full dose split into equal halves and taken 15 days between doses. I have opted to take the twice a month regimen to ensure that I will be able to tolerate the drug before I move to the once a month full strength dose. Please keep the prayers coming as I move on to try "Carboplatin" and pray that it will be a drug I can tolerate.

It's been quite an emotional and draining week and I want to thank everyone for your continued prayers and support. I know and trust the Lord safely and confidently carried me this week as I endured this very serious health situation. I believe He brought me through this to face the additional challenges and work he still has for me to do.

Jesus turned around and when he saw her he said, "Daughter, be encouraged, your faith has made you well." And the woman was healed at that moment. Matthew 9:22

As Easter approaches, let us pray God renews our strength.

Peace and love to all,
Sandy