May 2009

Today is Sunday. I am still here at St. Josephs Hospital. I have met with over 15 doctors ranging from infectious disease to neurosurgeons. Each doctor has their own opinion which doesn’t always coincide with what the other doctors think. As of right now, I have a vertebrowplasty scheduled for the fracture in my L3. This will be the 3rd verebrowplasty that I have had since being diagnosed. It’s extremely scary knowing that your .. Read More

This is Melissa’s sister Kathleen again. Thank you everyone for volunteering to help out. We still do not know if Mel will be in the hospital or out on Wednesday, so here is what we have scheduled currently:

- Tera 8:00-10:00. - Wes 10:00-1:00. - Kathleen Rubi 1:00-2:30 - Lara 2:30-4:00. - And Kelly Emery 4:00-?

This should be plenty. If Mel is in the hospital, it is okay for her to be left alone for a couple hours. If she .. Read More

Hello Friends

This post is written by Melissa’s sister, Kathleen. I am staying with Melissa at St Joseph’s hospital right now. She is very tired from the meds she is taking. Melissa has a compression fracture in her L3 vertebrate and has difficulty moving on her own. The doctors have told her that she needs to wear her brace whenever getting out of bed and needs to have assistance when getting out of bed. Our sister Lisa is .. Read More

Last night (Wednesday night ) was a rough one. My sister Kathy (she arrived from SLC late last night) and I didn’t get an ounce of sleep. All night long the pain pump or IV machine was beeping usually because I wasn’t getting enough oxygen which had to be at 90%, my heart monitor was somehow tangled, the fluids were low, or maybe there was a kink in one of the lines. Regardless, the machines were going .. Read More

This is Tera Springman, I’m sitting with Melissa at the hospital and she asked me to dictate for her on the blog to update everyone on the events of the past night and day. The following words are from her.

“Today is Wed it’s 8pm. I’m sitting here in the comfort or un-comfort of my hospital bed with Kathy (my sister), Wes, and Tera and for the first time I feel somewhat okay. Yesterday afternoon I had .. Read More

Today is Memorial Day 09. Normally, I would be out of town, on a lake somewhere, hanging poolside, barbequing with friends, and enjoying the day off. This year was different. Instead, I spent the entire day sleeping. The few times I was awake was when my phone was rang. I didn’t leave my bed the entire day. Thanks to Wes, I was still on schedule to take my meds, stay somewhat hydrated, and get .. Read More

The Petscan ended up being cancelled! I am now rescheduled for sometime in early June. We drove all the way to Scottsdale Healthcare and then I walked at a pace slower than a snail because of the pain I was having in my back to the imaging center. The radiologist told us that their machine just went down and they were rescheduling all of the appointments for another time. So I guess it will be awhile .. Read More

The new week brought initially new hope for being pain free, nausea free, and complication free. I was told that the blood transfusion was supposed to make me feel like a new person with new energy within 48 hours. I am still waiting to feel that. The reality is that since last week I have been feeling extremely tired and nauseous. I have a difficult time eating, nothing sounds good. I also have a hard .. Read More

5 1/2 hours of receiving someone else’s blood in order to feel better…sounds kind of strange. I was told that usually people feel more energy the day after the transfusion. This is definitely not the case for me. In fact, I think I have even less energy. Part of this i’m sue is attributed to the chemo that I had earlier this week. I am starting to feel nauseous during the day, and a constant .. Read More

Hi Everyone

I have a blood transfusion tomorrow at the Virginia Piper Cancer Center. It’s a 5 1/2 hour transfusion and I can only have one person at a time. The time frame is 9am-3:30pm.

Here is the address: Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center At Scottsdale Healthcare Shea 10460 N. 92nd Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85258 Ph: 480-323-1000

Go to the 3rd floor and turn left off of the elevator

Here are the times: 9am: Bryan 10am: Ann Marie 11am: Julie 12:00: Holly 1pm: Doug 2pm: .. Read More