November 2010

Today at 2:00 pm Melissa took her last breaths in the arms of her family. She now will be in the arms of her mother, who we know was awaiting her with open arms. We are extremely grateful to tell you Melissa was very peaceful and in no pain in the end. Melissa was truly a spirited warrior and fought to the very end. We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you all .. Read More

We would first like to apologize for the delay in getting information out to Melissa’s friends, loved ones, and her amazing supporters. This has certainly been a hectic week, and we had some glitches with accessing her blog account. We know you are all anxious to hear an update.

Melissa was in the ICU at St. Joes. It was there that the doctors made the decision to cease all active care because the procedures were too traumatic for .. Read More

Here is the latest update on Melissa. She is still at St. Joe’s and we are unsure of a discharge date at this point. Her cousin, Julie and Aunt Amelia from California came in town and were with Melissa at the hospital the past few days. On Saturday, Melissa was scheduled for a procedure to cauterize the bleeding from the tumor in her lung. Unfortunately Melissa was not able to tolerate the procedure due to pain. In order to determine .. Read More

I’m still here at St. Joes. Nothing against this hospital, but I do miss the big beds, Starbucks cafe and plasma tv’s at CTCA. On the other hand, they are much closer to where I live and therefore get many more visitors who are likely to make the “trek”.

I didn’t get much sleep last night since I was constantly in pain. The most amount of dilaudid IV they would give was 1 mg, totally pathetic. Today, .. Read More

This is Teri with Melissa. Her test is done. The bleeding is a result of the original tumor. She will stay here tonight. Tomorrow they will start localized radiation to stop the bleeding. The test also showed a pea size growth at the top of her lung so they will figure out what that is, too. She can eat and drink again…so now she doesn’t have to sneak it! She has enough Soy Chai Latte’s for now. A strawberry 7-11 .. Read More

Hi, it’s me again. It’s been a little while since I have written, but I’ve been lucky to have friends that can give updates when I’m not able.

This past week has flown by. I left CTCA awhile ago, but I’ve had this consistent cough with blood for the past few weeks. I’m glad that I am finally able to address this. They are going to do a Broncoscopy. I am hoping they will .. Read More

Today we received the results from Melissa’s CT Scan of her chest. The good news is that there was no evidence of a pulmonary embolus (blood clot in her lung). The findings did show an increase in size of the tumor in the lower lobe of her left lung when compared to the last report from CTCA dated 10.6.10. There is also an additional nodule in the left lung that is relatively small (9 x 9mm).

Melissa is continuing to spit .. Read More

A quick update from Ann-Marie & Tera regarding Melissa’s latest hospital stint. Yesterday Melissa was admitted to St. Joe’s after evaluation at the ER. For the past week, Melissa has been coughing up large amounts of blood that have a clot-like consistency. Additionally, she hasn’t had much of an appetite due to nausea and vomiting which can be triggered even by a sip of room temperature water. After notifying CTCA, they recommended that Melissa immediately go to the hospital for .. Read More

This has been the longest stretch that I have been home in a long while. I still feel horrible, but I don’t think there is anything that CTCA can do to make the pain better. The quadramet kind of feels like the side effects from chemo. I feel like my whole body aches, but especially my chest. It’s almost like I have a chest cold because I have this cough that won’t go away. .. Read More