Contributor blogs
St. Joe’s Update
November 14, 2010
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
Still At St. Joe’s
November 7, 2010
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
Stopping the Bleeding
November 6, 2010
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
Round and Round We Go
November 4, 2010
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
There Goes My Hero
July 17, 2010
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A friend of mine wrote an article about me awhile back and I thought I would re-share it with you. I know I have alot of new visitors of the site, and thought this would be interesting to see a contributor’s thought’s. She has won awards for some of her work and has a talent for witty writing that brings us back to simple things that can rock us to the core. I posted the link to .. Read More
Liver Operation, Lung Operation
Today I had to be at Scottsdale Healthcare at 6am for a lung biopsy. This morning came all too soon and I was still halfway asleep as I was escorted through pre-op in the quiet morning hours. When it finally came time for surgery the doctor called in and was running late because of car troubles. The nurses wheeled me back out to the pre-op room where Julie and I waited another 20 minutes for the doctor. .. Read More
“That’s news to me!” or Melissa’s new favorite phrase
July 7, 2010
This is an update from Ann-Marie on Melissa’s health care plan as of this week. Yesterday (7/6), Melissa began the Trilogy whole brain radiation treatment. She is scheduled thru 7/20 for daily (Mon-Fri) treatments at 1:30pm. Once Melissa is discharged, she will need rides to/from CTCA daily.
For the next couple of days, Melissa will be in-patient while they monitor how her brain is tolerating the radiation. The plan is no IV pain meds for the next 48 .. Read More
Erika’s Update
July 3, 2010
Melissa is spending tonight at CTCA. She was originally going to be discharged earlier today, but the doctor suggested she stay one more evening. Melissa called me earlier this afternoon, she was stressed and feeling overwhelmed with all the news. It’s been a long week and I know she wanted everyone to have an update to read. I’ve been hanging out with her since around 6 p.m. and she is right now falling in and out of sleep. Thank you .. Read More
Updates
June 29, 2010
It’s been a very long couple days here at CTCA. Ann Marie and I (Lara) are going to do our best to sum up an overwhelming amount of information.
The inferior venogram Monday morning revealed exactly what we suspected. Her body has basically grown around it and incorporated the foreign object as part of her body. They are not designed to be replaced. The blood clot in her right leg goes from her knee up .. Read More
CTCA
June 24, 2010
Hello everyone. This is Lara writing for Melissa. We came to the CTCA this morning for an MRI and a CT of her abdomen. She was restless and was not still enough for a conclusive MRI. Therefore, the CT was also postponed. We then spoke to the oncologist who said that the scan of her chest last week revealed no blood clots and no growth of the mass. That’s the good news. Yet, .. Read More