Photos from the Celebration of Life

Thanks Teresa Block for sharing your photos with us!  And thank you all who turned out to celebrate and share your memories of Cyn's life!

You can take a look at the photos all here:

Official Invitation

This is the email from Joe to all of you... please join us! (P.S. please note it's casual--- in fact our food will be Cyn's fave...Hawaiian!)

CELEBRATION OF CYNTHIA FILARCA’S LIFE
 
Friends, 

The O’Kane and Filarca Families would like to invite you to a very special event honoring Cynthia Filarca, wife of Joe O'Kane and mother to Clare Louise Filarca O'Kane.  Cynthia was taken from us way too early and she will be missed. So a special event has been planned.

Here are the details of Cynthia’s Event:

Date: November 6th, 2010

Time: 1 PM to 6 PM

Location: 977 Asbury Street
                 San Jose, CA 95126

The event was requested by Cynthia to allow all those who knew her to come together, meet each other, and celebrate her life in education.  Her 34 years she dedicated to primary education was the most important part of her life.   The hundreds of children she taught over the years, some of whom did not even speak English, were given the best  education she could offer.

The cards we have received have shared many stories that you remembered about Cynthia and how she influenced you all.  Come and share those stories with her friends and family.

Cynthia always thought of the kids.   For her Christmas and birthday wishes she asked only for cases of paper she could use in her class room for the kids since many of the teachers budgets for paper had been reduced to a trickle.  We would like to continue her wishes by requesting all who knew her to follow through with her request of cases of paper that can help her fellow teachers and students at Dove Hill Elementary.

You may bring the paper with you to the event on November 6th or you can deliver or drop it directly at Dove Hill Primary School, 1460 Colt Way, San Jose, CA 95121-1900, and (408) 270-4964 during office hours.  Please let them know you are doing this in memory of Cynthia.

We will provide food and drink but if you have something special to share, bring it in a disposable container.  Cynthia’s wishes are for everyone to have fun and CELEBRATE HER LIFE.
 

A Celebration of Cyndy's Life!

When we asked her what she wanted for a memorial, Cyn said- "A big party, a CELEBRATION of my life- no crying.  A big spread in the Big House (Teresa's) where everyone can come and share memories and EAT".

So a Celebration it is- to be held on Saturday, November 6th at Teresa O'Kane's home starting at 1pm.  The address is 977 Asbury Street, San Jose, California 95126.  We'll have food and drink,  photos to share and some music too.  However if there is a dish you'd like to share (maybe it was a favorite of Cyndy's?) then please bring it too....as my sister would say "the more the merrier!".

We thank you so much for the cards, emails, flowers and kind memories you've shared along the way. Please make every effort to join us in the celebration of Cyn's life on the 6th.  We're looking forward to sharing memories with you!

My other Bro-In-Law made this in back January after Cyn's birthday... enjoy and reminisce.

Heaven welcomes another Angel...

My sister Cynthia Filarca left us this morning, Saturday October 23, 2010 at 5:07am.  She was surrounded by my two sisters, Josie and Eloise and her husband Joe.  Her passing was peaceful.

For most of the past two weeks she had been resting, as well as enjoying an occasional reading of various get well cards and most special, a recording of a Daniel Day Lewis interview on NPR.   My sister really liked Daniel Day Lewis' voice, so when her brother in law Sean brought the cd recording over she listened to it more than once.

A week ago or so, we talked a little bit about what she expected.  I asked her if she was afraid or nervous and she said no she felt pretty ready.  She reassured me that she would be okay and she wasn't afraid.  I reassured her that we would be okay, and that Clare and Joe would both always be looked after.

I last saw my sister Thursday afternoon as I took my leave for the weekend.  I told her, I'll see you Saturday... I love you Cin Cin.  She said " I love you, thanks".

My sister, although having a million friends and acquaintances- requested that her funeral mass be small and private with just family.  She really disliked it when we cried around her these last few weeks, so its likely she really didn't want to see her friends around crying as well.  She asked that you all please come to her celebration of life memorial which will likely be in 2 weeks.  I'll post details here as we firm up the details.

Thank you for your love and support these past few months.  My sister knew you were all sending good wishes and sharing memories, and she definitely felt the love that you all sent our way.  Thank you so much for that...

gratefully,
Julie Ann (aka "Ann Ann")

Resting comfortably, reading emails, enjoying company.

Thank you all for your messages of support to Cyndy via email to her.  Right now we are focused on keeping her comfortable and  sharing memories and reading stories to her.  Her daughter has been here keeping her company, reading and helping us care for Cyn as much as possible.

Cyn is not in much pain and the pain she does get is being held at bay with medication every 6 to 12 hours and she continues to receive nutrition through the famous feeding tube.

She sleeps most of the day, her eyes opening a bit when someone comes into the room or a smile when we crack a joke.  This afternoon she asked Teresa to now please limit visitors to family only because it is too exhausting to receive anyone else, so with this blog post I am letting you all know.

She continues to try to catch up on reading email daily and enjoys photos so please don't stop communicating to her although she likely will not answer.  Do know that just about every day she goes through and reads every single one.  A friend recently sent pictures from New York of Central Park and the celebration of John Lennon's birthday.  While she was sad to see photos of her friend and her friends husband and the crowd in Central Park, she still smiled and looked intently at each one as if to burn everything into her memory.   She absolutely loves you all and the memories that she carries of you and your time together.

It is with a very heavy heart that I update this blog.

Yesterday morning we met with Cyn’s oncologist Dr. Thomas Chen who had reviewed her CT Scan from Monday. Unfortunately, the cancer has spread very quickly and although the mass in her chest that they treated aggressively with chemo and radiation has reduced in size, she now has cancer cells spreading quickly throughout her body.

One option was to continue chemo and hope that it would help without any guarantees.  Since it has spread so rapidly, he did not think that they could really reduce the cancer enough to prolong her life in a way where she would have  a good quality of life as well. The other choice was to not do chemo or radiation and let the cancer run its course.  My sister told us that when she initially was diagnosed, she knew it would not be a good outcome regardless of the treatment so that she has already made her peace with the situation.  She was just waiting to hear her status for sure.

My sister has chosen to forego more chemo, and to enjoy the rest of the time she has with all of her family and especially her daughter and husband.  They will meet with hospice on Sunday to figure out what’s next and what we all need to do to get through this painlessly, comfortably and peacefully.

I will continue to go down to San Jose on Monday nights and stay a few nights to help Joe with her care, for as long as I can.  I will continue to update you on her journey as I am able to and if I can get her to dictate while I type I think it would be a good thing too.  We'll see what she's up for.

If you'd like to communicate with her, best thing is to send her an email at cfilarca@yahoo.com.  She makes an effort to read her email at least once a day.  She also enjoys looking at your photos so send those as well.  (Many of you know she loves San Francisco so any pics of those famous spots she will enjoy as well.)

It's difficult for her to receive visitors often because she is just too tired to interact, but do know that she appreciates all of your friendships and concerns and especially your prayers as does Joe. 

Thank you so much for your support and your love for Cyn.

This past weekend was mild, with many family visitors that Cyn really enjoyed... even if she did get a bit tuckered out.  Our niece visited from Vegas.  Since she lived with Cyn and Joe for awhile, it was nice to have her back in town even for just a short visit.

The nausea stayed away for the weekend, for the most part.  I returned to San Jose on Monday night, the heat wave was not so bad in the house since the air conditioning kept it comfortable for everyone.  Cyn complained of body aches, so we gave her a bit of liquid tylenol through the g-tube (the doctor had said that would be okay if we ever needed it).  It didn't help, and in fact about an hour later I found her at the toilet throwing up a little.  These days mostly she heaves or brings up some of the water she's been trying to take.  Needless to say we are all perplexed about why the nausea is coming back, even if it is just a little bit.  Just after 1am she sat up and got nauseous again, dry heaves but that was it.  It was then I decided she should have the last Emend dosage.  The last dosage I gave her was Thursday before I left and it seemed to last pretty well through the weekend.  This dosage seems to be lasting pretty much too, although every once in awhile she has the urge, nothing happens.

We had an appointment with Dr. Chen on Tuesday.  He is of course still concerned and perplexed by the nausea but says if the Emend worked then it should be used.  However we can only get it when she is going through chemo, so we will likely start with the Haloperidol and Dethamexasone if  the nausea really gets going.  Cyn also has various cyst type bumps on different parts of her body, most are just under the skin and about the size of gumballs.  They started appearing about week 4 thru six of chemo.  The doctor says he has not seen that happen before and is concerned that it is also the cancer manifesting itself.  He has scheduled another CT scan for Monday, and we will meet with him again on Friday the 8th.   Cyn will likely start another round of chemo after that Friday meeting, as Dr. Chen will take a look at the scans to see where we are and then decide on a new cocktail of drugs for the chemo based on what he finds.  He wants to do it sooner rather than later, but also wants to give her some time to rest and build more blood cells.

Are we nervous and scared?  hell yes.  But we are also trying to stay neutral as well as positive with Cyn about what the outcome will be.  We are also rather matter of fact in talking about what she'd like to do, what she wants, what she expects.  She doesn't say much because I think she is in shock as well. We'll be meeting with the Cancer Support Community folks tomorrow night.  They are a resource for cancer patients and families, and will help us all get the information and services we might be needing in the near future.

We are all in for a big fight against this thing, and I personally don't plan to lose. 

Your collective positive energies, visualizations and prayers cannot do anything but help Cyn in her fight so please continue them daily as part of your regular life rituals. 

A rest period...

Today was Cyndy's last radiation treatment.  They actually gave her a "certificate of achievement" to celebrate the end of her radiation session.  We also got another shot from Dr. Chen's office, this is to help boost the white blood cells.  Dr. Colburn (radiology oncologist) suggested asking Dr. Chen if she should get another blood transfusion next week when we see him.  Since the blood cell count has dropped and she is now anemic, he thought it might be a good idea.  He also told her she would probably be very tired for another week or two before her body started getting stronger, so not to worry if she is slow to get her energy back.

Last evening she developed a bit of a cough again (it comes on at night mostly), which we brought up to Dr. Colburn today.  He listened to her lungs and said they were clear, so this was something in her throat which could be caused by the radiation/chemo.  Cyn told him that she's had the trouble swallowing normal amounts since she lost her voice, which was after the exploratory surgery done in the throat area by the thoracic surgeon she saw.

We all (family) think that the paralyzed vocal chord (the cause of her whispery voice) and the swallowing problems were due to some thing that might happened during the exploratory surgery.  Dr's Chen and Colburn are not so sure about that because the cancer cells are also in the same area, they think it has something to do with the cancer.  In the meantime, they said to wait and see what happens as she rests up, builds blood cells, and gets stronger.

Cyn has been receiving all of your cards and emails.  Please do know that she reads them and cherishes them... she just doesn't have the energy to answer.  She knows that you are all reading up on her journey via this blog (I've told her we've had over 1,000 hits already).

She enjoys the photos you send too, your emails give her something to look forward to every day.

No Chemo today...

We headed over to see Dr. Chen today. He decided that since Cyn's blood counts had dropped a little, and this was the last week of radiation- that there would be no chemotherapy treatment today. Instead she is getting some shots to help her generate more white and red blood cells, as well as some potassium (her electrolytes were low), and fluids to keep her hydrated.

We decided to keep her on the Emend meds this week since we had it, and again only start the new meds if the nausea got bad again. She had just about a week of little to no nausea this week which was a good sign, but the emend really he says the insurance company won't pay for (it aint cheap!) unless she's actually having the chemo.

So... we'll see next Tuesday if he decides on chemo. In the meantime we're trying to find the magic combination of efforts to get rid of the nausea once and for all. If she has no chemo today that will be a big help this week, I think.

Enjoyable weekend

Timing with chemo nausea medicine this weekend helped Cyndy to keep the nausea at bay for most of the weekend. We took the doctor's advice in stretching out the medicine "Emend" and give it every other day, or at least wait until she really needed it. We gave her the Emend on Tuesday as usual (the first chemo day), then gave the 2nd pill of three late on Wednesday. This held her nausea away until Saturday around noon where she started to throw up again, so we gave her the last Emend pill and it has held through today. She got some heaves this evening around 6pm but no major problems.

Tomorrow is her 6th session of chemotherapy, and since it is first day of chemo, we will again give her an Emend pill. I'm hoping that we can have have the same good results again this week and ease into a rest week next week.

Week Five

I jinxed Joe when I said the 4 days of calm... Sunday night through to early Tuesday morning Cyn had a horrible time with nausea. Poor Joe was up every hour because she was throwing up every hour. The feeding tube also clogged up on Sunday so by Monday after radiation they were back at the hospital getting the feeding tube (its called a "J" tube) replaced yet again, but this time a larger diameter tube. Since then we have been flushing it with water regularly and it has remained clear.

Tuesday was chemo day and our appointment with Dr. Chen. He is still very concerned that the nausea has not let up. The only pattern we could find to the whole getting sick thing was that it usually starts the 5th day after chemo. Usually she's sick starting Saturday night, last week it started on Sunday night--- and chemo was a day later that week because of Labor Day.

We of course asked Dr. Chen if there was anything stronger he could prescribe and he spent the morning on Tuesday getting referrals to meds that would help the nausea. You see we are not sure if the nausea is just the chemo, since before chemo started Cyn already had problems keeping anything (solid or liquid) down. She would try all kinds of different textures and tastes and nothing would stay in her stomach. This is why she has the feeding tube. Now, we are not sure why the nausea has not gone away. She has not had anything to eat via her mouth in over a month. Even the doctors are perplexed.

Anyhow, we did get a couple of new meds that are stronger... but Dr. Chen warned that they would make her much more drowsy. One is a narcotic and the other is a steroid. We asked if we could wait to start using them until she really had another bad bout of nausea and he agreed.

So, Tuesday chemo day was uneventful. Wednesday was uneventful. Thursday the Radiation Oncologist let us know that she has 1 week of radiation to go this session and they are now doing a "boost" which is a more intense dose of radiation in hopes that it will shrink the cancer cells. Next Tuesday will also be the last day of chemo for this session. After that she will have a week or two of rest. Dr Colburn (the radiation dr) also took a scope to look at Cyns vocal chords to see why she does not have a voice. He confirmed what he thought, that the vocal chord is essentially "paralyzed" because of the cancer . He said not to worry too much about it and that it was common in people with lung cancer and if her voice didn't come back after treatment then he would recommend seeing a specialist (ears, nose and throat doctor) to take care of it. Neither he nor Dr. Chen think we should worry just yet. I'm not so sure.

I spent time with Cyn trying to get her to exercise her legs. Since she is so tired all of the time she spends most of her time sleeping. Last night I made her do three leg lifts while laying on her back. She did 2 sets of 3 reps on each leg then also moved each leg out to the side and back three times, and she was exhausted when we were done. What's most difficult is to see her this way, always sleeping or wanting to lie down. I also made her some chicken broth today, and she took a few sips with no problems. Its almost as if she doesn't want to make the effort to take anything by mouth since she knows the feeding tube is taking care of that..... this from someone who I considered a foodie! We are going to start making her take more than just ice chips in when we can. Clear broths are our next step, I only hope she keeps trying.

We will find out next Tuesday how long her "rest" is, and when they will be reviewing and determining next steps.

Four Days calm...

I got a call from my mother today. She spent time with Cyn and Eloise (my eldest sis) at Cyn's house today and she said that Eloise and Cyn went on a walk for one block today! And so far it is 4 days with no throwing up- yay! I think that those visualizations really are helping so thank you and keep 'em coming. Tomorrow and Monday will be the true test timing-wise so please keep her in your thoughts all day!

Week 4

Its been a rather long week but I'll try to keep it brief.
Last weekend was another trying weekend with Cyn being sick and throwing up pretty much all weekend, which if you remember was a 3 day weekend. By Tuesday afternoon, she was at Dr. Chen's office getting fluids replaced intravenously as she was dehydrated from the weekend. We couldn't figure out if it was just the chemo doing its thing, or the nausea that she had before we even started treatment. The drugs were just not keeping the nausea at bay for as long has they had been earlier last week. Ugh.

Needless to say, she was ready as she could be for her 4th chemo treatment on Wednesday. Normally at the chemo lab the lounge chairs she sleeps in are no problem, but recently she started having sciatica pain (lower back and in the piriformis area-- aka deep in the right cheek) so she had a horrible time getting comfortable throughout the session (we're talking 4 hours). She needed to stand up and stretch and we worked hard to try and massage out the pain. Finally the nurses got the ok from Dr. Chen to give her a small dose of pain meds so that she would just sleep. It put her out pronto. From there it was on to radiation. It was an exhausting long day but no nausea .

Thank you for your "clear feeding tube" thoughts.... they are working, keep em coming. We've been diligent about flushing the tube with water to keep it clear and running smoothly too but I really think the visualization energy is working in there somewhere. And while you're at it, can you start visualizing her with no nausea?? I think if she could actually say it out to all of you directly she'd say she really hates the nausea and the throwing up the most. She sheds tears every time she gets sick so I know this is what pains her the most.

In addition we had a few more challenges this week. Joe figured out that there was something not so good (aka dead animal) in the basement and the smell was starting to creep up into the house at night. So after a search, he did find a possum that was alive and took off when it saw him but was unable to find the source of the not so good scent. Then later in the week we determined that whatever was down there had a nasty infestation of fleas, which were also eventually making there way up into the house... while deciding we could flea bomb the house today and stay at Joe's sister's house for the afternoon (which is what we did); we also noticed that the drain for the washing machine was starting to back up and would spill water on the floor. Joe dealt with that this week too. Bad things in threes... I think we're done with house problems.

Luckily I was the only one who the fleas loved. No one else got bites, just me-- you can connect the dots of bites on my ankles and feet and it would look like some constellation... but I digress... and now I'm going to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Long week....

How can it already be Thursday??

Last weekend was a bit challenging for us all. Cyndy's feeding tube became clogged on Saturday, so we had to feed and do meds through the same port- the gastric port. While she is getting food, it appeared that she may have been getting too much food too fast, and as a result she spent the weekend throwing up a lot and not feeling so good.

On Monday, it was radiation therapy as usual and blood tests. Then Joe and Cyn made a trip over to Good Sam (different hospital than where she gets radiation), where they had an appointment to get the tube unclogged. When they arrived the department was running behind because of a couple of emergencies they had to make priority. As a result even with an appointment at 2:30, they did not get seen (and the tube completely replaced) until close to 5:30 and finally home at 6:30 which meant we were behind in medication by a couple of hours. This is the nausea medicine which means that as soon she got home she was throwing up again. After administering the meds things got a little bit back to "normal".

Tuesday was chemo therapy day. Before chemo we met with the doctor who checked her out, and said that her red blood cells had dropped a little. Because he thought she also looked very pale, he scheduled a blood transfusion for Wednesday. Chemo on Tuesday took about 5 hours, then right after chemo, its the usual visit for radiation. After radiation at O'Connor, we had to go by the lab for something called "type and cross", basically they get her blood so that they have type and details in order to order the plasma bags. Doing it the day before the scheduled transfusion saves time on the day of transfusion (about an hour, they say).

Wednesday was a regular radiation appontment, then a visit with the radiation oncologist. Joe asked about Cyns voice and what might be going on there. The Dr. described the nerves for the vocal chords and how they work (pretty good description, by the way) and said he could use a scope and go in to see if his thoughts on what might be happening were correct. Since the transfusion was scheduled right after we were seeing the doctor, Cyn opted out of scoping the same day and asked if he would do it next time we saw him. One procedure a day was enough for her stress level, I agreed an so did Joe.

From there we headed over to the Outpatient Infusion Center, where they were expecting her. The transfusion took about 5 hours (another long day), and they got home around 7pm last night. She was tired from the long day, and went right to bed.

Pretty calm night last night. Although she does cough throughout the night and has to wake me up to stop the food flow to her tube in order to go to the bathroom, it seemed this morning she was a bit stronger and her color was good. She is ambulatory and can go to the bathroom herself, washes up and gets ready for all of her appointments on her own, of course I have to always remind her to slow down as she gets moving quickly and then sometimes gets bit lightheaded. Other than that, we are on a good path today!

Thanks all for your positive visualizations and good healing thoughts... please add "clear food J tube" to you visualizations too! Can't go through another one of those episodes, ugh!!

Chemo was pretty much all day yesterday-- blood test right before, and Dr. Chen said that the blood cell counts were still good and where they should be. If they drop he says they do things to help increase- proteins, or blood transfusions, etc. So far so good.
Chemo is interesting. She basically sits in a lounge chair with the bag of drugs dripping into her pic line all day. Sounds harsh I know but its actually quite mellow. She lounges back with ear phones on (relaxing classical piano and YoYo Ma cd's) and sleeps through most of it. (next week I'm bringing the Bose noise canceling headphones for better noise canceling!)

After 5 hours of chemo, she then had to go to her radiation appointment. That appointment is usually just about 10 minutes. To say the least it was a tiring day for her, so she slept well for most of the day and last night.

She is very tired, but not horribly weak- she still quietly awakens at 6 am or so and slowly gets to the bathroom (takes out her own feeding tube) and starts her day. We figure routine is a good thing for her so we let her do her stuff... Then she's wide awake and either watches TV (she says daytime TV is awful so she'd rather sleep anyway), and also checks email. This morning I think she may have answered some email... so some of you may have gotten a response. She has probably 2 hours total of complete awakeness and lucidity.. the rest of the time she is tired and sleepy.

Between Joe and I we are getting meds to her every 4 hours. The tricky part is the 4am meds... I am here with Joe Monday thru Thursday afternoons. Joe does the midnight meds since he doesn't go to bed until then, I go to bed around 9 or 10 and get up at 4 for the 4am meds, then go back to sleep. Then both Joe and Cyndy are awake when Cyn wakes up so Joe does the 8am. I think we've got a good pattern for at least those three nights. While a body can go without much sleep for a night, multiple nights of that would not bode well in the long run for anyone so our pattern has been working so far. My Sister Eloise is here one night and my sister Josie another night so mostly Joe has to be on his own at night for two nights a week.... its hard to try and sleep and then wake up every four hours on schedule. But if we can keep consistent with the meds it then we can keep her nausea at bay.

Cyn has had a lot of nausea today, we expected it. Luckily no horrible vomiting is happening.

Please keep thinking and visualizing the positive stuff... like cancer cells diminishing, and decreased nausea and throwing up for her (that's the part she really hates!)

(Sorry if this post is rather rambling... its past my bedtime!)

Week 2- Radiation daily, Chemo on Tuesday.

We're not sure if the chemo reactions have set in, or if there's something else irritating her but throwing up has started up again (where it was not quite so frequent between last Thursday and Sunday)

Had the Monday radiation treatment today, and she's now more tired than last week. Chemo happens tomorrow starting at 8:30 and going for 4-6 hours. After chemo is Tuesday's radiation treatment.

Please do some positive visualizations for Cyn all day tomorrow, if even just picturing "no throwing up" for her.

She does check email regularly, so feel free to send messages too! For now we're keeping visitors to a minimum only because she tires so easily and she says she really wants to get her strength back.

More after tomorrow...

Four days of radiation, and first chemo session done.
I took her picture, told her I'm sure people will be happy to see this. I took it just a few minutes ago.

Cyn decided she'd sit in her lounge in the backyard this afternoon to enjoy the warm day. Joe took one look at her through the window and said, "now THAT's the Cyndy I know...".

Clare is here hanging out today too. Her mom is happy that she's here too, just one more day of radiation this week then two days off .

Cyn is home. When we got to her house, she looked around a little bit and then got into bed and promptly fell into a deep sleep nap for about an hour. When she awoke she got up, walked around, into the bathroom and brushed her teeth. She was moving so fast I told her to please slow down... she was making me nervous and if she fainted or fell Eloise and I would have to figure out how to pick her up! She said "ok", and proceeded to turn the radio on in the bathroom and get cleaned up. She doesn't have much of a voice and when she tries to talk, its mostly in a soft whisper so you have to get close to listen. Her bronchial tube is affected, which is why, the doctor says, she sounds like shes breathing out while she talks-- sort of a breathless whisper.

Then she sat with us for a little bit, sipped on some warm water and went through the mail. She must have gotten tired again, because after that she crawled into bed and asked me if I could administer her nausea medicine. (Joe and I had been schooled by the nurse on how to crush up the prescription pill, mix it with warm water to dissolve, flush the feeding tube then run the prescription mix into the feeding tube, etc). I got to do it on my own, with Josie watching, since Joe had gone out to get the rest of the prescriptions filled. Success all around.

Josie and I left Joe around 9 tonight. I do hope that they have an uneventful night. It seemed okay so far. No major nausea yet, but we'll have to see in the next couple days.

We all talked this evening and right now she doesn't want too many visitors besides immediate family (who can help Joe out), because she wants to work on getting stronger and trying to keep down clear fluids for the next couple weeks. She says thats her first goal-- to try and keep down stuff and get off the feeding tube. Her doctor says that's great, but to take it very slowly since she has not had anything in her stomach for almost 3 weeks. I'll let you all know here on the blog, when it seems like she's feeling strong consistently and its a good time to start visiting.

If you want to send her some good wishes feel free to send her an email. She awakens around 7am and immediately checks her email. She tries to answer too, but I don't think she gets to do that on many. Anyhow, her email is cfilarca@yahoo.com.

Going Home

Twenty-four hours since chemo began and Cyn is still okay and not feeling bad. Dr. Chen came by and told her she could go home today. She will have a visiting nurse tomorrow morning, radiation outpatient appointment in the afternoon, and chemo at Dr. Chen's office on Tuesdays.

Keep up with the positive visualizations for her, they seem to be helping- at least with the nausea!

Radiation & Chemo Week One.

Cyn started radiation therapy yesterday (Monday) , and chemo therapy today. Radiation will happen 5 days a week and chemo once a week for 7-8 weeks. The chemo drugs they are administering are Paclitaxel (Taxol) and Cisplatin. She got the Taxol first. Since it usually takes a day or two for the yucky side affects to start, things are quiet for now. I will stay here through Thursday and depending on how she does, she may get to go home before the end of the week. They will have her go home with the feeding tube, however, because she's still not so great about keeping down fluids , much less solids.

My mother brought her fresh beef broth this morning. Cyn had asked her for some broth a little tastier than the hospital broth. Although she had alot of it, most of it didn't stay down for very long BUT Cyn did say the flavor was much better than the hospital broth! (who knew? my mothers cooking is better than the hospitals!) My 89 year old mother Tess was here all day from about 10am to 4, when I arrived. She was tired, but happy to be able to spend the time helping Cyn. And actually Cyn said that she really knew my mother meant well (even though she can be a little guilt inducing to everyone around), and it was my mother who helped empty the bedside toidy when no nurses or nursing assistants would come around. I think she actually was glad my mother was here and it was just the two of them to talk together. My mother read to her a little too.

It's now 6:20pm and the first dose of Taxol is now complete. The nurse has just come in to put the other chemo in- the Cisplatin. Which will also automatically dispense via IV. Just eyeballing the covered bag (it's light sensitive so they keep it wrapped up in a dark brown bag), gives me the heebee jeebees but I know that this might just be the thing to save her life.

Please visualize the drugs powering through her system and wiping out all that cancer but still keep her strong. That "power of positive attraction" thing sure can't hurt these days.

Saturday Update from Josie

Eloise , Neena and I went this morning and washed her hair. I think this made her feel so much better. We figured out how to do it by watching a You Tube video. We helped her pay her bills online and Eloise read to her. Teresa B came by too.

She felt good enough to walk and made it down the hall past the elevators and back. She said it felt different walking again. Dr Chen came before Noon to ask her if she could eat anything yet, but Cyn can't really eat anything but ice, although she tried chamomile tea. He said not to worry about it since she is still on the feeding tube. He said he would be back tomorrow.

They gave her the adavan drug around 2:30 and that helped her relax. She seems to be able to go for longer stretches between doses.I left around 2:45 to take Mom home and Eloise and Neena were still with Cyn.

I found more information on Stage 3b lung cancer here: http://lungcancer.about.com/od/typesoflungcancer/a/stage3blungca.htm

I think we are all in a state of disbelief, yet incredible hope. Prayers all around. Prayers all around please.

Finally met Dr. T Chen

Cyn had an MRI on the abdomen today so they could take a look at the adrenal gland. She also had her first simulation appointment at radiology today, they do that to target the radiation area and let her know what to expect. She will start radiation on Monday. Joe and Clare and I were in the room when Dr. Chen came in, and Cyn arrived back from the MRI shortly after.

Dr. Chen says they’ve determined that surgery is not an option because the tumor in her lung is very small, but there are many cancer cells all around the center of the chest. Surgery would not be as affective as treating all those cells (the mass) with radiation and chemotherapy. Cyn is receiving the food tube with no problem (it looks like very pureed cream of wheat), so they are confident that they are increasing her caloric intake which will help increase her strength. Dr. Chen has recommended Chemo begin on Tuesday (after the initial radiation treatment), and she will have low doses of chemo weekly, and radiation 5 days a week for about 5-6 weeks. Normally they do high doses of chemo every 6 weeks, but he feels the radiation therapy will be more effective if they combine it with weekly low dose of chemo.

Dr. Chen said that her cancer is in Stage 3b, treatable but advanced. He says it was very lucky that they did that initial xray for the gurd, otherwise they would have never noticed the tumor and thus the cancer cells that are all in the center of her chest area. He says her lungs are very healthy and strong, and everyone on the oncology council (a group of specialists that review unusual cases) were perplexed as to why the cells were all around the center area when the tumor in her left lobe is so small.

So. We really don’t know what her prognosis is until she goes through treatment. It’s definitely not a great prognosis right now, but we really won’t know until the treatment starts. She will need strength from all of us. She doesn’t really mind having family around she says, we should be careful of too many other than family visitors, as she tires easily. (ie;, one at a time and maybe we should monitor to make sure a bunch of people don’t all visit at once?) She said this morning, “ I really like the peace and quiet”... So less stress is better for her.