Wow, we've been here at Oasis for six days now. This is the halfway point and from here on out the treatments will be consistently more intense until we go home. Today was a big question mark for us: how would Kris respond to the full cycles of cancer killing treatments after having such an easy go of it thus far? The answer ended up being "pretty well."
We started off the morning undecided about what to do for breakfast. We popped our heads into the cafeteria, saw our selections of oatmeal, scrambled eggs and dried bananas with almonds and decided we'd take a walk instead. And as luck would have it, Jenny and Sharon were of the same mind and joined us for breakfast at the yogurt place. I guess we're aiming to be regulars of this eatery before we come home. I ordered whole wheat waffles with strawberries and Kris ordered the french toast on whole wheat bread with fruit. When the meals arrived I took a big bite of my waffle to discover a fat almond resting within. Dammit, guess I'm skipping breakfast, or risk my throat closing up. Stupid allergies. But my awesome wife saved me and we traded meals. This is a big deal because I know how much she loves french toast. She must love me! But we both ate and both meals were very good (again), we chatted and then remembered it was time to head back to the hospital to begin treatments.
Krissy's treatments started about 10:30 with the oxidative therapy. This lasted about 45 minutes. Kris went into a room where a substantial amount of blood was drawn and was then infused with ozone to greatly increase the oxygen levels and then it's transfused back into her body. The theory here is that cancerous tumors are very low in oxygen and this makes it difficult for blood to flow through them, which is why your immune system didn't break them down like it should have in the first place. This therapy cranks up the oxygen levels in the blood and gets red blood cells moving again, allowing the lymphocytes she received yesterday to really get in there and start going to town on the cancer cells. After this transfusion, she then receives two high doses of vitamin C intravenously along with a synthetic blood substitute called Perftec. The Perftec "cells" are much smaller than our red blood cells and can carry more oxygen to tumor sites, while the vitamin C produces a toxic environment to the tumor while normal tissue is unaffected. All combined, this is like a dropping a couple of nuclear bombs onto the tumors and over time they just start to shrink and hopefully one day completely disappear. This is obviously what we're praying for!
But, as we all were told when we were little, if medicine was easy to take then it probably wouldn't work. Or, if it tastes like crap it must be good for us. The same applied today. The biggest concern was if Kris would have any kind of reation to the Perftec, as it can produce a wide range of side effects. Thankfully she handled this without any issues. The vitamin C was up next and after her second dose she became very nauseous and had to throw up. Sharon came by to check on her and said she'd been on vitamin C therapy for two months and got sick almost every time, so it's normal. After Krissy's therapies she was very tired and fell asleep for several hours. This was probably a good thing, since the doctors stated her healing would begin right away and she'd some some inflammation at the tumor sites. The best way for your body to heal is to sleep so I let her crash until she was ready to wake up.
One interesting thing about her diagnosis have been the CT scans. When Krissy was diagnosed with cancer back in October, we were told this was a very aggressive cancer, would grow quickly, and she's probably had it about a year. Always contradicting this were her ultrasound and previous CT scans that showed absolutely no change in her stomach from April through October. It always left me scratching my head. Well, here we are 2.5 months later and the CT scans still show no change, and no additional tumor sites. In fact, according to how the doctors read the scans here she's probably technically in stage 3 instead of stage 4, as they don't see anything on he pancreas as they did back home. Of course things change and perhaps it's a bad angle to tell for sure, but I'm still encouraged that nothing has worsened for her. In the world of cancer this is a very good thing. So all that is left is for her to get better. Let the healing begin!
A final note for any of the ladies reading about Krissy. If you have any intentions of having a baby, please get thorough screening before hand to rule out any possible cancers you may have a family history with. I say this because our friend here Sharon, was told she was cancer free from a previous bout with melanoma and then was told it was safe to get pregnant. Unfortunately, she still had cancer in her body and the hormonal change in her body caused the cancer to accelerate tremendously. Apparently estrogen can have this affect on many cancers. I don't want to scare anyone, but please, be diligent when it comes to your body. I sometimes wonder now if having Camryn was the catalyst for what Krissy is going through today.
On a happy note, they had POTATOES for dinner tonight! Yay! I feasted on delicious mashed potato cakes lightly fried in olive oil. Just in time too, I could almost see my potato reserves getting lower each day. And God bless her heart, Sharon brought me the last two potato cakes in the kitchen after they ate dinner. She is a saint among mortals I tell ya.
Well that's it from Oasisland for tonight. We're over the hump now, only six days left! We can't wait to get home and squeeze our kiddos and see the rest of the family. Hope everyone out there is having a great weekend! G'night!
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