9 August 2007

A good day.

First, mom had her spinal plumbing checked. At 8:30 she had an injection of radioactive dye into her Ommaya. If her spinal fluid is circulating correctly, the dye will be detectable by a Gamma camera. She had one scan at 9am, one at 10am, one at 4pm and will have one more in the morning. The procedure is called a cisternography. It is important that her spinal fluid circulates correctly so that when chemotherapy is injected to treat this fluid, it does not just stay in one spot.

Mom also had her chemotherapy consultation with Dr. Glantz and Julia at 11am. The meeting was a good overview what to expect moving forward.

Mom had her first radiation therapy today at 5pm. She was incredibly brave. The machine used to do the radiation was very large and looked like something out Star Wars. It scared me when I saw it. It was so big. See picture below.

More pictures are below in the photo section of the blog.

Mom took the treatment very well. The mask was not comfortable and made her feel claustrophobic. They strap it on VERY tight. Then they line up the beams and do the treatment. Today took about 20 minutes but from now on it will take about 5 minutes. Mom was in good spirits after the treatment. She had energy and was in a good mood. We went straight to the Alpine Days Family Dinner. She ate a little and socialized for about an hour.

Tonight mom took her first chemo pill. The pill is so toxic that dad has to put on a rubber glove before touching one of the pills. This is the same pill that mom will put in her mouth! WOW. Dad can’t touch it but mom has to swallow it. We will know in the morning how she did with it. We are praying that the effects are minimal.

Tomorrow morning mom gets one more gamma scan. Then, at 10am we are meeting with President Monson in his office. He is going to give mom a blessing. He was the mission president when her family joined the church. He used to come to their home from time to time for their famous fish frys. He is kind to make time to meet with us now. It will be a great blessing to be able to spend time with him.

Thank you for your continued support and love. Please keep up the fervent prayers.

The Christensens