Cougar's wife

[Latanya]

I've always held you in high regard after you had told me how you met your wife and the stories that you've boasted of her through the years. I can't even imagine how this must feel but I'm glad you've shared this with us. I'm glad we can help you, even if it's just a small amount. My heart goes out to all of you, if there's anything that you need, just ask.

- Olaf/Latanya/Mary

[Cougar]

Update:

Here I thought my sleeping patterns previous to this were weird now I doze more often than sleep and am awake at truly odd times.

I finally get to post some good news!

Let me start by that on Friday when we left the hospital her last blood work showed her hemoglobin to be 8.4 and mean platelet to be 7.5. She did have an additional blood transfusion before we left and we started her blood thinner medicine shots twice a day.
On Tuesday my wife went in for followup blood work and to have the surgeon look over the aftermath of her lumpectomy. She is healing quite fine and ahead of schedule. YES
Then doctor then asked if she would like to know the results of her blood work, now keep in mind this was only 45 minutes from when she had the blood drawn. Also you should be aware on previous tests after a transfusion her counts would only rise on average of 0.6 to 0.8 for both readings. My wife is a complete pessimist and was expecting to have to get another transfusion. Her results were hemoglobin of 10.2 and mean platelet of 11.5!

Needless to say it was a good thing my wife was sitting down otherwise she might have fallen. She was dumbfounded and wanted to know what changed. I gave her two reasons and the doctor agreed with me.

1. All the prayers being done for her. I cannot thank everyone enough here, on Facebook, plus friends and family, along with a few churches. Having a positive attitude and faith go a long way.
2. Her blood thinner is assisting the hemoglobin and red blood cells in leaving the bone marrow. Which I speculated perhaps the breast cancer cells are acting as a clotting agent and the thinner is exactly what she needed. Here the doctor thought my speculation was way out of the box, but considering her cancer is not acting anything close to how most cancers do he could not dismiss my theory.

So recap thus far;
Her tumor is removed from her left breast.
Her lymph nodes contain the microscopic cancer cells.
Her blood has no cancer cells. - this is what never made the doctors think she was stage IV.
She is estrogen and progesterone positive. - this is what most cancer cells use to feed on to replicate.
She is her2nu negative. - this is an enzyme that allows cancer cells to multiply on their own at random.
Microscopic breast cancer cells are in her bone marrow.
She is on blood thinner for the clot in her lower right calf.

Tomorrow, err later today we are going in for a PET scan and an MRI or CT scan all depending on if her claustrophobia will allow her to have the MRI. The doctors want to sedate her and I refuse as she gets so sick from drugs. We will get the results on Friday afternoon and I will update again this weekend!

Also since some people have asked my wife's name is Jayne.


Sincerely,

Tom

[Gumble Tinkertumble]

Good luck to you both!

[GunnJ]

That's great news, I'm so happy for you both. Hopefully the MRI will be able to give more answers. Now get some sleep.

[Grunt]

Glad to hear some positive news for your family!

They have a mic/speaker setup usually, and will check in during the MRI. The machine is really loud, though. You could see if they'll let you talk with her while it's going on, to try to distract her from the environment. When I had my MRI on my head a few years back, I thought I'd just take a nap...

They'll likely have dealt with claustrophobic people before (and it's a tight area even for non-claustrophobes), and can quickly get her out into the open. I hope that she'll get through it with as little stress as possible.

[Levis Pie]

Very glad to hear the good news, and hope you'll hear more Friday. Good luckand god bless.

[Cameron Klym]

Really great to hear good news for you and your family. We are all behind you here and are doing what we can, not that it feels like much. My prayers and thoughts have been with you and your family. Hope the good news continues. Try and stay positive...which I know is a lot harder to do then it sounds.

Take Care
Cameron

[shentaoba]

I ghost these boards constantly to see how you are all doing. I am so sorry that your wife and your family are going through this. As a Hospital Administrator I have seen many, many medical miracles occur...especially from the patients with a strong will and a great support network! I have asked the Creator to grant your wife strength and you fortitude in these times. My family's love to you and your wife.

-Shih (Tim)

[Cougar]

Update:

After having an MRI and a PET scan on Thursday, we got to discuss the results with the oncologist on Friday. The great news is her brain and spinal column are completely clear. Her organs are all fine as well. She has three small spots in her lymphatic system. One under her right collarbone, one off her right inner hip, and last is outside her spine close to her left kidney area. Treatment will not change from the finding of the cancer cells in her bone marrow, of taking chemo pills. We are holding off for a week still to allow her to heal more from surgery and to get a second opinion that this is the correct coarse.

Amazingly here hemoglobin and mean platelet counts are continuing to rise. The doctor believes this is from the last pint of blood having an extremely healthy donor and is resilient to breaking down. Regardless of the reason, I continue to give thanks.

We went out today so she could get a new haircut. Her stylist even refused to take our money but I made sure she had a healthy tip. So for now we are taking things as we have been one day at a time, but the outlook to me is for much better days. We continue to pray and the support from everyone is truly appreciated.


Thank you,

Tom

[GunnJ]

Wonderful news, give her and your son a big hug from us.

[DarknessFallsLight]

Science! Fingers crossed you get to keep the good updates rolling in!

[Cameron Klym]

That is really great news and I am praying that things will only continue to get better as each day passes by. I am so happy for you and your family.

[Cougar]

Update:

Sorry for the prolonged absence but things have changed a lot. First off my wife is still fighting and went through nine months of chemotherapy and two different versions of chemo. Remarkably she still has her hair, it is thinner but she still has her own hair. Last month we had our first main road bump, acute renal failure, aka her kidneys stopped functioning. Four days in the hospital and seven bags of IV fluid to get her kidneys jump started again. Now this is a good thing and bad. Now let me educate those that do not know there are three areas your body can store water; intravenous, extravenous, and third space. Intravenous is in your blood, this is where water pills work best. Extravenous is water in your tissues aka muscles. Third Space is the lovely fatty areas under the skin and this can hold large reservoirs. So needless to say she gained 33 pounds of water weight and is effectively from her waist to her toes. She has had four PET scans and two one marrow biopsies. The cancer back in January had it at 99% saturated in her bone marrow. She as of this last week is at 20%. To give her a body a break from the chemo and allow her to recover more but still fight the cancer we are switching over to hormone therapy. The side affects for it is that we get to experience menopause yet again. She will be starting physical therapy next week to try and get the water weight handled by Christmas. Until this last month she has been working full time as well to keep having medical. Her company has been great in helping out as well. I on the other hand have missed a large amount of work and even had to go unpaid days off. I will be honest the only thing I do not like loosing is my pay, but considering the time I get to spend with my wife is priceless I will call it even.

My wife's manager two ranks up created a site for her. We are using it as fund for our son's future, mainly for college. If you want to see a picture of my wife and son, please do not feel obligated to donate.

http://www.gofundme.com/jaynesjourney

If time permits I hope to get back IG soon.


Take care,

Cougar
aka. Tom

[Xaila]

Thanks for the update. I've actually thought about this a few times in the past months wondering how things have been going.

[Katroine]

I was hoping for an update as well.

I am glad some of the news is really good (the 99% to 20%) and I hope the therapy helps with the edema. She and your son are beautiful, too.
I will be keeping you in my thoughts as you both go through this treatment.

XO

[Lycanthropy]

Very best wishes to you all!

[GunnJ]

That is some good news, and its great to learn how her company is so supportive. Stay strong and Merry Christmas.

[Plethora]

Good to hear from you man, and good news too. Stay safe xx

[Isadora]

I'm so sorry please keep us updated and we're all here to listen!

[Vian]

Just seeing this post now: This is the worst kind of news but your family is fighting strong you and your wife is are super heroes! You're an inspiration to anyone fighting this.
It's great to hear the positive news. I wish only the best outcome for you and family.

[Cougar]

Long over due update:

First off Jayne is still fighting this after five years. Back in October we found out that her breast cancer is the rare BRCA2 type. With this now being known to be a genetic cancer explains why none of the 12 or more chemos she has taken have not worked, I have actually lost count of how many she has taken. Five years of poisoning her body and she is still alive and wanting to fight gives me true hope and encourages my faith. She has only been on the new trial chemo now for a about 45 days and she is scheduled for another PET scan in late January to see how the drug works on her.

All the drugs though have taken their toll on her and she is not working anymore and we are in the midst of filing for disability, she also worked for her company for 19.5 years. In June she would have gotten to the 20 year mark. Things are still a struggle to keep things going. But in regards to that I strive to do two things for her each year to keep her motivated. One is always a vacation of her choice and the second is to do an upgrade to the house to make things easier for her. This year for vacation we went up to northern Minnesota to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River and spend some time on a lake in a friend's cabin. We had such a great time there we most likely will do another extended weekend next year. As for the house I am in the midst of upgrading the kitchen: new floor, painting the walls and cabinets, plus to get a new counter top. The counter top is actually having to wait until March or April next year but I hope she likes it when it will be completed.

Slowly but surely I am making this house wheelchair friendly. Not much I can do about the entry stairs though as we live in a split level. I am starting to look into one of those electric seat lifts. Also if I want her to continue to travel I will be purchasing a TSA approved fold-able electric wheelchair.

As always we appreciate all the kind words and prayers.


Tom

[galen_macbyrne]

We continue to wish the best to her and to you, mate. If she needs any more MRI's though, I might suggest you try an open MRI, they are great for someone who is claustrophic. When my wife needed an MRI (and she was also claustrophobic) they got her to one in a week, was better than the regular one. And amazingly, it was at Damadian in Queens, NYC, close to our house at the time. Damadian invented the procedure.

[silverfields2]

You are on my prayer list.

[Cameron Klym]

I hope the new drug works and that your wife will respond to it well.

[Lycanthropy]

All the best to you and your family, sincerely.