Finishing treatment!

On Wednesday, placing the tri port in her chest did not go as planned. Her blood was too thin, so after back and forth with doctors, decided to place the PICC line back into her arm as to not delay start treatment. Once that was done, she was admitted up to her room and they got things started. One of the chemotherapy drugs is indigo blue. Looked like concentrated Windex! Maybe Windex does have universal purposes (My Big Fat Greek Wedding).

Today is the last of the five days of the treatment. Each day has made her a bit more tired. We were hoping that Carla could come home today, however, the last treatment dose was carrying into the evening a bit and the doctor wanted to make sure that any pain she has can be managed. The area on her chest where the port was removed and got infected has shown great improvement and is mending. Dr. P says she is on the list to be discharged tomorrow. Any amount of stay in a hospital is too long, and each stay has its challenges. Family, friends, neighbors all help make it manageable. Thank you all very much.

We hope all of you are doing well.

With love,
The Hennessy’s

How many forks in the road?!

We had a change of plans yesterday. The hospital called at 8am and changed some things and wanted to admit her Tue or Wed because they wanted to do a heart echo test and administer a drug which needs a day to work. However, while there, her new port she got Friday showed signs of possible infection and is causing lots of pain. So, this morning we called and said that it needs to come out. They called back and said come in and lets get it taken care of right away , and they completed the removal. Carla also had to get a transfusion and antibiotics yesterday. We thought we were getting things started yesterday but have a detour.

The plan is to place a different tri-port line in the morning and admit her right after to start treatment.

All, thank you for everything, every bit of encouragement builds strength.

Love,
The Hennessy's

Another road we haven't travelled

Yesterday Carla endured another bone marrow biopsy to check the effectiveness of the latest treatment. Today we had the consultation with the leukemia doctors to discuss some of the results. They concluded the Vidaza treatment is not yielding the desired response. We discussed other treatment plans for the situation. The new treatment (different type of chemo) will place Carla in the hospital for at least 5 days. This could be as early as MONDAY. After the five days she can come home, and then wait for a period of time to see if this zaps the leukemia, and potentially lead to another bone marrow transplant. There is no one road that we are on, and plans can change.

She will have the PICC line in her arm replaced with the same central line she had for her treatment last year. Carla is soooo happy to get that thing out of her arm, but would rather not have any line at all.

We are saddened by the news, but optimistic that one of these bullets will do the trick. Your hope, prayers, thoughts, mojo are always welcome. You are welcome to correspond any way you like.

With our love,

The Hennessy’s