Donde esta mi casa (Where is my house)

Good news!

We are leaving the hospital today and heading home. Andrea is feeling great and has no nausea today. We do have a minor spinal tap procedure today, but should be home in the evening. I will miss the blue bunny popsicles that the hospital has in their freezer, but having Andrea home will probably be better than the cold orange flavor of the blue bunny popsicle. "It is so good when it hits the lips"

- Frank the Tank or Will Ferrell from Old School.

For all our Spanish readers, below is the above text available only if you hit the SAP button on your remote control:

¡Buenas noticias!

Estamos saliendo del hospital hoy y estamos dirigiendo a casa. Andrea está sintiendo grande y no tiene ninguna náusea hoy. Tenemos un procedimiento de menor importancia del golpecito espinal hoy, pedacito debemos ser caseros por la tarde. Faltaré los popsicles azules del conejito que el hospital tiene en su congelador, pero tener hogar de Andrea será probablemente mejor que el sabor anaranjado frío del popsicle azul del conejito. " Es tan bueno cuando golpea el lips"

- Frank el tanque o Will Ferrell de la escuela vieja.

relay for life!

Hi everyone,

It was a quieter day today, but Andrea is still not feeling well, so she'll be at the hospital still tonight. Mom, Dad and I took her outside to enjoy a beautitful day. She is sleeping off all of these meds and battling through the nausea. Mom and Shul continue to take good care of Andrea and dad and i offer reinforcement on the weekends. I had a great birthday with the fam- thanks for the bday wishes everyone. Andrea made me a beautfiul banner and shul started a 10-year cougar countdown calendar....have i mentioned what a joy it is to be related to him??

Anyways, I wanted to add a shout out to aarti who walked the relay for life this weekend in honor of andrea. That is so cool- Thanks Aarti and Dave!

Love you everyone,
Kathleen

I got the munchies yo

Andrea's got the munchies. She is getting a new drug that contains a tiny bit of mary jane, reifer, grass, hashish, or marijuana. It was weird how it was administered. All the nurses came in, turned off the lights, lit some candles, put some Bob Marley on, passed the pills around until Andrea - as they said, "took a hit." Then Andrea took a hit of the pill from this special administering device they called Billy Bong Thornton or Wesley Pipes. Soon after she received this medicine, she had a hankering for sandwiches (see image), had some short term memory loss, and kept repeating "I'm wigging out."

Unfortunately, the drug has not been so successful. Andrea had another crummy day. She again felt nauseated all day. The good news is that she is done with her chemo treatment for now. So, I guess just time will make her feel better. We are also going home tomorrow most likely and hopefully that, along with time, will lift her spirits.

In the meantime, we do have a prescription for the magic drug and the nurses are coming over to our house next week with the Bob Marley music and the special device to administer the drugs.

Chemo day 4 - rough day

Well, yesterday started good, but ended pretty poorly for Andrea. She was extremely nausiated and nothing seemed to helped. She did sleep well and the nausea came back this morning. She is not doing so well right now. Her doctor has ordered some new drugs and hopefully those will help.

On a more positive note, it is Kathleen's 25th Birthday. Happy b-day gassy potato, aka. Kathleen.

Chemo Day 3 of 5

Like Cube said.... yesterday was a good day. Last night was good also. No nausea and Andrea slept really well. So far, today, she is feeling good and everything with the chemo is going very smoothly. Below is a video from Andrea to everyone who has been following this blog and a picture of Andrea and I at the hospital.

Today was a good day

Just waking up in the morning gotta thank god
I dont know but today seems kinda odd
No barking from the dogs, no smog
And momma cooked a breakfast with no hog
It was a good day.
....

These are the famous lyrics by one Mr. Ice Cube (pictured on the right).

Today has been indeed a good day. Yesterday was a rough day with the PICC line and everything. But today all is well. She had a spinal tap today where she receives a injection in her spine and chemo is introduced into her central nervous system. Andrea handled that really well and overall is doing really well. Even though she is getting some heavy duty chemo drugs, she has not felt any nausea and stayed upbeat and positive most of the day. Other than that, we took a long nap this afternoon, took a walk through the hospital, and just relaxed mostly. Two days of chemo down, three more to go.

....
Today was like one of those fly dreams
Didnt even see a berry flashing those high beams
No helicopter looking for a murder
Two in the morning got the fat burger
Even saw the lights of the goodyear blimp
And it read andrea-taylor's a pimp

It was a good day.

Chemo started today

Well, chemo was supposed to start yesterday, but did not. As I mentioned before, her port-a-cath had been leaking. We thought it was fixed. However, the nurses were not comfortable and wanted to make sure. So, this morning they had a port study done to make sure it was not leaking. And sure enough it was leaking. So, they put another IV - called a picc line in her right arm to administer the chemo. The danger of administering chemo if there is a leak is that it can cause serious skin issues - her doctor used the terms "hole in her chest."

I am glad they did the study. It sucked for Andrea though because another thing that went wrong, another IV put in her arm, and more pain. Eventually, they will have to surgically remove the port and put a new one in.

So, the chemo was delayed to today. It has already started and hopefully no more issues will come up. The chemo will last for 5 days. Other than the emotional drama of the port and the picc, Andrea is feeling ok. She is eating well and sleeping well. Her abdmonial wound is also healing well. My parents, along with Mr. & Mrs. Taylor, are here and we are all working hard to make her feel better. I am confident that the rest of this week will go smoothly and the cancer will be gone.

Chemo starts today

We had a good day yesterday. We celebrated father's day. In the evening, some of out best friends', John and Amanda Khoury stopped by. They are from Lebanon and they like hummus. It was mostly an uneventful day medically and uneventful medical days are good.

Today is a big day. Andrea will start round 3 of her chemotherapy. She had one small round called "COP", a very heavy round called "COPADM1", and now she will have another very heavy round of chemo called "COPADM2." After this round, we are hoping the cancer is in remission. COPADM2 will last for 5 days and I am hoping that we will be able to go home this coming Friday. After this round, we should have 2 weeks off from the hospital.

Happy Father's Day

First, Andrea and I want to wish a Happy Father's Day to my dad, Andrea's dad, and the most recent new dad - Vipul.

Andrea had a great day yesterday until the evening. Her dad and Kathleen were here. So, she want on a nice long walk outside with them. She also ate a full meal which she has not done for a few weeks. She had pizza and salad.

The day was good for the most part. In the evening she had a rough go. The doctors surgically installed a port-a-cath in Andrea's left shoulder area. A port-a-cath is a permanent IV hookup. It is nice because she does not have to get stuck with needles all the time when they need blood or need to administer any sort of medicine or chemotherapy. However, it has been bleeding lately and we can't figure out why. So, they had to change the needles of the port-a-cath last night (it is called recanulating) and it was very painful for Andrea. This morning it seems to have stopped bleeding. So, maybe what they did last night helped. Chemo starts tomorrow hopefully and we need this port to be working 100%.

Other than that, today should be another good day. Mrs. Taylor is bringing in breakfast and I have promised Andrea Chinese food.

Andrea also got a nice phone call from our family in India - Naresh Cha-Cha and Promila Cha-Chi. It was really nice to hear from them. We love them very much.

Finally, I have posted a picture of Andrea when she was near 5 or 6 years old. This picture shows Andrea with her childhood friends, Luke and Adam.

Baby Layton comes for a visit

Great news. The procedure yesterday went really well. She was only sedated for 5 minutes. She was walking around shortly after last night and felt great. This morning she feels even better.

We also had a surprise visit from Vipul, Morgan, and Baby Layton early this morning. Andrea had not seen him for a few weeks and she loved visiting with him. She got a chance to hold him, play with him for a while, and even feed him. She loves him very much and it really made her morning.
Also, Kathleen flew in yesterday and Mr. Taylor (his friends call him joe) is here. Andrea is resting now and all signs point to a great Father's Day weekend.

Bride Wars

So, the procedure was not performed yesterday. The procedure will be performed today at 2pm. We are hoping it makes her feel better.

Yesterday started rough. Andrea's spirits were the lowest they have been since this started. She was somewhat depressed all day long. However, in comes yours truly, Anshul aka superman aka batman aka spiderman to cheer her up. The commish, Mrs. Taylor, called me, I picked up the batphone, and was there in no time. (Wam! Zammo! Pow!). I hope this is really funny because otherwise I'm dumb.

Anyway, Andrea and I went for a long walk which seeemed to make her feel better. Then Mrs. Taylor left a little early and Andrea and I had a date night. We watched a movie of her choice, Bride Wars, which was pretty funny. I am going to try and get my manhood back today though and watch Terminator in the afternoon. However, Andrea felt a lot better. Her spirits were back up. She was smiling, laughing, and joking around. We also had a great night's sleep.

So, we are hoping to keep her energy up today and keep her laughing and smiling. Last, at the bottom of the blog, I have put Andrea's calendar which will help tell everyone when she in the hospital, etc. Also, all the older posts can be accessed from the "older posts (blog archive)" section at the bottom of this webpage.

Anshul

Today may be a rough day

Yesterday was an ok day. Our primary physician, Dr. Kent, came in and gave us the plan for next week. Andrea will start her next round of chemo on Monday. Also, we have some new highly recommended surgeons that will be taking care of her incision. Dr. Kent and the new surgery team laid out a very good plan to take care of wound so that it is healed by the time chemo starts.

The bad news is that the new surgery team will be doing a minor procedure (not surgery) for the wound today that will be very painful. Andrea is nervous and a little scared. I think this procedure will be really good for her in the long run, but will be painful in the short run. She will get some paid meds and hopefully those will help minimize the pain.

Andrea has been pretty strong and will get through it and hopefully we will be past this incision wound once and for all. We are definetely headed in the right direction and hopefully after this next round of chemo, she will be in complete remission.

Anshul

What are they feeding her?

They (the proverbial "man") have her on an all you can eat low fat no sodium high cholesterol mushy Grule diet. This diet is making her feel a lot better though. She woke up this morning and sat up and had a big breakfast.

Today was the first day in a while where she is herself and feeling really good. Also, her count is now up to 16 which is great. Her incision is finally starting to heal. It is less sore, the swelling is down significantly and she is in less pain. She has also not spiked a fever for over 24 hours!

We may even try to get her outside and get her some fresh air. Finally, she still seems to be on track for the next round of chemo on Friday or Monday.

Anshul

Good and bad news

Well, there is some good and bad news today. Good news - Andrea's white blood count is back to normal. Consequently, she will be most likely starting her next round of chemo on Friday or Monday. Hopefully, the cancer will be in complete remission after the next round.

Also, before the chemo even started, Andrea had a surgery where an incision was made in her abdomen to determine the type of cancer she had. That incision and surgery has caused her a lot of pain. It even got infected last week. The good news is that the incision may finally be healing. The swelling and redness around the incision has gone down considerably. That may be due to the white blood count rising or due to all the antibiotics she has been receiving.

The bad news is that nausea is back. She hasn't been able to keep anything down in the last 36 hours. Hopefully, we can get back under control.

We are hoping for a good day today...

Anshul

Andrea is feeling good...

Hi everyone,

Andrea is feeling pretty good today even though we didn't get a lot of sleep last night. We are waiting for her doctors to come in this morning to see what is going to be the next step. Just to let everyone know, she has already completed 2 rounds of chemotherapy and we are awaiting word on when her next round may be.

As many of you know, last week she got an infection caused by her low white blood count. Low blood count is a side effect of the chemotherapy. So, that has slowed us down a bit in her treatment. She is on some heavy duty antibiotics and those are helping her heal. I expect as soon as her white blood count comes back up, we will start her next round of chemotherapy. Hopefully, next week.

We are all very anxious to start because we are hoping the cancer will be in complete remission after the next round of chemo. Thanks again everyone for your comments and thoughts. Andrea has really enjoyed reading all of them and they are giving her a lot of strength.

I also wanted to give a final shout to the Los Angeles Lakers - 2009 World Champions.



Anshul

Andrea has visitors

Today, Aunt JoAnn, Aunt Mary and Grandma Taylor stopped by to visit Andrea. They came bearing hand lotions, soaps, and weird rocks.

It really lifted Andrea's spirits and put a smile on her face.

There is also a rumor that the Mangals are coming with food for yours truly.

Anshul

rush redux

Dear Family and Friends,

This is Kathleen and we are writing this time from the Rush Pediatric wing again. Andrea's abdomen became pretty severely infected at the site of her surgery. She was admitted on Wednesday and has had to get some heavy duty antibiotics since her white cells are so low following her first "big gun" round of chemo. After a couple of scary days, she seems to have stabilized and her white cells are slowly fight fight fighting back.

We've had a couple of sleepovers and all of us got our taco bell fix last night since Andrea was having a better night. Andrea and Anshul's friends Mike and Crizen stopped by and gave Andrea a cute new 'do that stays off her neck. Shul decided to shave his head out of solidarity and Crizen was kind enough to do it in segments. As we discovered, he may look good with hair, he may look good bald, but he does not look good with horns.
All things considered, Andrea Rose is on the mend again and we have a few more Andrea drug tales that add to this long, strange trip journal. When the surgeon, Dr. Butch, came in, she said she felt like she was in the scene from o brother where art though, being dunked in the bayou. To be fair, his boots did not befit a hospital, I can see where she was thrown. Also, a surgical resident flew in her room in the middle of the night according to Andrea "like a bat out of hell." She has one tremendous book in the making.

I attached the pics of Andrea, Anshul and the fam below so everyone . Please email or send pics of your families so she can keep up on everything going on with you! Aunt Mary, Aunt Joanne and Grandma just stopped by for a visit so we are enjoying their company- Gotta go!

much love
kathleen, joe, sharon, andrea and anshul

Good afternoon everyone!!!

Well, it has been a few weeks since this has all hit and i really can't tell you how wonderful everyone has been through all of this. the letters flowers thoughts prayers chants have truly been felt.

the last week in the hospital was what we have been calling the 'BIG GUNS' treatment. i had attempted to try and blog at that time but they keep you pretty "comfortable" so after mom dad Kathleen and anshul looked over some of my writings we all thought better of that. at some points i couldn't spell wasssssssss :) so...

it had been pretty ruff but i have had a lot of help. yesterday, today and tomorrow are to be some of the harder ones. i have taken several naps, read letters and later today hopefully attempting a short walk.

i did recieve more good news from the doctors office. my body is reacting well to the treatments and usually in between big dog treatments they give your body about two weeks to get your counts up and a little time to recover but the doctors called today to tell me that i may not need the two weeks to recover but that my body is really doing quite well and i may go in one week earlier. the faster i can can knock it out the better for me.

my doctor has been very aggressive and cheerful and it seems to be working.

i love everyone sooo much. thinks powerful thoughts.

i love you
andrea

Hello from Rush Medical Hospital

Hi everyone,

I checked into the hospital yesterday for the first large chemotherapy treatments. I feel pretty good. Anshul, mom, and Anshul's parents have been keeping me company. I had a suprise visit from Becky, my babysitter when I was little yesterday. It was wonderful to see her.

I will be hopefully checking out at the end of this week. I will keep everyone posted on my recovery.

I love everyone.

Andrea

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my blog!

Andrea