Day Nineteen

Saturday, 1/9/10, 7:45pm... 

Mom to clinic at 8:30am for gene vaccine shot. 

Scoff at being told I get another stomach shot tomorrow.

Flag down taxi like crazy American to hotel.   

Walk up hill to pick up laundry. Keep scarf from freezing to face.

Skype with beautiful family.

Take fruit to Erika in hospital.  Get trampled entering elevator.

Erika in physical therapy.  Leave fruit with daughter.

Have lunch at Paris Baguette, which does not sell baguettes.

Get on 2:00pm hotel shuttle to planned spot, Myeong Dong.

Takes us instead one hour away to Dongdae Mun.

We're happy the weather report said today would be 30 degrees and sunny!

Fog settles in, temperature plummets and starts to snow.  A frown is a smile upside down.

Shop in Dongdae Mun's "Good Morning City", which is huge!

Flag down taxi like crazy American to hotel.

Pray the taxi driver finds his way to hotel.

Taxi arrives and lets us out across street from hotel for dinner at Outback Steakhouse with Debbie.

Travel across bridge to hotel.  Keep scarf from freezing to face.

Arrive safe and sound.

Astonished by mom once again.

Day Eighteen

Oh my gosh, what a long day.  Had to wake up at 5am so mom could have breakfast as it was another CT scan day.  It's now 8pm and we're exhausted.  The day began at the clinic as usual.  Mom received stem cells and protein.  The stem cells were mine so I'm hoping she doesn't start sprouting blonde hair and reciting lines from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  We then traveled to the Korea Cancer Center with two other patients and their family member and spent about three hours there.  Mom had the CT scan (with a much bigger needle than usual, for the contrast).  They also fitted her with an upper body cradle-contraption that will keep her in the same position for each of the 15 treatments. 

Tomorrow is Saturday (still Friday for y'all back home), so we're going to take the hotel shuttle over to Myeong Dong after clinic.  We're hoping to see Erika at the hospital between clinic and Myeong Dong.  If not, we'll go Sunday. 

Have to go now... mom is starting to dance on the bed with a hairbrush in her hand singing Hopelessly Devoted to You.  I need to tell Dr. Moon to use someone else's stem cells.

Day Seventeen

Today will be the last "normal" (and I say that as in "everything is relative") day there is for mom for at least the next three weeks. Today was just the protein drip and then the CK shot. Tomorrow is back to the Korea Cancer Center for the CT scan. Monday begins the first of three weeks mom will be traveling (an hour away) to the Korea Cancer Center for IGRT treatments. Monday, in the morning, at Dr. Moon's clinic will also be the start of the chemo drug Cisplatin (half dose), along with a p53 gene shot. Yes, now all the fun stuff really begins (as if it didn't already seem that way).



I got to Skype with my beloved family back home... not once but twice today. Love you hubby and girls!! Thank you MIL for all of your help with these two very difficult children.. ;-)      xoxo

Day Sixteen

The day began with the usual "Wednesday Regimen" of stem cells, then protein via IV. At noon, we were on our way back to the Korea Cancer Center with new PET-CT scan in hand to re-address radiation therapy with Dr. Cho. We met with him at 2pm. With better imaging from the new PET-CT and with the curvature of mom's tumors in the pleura space, he is going to go with IGRT instead of Cyberknife. IGRT is Image-Guided Radiation Therapy. No fiducials or any other invasive implantation necessary. He said he is going to do a total of 37.5 grays in 15 fractions for three weeks.


Mom needs to go back again on Friday for another CT scan, then will begin the therapy on Monday... five minutes per day, five days per week for three weeks. He said that the most common side effect is dry-cough but to be sure to call should she experience more serious effects. So, will now need to see if the Cisplatin chemo will still be administered since it was supposed to go in conjunction with Cyberknife. I'm sure it will be.



I can't believe I only have another 11 days left. Then mom's pal will be taking over the helm for me here. She's been mom's life-saver the entire time she has been battling lung cancer. To me, she is an angel (in short form)... :-)

Day Fifteen

On the way to breakfast through the Lobby, Mr. Mok stopped us and told us that everyone needed to go to the clinic early. So, we grabbed a few pastries and jumped on-board the Mok van. The reason we needed to come in early is because Dr. Moon wanted to see everyone before he left to the States. Mom got her protein drip as well as her gene and vaccine shots.

Erika is still in the hospital. She, unfortunately, has a broken leg and cracked joint so is scheduled for surgery in two days. She'll then be in the hospital for a week. Luckily, Dr. Moon arranged for someone to be with her in the hospital for a couple of days until her daughter arrives. Yesterday was a difficult day. Not only did Erika get hurt, poor Jackie (stage IV prancreatic cancer) had to have 6 additional fiducials implanted in her back. The first 6 were implanted in the wrong place. The fiducials (golden "seeds") are used as markers for Cyberknife. They pushed the first 6 into her spine area by hand and she said it was the worst pain she had ever felt. Then come to find that they were put in the wrong location is completely unacceptable. Does this kind of thing happen in the States?

Tomorrow, mom is going back to Dr. Cho to discuss her Cyberknife treatment. The kind of mistake that happened with Jackie cannot happen to mom. And I don't understand why a local isn't given to the patient during the implant. I'm sure we're going to find out a lot more tomorrow but we're going to be on top of this particular procedure. I will, of course, keep you posted.

By the way, we stopped in to see Erika after mom's treatment and errands and I have to say that the hospital is not as bad as another patient had described. Erika did have her own room but it's just that the bed is very hard. It's not as nice as hospitals in the States but much better than I had pictured.