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.

Day Fourteen

The snow is really coming down today. Poor Erica slipped and fell outside of Mario Tower on the way in and ended up in an ambulance to the hospital for an x-ray. Hopefully, nothing was broken. Joe (her husband, a patient) sure needs her.


So the morning started later than usual. Mom got a 15 minute stem cell drip and then a 45 minute protein drip. I had been standing by, writing "need to know"'s, for any new patient planning on coming, on my netbook that I will add to the blog. I wasn't able to get into the room that has the Internet cable to say goodnight to my littlest one on Skype but, it's okay... I called and hubby had me on speakerphone with her. Hearing her is better than not seeing her.  It melts my heart to hear her say "Hi, Momma".

We understand that Dr. Moon is going to the States through 1/10/10 to continue working on opening a lab in Houston and hopefully a clinic in possibly the Bahamas or Mexico. That may take quite a while though to come to fruition. I know they've been trying to open a clinic closer to the States for more than a year.

It's about 1:20 pm now. Everyone else went back to the hotel about 45 minutes ago. I'm going to wait until Joe finishes his treatment and take a taxi back to the hotel with him. Hopefully, Erica will get back to the hotel soon safe, sound and unbroken. I understand that the hospital is not the best place in the world. Your bed is basically a gurney with a sheet over it. The privacy curtain is just around your "bed" so not any real space for anyone to even visit you. You need to bring your own soap, towels, etc.

So, here I sit in a room next to Joe writing this and listening to Minnie Driver on my netbook. Yes, she sings and her voice is incredibly beautiful. Take a listen to her album called Seastories. It has become my South Korean soundtrack.

Here are some snow shots from today...

Day Thirteen

Very nice day today.  Cold but clear and it felt good to walk around.  Since it was a day off, we made it over to Itaewon.  There are a lot of American shops but also neat little sidewalk vendors.   We were there for three hours.  You can definitely negotiate... even with sellers in the indoor mall.  We went with Erica (wife of a patient), Debbie (caregiver of a patient) and Dawn and Dave (the newest couple).   Mom and I were approached on the sidewalk by two female students who wanted to practice their English with us.  I had actually read that this would happen in a book I got on Korea (Culture Shock: South Korea).  Overall, good day.