4/26/08
Soni wanted to go to Arkansas over her school Passover break to see her sisters and the white dogwoods, pink dogwoods, and redbuds that were in bloom now. Kristi arranged for us to get a standby flight on Delta where she works that was scheduled to & from Tulsa on Tue. 4/22 and RTB Thu. 4/24.The trip has now been completed with a few interesting hassles along the way and we both enjoyed it very much. We were bumped from the scheduled flight leaving SLC and were rescheduled at the far extreme gate of SLI on a flight to Kansas City, which we made, had front seats by the bulkhead and were not crowded at all. We had great handicap assisted service when we arrived at KC. There was a wheelchair waiting for Soni where they took us out to the car rental shuttle and drove us over to the rental place. the bus driver had radioed ahead and they even had a wheelchair waiting when we got off the bus.

At the end of the road trip down to Eureka Springs, it became a bit hectic because much of the freeway system had been rebuilt during the past year and our 1-year old GPS did not have the updates, so in some cases it showed us driving across some fields and the highway we were actually on was shown going across our path from left to right. Then as night began to fall and we could not use a map, we just depended totally on Gertrude (as we call the GPS... Gertrude Polly Smith) and it keep getting us closed & closer to Ft. Smith, Arkansas rather than on a route we probably would have taken in the daytime when we could see the map. However, she (Gertrude) finally headed us east in the right direction. The road was extremely steep and crooked all the way, but sometimes we would pass a warning sign that said "Next 6 miles steep and crooked". We weren't sure how it could get any more steep and crooked! We had been talking occasionally on the cell phone to Carol & Nicole who were waiting at the motel in Eureka Springs for us. They had already checked out a key to our room since we would be arriving late. When we finally reached Eureka at 11:30 p.m., we drove from one end of town to the other looking for the motel. We didn't find it, so we tried to call Carol, but our phone had no service in the mountains of Eureka. So we drove back through town again with no luck and then went through a 3rd time. We stopped at an all-night gas station and asked the woman where it was. She wasn't sure but thought it was by a Pizza Hut. We went back the 4th time and couldn't find the Pizza Hut either. We stopped at a motel that seemed like it had someone in the office, but he wasn't interested in giving us any info on another motel. We tried at another motel and spoke with a very nice gentleman that finally gave us some good directions and we rolled in at 12:15.

The weather there was fantastic spring weather even though it was snowing in SLC. Soni was able to enjoy her sisters and the scenery plus it just so happened that Wed. was Aunt Roberta's 91st birthday and we were invited to attend her birthday dinner at a restaurant in Harrison. Soni seemed to really enjoy the visit there.

Since we were scheduled to fly back out of Tulsa on Thur., we had arranged to drop the kansas City car off in Tulsa, however we found out before leaving that we had been bumped from the Tulsa return flight, so we were rebooked at KC and had to drive back to there. We arrived in plenty of time and went to wait at the gate for boarding. We had been there about 5 minutes, when they called final boarding for the 2:00 p.m. flight to SLC. We were booked for the 5:18 p.m. flight that would have arrived here around 7:00. I figured they could tell me how our flight was looking until closer to time for our flight, so I waited til the last person went through and then gave her our 2 Seat Requests and asked her about our flight. Sure enough, she said she couldn't tell yet, but she immediately began pecking away on the computer keyboard and said, "Is this other person here?". I said "Yes, she is sitting right there across the room in the wheelchair." We received 2 boarding passes and were rushed right onto the plane where we obtained the last 2 seats on the plane. It was tight and cramped in row 16 but we made it back to SL before we were even scheduled to leave KC! So we were glad to be able to "hi-jack" the flight before our flight.

4/13/08
Soni woke up this morning feeling fairly well, although a bit more tired than yesterday and with a slight headache. But she still wanted to go to the Welfare Meeting scheduled at 9:00, then Choir Practice at 10:15 and Sacrament at 11:00. After that she was ready to bag it for the other meetings. We stopped and visited with the Northern Cheyenee Indian lady that we are responsible for to see how she is doing this week and filled out a food order for her from the Bishops Storehouse. Then it was home for a nap.

She goes in for X-rays tomorrow to check out the other 2 spots the PET-Scan picked up in her right shoulder and left hip.
Please keep the prayers coming. They help a lot!

4/12/08
Soni awoke this morning feeling GREAT! She said it was a good night of sleep due to her back not hurting at all for a change. She says she "can just feel those little PacMan things eating away the cancer cells". She even says she feels like the tumors are shrinking already!

For breakfast he wanted to go out and eat at one of her favorite restaurants (Finn's) again while her tongue could still enjoy food. She has been told that her tongue will rebel and soon food will not taste good. I had that problem back in 1986 after my accident and it lasted about 12-18 months. But her taste buds should return to full funtioning when the chem ends.
Her mouth was starting to become a bit sore at noon today but she started on the Rx they gave her for that problem. And she is tired this afternoon, but I don't know if it is her usual tiredness or if it is the chemo starting to catch up to her.

She had originally thought she would not feel like attending church on Sunday, but now says if she still feels this good tomorrow, she may try to go to the first meeting which is Sacrament in our Mission Ward. We will see how the morning greets her.

4/11/08
Apparently, your prayers must have worked. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Soni came through her first chemotherapy like a champ with none of the problems that she was told she might have. We will have to wait & see what happens during the next couple of days.

We arrived at 7:45 a.m. and left at 3:45 p.m., which made for a VERY long day just sitting in one spot. She had no problem with anything except at the very end when she began to get a slight headache from some of the injections. Watching some of the other patients who had PICCs, we were so glad she had a Port.

She has another X-ray on Monday 4/14/08 to see what a couple of places are that they found on the bone marrow procedure last Wednesday. Then on 4/21 she has some follow-up bloodwork to check her white and red cells and platelets to be sure the chemo is doing what it should.

April 6, 2008

Well, I've been sliced, diced, poked and examined and now we are almost ready to embark on the first chemotherapy treatment. My port is in place and the PET CT scan is complete. Bob enjoyed the PET Scan, as we were the only ones scheduled on that afternoon and the person in charge asked Bob if he wanted to go into the second empty room. In both small rooms there was a comfortable recliner, a warmed blanket, a small "waterfall", soft music, dim lights, and lavender aromatherapy. While I was receiving the infusions necessary for the scan, Bob was relaxing and eventually went to sleep and had a great nap. We woke him when the scan was completed and I was getting dressed. He wants to know when I have another scan scheduled!

Please remember me in your prayers, especially on Friday.

Soni's Cancer Treatment Schedule for Week of 4/01/08

4/01/08
Each of Soni's chemo cycles will be as follows:
1 cycle = A chemo on a Friday and wait 3 weeks.
Then 2nd cycle starts.
She will do 4 cycles then have a PET Scan. If no cancer is present, then 2 more cycles for a total of 6 and hopefully finished with chemo.
Otherwise, there will be 2 more cycles for a total of 8.
The chemo will not be started until April 11 when Dr. Harker returns from a trip. So before that, he has scheduled several tests and procedures.

The schedule for test and procedures is:

(Wed. 4/02, 07:00) go to St.Mark Hospital to have the port installed. We have learned that there are 2 options... a PICC which is like they put in your arm to draw several vials of blood (it would have to be kept wrapped to keep it from getting in the way all the time), and a Port which is a device placed just under the skin up by the collar bone.

(Wed. 4/02, 17:30) go to the cancer Center for a chemo class.

(Thu. 4/03, 12:30) go to the cancer Center for a CT PET

(Fri.. 4/04, 15:30) go to St.Mark Hospital to have the port checked to see that there is no infection.

(Wed. 4/09, 09:30) go to St.Mark Hospital for an endoscopy and bone marrow scan.

(Thu. 4/10, 08:00) go to St.Mark Hospital for an EKG

(Fri. 4/11, 08:15) go to the cancer Center for 7 hours for the 1st chemo cycle.