January 31st

Mom wasn't able to get an MRI because it was too painful for her to lay on that hard table for that long. Also, nothing showed up on the x-rays they took of her shoulder. We don't know at this point if it's her cancer that is causing her this much pain or if it's just a pinched nerve. Either way, no medicine has really been able to help until yesterday when Dr. Mccune gave her a patch to wear. Because of that patch, mom was able to sleep through the night and have a nearly pain-free day! So that's very exciting. We are going to try for another MRI once her pain gets under control.

Mom goes tomorrow for the Depocyte chemo treatment. Dr. Mccune will draw spinal fluid from the port on her head and run some labs on it to see how well mom is fighting the cancer. She will then get the R-CHOP the following Tuesday.

Please pray for her pain to subside and for her doctor's appointments to go well. She needs to be able to lay on the MRI table so we can see if there is something in her shoulder causing her pain.

~Lindsey

January 29th

Mom has two doctor's appointments tomorrow. One is for her MRI to see about her headaches. She also has an appointment with an orthopedist to see about her shoulder and neck. Her shoulder has been bothering her since before Christmas and she has recently been complaining about a bad crick in her neck. So hopefully, we will get some answers!

Thanks for checking in!

~Lindsey

January 29th

Mom has two doctor's appointments tomorrow. One is for her MRI to see about her headaches. She also has an appointment with an orthopedist to see about her shoulder and neck. Her shoulder has been bothering her since before Christmas and she has recently been complaining about a bad crick in her neck. So hopefully, we will get some answers!

Thanks for checking in!

~Lindsey

January 25th

Well, mom has been experiencing headaches ever since she got chemo last Thursday and now they are going to have to do an MRI to see what the deal is. Her appointment is for next Tuesday so we will have to wait and see how that goes.

~Lindsey

January 24th

Mom had PT and OT yesterday and did well. Memaw's brother Buddy and his friend Louise came over and helped Mom so that Memaw could go to the hospital and be with Papa.

Mom is getting more strength back everyday. In fact, on Monday night, she stood up out of her wheelchair by herself! It scared me to death that she just elected to up and do it, but she did it and we were both impressed that she could.

She is scheduled for the Depocyte chemo next Thursday and the week after that, she will finally get the R-CHOP chemo treatment. She hasn't had that one in awhile so she's due.

Please visit www.bobhines.blogspot.com to follow up on Papa's progress as well.

~Lindsey

January 21st

Mom has stayed with me this weekend. She will stay with me one more night and I will take her up to the hospital for Papa's surgery. She wants to be there and I can't argue with that.

She has been complaining of severe headaches around her incision and we think it's from her chemo treatment from Thursday. Please pray for her headaches to subside and for her to be able to keep food down, that has also been a struggle.

Papa also has a blog now as well so feel free to visit www.bobhines.blogspot.com to check on him as well.

Thanks~

Lindsey

Papa's Surgery

UPDATE --- visit www.bobhines.blogspot.com to findout and stay up to date on Papa's info


I know this is mom's blog, but this is still the best way to get information out to everyone about Papa and what's going on with his heart. The surgery went fine without any complications. However, when they got in there, they saw that he had 8 blockages with the littlest of them still at about 50%. They attribute his survival thus far due to how active he has been. They are going to keep him in the hospital until they operate on him next week. They are going to do a bypass with an aoritc valve replacement. They say it is good that he didn't have a full-on heart attack because that could have been really bad.

As for mom, she will be with me this weekend. We will probably go up to Kennestone (her stomping grounds!) and visit Papa this weekend.

~Lindsey

January 19th

Mom is getting her staples out today. The rest of her day yesterday was fine. She will be coming to stay with me this weekend! :) so you can call her on her cell if you want to chat. Don't forget to keep it short.

Papa is having an angioplasty today and will be at Kennestone Hospital. The surgery is scheduled for this afternoon sometime. You can call my grandmother on her cell phone if you have any questions for her.

~Lindsey

January 18th

Well mom's chemo went off without a hitch today. They found the port on the first try and were able to administer the chemo without causing mom pain or even a headache!

However, while they were at the doctor's office, Papa asked them to check his blood pressure because he was experiencing tightness in his chest and some pains in his arm and it was 160/104. Dr. McCune told him to go across the street to the Kennestone ER and admit himself to have some tests run. So he is now at Kennestone undergoing observation and tests for a possible heart attack or blockage. Please pray for Papa to recover quickly from this spell and for the tests to come back negative. And also continue to pray for mom's recovery of course. I hope to have more later.

As always, thanks for checking in.

~Lindsey

Janurary 15th

Happy MLK Jr. Day!

Not much to report. Mom had a nice weekend with Pat and is still on schedule to have chemo in her head port on Thursday. Dr. Mccune will then try and figure out when she will have the R-CHOP chemo after that. She thinks she can do both in the same day but Dr. Mccune isn't so sure.

She will be back with my grandparents today so call their house if you would like to speak to her. And please remember to limit your calls to about 5-10 minutes. Just so she doesn't get worn out. Thanks, everyone!

~Lindsey

January 12th

Mom is recovering well from her surgery. She slept most of the day yesterday to catch up on the sleep she missed out on while staying in the hospital.

She is scheduled to have chemo again in her spinal chord on Thursday, Jan. 18th. And the following week she will get the R-CHOP chemo.

She's going to Pat's again this weekend to stay with her.

That's about all I have for now.

Thanks everyone!

~Lindsey

January 10th

Sorry so long on the update! Mom's surgery went well yesterday. It only took about 45 minutes. All they did was open that incision back up and replace the clogged piece. She recovered very quickly and was placed in a room for the night. They released her this morning and she is back home already and feeling pretty good. No biggie!

Thanks for checking in!

~Lindsey

January 5th

Mom has to have surgery again on Tuesday. They found that there is a blood clot blocking the opening of the port and so they have to go in and take care of that and replace the unit. It's not as major as the first surgery where they put in the entire port, but still, she's not happy about getting put back in the hospital. So please pray for her spirits to be lifted and for everything to go smoothly on her surgery.

It is scheduled for Tuesday morning. I think they have to be there at 7:45 am and the surgery will be at 9:00 am, or something like that!

~Lindsey

january 4th, part II

They had trouble finding mom's port today and now she has to go to the neurosurgeon's office tomorrow to see if he can find it. So please pray for him to find it with ease. They were only able to administer half of the treatment as well because when Dr. Mccune finally found it, they had to stop because it was hurting mom's head really bad and it's not supposed to hurt.

So we need lots of prayer today and tomorrow to help them find the port opening and get it right for good so she can receive these treatments and get well!

~Lindsey

January 4th

Mom had a good day yesterday. She went with Pat and Memaw to see We Are Marshall and said it was good. They also found some stronger pain medicine to help her with her shoulder. That is still bothering her so continue to pray about that.

Today she has an appointment for chemo. This time it is the Depocyte again, which is the one they put directly into her spine through the port in her head. Pray that they have an easier time finding the opening beneath the skin today. Last time, they had a horribel time with that and it was stressful on Memaw, Papa and Mom.

I will update later in the day with how everything went at the doctor's office.

~Lindsey

January 2nd

Mom had a nice relaxing holiday weekend. She spent most if it at Pat's house. She even went for a manicure and pedicure on Saturday! And on Friday they went to Marshall's together and for those of you who know about mom's pension for Marshall's, know that that was very therapeutic for her!

She returned to her parents' house yesterday. She has another treatment of chemo in her head port this week and PT/OT starts back up. She is having trouble with her shoulder, though. She pulled a muscle of sorts during PT last week and it's very weak so please pray for her to gets some relief with that.

Thanks for checking in!

~Lindsey