IT'S ABOUT TIME!

Well, my friends, I have officially been black listed as a neglectful blog author. It's been FAR TOO long since I've posted an update. I'M SO SORRY!! But in an effort to protect & defend myself, not too much has happened in the medical arena for Pamela Sue Beall. She has been resting at home and gearing up for the big events that are just around the corner.

As promised, here are some pictures that show mom's darling wig. HOT MAMA! It looks so great on her. I've been contemplating getting one myself - never a bad hair day doesn't sound too bad! ;)

The first picture is of my mom with her three grandchildren on Mother's Day: Claire (4), Ellie (2) and Olive (8 months). Hilary, Ragnar and their girls drove up from California and surprised my mom for Mother's Day. They left in the morning and drove straight through the night - best Mother's Day gift EVER! It's a rare day when the entire Beall Gang can be together. Below is a picture of the whole crew. A Mother's Day we definitely won't forget, that's for sure.
So, today she started her pre-transplant medications and she begins her final round of chemotherapy tomorrow (Wednesday, 5/28). She will be doing outpatient chemo every day until her bone marrow transplant on Monday, June 2nd. The day of her transplant she has to undergo radiation to ensure that her body won't fight back against my Aunt's bone marrow. So, needless to say, her body will be going through a lot of trauma. Please be praying for protection over her weary bones and for strength and joy in the midst of this crazy journey.

The picture on the left is of my Aunt Cindy and my mom. At one of the doctor's meetings we were learning all about how my mom takes on so much of my aunt's internal make-up. She will be inheriting her blood type and her allergies just to name a few. It really is such a bizarre and miraculous process! We said that come June 2nd we're going to be celebrating the birth of Cindela (the name Pamela-Cindy combo). Like they're not already similar enough! ;)

Mom has been feeling GREAT - her counts have been practically normal and she has even made it to the coast a few times. I am leaving my current job and will be moving home shortly after her bone marrow transplant in order to help care for her throughout the summer and for however long afterwards. Though I know it won't be easy, I am so blessed to be at a place in my life where I am able to do this. I know this time will be beautiful and sweet amidst the hardship.

Please keep my mom, Aunt Cindy and our entire family in your prayers. I feel like I always end these blogs by telling you how thankful we are for your love and support, but it's not trite ... we really are!!! Blessings to you all!

Much Love,
Lindsay & fam

Resting Up...

Dearest friends & familia,

Forgive me for not posting an update sooner! Mama Pamela is still at home and enjoying every moment. She has to take daily "field trips" to OHSU to get blood work done as well as to receive blood and/or platelet transfusions if needed. Lately they have been needed because her body started reaping the effects of her second round of chemo. She has had to receive numerous platelet transfusions because her counts plummeted all the way to ONE.

If only I could get permission to post a pic of my darling mother now, you would be in for a treat. We all know that she is gorgeous, that's obvious, but have you ever seen sweet Pammy Sue with a couple nice shiners?? Her low platelet count caused her eyes to swell up and turn black and blue. My faithful father must gets some scowls from strangers as they pass by, I am sure. Needless to say, she's rockin' some cute shades until this passes. As soon as I'm able to see her, I will snap a pic of her cute wig (as previously promised) and shades for your visual pleasure.

It's been a rough couple weeks as I haven't been able to see mom due to myself being under the weather. A week ago I got diagnosed with shingles and mono. You may ask, "Aren't shingles something adults over 50 get?" Well, you are right, my friends. I defy the odds at the ripe age of 26. At least it was comforting that my doctor told me sometimes shingles in young adults like myself either means I have Multiple Sclerosis or am HIV Positive. Hmmm....comforting. Thanks doc. I never thought I would be so thankful & relieved to receive a mono diagnosis (and by the way, my shingles are a VERY minor case....nothing like the horrid pictures I saw on web MD!). The doctor said that if my mom were to catch either one of my viruses it could kill her (due to her practically non-existent white blood counts). So, needless to say, I have been steering clear from my little comrade. It's been hard!

What's next? Well, mom will continue to visit OHSU for testings until the end of May when they are scheduling her bone marrow transplant. Will inform you as soon as we know the exact date. Until then, she will stay at home as long as she is feeling well. I'm sure she would love to hear from you! She is able to have visitors ... as long as you are healthy and well!

Love to you all!

Lindsay

Home Again Flanagan!

Mom finished her consolidation chemotherapy Monday night and got to come home Tuesday morn. She is so excited! She is feeling great and hasn't felt much sickness at all from the treatment. So, the doctors said that since she was doing so well she could go home and just come into the outpatient clinic 2-3 times a week to get blood work done.

If all goes well, she will get to stay home for a month until she receives the bone marrow transplant. So, that is all for now - it's fun reporting good news on here! Thanks to all of you for your sweet friendship and love for my mom and our entire family.

Much Love,
Lindsay

Quick Update...

Hello All!

The test results to mom's bone marrow biopsy came back negative - still no leukemia! Hallelujah! She is still spiking fevers (an average of 2 a day) but the team of doctors & nurses don't seem terribly concerned (they say that fevers are not abnormal when ones' counts are so low).

You all would have been so proud of our little exerciser today. I walked with her to the end of the hall and she hopped on the exercise bike ... and then she did some strengthening moves with the thera-band....and then she started doing wind sprints back and forth down the hallway. Okay, I'm kidding about the wind sprints but it offers a funny visual.

The doctors didn't want to wait any longer to start her consolidation treatment so they started today. We were all kind of surprised that they didn't wait until the fevers subsided but I guess they know best, right? She receives the same type of chemo that she had during her induction treatment (the drug is called Cytarabine) but in much smaller doses. Instead of a constant drip for seven days she just receives an hour of chemo a day for six days. So, here we go again! Pray for strength for her weary yet precious bones - pray for protection against depression, discouragement & loneliness - and pray that her heart & mind would be filled with the joy, hope & peace that comes from our good God.

I just finished reading to my mom all of the latest blog comments you all have posted. She wanted me to write (on her behalf) how encouraging and overwhelming your support has been & continues to be. If she could write back to each one of you she would. She said, "The care that has been poured out towards me is overwhelming. Words can't even describe it."

Love to you all - we will keep you posted on how her treatment progresses!

Bless you!

BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN...

Hello dear friends,

Well, this post has been long-awaited. I keep postponing writing in hope of hearing more news from the doctors so I can better inform you all but then that just keeps you wondering and waiting. Sorry!

On Thursday, April 3rd, my mom was at home and felt a fever coming on. She called her doctor and they admitted her into the hospital ER shortly after. A small thing like a fever for you and me isn't a big deal but for my mom it's serious (due to her white counts still being severely low). It's Tuesday, April 8th, and she's still in the hospital. Her fever continues to spike (as high as 104!) and then drop back to normal multiple times a day. This means that she has some sort of infection in her body but they cannot figure out where it is coming from. They have done countless blood and urine tests but to no avail. She got a CT scan done 2 days ago and the results came back normal. That is great news, for sure! They performed her fourth bone marrow biopsy yesterday and we are awaiting those results today. I think the worst is not knowing. She has had the same symptoms for six days now and as of yet, they have no idea how to treat it. They even sent an Infectious Disease Specialist to look at her. Still no answers....frustrating.

She's a trooper though! She was supposed to start her consolidation round of chemotherapy on Monday (yesterday) but due to this infection they have had to postpone everything. Yesterday I told the nurses to send in a Physical Therapy team to give her a Thera-band and some exercises for her to do so she doesn't just waste away in her bed. Today I had them teach her "fun" exercises that she can do in bed to keep her muscles active. I put "fun" in quotation marks because she doesn't think it's very fun. ;) She kept flashing me her "annoyed eyes" as the physical therapist and I were teaching her exercises and writing up a workout regime. But hey, I guess it's my turn for revenge after all those years she forced me to practice the piano, right? What goes around comes around, Pammy Sue! ;)

We will hopefully hear the results of the bone marrow biopsy later today so I will post the results as soon as I know. In the meantime, please be praying that the doctors will be able to find out what is causing these fevers so that they can treat it and we can move on with her recovery plan. Thank you all for your consistent care and prayers!

Much love to you,
Lindsay

REMISSION & the road ahead...

Hello dear friends...

Today was a big day. Mom had an appointment at 2pm today where she found out the results of her latest bone marrow biopsy. And the results were......NO LEUKEMIA in her bone marrow. ZERO. ZILCH. NADA...HALLELUJAH!

So, in summary of all that the doctor said, mom's Intermediate Risk Leukemia is in remission. The chemotherapy cleaned out her marrow and there is absolutely NO leukemia to be found. WHOO!

Even with all of this great news there are, however, a few complications on the road ahead. They are still concerned about her liver. Even though her bilirubin counts continue to decrease, they are worried that her liver would not be able to handle another dosage of chemo. The doctors are annoyed that they cannot figure out the cause of her liver malfunction (the liver specialists think that it was just a response to all the drugs she was on...but they're not for certain). So, for the next couple weeks they will continue monitoring her as they have been since she's been home.

So, what are the next steps for the sweet Pammy Sue? Well, they are hoping to start consolidation chemotherapy in two weeks. What's that, you ask? Consolidation chemo is the second phase of chemotherapy (the first was Induction Chemo). The goal of this phase is to destroy any remaining leukemia cells that might have re-surfaced since her initial treatment. They will give her fairly high doses of chemo for 3-4 cycles. This time it will probably be done in an out-patient setting. So she will go in for her chemo treatment and then get to come home to recuperate.

There is a 50-60% risk of relapse for mom's type of AML. If she were to get a bone marrow transplant, her risk of relapse would decrease to 20%. So this is obviously the best option. However, one thing we all learned for the first time is that there is a 20-30% risk that the patient will die due to complications from the transplant. We're not going there.

We are hoping that mom's liver withstands this next round of chemo so that they can proceed towards a bone marrow transplant. The type of transplant she will receive is called an Allogeneic transplant. This replaces the abnormal cells in her bone marrow with healthy blood-forming cells from my Aunt Cindy. An Allogeneic transplant has a higher risk of serious side effects than consolidaiton chemo; however, the risk of relapse is lower. If all goes well, she will be receiving my Aunt Cindy's bone marrow in approximately 8 weeks.

So, that's all we know for now. Mom looks absolutely amazing and she says that she feels practically normal. If I can get her permission I will post a cute pic of her new stylin' wig!

Bless you all for your sweet care and abounding love!

Lindsay

Easter Blessings

She's home! On Saturday the doctors decided to let my mom come home to be with our family over Easter weekend. What a memorable Easter it was! I called her as she was driving away from the hospital with my dad and she kept commenting on the beauty of the landscape. I guess staring at four hospital walls for 35 days makes one appreciate the small things that many times go unnoticed when they become part of our daily lives...like flowers and rain and chirping birds and home-cooked meals and sunsets ... and on and on and on. My old college Rhetoric professor called this the "Joy of Discovery" - seeing things that you see every day with fresh eyes as if you had just discovered it for the first time. So, moral of the story: don't let the beauty of God's crazy amazing Creation pass you by without standing still in awe and wonder every once in awhile!

One of our dear family friends brought the whole Beall gang Italian food on Saturday night and we had a celebratory homecoming for my sweet ma! And today - I don't think any of us will ever forget this Easter blessing. I couldn't have asked for a better gift - to see our family gathered around the table giving thanks to Christ for His many blessings... I think my mom said it best in her Easter dinner prayer (which she insisted on giving). So we all held hands and waited for her to pray through her emotion: "Thank you Lord for life and for second chances. Thank you for my precious family. And thank you for the small things. For trees and for mountains ... " We're all pretty much emotional time bombs at this point - and I don't think mom's sweet simple prayer left a dry eye at the table.

She goes in to the hospital tomorrow (Monday, 3/24) for more blood tests to see if she is able to stay at home and do outpatient treatment or if she will have to be re-admitted for inpatient. Will keep you posted as we know more. As far as her counts are concerned, they are steadily stabilizing and will hopefully continue to do so until she is able to get her bone marrow transplant.

What a beautiful Easter we have had today!
Once again, thank you all for your amazing love and support.
And thank you, Lord, for trees and for mountains. Amen.