Quick Update!

Hi everyone,

      Janet asked me to write a blog entry for her today, so if you notice a lack of eloquent writing, that’s just me. Don’t worry though! Janet says that today has been one of the good days. It’s her second day of chemotherapy on this round. Her main two drugs are cytarabine (she calls it “so terrible”) and etoposide; both these drugs are very potent but very effective for her Mr. Luke. They both work by inhibiting different parts of DNA replication in cells, thereby arresting the cells in the middle of the division process (high school biology, anyone?). The side effects are severe though. Janet’s been nauseous all day and etoposide is so potent that she can actually smell/taste it as it goes into her body. So she’s been taking multiple showers a day to clear that out. Despite all that, Janet has had enough energy to watch some TV, though talking on the phone or spending too much time on facebook makes her tired quickly.

       Also, some of you must have heard from Janet or from her facebook updates that doctors have recently found a few nodules in her liver.  They did a full checkup of other organs and thankfully everything else is doing well. Doctors did a fine needle aspiration of her liver but the results haven’t come in yet (cough cough, pathologist who leaves Friday night without looking through time-sensitive aspiration work…whoops, did I say that out loud?). Because the chemotherapy is so important in treating Mr. Luke, it must proceed without much delay. So that is why Janet is back on chemo before getting the liver results. One theory to explain the liver nodules is that macrophages (immune cells that eat foreign material) have built walled off toxic substances in her liver. So these nodules that we’re all worried about may actually be the body’s wonderful way of protecting Janet’s liver from further harm. The liver results will tell us for sure though.

      Well, it has been a privilege talking to all of you. One last thing…Janet is entirely thankful to all of you, thankful for your prayers, for your kind words of comfort and wishes of strength. Rest assured, she has received all your messages and is reading through them as fast as she possibly can. She cannot respond right away because of the nausea and tiredness. But a response will arrive! Thank you once again for being with Janet in every step of her fight.

Lots of love,

Lavanya