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Ver Beek Blog

Our young family battling stage IV breast cancer one day at a time
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Archive for June, 2012

Update

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Thankfully the last two weeks have been “non-eventful”.  No hospitalizations.  No fainting.  No Emergency Rooms.  Just chemo and its backdoor companions – nausea, headaches, muscle/joint pain, skin peeling off my finger tips, exhaustion.  The good news is that I haven’t lost my hair.  It’s thinning, but no major loss.

The hardest thing for me is that I can’t drive.  Nowhere.  Not to shop.  Not to the gas station. Not down the street.  It’s because of the pain pills I’m on.  A necessary evil I suppose.

I can now empathize with the Greatest Generation and a decade or two younger.  People telling them it’s not safe to drive anymore.  Keys taken away; independence gone.  I’m thankful I have Brooklyn to keep me company during the day and the rest of my family at night.

Thank you to those who have brought us meals.  They are delicious and appreciated.  We love the casseroles, but its summer and Dusty LOVES to grill.  Someone recently brought us marinated meat with all the fixin’s.  It was so good.  Dusty didn’t mind for one second that he had to fire up the grill.  I know beggars can’t be choosers so we will gladly take whatever meal you bring us.

Meal sign up sheet: Click here

Thank you for all the ways you’ve reached out to us.  Please contact Dani with questions, comments or concerns:   Dani Keegstra

Prayer Requests:

Lisa VanderZwaag – She’s a year older than me and has been battling BC for a bit longer than I have.  It has spread throughout her bones.  She is flying to Mayo today so they can inject…YES I SAID INJECT…radiation into her body.  They had to get the radiation from a nuclear power plant.  So PLEASE a BIG prayer for her, Robb (her husband) and their three girls.  She doesn’t keep a blog.  She is the most God loving and kindest girls you could meet. Keep hanging on Lisa!  Lisa is the girl standing next to me and Lynette.

Lisa VanderZwaag

My family.   Cancer, chemo and it’s back door friends are hard to deal with day in and day out.  There are days where they will try to suck you in, chew you up to spit you back out and that is hard to fight too.

Fluid sucks too!

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Last week was a difficult week.  After I lost consciousness on Monday, I came home Monday evening.  I was still a little shaky and didn’t feel completely right, but after a 10 day stay at Spectrum I was happy I didn’t have to stay in the hospital.  If you want to know why I lost consciousness, read on.  If you don’t, skip to the next paragraph.

I have always had low blood pressure.  Before cancer, before kids, since I can remember I’ve had low blood pressure.  When I was in Spectrum for 10 days, the nurse would come in my room to take my vitals and dispense my medicine.  After taking my vitals, they would always comment on how low my BP was and ask me if that was normal to which I would say yes.  They would say “then I’m not giving you this drug”.  It turns out “this drug” was Propranolol and it lowers your BP.  Day after day, nurse after nurse, this drug was held back because of my low BP.  However, this was not properly communicated so when they sent me home Sunday afternoon, with a list of discharge instructions and prescriptions Propranolol was on the list.  Like a good patient, I took the medication Sunday night  and again Monday morning.  Monday afternoon I was feeling so strange that I laid down to take a nap.  I woke up to my muscles being very tense and I knew immediately something was wrong.  Thankfully Dusty was home.  He came inside.  Tried walking me to the couch and that’s all I remember.  I woke up on the floor.  He was on the phone with 911.  I spent a few hours in Holland Hospital’s ED where Dr. Loos figured out that it was indeed the Propranolol I should not be taking.  Thank you to EVERYONE in Holland Hospital’s ED.

Tuesday was spent resting.

Wednesday I had my second round of chemo.

Thursday was spent resting.

Friday I woke up at 4 a.m. in a good amount of pain and a hard time breathing.  I got up, took a Vicodin and tried to go back to sleep.  Vicodin did nothing for the pain.  Dusty went to work.  Jana picked up the kids and took them to her house and as the morning went on, it quickly got worse and I noticed the only way to breathe well was to lay down on my side.  I called Dr. VanderWoude’s office, and was eventually advised to go to the ER.  My parents, who were already at the house with me, drove me to the ER.  Sitting in a reclined position in the minivan was hard to breathe.  We pulled up to the ER entrance.  My dad grabbed a wheel chair, I got in it and the more I sat upright, the shorter and shorter breaths I took.   I eventually felt like I was going to faint.  Needless to say, when I told them I can breathe better when I lay down.  They took me back to a room, put me on a bed and laid me flat.  Within a few minutes I was able to breathe better and come back, so to speak.

It was frustrating because my oxygen looked good, BP was good, heart rate was good, labs looked good, EKG was good, X-ray was good, but I knew something was wrong.  It turns out the CT Scan showed I’m collecting fluid in my right pleura or lung area.  It also showed the pericardium is inflamed.  I now of Pericarditis with Pleural Effusion.  Pericarditis, as Dr. Sak explained has a respiratory element to it.  When the lining is inflamed, it feels like sandpaper rubbing the lining of my lungs.  That’s why I couldn’t take deep breaths and was breathing so shallow.

So the window they put in at Spectrum is working.  I, because of the cancer and inflamed pericardium, am producing too much fluid that it is dumping out into my lung causing an effusion in my pleura.

I was admitted to Holland Hospital Friday morning and was kept for two nights while they ran an anti inflammatory drip, kept my pain under control so I could breathe and debated amongst themselves whether to stick a needle in my pleura and aspirate the fluid.

Sunday morning I had another x-ray and Dr. Sak (who is a gem of a doctor), determined that due to the anti inflammatory drip, and comparing the most recent x-ray to the CT scan my fluid had already decreased.  There was also an argument that the fluid was sitting so low in the lung that they ran the risk for puncturing my liver.  Well, NO THANK YOU.  I have had enough for a few weeks.  Where should I sign to get my belongings back?

My life right now is pain pills, anti inflammatories, chemo, lots of rest and so much confusion from what has happened over the last few weeks.  Overwhelmed is an understatement.

My husband should wear a Superman cape.  I honestly don’t know how he did it, is doing it and will do it going forward.  Herman Miller has been so kind and compassionate.  We are so thankful for that.  A big hug to Dusty’s boss Bryan, Sharon and the rest of his team for being so supportive.

Not to sound too cliche, but this has been an emotional roller-coaster.  I could not have done this without my husband, parents, Jill, Dani and Jen.

Please pray.

Fighting

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(Update from Dusty)

After ten days in the hospital, Lindy returned home late Sunday afternoon.   We were so glad to have her back with us again!

On Monday afternoon, she collapsed while I was walking her to the couch.  I was able to catch her and guide her to the floor.  She was unresponsive and her color was not good, so I called 911.  After a few short minutes paramedic support arrived and off she went back to the hospital. After a bunch of tests, it appeared a heart drug she was on caused a dip in her blood pressure (or at least that’s what they believe).  They let her go home a few hours later.

We’re trying to get her well enough to take chemo tomorrow.  Please pray for her as she’s tired, scared and very discouraged.   Her body has been through so much, it’s hard for her to imagine she can take much more.

Update

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This is going to be a quick update with a bunch of spelling and grammatical errors.

Last Tuesday I woke up not feeling very well and couldn’t stop burping. It got worse as the day went on. My stomach got bigger and more sore but we went on to U of M anyway for our early morning MRI on Wednesday morning.

Thursday I had my first chemo infusion with my stomach looking 6 months pregnant and constant burping.  Jill went to chemo with me and commented on my distended stomach.  Not only was it huge it hurt!  On Friday, Jill called me from work. I ended up in Holland Hospitals ED Friday morning. I had an EKG, Echo, x-ray, ultrasound, lab work and it was found the fluid around my heart had increased dramatically causing my heart and everything down the line to work overtime.  I went into V tach right there in the ED. Crash cart and everything. I nearly died. It was a big deal.  They got my heart under control took me into surgery and drained 600ml off out of the pericardium.  Spent the night, my pericardium filled with more fluid and a sheath was put in and I was transferred to the Spectrum Heart Center ICU.  I’ve been at Spectrum since last Saturday.

On Tuesday, I had a window (hole) put into the pericardium of my heart so if it fills with more fluid it will drain out on its own.  I now sit with two drains coming out of my chest, a hefty scar and a drip of heparin.

Two things will get me home:

1. The drains have to come out.

2. I have to be switched over to coumadin.

We ask for NO visitors (immediate family only) and lots of prayers. Please contact Dani, our point person with questions.

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