Friday, April 29, 2011

Update from April 29th

Jenene has been out of the hospital for the last week since her brief visit last Saturday. She had a doctors appointment yesterday with her Stem Cell Transplant team to give her information about what she will be going through while she is in and out of the hospital during her transplant.

She has a tough road ahead with a lot of restrictions as far as what she can and can’t do and eat; visitors in and out of the hospital; activities; and times when she needs to go back to the hospital. More doctors appointments next week. Then she will be admitted on May 23rd to start prepping her for her transplant.

I will send out more information about the prep and transplant process in a future email. But here is a wiki page about the transplant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematopoietic_stem_cell_transplantation.

Also, a link on this page offers a nice booklet of information about Leukemia called Facts (it is in PDF form): http://www.lls.org/#/resourcecenter/freeeducationmaterials/generalcancer/facts

Her charitable fund is with FirstTech Credit Union If you wish to donate to her, please make the checks out to Jenene Philips and you can send them to either 1392 SE 64th Court Hillsboro, OR 97123 or 3543 SE Belmont St, Portland OR 97214.

Or visit her website with a PayPal account attached, so that you can donate to her via a credit card. That site is here: http://jenenephilips.tumblr.com/.

Please pass this email onto anyone who may want it, or direct them to her Update Blog: http://neeners-updates.blogspot.com/

You can email her at jmphilips503@hotmail.com or find her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenene.philips

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Update on Jenene for April 23, 2011

Jenene is back in the hospital tonight for observation, she has been having a bit of blood in her mucus while she has been blowing her nose the past two days, so we called the OHSU Clinic and they recommended that she come to the Emergency Department. While there she had her labs drawn and the decided to give her some platelets as her blood counts were low. After further discussions between the doctors, they decided to admit her overnight for observation, where they will take her blood every 8 hours and check to see what her levels are out periodically. The doctor (Dr. Hayes-Lattin: http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/services/providers/hayeslat.cfm) was actually surprised that she was admitted, because her counts were above where they were truly concerned. So she will MOST LIKELY be released tomorrow (Sunday, April 24, 2011).

Friday she had an appointment for her labs to be drawn, and they saw that they were too low (0.6 White Cells; 22.25 Red Cells; 26 Platelets) so they gave her 2 units of blood to get her counts up. An appointment that was supposed to be about an hour visit; turned into a five hour visit for her as they gave her the blood.

Earlier this week, she got an LP and some chemo with the LP, plus drawing out spinal fluid to test. You should email her about how well SHE handled the LP compared to how I handled the LP. LOL!

She had a meeting with her transplant doctor (Dr. Gajewski: http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/services/providers/gajewski.cfm?WT_rank=6) on Tuesday the 19th with Charlene and her Mom. They went over what they will both being going through with their treatments and the transplant procedures. I will give more information on her transplants and treatments when it gets closer to the time.

They will have another class and consultation with Dr. G on April 28th. And then they will have appointments throughout the following two and a half weeks to take labs, x-rays and consult with the doctors. Jenene will be admitted on the 23rd (a week later then first reported) to the hospital to start her transplant.

Otherwise she is in good spirits. She has been trying to pack on the pounds so she is at a good weight when she goes back into the hospital.

She wants to plan a fundraiser within the next month (maybe a BBQ or Pizza Party). We will keep you posted.

Her charitable fund is with FirstTech Credit Union If you wish to donate to her, please make the checks out to Jenene Philips and you can send them to either 1392 SE 64th Court Hillsboro, OR 97123 or 3543 SE Belmont St, Portland OR 97214.

Or visit her website with a PayPal account attached, so that you can donate to her via a credit card. That site is here: http://jenenephilips.tumblr.com/.

Please pass this email onto anyone who may want it, or direct them to her Update Blog: http://neeners-updates.blogspot.com/

You can email her at jmphilips503@hotmail.com or find her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenene.philips

Thanks for the support.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

So she is out of the hospital and back home at her mom’s again. Her chemo treatment went very well that the last hospital visit was a short one. Her counts were up and they let her go on Wednesday, a full day earlier than what we thought.

She will be visiting the doctor and hospital 2 to 3 times a week for the next few weeks, to check her vitals and to draw labs. She has an appointment tomorrow (Friday, 4/15) for a neulasta shot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegfilgrastim) at the OHSU clinic. Monday she has another LP and a visit with her doctor.

She is going to be out of the hospital for a few weeks, with a tentative return to the hospital the middle of May.

If anyone needs to have the past updates please view Jenene’s blog:

http://neeners-updates.blogspot.com/

Her charitable fund is with FirstTech Credit Union If you wish to donate to her, please make the checks out to Jenene Philips and you can send them to either 1392 SE 64th Court Hillsboro, OR 97123 or 3543 SE Belmont St, Portland OR 97214.

Or visit her website with a PayPal account attached, so that you can donate to her via a credit card. That site is here: http://jenenephilips.tumblr.com/.

Thanks for all the support that you have shown.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Update from April 9th

Jenene has been admitted back to OHSU - Kohler Pavilion room #17 (room phone #503-346-1417). She will be here for another round of her HyperCVAD - Course B (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCVAD#Course_B) for about 4 or 5 days. And then she will be back at her Mom’s house for about 2 to 3 weeks.

The transplant doctor (Dr. Gajewski - http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/services/providers/gajewski.cfm or Dr. G for short), was here checking on her and he gave us a little bit of a schedule for the upcoming treatments:
1. After this round of chemotherapy, she will return home for recovery for about 4 weeks while her counts come back up.
2. She will need to visit the doctor 2 to 3 times a week during her recovery to check her vitals and draw blood for labs.
3. About 2 weeks after her counts are back up they will readmit her to OHSU and prep her for her transplant. This will consist of her receiving more chemotherapy and some radiation therapy prior to the transplant.
4. The doctors will then discuss Charlene’s procedures with her and Jenene and prep Charlene for her procedure.
5. The transplant visit could be 4 to 8 weeks in the hospital.
6. Once she is out of the hospital after the transplant, she will have a very intensive outpatient follow-up program for 3 to 6 months to check vitals, labs and receive meds when needed. This program may also include a readmit to the hospital.
7. ALL OF THIS DEPENDS ON WHAT THE TWO DOCTORS (Dr. G. or Dr. Kovacsovics http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/services/providers/kovacsov.cfm or Dr. K for short) DECIDE THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION WILL BE.

If anyone needs to have the past updates please view Jenene’s blog: http://neeners-updates.blogspot.com/

Her charitable fund is with FirstTech Credit Union If you wish to donate to her, please make the checks out to Jenene Philips and you can send them to either 1392 SE 64th Court Hillsboro, OR 97123 or 3543 SE Belmont St, Portland OR 97214.

Or visit her website with a PayPal account attached, so that you can donate to her via a credit card. That site is here: http://jenenephilips.tumblr.com/.

Thank you again for all your love and support of Jenene.  

Update from April 8th

Jenene is going to be admitted tomorrow to OHSU for a second chemotherapy treatment of HyperCard - Course B for about 4 or 5 days. We will let you all know what room she will be in (her first treatment of the Hyper CVAD - Course B, was while she was in the hospital).

She had a bone marrow biopsy on Tuesday and the sample that they got had less than 5% of leukemia detected.

She then will be out of the hospital and back at her mom’s to recover for a few weeks, with visits to the clinic 2 to 3 times a week to check her vitals and draw labs.

She has been told that her stem cell transplant may be delayed depending on what the outcome of her chemo treatment and if the doctor wants to do a third treatment. So what they will do is when she is out this next time (next week) she will be out for 2 to 3 weeks, then they will decide to either do another treatment of the Hyper-CVAD - Course B or they will start prepping her to receive the stem cell transplant.

What WE think they will do is another round of chemotherapy. IF they do, she will be out again for 2 to 3 weeks and then go in again.

Her charitable fund is with FirstTech Credit Union If you wish to donate to her, please make the checks out to Jenene Philips and you can send them to either 1392 SE 64th Court Hillsboro, OR 97123 or 3543 SE Belmont St, Portland OR 97214.

Or visit her website with a PayPal account attached, so that you can donate to her via a credit card. That site is here: http://jenenephilips.tumblr.com/.

Thanks for all your love and support.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Update for April 1st

She had a clinic visit yesterday (Thursday, March 31st) where she got some blood drawn and to get an EKG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocardiography). She will be back to the hospital on Tuesday (April 5th) for another Bone Marrow Biopsy; Wednesday (April 6th) for an Echo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_cardiogram), and then Thursday she will go for another clinic day with Dr. Kovacsovics.

After the bone marrow biopsy, they will check to see where she is at with the leukemia, whether she is in remission or not. This what they search for with each biopsy, to check the progress of the chemotherapy against the leukemia.

She will then either be admitted on Thursday or Friday for another round of chemotherapy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCVAD#Course_B) for about 4 to 5 days. Then she will be back home to her Mom’s to recover with doctor visits about 2 to 3 times a week to check her vitals and draw blood for labs.

The doctors have discussed the next course of treatments with her, and they say that she will have the BEST chances with a stem cell transplant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematopoietic_stem_cell_transplantation) from her sister. This will take place about the first part of May.

Her transplant team will be lead by Dr. Gajewski (http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/services/providers/gajewski.cfm) and they will talk with Charlene when Jenene is admitted to the hospital in May. Jenene will first get treatments of chemotherapy and radiation therapy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_therapy) so that her immune system will be able to receive the stem cells. Once the doctors determine that she is ready to receive the treatment, they will prep Charlene and do the transplant. More information on the details of the transplants when they give them to us. The whole treatment may take about 3 to 4 weeks back at OHSU.

Her charitable fund is with FirstTech Credit Union If you wish to donate to her, please make the checks out to Jenene Philips and you can send them to either 1392 SE 64th Court Hillsboro, OR 97123 or 3543 SE Belmont St, Portland OR 97214.

Or visit her website with a PayPal account attached, so that you can donate to her via a credit card. That site is here: http://jenenephilips.tumblr.com/.

She wants to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support from everyone. She is so grateful for all the friends and family that she has around her.