How
is she doing?
How
it started | How she is | Baby
Larissa | Jim | Blacky
Thank you for stopping by to check on Joann. We hope this page is useful, and we will try to keep it as up-to-date as possible. Joann has moved to room D627. Joann is maintaining her positive outlook and the results are noticable to everyone who sees her. Her white blood cell count has been high for the last four days. That gives her a lot of resources to attack the tumor.
Joann's medical team continues to monitor her very closely. Joann is making progress, and at the same time, it is still very much a day-to-day situation. Her spirits remain high, and we all know that her smile is infectious (of a type for which no antidote is needed). She is receiving very good care and is obviously benefiting from the prayers and positive thoughts you all are sending on her behalf. We appreciate them very much. Photo gallery from July 4 visitors and family picnic.
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How she is: As you know by now, Joann is at Albany Medical Center with a large, inoperable, cancerous tumor in her right lung. She is also 28 weeks pregnant. This has greatly complicated her treatment. Her doctors, Stephen H. Grund, MD, PhD, Oncology, and Marla S. Eglowstein, MD, Perinatology, have researched and consulted with colleagues around the country to design a treatment program that has started Joann on a road to recovery and is safe for her baby Larissa. Joann had her first chemotherapy on Wednesday, July 1. Overnight Wednesday/Thursday, her blood oxygen level dropped to 90%,and she began receiving supplemental oxygen early that morning. Now that she is in the Ob-Gyn ward, Larissa will be monitored much more closely. The medical and nursing staff is working very hard to make sure that everyone understands the special issues involved with Joann's condition, and developing contingency plans for every possible situation. Joann has her computer now, and can log on through AOL. Some of you may have already gotten email responses from Joann. Of course, this means it won't be as easy for Jim keep secrets. We have even managed to use the MS-DOS version of FTP over an AOL connection to publish remotely from Joann's room. Look back at the July 1 edition for more information about the chemotherapy treatment.
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About baby Larissa: Larissa is today 28 weeks and 4 days. We wild be deciding on a treatment and delivery plan for Joann and Larissa later this week. The ultrasound to the right was taken on Friday, July 10; she weighed 1000 grams, which is just about average. Her face is discernible at the left-center of the picture. Mommy is noticably bigger, and Daddy can feel Larissa bumping the front of Mommy's belly. Larissa's heartbeat is checked as part of Mommy's every-4-hours vitals, and once a day, a 20-minute fetal monitor tape is done. Larissa is going to be a well documented baby! Mommy says that Larissa moves around a lot at 4:00 AM. Supposedly, babies continue the same activity patterns once they are born. Daddy is having a hard time imagining 4:00 AM feedings!
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What about Jim? He has been working to get the nursery ready, but that means he first has to move the rest of the furniture and hot mitts to the attic. The nursery is empty except for an empty file cabinet. He's looking forward to spending the weekend with Joann.
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And Blacky? Blacky misses Mommy, but he is being very good about it. So far he has chewed up only one of Aunt Judy's Rubbermaid food containers. Blacky returned from his weekend visit to Spillway Road, and now seems fully recovered. Jim applied his flea and tick medication on Wednesday, and Blacky doesn't like it. He has a dirt hole he rolls in and needs to be dusted when he comes back into the house.
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Sunday was a slow day for the hospital, but a busy day
for Joann and Jim in terms of information gathering and discussions about treatment
options. We watched two videos, one on the neonatal intensive care units (NICU) produced
at the Kansas City Medical Center, and one on the birthing process and options, natural
and c-section. Dr. Eglowstein visited and, as promised, brought a treat of bagels, cream
cheese, and lox from Uncommon Ground on Western Avenue. They were delicious, and as Joann
and I had lunch, we talked about the options for the next round of chemotherapy and
delivering Larissa at 30 weeks vs. 32 weeks. We went up to the NICU on the seventh floor
and saw two babies, one born yesterday at 28 weeks, and one born 5 days ago at 32 weeks.
Dr. Cirenza stopped by and reviewed Joann's chest X-rays with us and talked about
treatment options. We also talked to our oncologist friend in Baltimore received very
valuable counsel from him. We hope to have a meeting on Wednesday with Drs. Grund and
Eglowstein to make a decision about the course of treatment.