Elke Update

Elke is hanging in there. She started chemotherapy about one month ago. She has three weekly chemo treatments and then gets one week off. She is now in her week off and happy to have a break from the chemo to see if she can have one week with more energy. The biggest side affects for her have been exhaustion, lack of appetite, digestive problems, a sore tongue and just recently, hair loss. Despite all this, she has managed to keep her spirits up for the most part. Thanks to you all for sending so many thoughtful cards and writing comments here for her. She has the cards displayed over the dresser to look at and she checks the blog as well to read your comments. Unfortunately, she hasn’t been up to long phone conversations and visits since she is just really exhausted lately. She will have her first CT Scan post chemo next week so we will get a sense of how she is doing with the treatment. Again, thanks to all of you for your kind wishes. We are so grateful to be surrounded by so many wonderful people.

Much love,

Liza, Orlando, Michael, Monica and all the grandchildren.

ACTUALIZACIÓN: / Update March 26, 2009 – 7:29 PM – By Orlando
This past Tuesday Mutti went to see the doctor since she had a week off from her chemo treatment. She did not get to see her regular doctor; I guess doctors are allowed to go on vacation. Either Mutti has gotten used to the pain or it has decided to give Mutti a break. She has not taken any pain medication and she’s eating normally.

Today she went in for another treatment of chemo. Just when she was starting to feel invincible again, after her chemo-free week, she goes in for another treatment. Here is hoping that she will be fine…

The only pain she’s had these days has been that of the heart. Her brother had an tripple bypass heart operation today…

ACTUALIZACIÓN: / Update March 27, 2009 – 11:20 PM – By Orlando
Today Mutti got up feeling strong and happy. So much that she took the kids to school! She also treated us to lunch. While we went with the kids to the field to soccer practice, Mutti came home to relax. When we came home, Valentina was the first one up to go see Mutti. She laid next to Mutti (her way to let her know how much she loves her) and a bit later Xio decided to join them. With Valentina laying on one side of Mutti and Xio on the other, life was embracing Mutti with heavenly warmth, and she was fully aware of it…

ACTUALIZACIÓN: / Update April 2, 2009 – 11:00 PM – By Orlando
These past 5 days have been pretty rough for Mutti. She went to the hospital on one occasion because of dehydration. Today she’s feeling much better; right on time for her next chemo treatment! C’est la vie! Let’s hope that this time around she won’t be feeling so bad for too long after this new treatment.
To help with her down time we have subscribed to Netflix so that she can have an influx of funny movies to help her lift up her spirits.

Please note that this is the last update we will do on this post; I have created a new post showing Mutti’s new look.