Soooooo Strong!

I saw Renee today and she looks amazing! You would never know that she had a major surgery other than the bandage on her head. She has very little swelling and a little bruising around her eye that has started to develop but she still looks beautiful. She got up to her room today at 10am but had spent the night in ICU where they checked on her every hour. She has had little sleep and really needs her rest. She has been so happy with all of the support she has been given and would love to visit with everyone soon. She asked that she could get some sleep today and if you would like to visit to please call first tomorrow to make sure she doesn't have too many people in her room at a time. She does not have her regular corner room since she needed to be next to the nurses station so it is pretty tight in there. Thank you again for all of the support and please keep on believing!!!!! Audrey

Battle Scar

BEAUTIFUL GIRL!!

She is doing great! She said the pressure headaches are gone but she is pretty sore. She has a lot of staples in her battle wound but still manages to rock it! She is not using her cell phone though she appreciates texts, emails and Facebook comments. She will not be ready for visitors for a while but I will also post it when that changes. Thank you again for all your support! *****************B E L I E V E*********************

Out of surgery and looking good...

Hey everyone. I just wanted to give you the update on Renee's surgery. She just finished with her surgery and is doing well. Dr. Duma took out some of the mass and burned around the mass in hopes of keeping it from growing. He will be testing it to confirm that it is NOT cancer and we will know in the next couple of days. He said that from what he could see that it looked to be scar tissue. Elda and Jen are getting ready to head up to ICU to be with her and knowing Renee, she will be on the phone letting us all know in person that she is doing great. She is such a strong amazing girl and she inspires so many every time she kicks cancers butt over and over again. Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers. As I get more information I will continue to post.

**Audrey Honeycutt

Sunday Funday

I've been experiencing a lot of pain with both my lung and my pressure headaches, so when I woke up Sunday morning I called my doctor. He suggested that I go to the ER and get something for the pain. I spent the afternoon in the ER at Hoag and was admitted up to the 8th floor. I am now getting steroids and pain medication (Dilaudid) which is helping a lot. The steroids are working for both the lung and the brain swelling to reduce the pain. The doctors want me to relax and be ready for the big day tomorrow.

I was scheduled for the PET Scan today (Monday), but I don't think that I will be having it because I have now been admitted into the hospital and the machine is not on-site at the hospital.

I'm very proud of myself that I called my doctors and recognized my pain level rather than pushing myself to ignore it. The medications are already helping with both my lung pain and my headaches.

Tomorrow is a big day...I will update my blog and keep everyone posted on my recovery.

Believe...Y.O.L.O

Fun Friday!

I had a STAT CT chest scan and that was fast.I am special since i am stat..hehe. 25 minutes after i took it i got a call from my doctors office. They explain to me why the ct scan came out not well. It is showing that something is wrong with my lung even though i just had that scan 3 weeks ago!! The left lung tumor is about 1 cm bigger. The past week i have had a weird cough, hard to breathe and also pain exactly where i was getting radiation on that lung. They gave me an order to get a STAT Pet scan and i get that on monday. Then after this i was told to go and see Dr. Peter Chen, my amazing radiation oncologist, to discuss lung issues. When i first started the radiation on my lung my doctor of course explained to me what could happen. Then of course now i am have pneumonitis.. This is what it is;
Treatment-related pneumonitis is a sign of lung injury, when there is inflammation of your lungs. This may be due to chemotherapy, or radiation therapy. It is very similar to pulmonary toxicity. Pneumonitis commonly occurs 2 to 3 months after radiation to the chest area. It may also develop after chemotherapy that caused lung injury, or lung (pulmonary) toxicity.
Good news right! I think no matter what i am ok. My doctor was saying that steroids will help the lung but i told him i will wait till after the surgery cause Dr. Duma, brain doctor, gives me steroids for my brain.It will work for it all! Anyway sorry if this seems over whelming but my day yesterday was crazy! I still feel ok and very strong! Either way i am going to be doing sooo well! The pressure is going to be gone and i will be getting better soon! I believe and know i am going to kick all these issues butt! Thanks for your support!! I will write before the exciting day!! BELIEVE!!!!!!!!

Good day!

Today i was in Hoag to do pre admission screenings. The only thing i had to do was a chest xray! I ran into so many doctors and friends there. Everyone knows that i am getting the great brain surgery next Tuesday! I feel happy that the friends know and also i am done with the pre surgery responsibilities. Haha! i get to relax and enjoy these days. I have realized that the last blog that was written is confusing some people. Dr. Duma is taking out the cyst that grew larger. Remember that we found the cyst,fluid and swelling. The cyst was 2.6* 1.7 cm on 9/11 and now 3.9*3.2cm in size. So he will go in my brain and take that cyst out. It pretty much is like dead skin/tumor.He is not taking out any good brain and if he does a little bit! Even though we already see and know that it is not cancer, he will still test the dead cyst. He was telling me how fabulous i will feel once he does this surgery. I can not explain how excited i am to do this!!!!! I am still leaving here a week later after my surgery to get away and relax with special friends!! Thanks everyone for your support! i will write before i go in and i am also hoping to have someone update this blog when i am in the hospital. BELIEVE!!!!!!!!!

MRI Results

Renee is dictating to me (Sabrina) about today's experience...

I started this morning with getting my blood taken at Dr. Mahdavi's. My blood results were good. So, I headed down to get my brain MRI. Immediately after the MRI I went to Dr. Duma to go over the results from the scan. Dr. Duma's facial expression was pure shock...he realized the changes were significant. Right away he scheduled me for brain surgery, Tuesday, October 27th. Dr. Duma is going to be taking the left side of my brain out - a craniotomy. Dr. Duma will then be testing what he takes out to confirm his suspicions that it is not cancer. I wish I could get the surgery tomorrow to have it over with, but I have a lot of "pre-op" appointments and this week will be busy.

Needless to say, the day has been overwhelming and I quickly ran to Dr. Mahdavi's office to let them know how the MRI went and that I will be having surgery next Tuesday. He was very reassuring and told me that the will be there daily to check on me and make sure that I am recovering well.

I know that a lot of you have been wondering how the day went, but I needed some time to take all of this not-so-good news in and prepare myself for what is to come. I am anxious to get this out of my brain and be able to still go on my trips that I have planned. Thank you for your support.

Believe...Renee

Changes

I called Dr. Duma office, my awesome brain doctor, yesterday and talked to a nurse. I was going over how things have not changed. The doctor has talked to the eye doctor that i saw last week which is good. Even though i have mentioned that i am getting a brain mri October 26 we have changed it now to next Tuesday the 20th. This needs to be done sooner so we can figure out how the brain is doing. I do have more anxiety like always but i do know that no matter what i BELIEVE i am ok!!! I am feeling ok and it takes time to feel 100%. I have been relaxing alot at home and not going around often so i dont get that flu that kids have. Poor kids.. Hope all is doing well! Thank you all for your support my wonderful friends!! Thank you my angels!BELIEVE! Enjoy life! Y.O.L.O

You only live once...xoxo

HELLO!

Just wanted to write a HELLO to everyone! I have had a mellow and relaxing week. I am feeling alright yet i still get pounding headaches. i am wondering when the pounding will start going down and not hurt anymore. I am very happy too cause it could have been worse. I have 2 weeks off until my brain mri and my doctor appointments at U.C.L.A. So i am going to take care of my medical issues and mellow my brain..HAHA! I will keep on believing all this will work out. Thanks for all your support! I will update you all on what i am up to and how my pain is... Gone i say!!! BELIEVE!

Fun times..

So, today I went to Dr. Mahdavi's office to get results from my latest scans. The scans came back good, my tumor has gotten a little bit smaller and the Pet scan showed very little activity. Dr. Mahdavi wants me to get another scan in two months to track the progress, but I will still be going into his office monthly to check my blood work. (My blood work today was good, my white cells and platelets were normal and my red cells-hemoglobin were slightly below normal.) He recommended that I make an appointment with my doctors at UCLA just to keep them in the loop and give them the results of all my tests/scans. After I left Dr. Mahdavi's office I decided to go pick up copies of my previous scans so I would have them when I go to UCLA. Right when I walked into the building, I started having vision problems again. I started seeing weird oil spots in the right side of my field of vision. It really freaked me out. Luckily Dr. Duma, my neurosurgeon, was there and he took me in and examined me right then and there! He did a couple neuro checks with me and looked in my eyes, he shined a bright light in my right eye and I could barely even notice the light. He is fairly sure that this is not a neurological problem- he said I would have seen spots out of both eyes. He referred me to an opthamologist that he highly recommends and the soonest his office could get me in was Wednesday. I left Dr. Duma not feeling very good at all. The vision problem slowly went away but my pressure headache came back, plus my anxiety level was very high. I started having problems finding the words I wanted to say, I couldn't even remember the name of my favorite thai food restaurant! I was really freaking out! My friend Jame' tried to calm me down and try to get me to relax. She took me to get some lunch since I hadn't eaten all day. I really didn't have an appetite, but as soon as I sat down and had a few bites I started feeling much better. I am still feeling the pressure in my head, and I am still experiencing dizziness especially when I first stand up to walk around, but my vision is normal now and I'm talking much better. I'm home and I am just trying to relax right now.

The past few days have been very hard on me and gave me a lot of anxiety, especially building up to to today's doctor appointment and trying to deal with the loss of another friend of mine with cancer. I have a lot of faith, no matter what. I continue to believe that even though I'm going through a lot I am going to be ok! I started doing accupuncture for my pressure headaches and it has been helping a lot. Thank you to everyone for all your continued support, I will definitely keep you updated.

Dictated by Renee, transcribed by Jame'