Mistie D

My sweet Mistie passed away Thursday morning, April 7, 2011, surrounded by her loving family. The daughter of James and Delaina Nielsen, Mistie grew up in Clawson Utah enjoying the blessing of her six sisters and two brothers. Misties life touched all around her as she valiantly battled breast cancer over the last 7 years. She will be dearly missed by all, especially her two young sons and sweetheart, Russ. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 Monday, April 11, 2011 at the church at 470 E Salem Canal Rd, Salem, Utah. A viewing will be held Sunday, April 10, 2011 from 6-8pm at the Walker Mortuary, 187 South Main Street Spanish Fork, and at the chapel one hour prior to the services on Monday.

Had to get outside for an ATV ride today, you never know what March will look like.

I read the results from the MRI. The brain itself is stable, but increased nodules at the base are suggestive of leptomeningeal metastasis (you can look it up). The way I understand it, the cancer has likely metastasized to the spinal fluid, turning a possibly hopeful situation much worse. While the cancer in the rest of her body has had a great response from the chemotherapy, the cancer has developed in the spinal fluid. I imagine the doctor will call us this afternoon, but in her current state I am doubtful he will advise any treatments.

Here at the hospital in Murray. She is getting some fluid and nausea medicine. You really get some attention when you start throwing up with the doctor there. But really the doctors have always been good to us. The chemo treatment that she got on friday is the last for her. Saturday was nothing but torture with nausea and then a mild seizure to put a real damper on the party. They are thinking that the dizziness and headaches are likely coming from the brain cancer and we have another MRI at 6:30 tomorrow morning. I guess the hope now is that she rebounds for a few months of feeling well. After everything she has been through it is a hard realization to know that the toughest times are still ahead of us...

Mistie is now getting a drug called Ixempra and we are continuing to track her tumor marker. When she was in remission her tumor marker was at 30. In January this year her tumor marker was at 480. The Ixempra has done a good job at slowing the cancer, after her first dose her tumor marker dropped to 180 and then this last treatment it dropped again to 101. The side effects have been a little more difficult. Usually 2 days after she gets the chemo she spends the day throwing up and then she has been getting quite dizzy. It usually comes and goes but we always keep a walker and wheelchair handy just in case. We keep the mood light and admire the perfectly round dent she put in the wall last week. We stopped getting the steroids that she normally gets with chemo. The steroids lessen the chance of a reaction but they also make her pretty loopy. The boys and I exchange some pretty strange looks when she climbs out of bed at 8pm and comes in telling them to hurry and get ready for school. It gets even funnier when she comes back an hour later and asks why we let her sleep in. Overall we are getting along and hope to plan another nice relaxing trip to somewhere warm.

Here getting chemo today. Thought Mistie and I could upload some photos of taking the kids to Disneyland for Christmas. Believe it or not I took these pictures and I actually prefer the half head - eyes closed photos.