Tara Starts Chemotherapy on Tuesday
Journal entry by Rich DeAugustinis — 4/11/2016
Just a quick note to let everyone know that Tara will be starting chemotherapy on Tuesday at the Winship Cancer Institute at St. Joseph’s. She will be doing 6 “cycles” of cisplatin and alimta (the chemo drugs), one every 3 weeks. This is the start of her “journey of hope” back to health. Could I ask you all to pray for Tara on Tuesday and keep her in your thoughts? Please pray for:
- Comfort for Tara during the chemo treatment
- Tara’s father Aubrey who will be taking her to the treatment
- The chemo to have immediate impact on the cancer – to halt any spread and to immediately start reducing the size of the tumors
- The chemo to have little to no side effects on Tara
- The chemo to help abate the pain she is enduring now
- The doctors, nurses and others that will be administering the chemo treatment
- Those of us that will care for her in the coming days after this first treatment
Thank you all for your love and support! I will update you on Tara’s progress later this week or this weekend. God bless you all.
-Rich
Update on Response to Chemo – So Far, So Good
Journal entry by Rich DeAugustinis — 4/13/2016
Update: Good start. She was virtually pain-free for the first time in a long while when she came home yesterday afternoon. She was also in very good spirits. So far today, she has a touch of nausea, but hasn’t gotten sick. Mostly just very, very tired, which we expected and is par for the course for chemo. So far, so good…we pray for the side effects to continue to be mild for Tara. Thanks for all of the love, prayers and support! God bless!
Update on Tara & Prayer Request for Nerve Block Procedure
Journal entry by Rich DeAugustinis — 4/26/2016
Good morning, everybody. I wanted to give you a quick update on Tara. She started chemo two weeks ago today. The first week was a bit rough, but frankly we are thankful that she didn’t experience the worst side effects. She was very tired and had occasional nausea, but didn’t get sick. The last week has been considerably better. With her energy level back up, she has tried to get out and walk some days and get back to doing some yoga, too (it’s important for her to continue to stay active to help fight the cancer and help her lung heal). Our sincere hope and prayer going forward is for each chemo treatment to have minimal effect on her for a few days, followed by 2+ weeks of normalcy. The challenge to that has been the pain from the mesothelioma – both the cancer itself and the consequential nerve pain, too. That’s been the toughest part of this from the beginning. She is seeing a pain management doctor at Emory as part of her treatment plan (Dr. Vinita Singh). We have been really impressed with her, and the medications and other recommendations have helped a lot, but Tara is still dealing with pain – which can be significant at times.
Which brings me to the prayer request – this morning at 9:30am Dr. Singh is going to administer “nerve block” injections to several key nerves in the chest area, in the hopes of blunting most of the nerve pain in the region. If it works properly, it should provide her considerable relief. Please pray that it does, and for the doctors hands to be steady and precise during the procedure. The hardest part of this journey is seeing a loved one in pain and knowing you can do little to nothing about it except offer words of comfort. This nerve block can hopefully “change the game” on her pain. Lord, please be with Tara and her doctor this morning and use this to help ease the burden of pain for her as she goes through this. Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support – they are deeply appreciated. Another update after her next chemo next Thursday, May 5th. God bless!
Continue reading Tara’s story here: Facing Mesothelioma One Journal Entry at a Time: Part Two
