July 7, 2011

Javier & Ramses and their support group for their goal of 42 marathons in 42 days.

Holding Kassidy's banner before their 40th race which they dedicated to her.

Panama people, if you would like to buy these t-shirts to support Kassidy please call
Gente de Panama, si quieren comprar estas camisetas para apoyar a Kassidy por favor llamar a
To make the picture bigger, just double click the image
Alcibiades Urriola at (507) 6747 3726

This morning at the Clinic Kass was really tired she crashed while waiting for the dietician to see us.  

Last night she said she felt good so she worked out at an easy pace for a 45 minutes.

Day 7! The end of the first week of hope. I'm happy to report that we are getting the hang of everything quite fast.  Repetition of the procedures have definitely helped.  Kass & I have recorded the nurses with our camcorder doing each of the steps so we can have a visual reference on how to do everything ourselves.  I still get a little nervous drawing her blood and cleaning the area of where the catheter comes out of her chest, but I'm getting better every day.

Our days at the clinic start around 9am, we are there usually almost to 11am and noon sometimes learning every step this is every single day.  Sometimes we do have to go back for seminars at 5pm, but not very often.  The day starts off with checking vitals, drawing blood (lab work), nurse assessment, doctor appointment, Tubing change, catheter tip change, preparing the medication bags, programming the pump, dressing change on where the catheter comes out of her chest and sometimes change the batteries on the pump.  What a mouthful isn't it! Needless to say by the time noon comes around, her and I just want to go back to the hotel, eat lunch and take a nap.  Kass is usually pretty tired after this and sleeps a couple hours; probably because her dose is increased every day at that time.

Her dose comes in two bags as you saw in a previous picture.  Bag 1 contains the A10 antineoplaston which breaks up the tumor and Bag 2 contains the AS2-1 antineoplaston that destroys the tumor.  These two bags are then attached to a small pump that administers the doses around the clock.  Her doses are increased every single day unless the doctor sees a problem.  But she is attached to this device all day and night long.  She must carry it in a backpack, it's her new best friend.  By the way, she named her pump and it's name is Gertrude, Getie for short! :)

We did receive great news today, we were told that if we can get Kassidy's potasssium deficiency under control and we can get an ok from a doctor that is going to oversee Kass in Las Vegas, we can go home.  Yipeeeeeeeeeee!  So today we met with the dietician to tweak a couple things in her diet and the doctor prescribed some potassium supplements and we hope that does the trick.  Kass really wants to be home for the garage sale and for the golf tournament that is being done in her honor.  She wants to personally thank those who are participating in these events and have been part of Kassidy's Army thus far.

We also have been touched by two young men, Javier Gonzalez and Ramses Cano, two ultra marathoners that have dedicated their last two marathons to Kassidy.  What they will be accomplishing today is no easy task, their last marathon run of #42 in 42 days.  Yesterday their goal was to go sub 4 hours in their marathon and they ended up completing #41 at a time of 3:46, an amazing time, especially since they have been running 40 others continuously the days before.  Those of us who are runners know what an accomplishment this is.  They told Kassidy that they hoped that the pain they endured while running these, would take a little less of what Kass will have to endure in days to come.  Their motivation was Kassidy.  Very touching and brought tears to our eyes! They made a little video for her to give her to lift her spirits, here it is for those of you that know spanish, you can click on this link to watch it:

http://youtu.be/kG9_3z5jWFk