Sue Charen

Baltimore Bound 2

Today was the first second out patient visit since being discharged from the hospital. Similar to yesterday Wednesday, Sue has been fighting nausea. The trip was brief and good, since Sue's "numbers" from the blood tests were either excellent or trending as expected in the right direction...again. Next hospital trip won't be till Saturday Tuesday. We are hoping the visits are spaced out, say only two or three visits a week. And we got a better sense of what those visits will be like. 

Right now Sue is spending time taking it easy with family. 

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No, this is not deja vu, but almost identical improving results on the second trip. Still hoping the nausea goes away. During the numerous times Sue used to go to the out patient for chemo and bone marrow transplant followup, I remember the visits seeming to be very similar and blending together. It has also brought back a lot of memories.

Tomorrow, Sue's brother from PA will be arriving with his family. That makes three. 

Baltimore Bound

Today was the first out patient visit since being discharged from the hospital. Similar to yesterday, Sue has been fighting nausea. The trip was brief and good, since Sue's "numbers" from the blood tests were either excellent or trending as expected in the right direction. Next hospital trip won't be till Saturday. We are hoping the visits are spaced out, say only two or three visits a week. And we got a better sense of what those visits will be like. 

Right now Sue is spending time taking it easy with family. 

Birthday Blues

Today is the 4th anniversary of the wonderful bone marrow transplant and sort of rebirth. And we are still very happy about it. But the relapse has made the day this year not as celebratory. Sue was discharged from the hospital yesterday after the successful chemotherapy. We are back at the house and getting ready for the hospital visits every other day or so to check Sue's levels. Within a couple weeks the full effect of the chemo will show with lower blood counts and loss of hair. 

And today was a little tougher and Sue was not feeling great. But her brother from Chicago is here visiting and along with her folks here, it was nice to be together. Any day can be a challenge and today was one. 

Thanks for all of the calls and messages. Sue really appreciates them. And it was great seeing her SC brother and family and also my Baltimore cousins visiting in the hospital. 

Tomorrow will be the first of the hospital - out patient visits post chemo. 

Tough News

After over four years of remission and two years of a long, but good recovery, Sue started to have a headache that lasted more than a week. The doctors did head scans and discovered a mass in her head. Within a few days under observation and getting tests, the doctors have determined that Sue has had a relapse of the Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (Philadephia chromosome positive) in her central nervous system. This is tough news especially considering how far out from remission Sue was and that it is a tough fight ahead. 

Fortunately, at this point the treatments should be much easier on her compared to the two years of touch chemo and bone marrow transplant. And so far the cancer has not succeeded in getting into the rest of the body. The great drugs Sue was on do not reach the central nervous system (CNS), because of the "blood-brain barrier" (bbb). So Sue will try another drug that may be better at that. 

Sue is obviously upset about the news, but is concentrating on receiving treatments and getting better. She has been feeling ok here in the hospital and is looking foward to getting back to the house early next week. 

As always we want to thank family and friends who have helped us over the years with love, sympathy and support.

We will be keep this site up to date from now on.