Inspirational song

This song (although the subject is breast cancer) is so relate-able to me. To be honest, I have been very overwhelmed lately, and Josh has been my rock through it all. I saw this song performed live on the news this morning and it brought tears to my eyes...

Martina McBride-I'm Gonna Love You Through It

Leesburg Christian School's Dig4Hattie Event

This is information about an event that is being done in my honor that I wanted to let everyone know about I only found out about it a few weeks ago, but apparently it has been in the works for a while, but it was while I was in the hospital. My cousin Hunter called me to let me know this was going on and I told her 1) I hate to be the center of attention and 2) Aren't there people more deserving, or who need it more. Her response was that is exactly what she thought I would say but that it was happening.  I have been blessed with a wonderful family and support system and plan to donate some/all of the proceeds to cancer research, hopefully specifically Thyroid. More and more people are becoming resistant to the "traditional" treatments for ThyCa and they are looking for new ways to treat it.

Dear Faithful Fans:  Leesburg Christian School’s Lady Lions’ varsity and junior varsity volleyball team will hold a charity event and fundraiser for Hattie Ketterman Curtis as she fights Thyroid Cancer. The Lady Lions have planned an event called “Dig4Hattie,” which will take place on Friday, November 4, 2011, at 6 PM. The team is hoping to receive donations from individuals and businesses that support Leesburg Christian Athletics and Lady Lions Volleyball. This is our fourth year to hold a charity event for cancer last year we raised $3,500 for baby Max Popish as he fought through and survived Neuroblastoma Cancer! Donations from boosters, family, friends, etc., will also be accepted. On November 4th at 6 PM the Lady Lions will play two matches (best out of three). The Lady Lions will take on alumni and coaches in match one and the Lions Soccer team in match two. There will also be door prizes for fans, so please attend! A large percentage of all gate fees and concessions will go to “Dig4Hattie.”  “Dig4Hattie” t-shirts also are being sold now. Order your shirt ASAP, they sell fast! Youth sizes are available for $10 and adult sizes are available for $12. All proceeds will benefit the Hattie Ketterman Curtis in her fight against Thyroid Cancer. Order no later than October 24: leesburgathletics@gmail.com.

Hattie Ketterman Curtis' Story:

Hattie was diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer with Follicular variances in August of 2007 after a tumor was removed from her spine and soon after had a total Thyroidectomy. Since then, Hattie has had a dozen surgeries, seven surgeries within the last year alone. After all of this she is still only considered Stage 2 because with Thyroid Cancer, if you are under the age of 45, you cannot be a ny higher than a Stage 2. Hattie and her family have put their complete trust in the Lord to see her through these trials.

Hattie has been married to Josh Curtis for 5 years and he has been her rock. She got married young (at 20) but knows this was the Lord's plan for her, because she does not know what she would do without this amazing man by her side. They were able to enjoy their first year of marriage, and work on building Josh's contracting company, Kinsmen Contractors, before starting this "Cancer Journey" together. She views it as "our story", as they are one in the eyes of the Lord. The support of both of their families has been amazing, and they look forward to living a long and hopefully soon healthy life together.

Hattie is related to Leesburg Christian School graduates, Hunter and Taylor Jenkins, and is a cousin of former student, Ricky Greene, and LCS homeschool family, the Allens. Hattie’s parents own Ketterman’s Jewelers in Leesburg. Ketterman’s Jewelers has been a faithful sponsor of Leesburg Christian School for over a decade. Throughout the years, they have contributed to the yearbook, to the Silent Auction and to many events that required door prizes. On November 4, at LCS, please join us as we raise money to show our support to Hattie.

On Friday night the teams will play two matches: the first taking on alumni and coaches, and in the second the Lions Soccer team! There will be door prizes for fans, so please attend!

There are also "Dig4Hattie" t-shirts being sold. Order your shirt ASAP, they sell fast! Youth sizes are available for $10 and adult sizes are available for $12. All proceeds will benefit Hattie in her fight against Thyroid Cancer!!

Even you're unable to attend, you can still make a donation!!

Invite all your friends!!   To make a donation contact Lady Lions Coach Christa Schlichting (leesburgathletics@gmail.com) or look for sign up sheets that Lady Lions members will have.  All for Christ, one for States, go Lions go! Sincerely,Coach Christa SchlichtingEMAIL: leesburgathletics@gmail.com  "...It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35

Quick update from Josh....

We are back home. Gosh driving to DC and back can be killer. Anyways, official news is "ok". The donor site looks a little better and they are going to put another apligraf on next week on Tuesday. Her back has some raw spots still and the wound doctor decided to change her back dressing to once a day with a special cream that combats skin infection. He is pretty sure that there is no skin infection, but he wants to be preventive in case there is. We will know more on that if not next week, the following week when the doctor looks at her back again. Please pray that the apligraf continues to work and that her back heals up with no infection. Please pray for Hattie's spirits as well. The last couple days have been rough for her. She tries to stay upbeat, but it's hard with all that she has been through, especially this year. Thanks everyone for your prayers.

Update from Josh...

I took Hattie to see the wound specialist for a check up and the skin graft on her back is looking really good. Her donor site on her leg, however, is not healing as fast as the doctors want. To help it heal faster to avoid possible infection, they are going to put an apligraf over the donor site within the next couple weeks. Here's the website that has the info on this type of wound dressing http://www.apligraf.com/patient/what_is_apligraf/what_is_apligraf.html
Pretty amazing what medicine has come up with. All in all good news. Please pray for Hattie and her spirits. This year has been a hard year for her(7 surgeries with the complications) and it's easy to start getting frustrated and down about it sometimes. Thank you all.

Update Coming Soon...

Hey everyone, I am doing alright. Still at my parents house and Josh and I are spending the whole day at Georgetown seeing doctors today, so I will update you after we see all the doctors and I have the most up to date information. I am sorry it has been so long, I have no excuse...

Change of Plans

Change of plans. The Infectious Disease doctors are concerned about the increased chance of the shunt getting infected after surgery. The neuro team and thorasic team are hoping to get me into the OR early in week to do a surgery to fix the leak instead. It will involve re-opening my thorasic incision and trying to follow the spinal fluid leaks path to the source which is probably at the front of the spinal chord. There they will blood patch and seal the heck out of it. Thank you for all your prayers.

Surgery Moved to Tomorrow

Hey everyone. Pray for me. Surgery has been moved from Tuesday to tomorrow. My back incision is looking fine, but my thorasic incision(12" angled under my left shoulder blade) has formed a blister and spinal fluid is leaking out of it. The surgeon wants to proceed with putting in the shunt to act as a continuous drain from the base of the spinal chord to my belly. They will also put in a fluid drain at the site where the fluid is collecting and forming the blister. After surgery they will allow this drain to continue draining fluid and hopefully it's output will go down(that means the shunt is working). If the the output does not go down they will have to do another surgery through my chest to fix the leak at the front of the spinal chord.The previous surgery fixed the leak they found at the back of the spinal chord, it's possible that there is a leak at the front now as well.
They have also found that one of the cultures taken from my last surgery has grown bacteria related to staff(unknown what type of staff it is at this point). They are treating me with antibiotics. Pray that God keeps me in good spirits. This has all been really frustrated and I just want this all to be over. We all do....
Pray it happens in the morning, I have to go without food and fluids from midnight(as usual for every surgery) tonight till whenever they decide to operate on me tomorrow. The sooner the better for my number 13 surgery. Thank you all for your prayers.

But wait thhere"s more...

Please pray for the the infection in my body,they are treating me with antibiotics and the possible infection I may have been susceptible to. Over time the lumbar drain had become contaminated by a bacteria. They removed the lumbar drain today and will monitor me closely over the next few days.

Update 5-21-11

Sorry for not posting for over a month. A lot has happened, 3 surgeries, a 3 1/2 week hospital stay, finally getting home for a week, then having to come back to the hospital from complications 9 days later. Let's start at the beginning. The first surgery for my "Equipment Overhaul" went well all things considered (meaning the end result was achieved). During the surgery there was a doctor whose only job was to continually send signals through my spinal chord to the rest of my body and make sure that everything answered back. After they got me on the operating table and started adjusting it for the surgery they lost signal to my left leg. The surgeons immediately had to go in and remove the compromised cage.  Upon removing the cage (Telescopic Plate Spacer “TPS”) I slowly regained signal back to my left leg. The top of the TPS had collapsed/twisted so far forward that the bottom of it had dug into the protective shell, derma, surrounding the spinal chord. The neurosurgeon, Dr. V later said that he was amazed I came walking in for the surgery that morning given my condition. The surgeons had to suture the derma in a couple places to stop the spinal fluid from continuously leaking out. They also removed the 1/2 bottom vertebrae that had become compromised from cancer and radiation. The new TPS was put in and they closed me up and kept me sedated and on the breathing tube overnight for the next surgery.The Second surgery was less bumpy. The rod was removed and 2 new longer rods were put in. The plastic surgeon then came in and relocated/stretched muscle in the area to help strengthen the back and closed the wound.
They waited a couple days to take me off the breathing tube and I started to recover. However complications arose from small leak(s) in my left lung that occurred during the process of the first surgery. In the process of moving that lung over to get to the cage site, some scar tissue around the lung was removed and a small tear occurred that started to allow air to escape from the lung and create a pnuemo thorax around the left lung which caused it to collapse. The doctors and nurses had to put me back on the breathing tube and soon found that I had a small bout of pneumonia. I ended up being on the breathing tube for a week while they treated with antibiotics. Because of the damage to the derma from the cage, the doctors had a Lombard drain that connected to the fenal sack at the base of my spinal column. This allowed them to drain spinal fluid controllably to help the damaged areas of the derma to heal. My left lung just would not heal so Dr. M took some omentem, some of the fat from my stomach to patch the hole. The Dr. also said it was good for fighting off bacteria and infection, so double bonus. Then it was just recovery time and I pleaded with Dr. V to let me out Saturday morning, and he felt I was OK and that I could. So I got to see my 2 nephews and 1 niece in the Philomont Horseshow. I had been in the hospital for 25 days.

I was home (at mom’s house) for a total of nine days I was using the bathroom (sorry for the detailJ) and when I got up and felt something wet on my back but could not see it myself. Becky, my best friend, was there and the physical therapist had just shown up. As soon as the therapist looked at my back she said “no therapy today, call the doctor”. So I did and we went to the ER at Georgetown as instructed, and we were told they would know we were coming but it still took a while. I thought I was coming just to fix the leak, but I am like those infomercials “but wait there’s more” In my blood work it showed that my kidneys were not functioning properly, and my creatinine levels were very high, they should be under one from what I understand and mine were over five. They are down to the threes now and dropping hopefully. They also did a kidney ultrasound to confirm. When I got here they also could not get a pic line so that was concerning, so they did an ultrasound and found blood clots in my neck. There was one vein or whatever they used yesterday to put in a “Hickman line” to help since they had been sticking me so much and were having trouble finding veins. They can’t do anything with my arms and shoulders because they don’t want to dislodge a clot into my lungs or anywhere else.
           
As of now I have my first surgery (#12)on Tuesday at two. Of course it will be later just cause that is how it normally is. That one is to patch the leak. Then they will watch me for I don’t know how long and then probably have lucky surgery13 to put in a shunt to drain any access fluid drains to my stomach.

Hopefully I will be back at moms soon. I am glad that I did not find the kidney thing myself because there could have been permanent damage, same with the clots.

Please pray my kidneys get better, the clots breakup with the heparin, and for my nausea. Yesterday was the first day I did not throw up but I mostly had “Nepro” a supplement drink, and I have a feeding tube from my nose down into my stomach which they run at night. My nutrition needs to be better for my wounds to heal.

Thanks for all the Love, and thoughts and prayers, they mean so much to us.
We just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on May 20th in the hospital, but oh well, we will do something later, when I am better

Equipment Overhaul...

I know this is going to come to some people as a surprise, since I have not really been telling anyone that I was having more problems with my back since surgery in January. I went to see the neurosurgeon yesterday, for my second post-op, but also to discuss with him some problems I was having. After they removed the rod on the right side of my back, I was doing alright. I could still feel the screws on the other side since my skin and muscle has thinned in my back (due to so many surgeries, radiation, and other treatments), but they seemed secure to the doctor when I was lying on the operating table. I started to have more pain (well I don't remember being completely pain free, but a different pain started) with the one rod that was left. The top screw would pinch, and hurt and the bottom one developed some swelling right around it (I think it was some kind of infection or something) and was discolored. The fluid (or whatever it was) is not there anymore, but you can feel the metal and it is still discolored. I also had pain around that one sometimes. I had an x-ray before my appointment yesterday, and then went to talk to the surgeon. The first look at the x-ray and you could see on and face, and hear in his voice that he was concerned. It turns out that the metal cage in my back, known as a "Telescopic Plate Spacer" or TPS has actually shifted. 

Here is a picture that will hopefully help people understand what I am talking about:

 My family has bugged me about my posture since this whole ordeal started. I tend to roll my shoulders forward because it is more comfortable. Lately I have noticed that I cannot stand straight up. When I feel like I am totally straight, I actually still have a hunch in my back. I thought it was caused from so many years of bad posture, but I was wrong. What has happened is that the lower vertebra that the TPS is connected to is now "compromised", it has been weakened by the cancer, as well as all the surgeries and radiation. The other day, my younger sister Ellyn stood next to me and told me that I was shrinking, and essentially I have. The vertebra (I think it is T-11) is compressing. When this whole thing started I was around 5'6", but now I am like 5'4 1/2" or something. As you can see in the picture above, the TPS is now tilting, so the bottom of it is pushing backwards, causing the curve in my spine. In the X-Ray, you can also see there is a lot of pressure on the one rod that is left, so much it is causing it to start to have a bend to it. The doctor is nervous because the TPS is close to my spinal cord. 

The game plan for surgery actually includes three different surgeons, a neurosurgeon, a thoracic surgeon, and a plastic surgeon. They plan to do it in two stages, since it will be such a long surgery. They want to break it up both for me, and I am sure the surgeons. What they will do is on the first day, April 6, the neurosurgeon and the throacic surgeon will open me up and replace the TPS with a slightly longer one so that they can attach it to stronger bones. They will close me up, and then most likely the next day they will take me back to surgery where a plastic surgeon will somehow "flap" some muscle over my back where they have operated. The reason for this is to create more "padding" over the instrumentation because as I mentioned earlier the skin and muscle in my back have gotten so thin from repeated surgery and radiation. I will probably be in the hospital 7-10 days if all goes as planned. Then I will have to wear a brace for 6 weeks. I had to wear it once before, and it is horrible but I know it is important after such an extensive surgery. 

Since this all happened so fast, I know it has been a real shock to my family. Please pray for them to have peace through this. Especially Josh and my parents. I thank you for your continued prayers through my battle with cancer. Josh and I will try and post updates here when we can.

*I was trying to find a better picture, but you can kind of see how I am hunched forward in this picture. This is a picture of us in Nassau, Bahamas. We went on a four night cruise of the Bahamas with my sister Katie and her husband Josh, and my best friend Becky (Josh's Cockerill's sister) and her husband Mitchell. I am so glad we got to do this before having to have another surgery. It was wonderful and I wish I was still there...

But wait, there's more (again)...

Not sure of the complete results of my PET/CT but I have learned that I have new metastasis of cancer to my left hip, something like 3-4 spots but I am not sure how big they are. I will give you more information once I know. There is also a new spot in my neck, but I believe it is a lymph node that is not super concerning. The rest of my current lesions I believe are relatively stable, the focus was on the new metastasis so we did not really go into detail on the others. Like I said I still need to get more information from my doctor. He was assuring me that this does not mean the Nexavar isn't working, because the mets could be more extensive than they are, we don't really know. He is still going to look into what my other options are medication wise, and contact my radiation oncologist and some other doctors to consult with them. I don't know if they will just watch it, do surgery, do radiation, or some other treatment I don't know about yet. I will keep you updated as I learn more, but thanks for the thoughts and prayers. Happy Valentines Day!

Post-Op Update

I know it has been a little bit of time already since my surgery. Sorry I have not written an update sooner. As you know, I had surgery on my back on 1-11-11 to remove one of the two metal rods that were in my back. I was having horrible pain caused by one of the screws actually working its way out of the bone. You could feel it, and even see it stick out. Surgery day was...eventful I guess I would say. I got to the hospital at about 7:45am, and was scheduled for surgery at 10:40am. I got there extra early to have a PIC line put in my upper arm, because I can be a difficult IV stick. The nurse in charge of the surgical waiting has come to recognize me from the many times I have been there, and also remembers mom. They usually have a policy that only one person can go back in the pre-op holding area, but the nurse said to be sure to let her know when my parents were coming and she would bring them back to see me :-). She is a very nice lady. Things were moving slowly, like they always seem to in that situation, and we were waiting for the anesthesiologists to come sign off so I could go to the OR. Right as he came to talk to me, he got called away on an emergency case which ended up taking over the OR I was about to be taken to. A while later we were finally told what was going on, and my surgeon came to let us know it was going to be a few hours because they had to re-sterilize the equipment and the whole room. There were also several transplants that occurred that day, which have to be done quickly so the organs stay viable. At about 5pm, the nurse I was speaking of earlier came down and did a double take. She could not believe that I was still waiting to be taken back to surgery. Close to 6pm, my surgeon finally came in (he had also been called to assist on one of the emergency cases that day) and said if I was still up for it he was getting together a team and we were still a go. He felt so bad that I had been there all day with no food or drink, just waiting... I had the option of rescheduling but we were already there and ready, so we said go for it. The surgery only took about 1.5hours, so it was relatively short. The nurses in pre-op were so happy to be able to cross my name off the board and a few clapped as I was finally rolled to the OR. I am so thankful to Josh and my parents for sitting with me through all of this. I felt so bad, feeling like I needed to entertain them, but they are so wonderful! Due to the craziness that happened in the GUH operating rooms that day, there were no open hospital rooms. I ended up spending the night in the recovery room. Mom and dad went home pretty soon after because the weather was bad. My nurse was really nice, and went and found a microwave dinner for me to eat. Josh is amazing too, he is such a trooper. They let him stay with me until about midnight, then he had to go. I guess he slept somewhere in the OR waiting area, and was allowed back down the next morning. We finally got moved into a room at about noon, but then I got discharged a few hours later. I think God had a hand in that timing, because right as I was leaving they brought another patient into the room who seemed to have quite an attitude. I am glad we were able to leave, and not have to experience that. We went home to my parents house, and stayed there for about 10 days. I went and saw my doctor 2 weeks post-op and he was very pleased. He is always nervous that things will not heal as well because of everything I have had done, but I am healing just fine. It did make me nervous that I can feel one of the screws on the other side, but he said that the skin and muscles have thinned because of everything and there is nothing we can do about that. As long as it is not causing me pain, everything was tight and secure. I am slowly getting back to things. The weather has kept me home a lot, because I do not want to slip and fall on any ice. I am still on the Nexavar. I was having really bad side effects right before Christmas, including vomiting a lot and horrible fatigue, but have finally gotten that pretty much under control with the help of my endocrinologist and our close family friend who is an oncologist. I have a PET/CT scheduled for next week to see how things are looking since I have been on the medication. I will be sure to write another update once I have those results. Just pray that my pain continues to subside, and that this medicine is working!
I am so tired of climbing uphill, I am ready to start heading down the other side!