More Cake Pix!

Alrighty, I promised pictures of my "Winter Wonderland " cake so here they are :) I had a lot of fun designing it and I think it helped me decide that making specialty cakes is my ultimate goal after finishing pastry school. In 5 weeks, I have to start an externship and am going to be applying to a bunch of wedding cake bakeries to hopefully learn more about how to design awesome cakes.

Finally, some good news!

Ok, so the last couple weeks were really difficult, waiting to get the result of the MRI that I had on Halloween. Fortunately, we finally got some good news :) My doctor said that he and Kaiser's neuro-oncologist in Redwood City agree that it looks like the 2 rounds of chemo that I've done have stopped the growth of the new tumors they found! Mom and Dad went to the appointment with me and we left the doctor's office with tears of joy. Much better than my appointment a couple months ago when Dena and I left in tears of shock and fear. I was given the thumbs up to start another round of chemo which I'm about halfway through and feeling terrific, other than the slight hangover I have from celebrating with some friends last night :) I tend to be a pessimist, so I don't necessarily think that I am out of the woods yet, but it feels really good to breate a sigh of relief for a while.

On Thursday, Nov 6th, my classmates and I displayed our "wedding cakes" for our finals of our cakes class. I'm really happy with how my cake turned out and I'm going to post some pictures of it either later tonight or tomorrow since I'm at Mom & Dad's house now and don't have my computer with the pictures on it.

That's about it for now. I just wanted to finally let you all know about our good news and thank you so much for the well-wishes, happy thoughts and prayers you've all been sending my way. On that note, there's one topic I wanted to address... I know a lot of you know that I'm not particularly religious. Regardless of my feelings about religion, I absolutely respect other people's feelings about the power of prayer and I appreciate and love all of you who have said prayers for me. Who am I to say that it is not those prayers that have stopped the growth of my tumors??? Of course, I can't dismiss the amazing results of modern medicine, but all of your prayers certainly can't hurt :)

With love,
Laurie

O-BA-MA!!! O-BA-MA!!!

Ok, Ok, I know some of you might not be as pro-Obama as I am, but I swear, this was one of the most exciting nights of my life (except for the nights that my nieces and nephew were born of course!). I'm sorry that I haven't updated my blog in a while, but I've just been a little MIA lately. I haven't been returning emails or phone calls very regularly, but for no real reason other than just kinda hibernating with the change in the seasons. I'm happy and content and just enjoying school and a little solitude. Weird, huh???

Let's get it out of the way... my medical update. I had an MRI on Friday (yes, Halloween, go figure!) It was different from all the other MRI's I've had. I usually have a few pictures taken, then they pull me out and inject a contrast dye, then take a few more pictures, and it takes about a half hour. This time, they inserted an IV and had the contrast injected throughout the process and I was in the machine for about an hour and a half. I'm told that the machine that I usually have my MRI's on is 1.5 teslas (a measure of magnetism) and this machine was 3 teslas. I was also told that this is the only 3 tesla machine that Kaiser has, so I'm pretty lucky that it was local for me. I'm really feeling like I'm getting top-notch care :) I have an appointment with my local oncologist for November 12th, but I think I'm going to call my favorite doc in Santa Clara to see if I can get some info before then. For now, I'm just trying to focus on all the other exciting things going on, and trying not to worry about the results of this one test.

On to school... This week is finals for my cake class (doesn't it seem like I'm always doing finals???). We have to create a "wedding cake", basically a 3-tiered cake with a theme. I'm doing a "winter wonderland" cake. It will be covered in light blue fondant with ice sickles, snowflakes, snowmen and pine trees. We're going display them on Thursday when my mom (and maybe dad) and Erin will come check it out. We'll take lots of pictures that I'll put on my blog. Then, of course, it's up to you guys to tell all of your friends who might be getting married that I'm just the best wedding cake designer ever, tee hee!

I'll let you all know as soon as I get results from my MRI and I'll post pix of my cake as soon as I have them.

Much love and many hugs and smooches to all of you!!!
Laurie :)

Round 2 & Feeling Great :)

Hiya Everyone,

This is my good friend Kate, Baby Jane and me at a candy buffet we had at school about 3 weeks ago. Thanks for coming girls (it was all the candy you could eat... at 9am!). Mom joined us, but I didn't get a picture with her :(

Just a quick medical update. I started my second round of chemo 2 nights ago and I've been feeling really good so far. Today I was pretty tired, but it was Saturday and I allowed myself to sleep and be lazy most of the day. I had to work tonight, but was so well-rested that I had a great time & gave my tables great service. It's not rocket science, but I try to take pride in even my minimum wage job :)

I occurred to me that I hadn't really explained how my chemo rounds go. I'm pretty fortunate that I get to just take pills at home rather than needing to have an IV at the hospital. I take the pills for 5 nights in a row, then get about 3 1/2 weeks to recover before doing my next round. The last time that I did chemo, back in 2002-2003, it was my white blood cells that would take the biggest hit and recover the slowest. After a few months, I eventually had to start giving myself shots of some stuff that would boost the recovery time for my white blood cells, which I assume I'll have to do this time as well. Honestly, it wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds and is totally worth it if it allows me to do a few more rounds to try to beat this thing.

I'm trying to schedule my next MRI for the end of October or early November. I'm really nervous about this one because it should show if these first 2 rounds of chemo are slowing or stopping the growth of my new tumors. There's definitely going to be a lot of nail-biting going on waiting for the results. I'll try to write another update as soon as I get an appointment and when we get the results, good or bad.

On a lighter note, I got an award at school last week for receiving high honors in my last class :) I also made a kick-a$$ carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, a chocolate lava cake (Y-U-M), pumpkin spice cake, an orange roulade, a fruit basket cake and we've started practicing with fondant so I can start making wedding-type cakes soon! How fun!

The smell of the holidays is in the air! Can you believe it's that time already? And I hope you're all going to vote... I'm so excited, I just got my voter registration card in the mail for my new home. Am I a dork or what? You know, I actually get tears in my eyes every time I vote. I think it's the most important thing we can do as Americans. Ok, I'll get off my soap box ;-)

Heart,
Laurie

Busy, busy, but doing great :)

Well, finals were a little rough, I didn't get to finish my moulded truffles :( but they're over and I passed the class with a B (who would've thought pastry school would be so challenging???) My new class is making cakes and after only 2 days, I like it a lot better. Today we made a 4 layer chocolate cake with buttercream frosting, espresso chocolate chip angel food cake and a hazelnut torte that we will frost with chocolate mousse tomorrow... bet you all wish you lived closer, huh? Needlesstosay, I've put on a couple pounds since starting the program, but running around for 5 hours a day in class and a few hours a week at work have helped offset the damage that could be happening to my waistline!

In terms of my health issues, fortunately I don't have much to report :) I've been feeling great this week and I'm chaulking up my roller coaster from last week to anxiety and stress that seem to have diminished this week. I'm not even sure if the fatigue and disorientation I was feeling were a result of my new medication like I assumed. It seems more likely that they were leading up to the panic attack I had. I've been feeling basically normal since that night and have been much more productive.

I hope you all are enjoying our turn toward fall. I love this time of year and am looking forward to getting out of the 90's and breaking out some of my sweaters and long pants!

Update... Better news from new doc :)

Hi All,

I hope you all are doing well this week!

After leaving the meeting with the first oncologist I saw here in Sacramento, Dena and I felt like there was no hope and my days were numbered. Obviously we wanted a second opinion who might offer us a small glimmer of hope. My mom & I met with a second oncologist, Dr. Grennan, last week and we were pleasantly surprised to find him much more optomistic with plans B, C & D available as possibilities if the chemotherapy I'm doing now doesn't produce the results we're hoping for. At the same time, he says that he has a lot of confidence that this chemo should work, since it did the trick on my earlier tumor. Like my oncologist back in Santa Clara who said he had been treating someone with my type of disease for nearly 20 years, Dr. Grennan said that he has had the same success with another patient for a similar amount of time.

He also said that there is a possibility that if we treat these tumors and 1 or 2 are stubborn and don't respond to the chemo, there is a possibility of using gamma knife radiation on a couple individual tumors. This was exciting news since I had previously been told that gamma knife was not an option for me. Dr. Grennan also said that Kaiser has a new neuro-oncology department in Redwood City that works with the neuro-oncology department at UCSF, one of the best neuro-oncology centers in the country where there are often studies being done on new treatments. Though I don't want false hope, it was really nice to leave a consultation with a bit of a feeling of optomism :-)

I also saw a new neurologist last week. He's switching me to a new anti-seisure medication called Keppra because the one I've been on for 6 years, Tegretol, speeds up how my liver metabolizes medications I take, including the chemotherapy I'm doing and may make it less effective than it should be. I've been slowly increasing the dosage and just realized in the last couple days that I'm having some pretty crazy side effects. It's been making me REALLY fatigued and moody with barely enough energy to make it to school and work. Then last night I had major chest pain, pain in my left arm, nausea and a headache, totally making me think I was having a stroke or heart attack. I called my neighbor, Supriya, in a total panic and she called 911 for me and came over to help calm me down. When the ambulance came, the hot guys in uniform checked my heart rate and blood pressure and everything was totally normal. After they left, Supriya (who, to my good fortune, is doing her residency, becoming a world-class psychiatrist) helped me understand what I was experiencing was actually probably a panic attack. She told me to take a couple ibuprofen to help my chest and arm muscles relax, and I fell asleep within about a half hour.

Needless to say, I didn't make it to my 6am class today, but I felt SO much better and was able to get some stuff done that I've been too tired to do for the last couple weeks. After all this drama, I'm feeling pretty good going into my finals tomorrow and Friday. I have to make marshmallows, candied orange peels, triple chocolate mousse towers, free form chocolate truffles, moulded chocolate truffles, petit fours and peanut brittle, all in 7 1/2 hours! Wish me luck!!!

Love you all!!!!!

Chapter 2

Hi Everyone! I hope you all are doing well :)

Back in 2002 and 2003, I won the fight against a nasty brain tumor (Chapter 1). The hope, support and inspiration I received from all of my friends and family were, I believe, what ultimatley led to the destruction of that little piece of crap!!!

Well, unfortunately, it turns out that it has some little cousins who have decided to visit me as I've been told that I have a few new little tumors growing in the same general area of my brain as the original one. I began doing chemo 2 nights ago and have had no major problems or side effects. I tolerated this same chemo really well last time and so far it looks like I will hopefully be having the same experience. I don't expect to lose my hair this time, since I only lost it last time from the radiation treatments I did, and I won't be doing radiation this time... my body has already had all the radiation that it can take.

I decided to make a blog so I can let you all know what's going on with my treatments and progress if you're interested, but not bombarding your inboxes with what can be a gloomy subject. I'll update you on how I'm doing and any significant events in my life and treatment and you can check up on me if you're curious.

I've been going to pastry school since early July and expect to graduate in mid February. I'm also working as a server at a seafood restaurant here in Sacramento called Fins. I plan on continuing doing both for as long as I can or until I decide to plan a fabulous month-long trip to Europe or some other exotic location :) I'm finally realizing what I should have appreciated the first time I beat cancer... that our lives are unpredictable and we should do the things we are passionate about today. Whether we live to 40 or to 80, life is too short to put things off until tomorrow or next week or next year. Make the most of the time that you have with your friends and family and have some adventures!

Ok, so I'm getting a little deep. Being told you have brain tumors will do that to you. I gotta say though, I've had some great conversations with people I love in the last few days and, in a weird way, that makes it all worth while!