4/29/16

The results of the scope showed that there's no reason she's not keeping food down and processing it. Jan's doctors can only guess that after her first round of chemo that maybe because she didn't get enough food, her organs stopped doing their job? It's all a giant question mark right now.
They're going to keep trying to feed her and get her better so she can go home but right now they're going to keep her.
Thank you for your prayers.

4/28/16 - No visitors

While we hoped Jan would be able to go home today, no such luck.
Because there aren't any changes they've scheduled a colonoscopy for the morning to see if that gives any information as to why things aren't happening.
For that reason she really doesn't want visitors tonight and tomorrow.

Thanks again for your continued love and support!

4/27/16

Yesterday they took a CT of Jan to see why she couldn't keep anything down and why her body wasn't functioning properly.  They were suspecting some kind of obstruction in her intestines. They said this wasn't the chemo making her sick.

The CT results showed...nothing. While yes, she still has tumors in her intestines, nothing is preventing her body from keeping food down and processing it so today they're going to remove the NG tube which was feeding her, and they're going to feed her real food, give her some meds to help and see what happens.

They are going to keep her one more night for observation and hopefully send her home tomorrow. 

While the CT results showed nothing making her sick, the tumors haven't grown or multiplied and with how fast the cancer is, it was a relief to hear. Jan asked if the chemo had shrunk them at all, and they told her that unfortunately, it doesn't work that fast. It'll be at least 6-8 rounds.

And her hair had been holding on until this morning. She says it doesn't look bad but she's lost enough that she's going to cut off the rest and wear a wig she picked out. 

They've given her morphine so she can rest so, sorry, no visitors. She really needs to sleep.

Again we want to thank everyone for their continued support.

4/26/16 - Cancer sucks

While Jan sailed through chemo in the hospital and the first week after, it turns out her second week is not only a doozy, but a monster.
The anti nausea medication they sent her home with, unfortunately hasn't been doing much and Jan hasn't been able to keep anything down.
With where her tumors are she still has a lot of pain and the only medication that touches it, are the loopy pills and the novelty of her funny sayings has worn off. We'd like to thank the person who made sure to see her home safe when she got times confused and went to work one night. Her keys have been hidden.
Her sister Jill took her to Utah cancer centers this morning to see if they could give her any help with nausea and see if they could give her an IV for dehydration and they decided to admit her to the hospital to monitor her again.
We are asking to keep her in your thoughts and prayers.
We will keep the blog updated as we find out more and ask that calls and messages be kept to a minimum as we need to keep our phone lines open.
Thank you - The Norton Family

April 21, 2016 - No visitors - sorry

Today is day 10, and just like she was told, day 10 is the worst.  Luckily its not too awful.  But in case anyone was planning on visiting today, it's not a good day.

Jan is feeling some nausea and pain but she has some great medications they sent her home with and she's been resting.

So far yesterday all she was feeling was some fatigue and she's been sailing through so far.  She still has her hair and no signs of fallout yet, but they also said day 10 is when that begins as well.

We'll keep you updated but again, today is not a good day for visits.

April 19, 2016 - Jan's Birthday!

For Jan's birthday they made some exceptions and let her go home last night so Jan got to spend the night in her own bed and without constant interruptions!  They would typically make her stay another day if her treatment went past 7 pm but since it was her birthday, and she's become the nurses' favorite, they let her go.

Jan got some clarification on the medications they had her on and it turns out she is superwoman!  They were giving her some nausea medication for the hardest chemo going into her system but they assured her that she should be much more sick than she was and that she was doing better than anyone on the oncology floor.  So go Jan!

She has some exhaustion still and due to the fact that her immune system is at risk, we are discouraging visits right now while her body is adjusting to things.  Even if you're healthy - we ask that you keep your distance.  While she has been cleared by her doctor to go to a lunch today, she has to wear her mask and she cannot hug ANYONE because her immune system is so weak.

So please keep your well wishes and warm greetings to just waves and signs of solidarity?

Jessa and Emery are here for Jan this week so she has a housekeeper, chauffeur, cook, and a snuggly cuddler approved by her doctor to see that she's taken care of.

She had an early booster shot to help her immune system this morning, but the rest of the day will be spend with family and treating herself to whatever birthday fun her body will allow.

Thanks again to everyone for the love, support and prayers - we can definitely see their help in her fight!

April 17, 2016

Today Jan really began to feel the exhaustion associated with the chemo.
Originally she blamed the exhaustion in being woken up periodically through the night but after trying to get ready this morning she was wiped out.
Given how tired she is, anyone who wants to visit, please try to keep that in mind.

She said she has felt lucky since she hasn't felt nausea or sickness yet and was patting herself on the back on her toughness, but learned that they've been giving her great anti nausea and pain medication his whole time. She's a little disappointed she's not superwoman after all.

The nurses told her that she'll feel the worst and start losing hair about 10 days after starting chemo which she's anticipating being this next Thursday.

She says:
I've had some fun visits over the past 2 days.  Thanks Rebecca Turpin, LeAnn Bird, Karen Erickson, Matt and Belinda, and my in- laws for coming over and spoiling me. Thank you Sandy Crockett and Keller Williams for the amazing goodie bag- I love it!  And I just got the most beautiful flowers - thanks Kristi McDonald!  I feel loved and supported.

I am missing going to work, and my co workers.  I'd like to get back to my normal routine, sleep in my own bed and putter around my own house, but still have to stay here for a couple more days. I want to talk to Gordon about a laptop I can get so I can work a little from the hospital next time. I want to meet the new agents who have joined while I've been gone. I am whining- sorry. 


Once again we'd like to thank everyone for their continued prayers and support!

Thurs April 14, 2016 - "My Pink Chemo"

From Jan:

Greetings from IMC.  I was admitted bright and early this morning, and was taken down for my first chemo procedure, which was to remove some spinal fluid and replace it with chemo. It's a preventive procedure so that the cancer can't grow there. It hurt, not going to lie.  Oh, and the guy who did this procedure was the same guy who installed my port Monday. His name is Joe and I figure since he's now seen my bare bum and my right ta-ta, we should be on a first name basis.
Then around 1 pm they hooked me up to the big nasty chemotherapy cocktail, which is a pretty pink color- so that's somewhat deceiving.  Pink things should be sweet, smell good and make my hair shine or something, right?  It will drip continually for 4 days.
There are anti nausea drugs and other things mixed in there and I am somewhat disappointed that they can't add an anti aging serum or something equally positive to the mix so I'd be getting a bonus to set off the eventual hair loss.

I feel well, no pain or nausea. I've actually been bored to death and glad for the visits from Kaitlyn, my mother-in-law, my sister Jill and by Bishop Sheneman.  I've been on my best behavior to win the nurses over to my side and convince them to limit the number of times they wake me up all night to get my vital signs. I think I have Paulo, the night assistant, on my side.

I'm off my liquid only diet and got real food for dinner (if you can call hospital food "food"). If you love me feel free to sneak me in something good that's lactose free.

If I understand the plan, I'll be released late Monday. I'll have 3 days I have to stay home after that because my body will still be expelling the chemo. They tell me I'll probably feel nauseated and extremely tired those days. My daughter Jessa will be flying up for those days. My doctor will tell me if I can come back to work on Friday if my blood counts and tests are good, so fingers crossed.

Thanks for your kind thoughts and prayers.  I feel very loved and supported. Keep positive thoughts and energy for me. I'm going to beat this, I promise.

All my love-Jan

April 13, 2014

Today the results confirmed that Jan's cancer is Double Hit/ Double Aggressive.

So what this means is that she will check into the hospital tomorrow morning at 8 am.  She will have 5 days of continual infusion of chemo and she should feel good while while she is receiving it.  After that she will get released probably Monday.  First  they will give her a treatment which will give chemo - something called Methotrexate, directly to her spine via tube to treat any lymphoma in her spine.  After her treatment in the hospital, she'll be sent into Utah Cancer Centers to receive a booster shot for her white blood cells.

On her 2nd, 3rd and 4th days in the hospital she was told she would get bored, so visitors will be welcome with a phone call ahead of time.  Also - one of the medications they may be giving her for nausea and anxiety makes her pretty...loopy.  If you call and she's not making sense (discussing pirate fairies going after her cancer cells and becoming a potato bug that allows her to roll down stairs) please know she's on the famous drugs and it might not be a good time to visit.  (This has been a good source of laughter for our family)

This Sunday, Jan's ward will be having a fast for her and we welcome everyone and anyone to fast for her that day as well.

Also Jan would like to let everyone know that one of the medications she's on gives her really shaky hands and she apologizes but texting is extremely difficult and she's sent some illegible texts for which she's sorry.

She wanted to let everyone know that she has every plan to beat this!

Again we thank everyone for their prayers and well wishes.

Today April 12, 2016

Yesterday, Jan had her port surgery (surgically installed for easier access to chemo) and another PET scan.

This morning she went in for her first day of chemo, she met with her oncologist who, after yesterday's PET scan determined that there are also tumors in her liver and also the area surrounding her heart.

Overall chemo went well, she did have a reaction to the chemo, which they said was normal, and tonight she is doing okay.

Tomorrow we will find out if her cancer is, in fact, Double Hit or Double Aggressive.  If it is, then she will have to start an aggressive round of chemo where she will have to be admitted to the hospital on Thursday for 5 days so they can keep a close eye on her.  If it is not, she will have another round of the same chemo she had today on Thursday at the cancer center.  We are still hoping it is not double hit, but due to the amount of pain she was in over the weekend, her doctors believe it is.

We appreciate all the calls and support pouring in, but ask again that Jan gets her rest while she awaits her next round of chemo and please keep your well wishes to Facebook, Email and Text.  Also please understand that she may not be able to get back to you since her body has been through a lot today and needs rest.

THE BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

In October 2012, Jan was diagnosed with it Non Hodgkins lymphoma, her prognosis was great, because the cancer was very slow growing, she was told that while her type of Non Hodgkins Lymphoma was incurable, she could live potentially with it, for a very long time.

At the time of Scott's passing (Sept 2014), Jan had a scan again for cancer since she was having pain, and at that time, nothing had changed, everything was the same and there were no new tumors.

Over this last month Jan had some stomach pain, and believed it to be an ulcer.  After visiting the doctor, they performed an endoscopy and found nothing so they suggested it was probably her gall bladder. She had a bi-annual visit to her oncologist, which showed nothing out of the ordinary when they checked her previous tumors.

Thursday the 31st, she took herself to the emergency room with intense stomach pain and after a few scans, it became apparent that there were tumors all through her abdomen, her intestines and most likely her lungs.

At her next appointment with her oncologist, she was told that her cancer had changed and it was now Large B Cell Aggressive Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and was told it was probably something called "Double Aggressive" or "Double Hit" referring to how quickly it was growing.  "Double Aggressive" or "Double Hit" will require much more aggressive treatment.

The silver lining of all of this news is that this type of cancer *can* be cured, as apposed to her original diagnosis which didn't have a cure.  If her cancer is double aggressive or double hit, her chances of a cure are reduced but there is still a chance.

Jan will have a big fight ahead of her and prayers are appreciated at this time.

While we understand and appreciate all of the calls of concern and well wishes, at this time the volume of those calls are a little overwhelming.  We are going to update this blog as soon as we have information to give so please know that if this blog has no updates, there are no new updates and please keep your calls to Jan to just emails or texts of well wishes.

Please note that with her aggressive treatment she may not be feeling well enough to answer emails and text messages but definitely feels the love that is pouring in.