Monday, August 9, 2010

Good evening.

David had his oncology appointment in Reno today. He is doing good. Connie said he has better color than she has ever seen him have. Yes, his color is better; he is still a bit pale, but not as 'gray' (her words) as he used to be~~yay! That is good. He will have scans in October, then we will graduate to scans every four months instead of every three. She ordered blood work done on him, we are still concerned with his appetite. He has lost a few more pounds, and we just don't like that. He is rarely hungry, and when he is nothing sounds good. He has pretty much no appetite, and is down to barely 130 pounds. His high was 137. So, we will have to go to LabCorp and gets his labs drawn, and go from there. We still have the Megace, so we will use it if we have to. Overall, it was a good appointment. Emilee was a perfect angel! She got a little concerned and clingy when Connie started actually examining David~~I was holding her and telling her that it was ok, this was David's appointment, and nothing was going to happen to her. Then when Connie just sat down to chat with us, Emilee wanted David to pick her up, so he did. Then she was playing with the paper on the exam table, and she was happy. Silly baby girl! So it was a long, but good, day. We are still keeping a close eye on David, and other than his appetite and weight loss, he is doing good. Please pray that his appetite picks up. I know I have been asking for that for a very long time, but we would rather him want to eat on his own, not because he is taking a medicine to make him want to eat! Thank you for your continued prayers.

Lucy is 16 weeks along today! I am so excited for this baby. I think I may be more excited than they are~~~~ok, maybe that isn't quite true :) But we are really excited!! Please continue to pray for the health of that baby.

Thanks for visiting and checking up on David and the Koury Klan. Have a good evening. God bless you all. We love you.

Kristi and the Koury Klan

The growing population of childhood survivors is notable for its vulnerability to adverse health outcomes, many of which may not become clinically apparent until years after the completion of therapy.
Despite surviving their initial cancer, childhood cancer survivors continue to face considerable premature mortality as adults. The excess risk of dying from other causes that contributes most to loss of life expectancy is the increased incidence of chronic conditions among survivors of childhood cancer. We need to monitor the health of these survivors and to minimize the use of therapies with late toxicities in newly diagnosed patients.
Survivors also experience a higher prevalence of chronic conditions, with as many as two thirds of childhood cancer survivors reporting at least one chronic condition and one fourth reporting a severe, disabling, or life-threatening condition. Survivors of childhood cancer are 5 to 10 times more likely than their healthy siblings to experience heart disease. The incidence of these conditions increases with time, so the full extent of disease- and treatment-related late effects has yet to be realized. Survivors of childhood cancer are a new, large, emerging population at risk for acquired premature symptomatic cardiovascular disease.