The Biggest Trooper!

Hi everyone! It’s hard to believe it’s already been 2 weeks since Frankie’s last treatment. Frankie continues to impress all of us close to her during her fight against cancer. She hasn’t stopped showing up for her family, her co-workers, and her friends while she is still learning to navigate her new normal. 

I was lucky enough to join Frankie during this last trip to Houston (6/26-6/28), and my apologies for not getting this update out sooner! 

It was a few very busy days. We left Austin Wednesday morning and went straight to the hotel that Frankie has established as her home away from home. It became clear within minutes of our arrival as to why she likes this place so much. As Frankie got out of the car, one of the bellhops turned to her and said, "Welcome back. It's good to see you again!"And the staff continued to be so welcoming and accommodating during our time there. After we checked in, we walked over to MDA for her PET scan, so Frankie’s oncologist, Dr. Nair, could see how she was reacting to the treatment. After the PET scan, we rested for the rest of the day, knowing that Thursday was going to be a long one! On Thursday, we woke up at 6:30am to get to MDA for Frankie’s lab work appointment. After her lab work, we had a big breakfast to ensure Frank had enough fuel for the day. She definitely lived up to her old name “Frank the Tank” :) After breakfast, we made it back to MDA in preparation for her appointment with Dr. Nair. Frank has quickly become an expert at navigating the MDA maze! During her appointment, we talked to one of the PAs, the social worker, the nurse, and then met with Dr. Nair and a med student. We were all very eager to hear the PET scan results, and there had been a lot of anxiety, understandably so, leading up to this appointment. But then we got the best news we could have received at this time! Frankie is having an “excellent response to the treatment - a complete metabolic response”!!!!! The mass in her chest had shrunk from 10.3cm to 6.9cm! Knowing that Frankie was going into an 8-hr infusion after this appointment, this was exactly the news she (and we) needed to hear. Everything she’s been going through - all of the pain, the treatment side effects, and the emotional rollercoaster - has not been in vain, and she is slowly but surely beating this disease! Dr. Nair gave her a big hug and congratulated her. I was so glad I could be there with her to hear this news and see her reaction. 

We made our way over to another building for her infusion and waited in the waiting room for her room to be ready. It was a busy day at the infusion center, and we didn’t get into a room until 12pm. Her infusion was “scheduled” to be 8 hours, but Frankie now knows that’s more likely to be closer to 10 hours. The infusion nurse, John, was awesome, and he kept us entertained all afternoon and night. This round was her first round of immunotherapy and chemo combined. This upcoming week she will have the same infusion combo, and then in August she will have another PET scan to determine the makeup of the remaining infusions. 

Frank was working her way through the bags until we got to the Rituximab. This drug can cause bad side effects and has to be monitored very closely. They start the drip slow to see how the body reacts before they titrate up. Unfortunately, Frankie had a very low blood pressure, and they couldn’t speed up the drip. It looked like her infusion might not be over before they closed at 11pm and that we might need to return in the morning to finish her bags. As soon as John told her this, her blood pressure spiked! He said, “If I had known I only had to threaten another day for you to get your BP up, I would have said that hours ago!” We appreciated the comedic relief :) A big thanks to all of the friends and family who have donated gift cards, we enjoyed two great Houston meals via UberEats and DoorDash ♥️ and to celebrate the good news she had received, we got our girl her favorite thing, a milkshake! Around 9pm, we realized we were the last patients and family in the treatment center. We watched the presidential debate and then Bad Teacher (a nice reprieve following the debate 🤪), and then Frankie finished her last bag at 10:30pm! Woohoo 🎉 she was done! And we were so so grateful for the team who had been caring for her throughout the day. 

We packed up her our stuff, thanked the staff, and as we walked past the carpet cleaner, we knew we were definitely the last patients in the building. But Frankie was such a trooper! It was a 16+ hour day of getting poked and prodded and schlepping around the MDA campus in the Houston summer heat, and she never complained. She even had the audacity to say, “I don’t know why I’m so tired” 🤪. 

Frankie had been experiencing some chest pain between the 3rd and 4th treatment, so Dr. Nair ordered an EKG just to make sure it wasn’t heart related. Before we hit the road on Friday morning, we made our way back to MDA for the EKG, and luckily, we were in and out quickly! We are so grateful for her care team and all MDA staff we have interacted with during her treatments so far. We truly feel she is in great hands.  

Even with the good news, this doesn’t negate the challenges that she still continues to experience everyday. She doesn’t get to escape this reality, and it can be lonely, hard, and overwhelming. We absolutely want to celebrate this good news, but I’m also keenly aware that she still has a long road ahead to health and a different “normal”. So, please keep sending your love and well wishes her way! We love you, Frank!!!