Hello friends! It has been nearly a month since our last post! A lot of our Northern readers have gotten a chance to see Gwen recently, but perhaps some of our Southern friends are feeling out of the loop!
A while back, I was thinking, “Hey, it’s summertime…Gwen and I will be at the lake together…I will be so much more well informed and capable of updating the public…and I will be able to have so many more pictures! Lots and lots of them!” Yeah, so that hasn’t really happened. We are here together at the lake. I can inform you of that. Any pictures shown are from other people.
Gwen has been training for the November 5K. If you haven’t seen it on her Facebook page, you can get more info here: Lunge Forward 5K
She is up to about 1.3 miles! She is also training for our Lake George NanoMan, but I have yet to see her train for the swim…this doesn’t count:
The Orilios were able to travel to our hometown (Cazenovia) to attend our cousin’s high school graduation. They grow up so fast.
Justin, Gwen, and Callie went down to Utica this past weekend so Justin could run in the Boilermaker road race. A whole slew of folks wore Orilio sweat bands on their wrists in support of Gwen.
And Justin and his brother were featured because they are so amazing on the Boilermaker Facebook page and also seen in a commercial for the race.
And then came Monday. Maybe it was because it was a Monday or maybe it was because it was the 13th… But Gwen awoke early in the morning not feeling well. She finally got out of bed around 3:40 a.m. (I know this was the time because this was when Lachlen also decided he was done sleeping for the night – perhaps as a sign of solidarity).
Gwen was having a lot of pain traveling from the top of her stomach to her throat and some nausea. Several hours later, she was in more pain and was starting to get sick, so Justin took her to the nearest medical center as soon as it opened. They gave her a shot for the nausea and some meds for heartburn and sent her on her way. Gwen had a call in to Dr. G. in Raleigh and was feeling worse instead of better.
Dr. G. sent her to the ER as a precaution. She wanted scans and blood work done. The result was esophagitis. The ER doctor would not speculate the cause.
Not to worry, friends. I have researched and discussed with the family and we are here to do the speculatin’ for all y’all with the caveat that we are not doctors!
There are many types of esophagitis. We think the type Gwen has is:
DRUG INDUCED ESOPHAGITIS
This can happen if certain medications remain in contact with the lining of the esophagus for an extended period of time thus causing an inflammation of the esophagus. So either the medicine got stuck, or some came back up into the esophagus from her stomach. So, about 16 hours and some morphine later, she was on her way to feeling better!
We just hope Callie looks this happy when she finds out Momma and Dadda are going to be gone for the next several days on a much needed trip!
gwenfightscancer 
I am glad Gwen and Justin will get some time for a “break”. Praying that Gwen continues to feel pretty good–mostly! Have a great rest of the summer.
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Hello! I’m a fellow ROS1er and many of us have dealt with esophagitis from the Xalkori not going all the way down. I always have a few bites of food after taking the pill and it seems to help. We have a ROS1 facebook group, and I sent Gwen a FB friend request so she can join. I hope all is well! Tori Tomalia, http://lil-lytnin.blogspot.com/
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It is very common for xalkori to cause esophagitis. She shouldn’t lay down for an hour after taking it and be sure to drink lots of water. I had this happen once (after taking it right before bed) and it burned for 3 days. I’ll never do that again.
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