Hi, Everybody,

Sorry I didn’t get an update out sooner, but here’s one finally. Thanks to everybody for reading and caring to hear from me.

Well, last week turned out to be a little bit of a roller coaster ride for me. Actually the past couple weeks. First, my mouth got so sore I couldn’t eat anything that wasn’t pureed. Then I got diarrhea so bad that I finally had to call the DR. They brought me in for blood tests, samples, and to give me a bag of fluids for dehydration. Blood tests showed that my white cell count was down to 1.0, which it is supposed to be at least 10, and they give you blood before your chemotherapy if it falls much below 4, I believe it is.

I woke up the next morning with fever, chills, and achiness. So, it was right back out to the hospital for more tests, more blood draws, etc. The nurse said, with most patients, the combination of all this means an automatic trip upstairs to stay for a few days in the hospital to be more closely monitored. But, she felt that we are very carefully monitoring, and have been quick to call with any changes or unusualness, that she feels she can trust us to go home, take my antibiotics and come back if anything at all worsens or changes wrongly. We both assured her that we would be extremely watchful, as we have been already, and would not hesitate to come back.

I fortunately don’t have insurance concerns, so there isn’t a money issue to keep us from going, but I feel it’s wasteful and unnecessary, when all they are going to do is check my temp every hour, give me extra fluids, and watch me lay in a bed. Well, I can certainly do that at home! I’m drinking as much extra as I can, taking my antibiotics as instructed, and trying to get enough to eat, even tho my mouth and throat are still sore, just not nearly as bad.

I’ve added a glucerna shake a day, and am looking at some other high nutrition recipes that the nutritionist and naturopath gave me, to stave up my immune system and help me overall. I’m surprised at the number of things I can’t eat, because my mouth is so tender, and then how much I can’t swallow, because I apparently have a chemo mouth sore in my throat. Instead of taking my handful of pills in one shot now, I have to divide them into 3 or 4 batches. Got one or two stuck the other day (kept drinking to force them down and could feel the water bubbling up and around them!!!) So, now I only take a few at a time, just to be more cautious.

I’ve been reading more this past week. Spending time at the computer doing things has just gotten more than I can sit up and do. I did finally get the last touches on my website, which took me such a long time to do, since I could only work a little at a time on. It should have only been a couple hour job, but I think took me nearly two weeks. I hope you will enjoy it, I’d like to do a few other things, but it’s up for now.

I have all my updates from early April, some may not have made into emails, some of them were only on my book swapping website where I keep a lot of people informed on how I’m doing by posting updates, and some may not have made it onto the posts and were only in the emails. So, whichever way you get updates from me, you might want to glance thru the past posts and see if there’s anything you missed.

I’ve also got some other fun stuff on here, specifically, me trying on different wigs with friends, our oldest son, Todd, starring in a video of him shaving his head, and of course links to my children’s sites if they have them, and links to my granddaughter’s pics.

I did have a very good weekend. We started on Friday night going to a banquet that we are invited to because our 2nd son, Eric, takes pictures of all the members of the 4-H Beef club during the County fair when the kids show off their beef. Then at the banquet, we set up a slide show so that everybody can see all the pics he took during their competitions, and we always have a few orders that came in last minute and have to be delivered at the banquet, and a few people that didn’t order pics during the fair, so we have two computers set up for them to find their kids pics and order them to be mailed or picked up at the studio.

The best part about this, is that it the main meat served is my favorite food in the whole world. If you are local, you will recognize “Nelson’s Golden Glo Port-A-Pit” chicken. I just don’t think there is anything comparable to it. I totally love it! Of course, I love chicken fixed most any way, except dry but this is my fav. And we can eat all we want. Unfortunately for me this year, my mouth was still a little sore, so I couldn’t eat more than was healthy for me! Hahhaahaha

Then Saturday morning we took a trip to a little town about 20 min away to a gal that does a lot of coupon shopping and always has a house that looks like a drug store exploded in it! We went with our son Eric & his wife & mother-in-law. We got shampoos, and other bathroom items, she specially bought some sugar-free candy for me (she was buying the candies anyway, but made a point to get some of them sugar-free, since she knew I was coming). Baby lotions and other things. And some sugar-free drink mixes for me. All the stuff was much cheaper than store prices and we had a nice time looking thru the stuff.

We stopped at a couple yard sales on the way back, along with a couple fruit & veggie stands, and then later went to their house for supper. A very good day for everybody!

Today, I don’t think I’ve done a single thing of any importance, and Marcus has taken several naps since coming home from church. I had thought I would go this morning, but since my white count was so low still on Wednesday, I figured it would probably not be a good idea. Marcus brought home hugs and hellos from several people along with many prayers.

I sure hope they are right that after tomorrow’s treatment, the next batch will not be nearly as bad. I get tired of hardly getting to go any place. The only reason I felt I could go to the banquet, is that we are set off by ourselves, and nobody would be getting very close to me, since Marcus, Eric, & Ana took care of all the ordering and such.

I got three surprise packages in the mail this week! It was really nice since I was feeling bad half the time, and not having a very good week, they sure brightened it up for me! First a friend & his wife ordered me a bracelet. It is a copper band with some beautiful abalone and a center filigree design work with a butterfly. Just beautiful!

Then a friend from our book swapping site, sent me a box just full of goodies! A book from my WL, a hat her daughter knitted (which is actually nice already. I sit near the air-conditioned, which is fine for most of me, but my bald head gets a little chilly, and the cap is just great! I have scarves, but they are always enough! Hahahaha), she included some nice inspirational books, even one just for men for Marcus. Some book marks, and a great selection of Celtic music, which we had talked about in one of the topics. It is so beautiful! My Scottish daughter-in-law will be a little jealous, so I might have to share with her

And then I got another book pkg, which confused me when Marcus said who it was from, because I recognized the name, and knew I did not have a book coming from her. He opened it for me, and it was another book from my WL that was obviously brand new and bought just for me. I just felt all kinds of special this week! I really appreciated the thoughtfulness of people it sure makes me feel like such a special child of God’s to have him send me friends just when I need a little extra care. God is sooooo good!

Well, I guess that’s about all the news I can think of to tell you. Be sure to check out my website, and sign my guest book so I’ll know you stopped by! As always, I appreciate the prayers and emails from all of you. Please pray that the mouth sores don’t get so bad this week, and that my white count stays up at least enough to keep me from getting sick. Please pray that the tiredness will not be so bad. This last time was really good most days, but the first couple treatments made me so totally exhausted most days.

Until next time, I’ll be here, reading a book, surfing the Internet, and waiting until I can go a few places and do a few things. If you are local, and haven’t been around anyone sick (or aren’t sick yourself) I’m usually up for visitors, it’s not any more tiring to talk with people than to just sit and read a book or play/work on the Internet

Oh, and if anyone wants to send me an inexpensive get well/birthday gift (the 10th Walmart (and I’m sure other places) has these delicious sugar-free turtle candies, by Russell-Stover, I think, but maybe others make them too. Anyway, just a little thought I’d pass along It’s not too terribly impolite for me to make a suggestion is it? Ah, well, we can blame my lack of manners on the chemo if it is

Bless you all, and may you each have a wonderful week!

Sherry

Well, I got my blast of radiation on Thursday. So far, nothing too much out of the ordinary going on. I read somewhere that it is often a week or two before you have any side effects, so I’m not counting them out just yet.

I got an unexpected phone call on Tuesday from my dentist. I’d been in on Friday to have panoramic X-rays to make sure there are no openings in any of the teeth or gums that might cause problems with the one medication that is supposed to advance the growth of my bones so the cells that are being eaten by the cancer can be replaced as the cancer cells die. It seems if the gums and jaw bone are not all intact and well, this wonderful medicine can become extremely dangerous and actually kill the jawbone. Not a pretty thought! So, off to my favorite dentist to get checked out. He said, of course, that I was in desperate need of a good cleaning, but other than that, I looked ok.

Well, then he talked to the nurse at the cancer center, and since he couldn’t completely say that I don’t have any gum disease because the build up was really heavy, they decided I really should have my cleaning done right away so that it is nice and healed by the time I get my next dose of the medicine. So, I ended up at the dentist for a lengthy 1.5 hours getting my teeth cleaned Tuesday.

Then, I went in on Thursday to the hospital and had my radiation. They nudged and tugged and pushed and pulled until they got me in the exact line up that the wanted with the little red lines running exactly where they wanted them. They radiated the spinal area and the right femur, but not the pelvis areas. I’m not sure I agree with the DRs logic, but we will do it his way first.

He says that because the areas on the pelvis are much smaller, they will likely be taken care of by the chemo already in my system and the medications that I will be taking. That the risk to the bones is greater when it’s that small of areas, than waiting to see if the medications will take care of them. If they aren’t getting better in a couple months, then we will see about attacking them with the more aggressive radiation treatments. Like I said, we’ll try it his way first. And then we will re-discuss it if they aren’t better soon.

I’m not feeling too bad, I’m working with the DRs on getting my meds to try and get all the different pains under control, since in order to participate in the one drug study, my overall pain level has to be at a constant 3 (on a 1-10 scale). I think the research nurse is dreaming, as I just don’t think I will qualify for this study. The arthritis in my knee for starters, rarely gets down to 3, but we are working on it. I’m back on Celebrex in hopes of getting it under control, but that and this pain in my back just don’t want to give up and cooperate.

Well, I’m off to work on a photo album for my granddaughter & daughter, from birth to 6 months. Just got the 6 mo shots last week (a little late, as she was actually 6 mo on the first, but they were close I missed a whole set of shots, so I have to go back and work them in, and then I told her she needs to add the text if she wants it! Hahahahaha Walmart has a really nice photo album of 20 pgs and you can put up to 4 pics per page, so we can get a lot in there. I’m buying one for her since it’s less than $10, it’s a nice present. It’ll be an early birthday present for Karen, since her birthday is this month.

Hope everybody has a good holiday weekend.  Enjoy yourselves and find some time to relax. I’m hoping to.

Take care! Sherry

Well, this update is kind of hard to start, because I’m not sure how far back to go during these last two weeks to make sure you have enough information, yet, I don’t really want to end up with an entire book chapter! Tho, I’m sure you’ve noticed that that doesn’t always bother me. Hahaha

I told you about going back in after the CT Scan because the radiologist saw something, for a bone scan. I also mentioned seeing a lot of inspirational and motivational posters, paintings, and such. Well, guess God was giving me little hints to get my self-motivation and personal strength in tack, because I was going to need them.

Because, unfortunately, what I had hoped was just some arthritis, turns out to be cancer. The breast cancer has metastasized onto my bones in several spots. It’s spotty along 6-7 vertebrae about the middle of the back, some down towards the bottom, 2-3 spots on the left side of my pelvis, a couple on the right side, and a fairly good-sized spot on my right thigh bone.

Now, don’t jump to the first conclusion, I do NOT have bone cancer. This is still breast cancer, it has just found new homes. And we plan to send in some eviction notices really soon.

I’ve already started two new treatments, since this requires and entire different strategy. I will not have to take anymore chemo (YAY!!!) But I will have a once a month infusion (bag of goodies, given intravenously) (Zometa) that is supposed to help strengthen my bones and help them repair themselves from where the cancer has attached to them. Then I will be taking a couple kinds of pills, the first one is prescribed to all women after breast cancer for 5 years (Aromasin, some may take an alternate but similar drug, there are several) this is to continue to fight any breast cancer cells that may decide to start growing.

I will be also be taking a type of radioactive pill (Samarium SM - 153) to fight the cancer cells and help with the pain from the cancer in the bones. And, of course, I’ll get a nice dose of radiation. I was quite suprised at this. Only one blast. Not weeks of everyday, just one shot. And as long as all goes as typical, usual, and expected, it will be the only radiation I receive.

If I understand the proceedures and plans right, we should see some major results in 4-6 weeks after the radiation. Of course, as with anything, there’s side-effects, the most thrilling one of all to me is probably a sore throat. Like I haven’t had enough of that one! But, that’s ok, there’s a whole shebang of others that I’ll pass on, if given the choice

A lot of fatigue and bone aches are in the upcoming weeks as the meds clear the bones of the cancer cells, but they were pretty quick to volunteer to prescribe me meds to keep it under control. I was surprised at their uninhibited offers, since my sister has been given practically nothing. I believe they told her to use Aleve. Glad I’m here not there! Altho, if I’d been there, they would have already found that it had spread to the bones, since she had a bone scan before she started her chemo. I wouldn’t have had to have any chemo if they’d done one on me first.

But, you can’t just go running a bunch of “maybe this will show something” tests, and I realize that. I don’t think the couple months has made any significant difference in the advancement of the cancer, altho it sure would have been nice to skip the chemo Ah, but yet again, I’ll consider it just an extra precaution that wasn’t that harmful for me and probably killed a few cancer cells still running around in the lymphatic system looking for a home.

I was kind of glad to hear my Medical Oncologist make one statement, since it really had been on my mind from day one. But, no one had ever addressed it, and I wasn’t really sure I wanted to. He said “When the breast cancer is as advanced as yours was, and with so much lymph node activity, we knew there was going to be more show up, we just didn’t know where. Now we know, and now we can treat it directly instead of generally with the chemo and hope we catch it before it gets out of control.” It had always bothered me that no one had ever really talked about it recurring elsewhere, since I knew it was fairly common when it reached stage 3 as mine had.

So, it was really comforting to know that this was really is good news. On the surface it doesn’t sound good at all, but really, we have taken some big steps forward in my treatment and prognosis, and it’s more of a “left turn” instead of going backwards. Kind of staying on the same level for the future evaluations, still having the same expectations of a complete recovery, just kind of an unexpected yank on the steering wheel to a different road.

One that I think will be a good one. Probably have some bumps still, but we’ve dealt with a few already, and I can surely take some more. From all accounts by other patients’ stories I’ve read and heard about, I think I’ve escaped some really bad bumps that could have been in the past couple months, so I’ll go ahead and graciously accept some more. Seems fair to me.

I hope I haven’t bored you to pieces with all the details, and maybe you just skimmed over some of them. But, that’s ok, I know you love me anyway. After all, you are still reading

May God find each one of you as special as He has made me feel. May you realize that the health, financial, emotional, whatever battles that you are fighting, are not just about the face value issue. God is fighting satan for your soul. The devil wants to discourage you, to make you lose faith, to give up. But, watch for His hand in your battle. Like the posters I saw the other day, coincidences don’t just happen, God knew I was going to need some good thoughts to get me thru the next week, and He planted them in all kinds of places.

I’m special. Somehow, for some reason. I don’t know what makes me special, but so many of you have expressed your care and concern for me. Me, just little? old, nobody me. You’ve followed with me weekly, encouraged me, prayed for me, thought about me, sent me messages, cards and presents. And why? What makes me so special that you care so much for me? I don’t know, but I feel very privileged to be able to call so many of you my friend and to know that at a minute’s notice, if I needed to talk you would stop what you were doing and stay right there on that phone! That’s really an awesome feeling to know that God and so many people have their ears & eyes tuned in on me, to make sure I make it thru this, and don’t have to do it alone. I hope you all can come close to understanding how much it means to me to have so much love and support. I just hope I get the opportunity to “pay it forward” and help others along their way.

God’s Blessings to each of you, and my gratitude and love,

Sherry

Btw, for those that might have missed it, we have a new grandson, Joseph Anthony! He was born Friday, August 15, 2008 at 2:30 AM via c-section. Much as Ana wanted, and hard as she tried, the baby would not move into the birth canal, and finally the DR told Ana that there was no choice any longer, that they had to do the c-section, and soon after, we had a healthy baby grandson! Isn’t he gorgeous! What a beautiful gift from God.

Here’s the website with new pics of him and everybody else :)http://anayeric.nedesign.biz/delivery2/index.htm

I don’t have anything special to tell you about my treatments or my health today. I’m feeling fairly well, my mouth is a little tender, but not serious, and I think the rest of the day will be good for it, so that’s a good thing. I’m just sitting here thinking how wonderful it is to have it be my birthday and feel so peaceful and contended.

I feel like life is looking positive, even tho the DRs like to poke and prod and find things to look at, and little issues keep cropping up to annoy me. I have the majority of my health, my family is always here to support me, talked to my kids today and got birthday wishes. My extended family has been wonderful, my brother bought me some “do rags” (your hubby’s will know what those are quicker than we do) plus a gift certificate. My Dad stopped by with his girlfriend & gave me $20 so I can buy a software subscription I’ve been wanting. One of my kids is either going to bring supper after church, or we are going out, we’ll decide later.

Some friends brought us lots of fresh veggies this week. We’ve been dining on fresh tomatoes (thankfully the mouth is staying under control!), cucumbers, green peppers, and sweet corn! Oh, what a heavenly diet.

I don’t hurt today, I’m fairly comfortable, I’ve got a great book, and nothing pressing me for time. Now what can be wrong with a life like that? I’m going to see if this mornings services is online yet, otherwise, I’ll listen to last weeks, and read some scripture. Got a nic devotional book here I like.

I have a friend that has had a lot of health issues and she called me yesterday, and was very encouraged that the DRs actually are seeing some elevations in certain enzymes and organ abnormalities, that may lead to some answers for her discomfort. I feel very lucky in knowing exactly what is wrong with me, tho we still have a couple questions coming up, but for the most part, we know what’s up and directly attack and treat me. She has had so many problems that seem to be underlying and hiding from the DRs so they can’t make a direct attack. It’s horrible to have DRs tell you that your pain is all mental, I’ve been there, done that, and it’s no fun. I thought most DRs were done with that type of attitude this day and age. I was very encouraged when she called yesterday with information that she had some positive test results. Please pray that the DRs will be able to pin-point something that is causing her so much trouble and that they can find a way to help her.

As for me. Simply pray that my mouth continues to stay as close to normal as it can. It is some tender, but not really bad. A lady in the chemo infusion room gave me a remedy, which seems to be helping, or it’s a great coincidence if it’s not, and I just pray it keeps on helping. I’m enjoying the tomatoes soooo very much!

I just felt like sending out a letter of glad tidings and joy, since that’s just how I feel today! Minor discomforts can always be dealt with, and when the overall feeling of health is good and pleasant and peaceful, we should take a moment to say “Thank You, Lord, I appreciate the good day!” and that’s what I’m doing now

Blessings to each one of you, and may you share a bit of my peace and joy today, and relax and have a wonderful birthday for me! Sherry

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