Gotta Keep Things In Perspective
I liked this farm. The man with the walker has lived there all his life---except for four years when he was away. Owen LOVED the cows...he really didn't want to leave. Leo thought it smelled worse than dirty underwear.
Here's a Gina update on Judi:
Hello to all,
Most of you are aware by now that Judi's cancer has
returned. This was such devastating news, and the last two weeks have been
very difficult on numerous fronts. There are no further surgical options,
and chemo is the only method available to help stave off this insidious
disease. Her oncologist has tried to put together the best chemo treatment
available at this time including the use of one type that does not yet have FDA
approval. Her regimen for chemo is much like the last rounds--four days of
chemo one week followed by two weeks off.
Since learning the cancer has returned, I would
like to say her life has been like a roller coaster with a few dips and some
strong gains. If I'm truthful, it has been much more in sync with the
stock market--a huge downward slide. I'll try to explain for those of you
not in close contact. Judi is a fighter, so when chemo was offered, she
quickly accepted. She was told that the chemo treatment this time would be
a piece of cake compared to the earlier rounds. She was already not
feeling well before the chemo was begun, so the idea that it would be easier was
comforting--until the Monday night of her first treatment. It made her
ill. Tuesday was a repeat. Wednesday was a little better.
Thursday was the experimental chemo and wasn't too bad immediately. During
the weekend, however, she developed mouth sores as a side effect, and it hurt to
eat. She was already wiped out and definitely needs to eat, so this was a
problem not to mention the continuing nausea. When we went back to the
oncologist on Tuesday, he was surprised to learn of the mouth sores so early in
the treatment, so he put her on a prescription to alleviate those. Her
white blood cell count was also down, so she had to go in every day this past
week for shots to help boost that. The GOOD news in all of this is that
the bloodwork on Tuesday showed that the chemo had "punched the cancer numbers
down".
Today is Saturday. She still feels wiped out
but has been cheered by the visit of two friends from Greensboro, NC. They
will leave tomorrow, and a friend from Atlanta will arrive and stay until
Tuesday. Judi wants to sort through some books, and Liz will help her with
that while she is here. She will have her bloodwork done again Monday to
see if the changes in some of her meds are helping. Please send positive
thoughts her way that she can regain some energy in order to better endure the
next round of chemo starting a week from Monday.
Those of you who have ridden out this storm with
her know that she absolutely adores the surgeon from Emory who did the Whipple
procedure last October. She already had a followup appointment scheduled
with Dr. Kooby for Friday a week ago. After four days of chemo that week,
we headed to Emory so she could say her goodbyes to Dr. Kooby. It was a
happy, sad and amusing meeting! Happy because Judi wanted to see him; sad
because she got her last big bear hug from him; and amusing because these two
exchanged professional articles that each had just written and submitted to
their respective professional journals. Now I'm not a betting person, but
even I would bet that Dr. Kooby has never had another patient with whom he
exchanged professional articles! His was focused on pancreatic cancer in
the half of the pancreas where Judi is affected. Judi wrote an
introspective article for the Journal of Therapeutic Recreation with a main
title of "I Love Pumpkins" with a secondary title about the role of therapeutic
recreation in oncology. The main title came from the fact that about this
time last year when she spent 12 days in the Emory University Hospital, friends
from all over showered her with pumpkins--cards, gifts, etc.--with which we
decorated her hospital room. Anyway, she took a copy of this paper to Dr.
Kooby who even asked her to sign it for him. Then he started telling her
about his article and said, "Wait a minute. I want to get you a copy--I'm
really proud of it." I just leaned against the wall aware I was witnessing
something on the surface that was mutual admiration of two people focused on
helping others through their writings but underneath was a recognition that they
had not been able to help each other to the extent they both
wanted.
I will keep you posted from time to time as we see
how things progress and how Judi handles the future chemo treatments. She
is thinking through many things right now and raising many questions in the
process. Answers will come in time. For now what I can tell you for
certain is that she is SO VERY appreciative of the cards, emails, flowers,
gifts, phone calls, car rides, visits and so on. As she grasps for answers
to so many things at this time, she does not have to grasp for the answer of
whether she is loved. Thank you!
Gina
This puts my day in perspective of course because I have spent large amounts of it listening to whining and crying and downright tantrums. Isn't 6 too old for that? It's wearing me out. I insisted we do something that I...yes ME....wanted to do and it ended up as less than a success. Hopefully some of the pictures look o.k. as otherwise the day's pretty much a total loss. Oh, and can we get rid of these FUCKING miniature black bugs swarming around me?
Oh, and yeah.....we brought the van in to be fixed as it needs a couple of things done and Ernie takes it to Chicago next week and we'll be going to South Carolina next month.....
$2,400 later.....
Yup. The same month we're in debt from our Kane Welch Kaplin party. sigh.
Of course....as I said....gotta keep things in perspective....and the party was worth every penny of debt but geez....
Perspective, perspective, perspective.....
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