Chemotherapy: Round 7

Mom just completed her seventh round of chemotherapy on Monday. This means that she only has one more remaining before her surgery. The final chemotherapy treatment is scheduled for Monday, February 4th. She is very excited to be so close to wrapping up her chemo treatments. If everything continues to go as planned her surgery will take place on Monday, March 3rd.

She is feeling pretty good after this latest treatment, even remarking today, "I can't believe I am feeling this good after chemo on Monday." Her energy levels remain pretty good. She rises fairly early, usually tries to take a nap in the afternoon, and is in bed shortly after the WGN News at nine. The chemo seems to affect her ability to fall and stay asleep sometimes, but she is getting a good night sleep more times than not. It is important for her to gather her strength before her surgery making a good night's sleep more important than ever.

For everyone following Aunt Kathy's fight down in Texas, she is getting stronger and feeling better every day. She still has her good days and her bad days, but is having more good than bad at this point. She is healing quite nicely for the tremendous amount of stress that the surgery surely inflicted on her body. I will continue to update everyone on her progress.

As always, thank you all for your support. It really means the world to my Mom and Aunt Kathy to know that they have so many people pulling for them.

Chemotherapy: Round 6

Well, we are three-quarters of the way through the chemotherapy treatments, and everything is still going as planned. We met with the oncologist on Monday, and she felt that the chemo treatments could not be going better. Mom only has two treatments remaining before her surgery. Her next treatment is scheduled for Monday the 21st of January.

This last treatment has made her a little more tired than the past one, but she is still feeling better than she did after the first four. I think this one may have hit her a little harder than the last, as they were not spread out quite as far as the others due to the Christmas holiday. She started to experience a good deal of the joint and muscle pain after the last update (I believe it was on the Sunday after Christmas), but has not had any problems with this treatment yet. We will keep our fingers crossed.

All of this warm weather has gotten her out of the house more. As a result dogs have enjoyed several long walks during this warm weather streak. Even though the weather is no longer warm, it is very nice to see the sun out today. The sun reminds Mom of how eager she is to get this behind her and get out with her running friends again.

Speaking of getting things behind them, Aunt Kathy is healing quite nicely in Dallas. Since her release from the hospital on Sunday she has become more active each day. She met with one of her surgeons today, and they confirmed that she is healing well. She has another doctor's appointment tomorrow, and we expect the same report. As I mentioned, she is getting stronger and feeling better as each day goes by.

As always, thank you you again for all of your support.

Aunt Kathy's Fight

For those of you following my Aunt Kathy's Fight down in Dallas, we have some good news to report. Her surgery and reconstruction took place on Wednesday, and I am happy to report that she is resting comfortably in her hospital room. She had a rough first night after surgery while they tried to get the dosages right on the pain medications, but got great news today from pathology that based on the surrounding tissue that they removed, she was CANCER FREE! She was so happy she was in tears this morning as she spoke to my Mom. Now as she feels that she has a reason to start to feel better and start the healing process. This was great encouragement to my Mom, as she will soon be going through the same procedure. I cannot even to begin to fathom the amount of pain she must have been in. The surgery took nearly seven hours, during which she was under the entire time. She is an extremely strong woman, and to quote Lou Gehrig, "I may have been given a tough break, but I've got an awful lot to live for." She truly does have a lot to live for.

I know her husband, my Uncle Al, is ready to have her home and feeling better. Nothing can ever prepare you to have something like cancer affect a family member, let alone your spouse. My cousin, Beth Ann, who graduates from Texas State in May, is very eager to spend more time with her mom now that they have this episode behind them. Blake, my other cousin, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Tyler, also look forward to Aunt Kathy's recovery as they prepare for the birth of her new grandchild at the end of March. It would be a mistake not to mention her three "Little Boys" waiting for her at home to recover. Dallas (the Doberman, and original "Little Boy"), Pele (her first Greyhound), and Combo (the newest Greyhound addition) cannot wait for her to get home to pet them and throw the tennis ball in the back yard.

Aunt Kathy, everyone is so happy that you are feeling better and have put this chapter of your life behind you. To paraphrase something a friend once told me about losing his father, "I have realized that this is probably the worst thing that is ever going to happen to me in life. That said, and moving forward, everything else has to be better." Life is all about putting things into perspective. Without the bad times in life, the good times would never seem so sweet. Aunt Kathy, you have a lot of good times to look forward to now.