Surprise..Surprise ..Surprise..and they're all good surprises...for a change!!!

September..the month that football starts, the month when fall begins and oh yeah the month of our warriors birthday. September 25th is the actual date but  the celebration can be anywhere from a day to 2 weeks, and that's just fine with me. As Reenie got together with the cheer moms a week and a half ago it was a birthday dinner for our girl surprise number one. Last week end the high school friends got together for their annual trip to Sister's Lake Mich. to celebrate Reenie's birthday, but to her surprise they ended up in  Oak Brook for the weekend to shop and eat, along with another surprise her girlfriends from New Jersey and Houston came in for the get together. Surprises two and three.
 A couple of weeks ago at chemo Reen had a little wheezing going on so they performed a chest xray to see if there was anything happening. The chest xray was not conclusive so now the recommendation was "lets do a CT scan". Man it always seems like good news is short lived (previous tumor markers being good) we got to enjoy that for about 15 minutes. We received the news of the scan last week and the lungs were fine some scar tissue from previous surgeries and past infections, but there was a bonus. The CT scan was of the chest area, and compared to the last PET scan the tumors were decreased in quantity and size...surprise number four and just wonderful news...this chemo is helping!!!
Well Reenie has enjoyed her birthday month, she is getting through the pain and fatigue with your love, support and prayers and the belief that this chemo is working, the battle is ongoing so she needs the continued thoughts and prayers. After all the get together, the dinners, the presents, Reenie celebrated her actual birthday with the news that she now will be sharing that birth date with a very special person Quinn Ainslie a beautiful baby born to Megan and Mike Darcy, daughter fo Maureen and Jim Scobey, it has been a good month.
Reenie sends her love and appreciation for all the cards and birthday greetings.

I think Pink is your color!!!

Its amazing as I sit here today and watch my wife fighting the battle of her life and realize 100s of thousands of women have dealt and are dealing with the exact same issues. I watch Reenie each day fight through the pain, the sickness, and the unknowing and I wonder how she manages to persevere. I was able to see the inspiration last week when Reenie's family (Shannon,Kristen,Ryan,Reen's mom Maureen and myself) spend a day with the Pink Heals Tour. Reenie set out last Monday to see the Pink Fire Trucks that travel the US each year in support of women battling breast cancer. The Fire department has always been special to our family, Reenie's dad Bud was a Chicago Firemen for 30 plus years, Josh, Kristen's husband is a fire fighter in Cicero and our son Ryan has completed a fire training course  and is continuing his education that he hopes will land him a career in the department. So the combination of fire trucks and a breast cancer awareness program brought our family together for one of those special days that we don't mange to share often enough. Reenie was the star in Homewood, she donned the Pink fire apparel and took pictures with the crew from both departments (local and traveling) . She posed for numerous pictures for the host support group and many family pics as well. The members of the Pink Heals tour helped Reenie share her inspirational message to others by writing a message on the trucks cab and we spent some time reading the messages of others as well. The truck is filled with messages from 1000's of women who are fighting the same battle our warrior is involved in. We payed a visit to Matteson where 2 more trucks from the tour stopped, Reenie met other women going through treatment and they share stories and hugs, and more inspiration. I know that Reenie gains strength from her family and friends, from knowing she handled this before and from her doctors and nurses and from prayer. I now know her experience will give others strength, her messages on the Pink trucks will inspire others to keep going to "Keep fighting like a girl" as I know the messages have inspired her and our family, like the mothers day walk this day was for Reenie to wear her badge of courage for all to see and she was most definitely "Pretty in Pink"
The last few appointments for our girl have been very encouraging, I said a couple of weeks ago the "eye" test showed improvement well so did tumor markers that we received last week, the cancer cells and tumors are responding to this new chemo...so please keep the prayers and good thoughts coming Reenie's way. The problems are and probably will be during treatment the side effects of infection, low white counts and fatigue, but this post is staying upbeat because it was a good week for our warrior...got good news, spent some time with family and friends and this is how "PINK HEALS"

Love to all....keep praying the miracle prayer!!!