Big Week Ahead...NO WHAMMIES

The week ahead will hopefully provide us with some much needed information and direction. Last week we received the results from the tumor markers drawn right after the long holiday weekend. The markers did show an increase which usually means that there is more activity. Last week was the 8th dose of taxotere which was the agreed upon amount of chemo before another PET scan. The PET scan is scheduled for tomorrow Monday with results expected Wednesday and I believe a decision will be made to change the treatment regiment. The taxotere might have slowed down some activity but it has not stopped or more importantly not completely killed the bad cells. The last few weeks have been difficult for our fighter, she has been able to make most of our planned outings or get togethers but hasn't really felt good doing it.   Reenie and I were able to spend a day and night with with the Scobeys, Carneys and Kirks at Jim and Maureens and we did have a wonderful meal  and a great time with friends. We were also able to attend the wedding of Shannon and Kristen's friend Nicole and her new husband Phil Stockmal. Like I said Reenie is determined to try and make most engagements and each time I am amazed at how great she looks when I know she isn't feeling that good. She puts on her wig and makeup, a new top or dress and looks beautiful. Those that don't know her history and even most that do can't believe she is battling the monster everyday...she really is doing it with grace!. Reenie was also able to spend a few hours today with many of her cousins at a birthday and graduation party for her cousin Maureen's daughter Katie another wonderful time. But with the reality that today is Sunday end of the weekend and a new work week is ahead our warrior has much more to contend with, the unknown, the change of treatment, she needs some good news to pick up her spirits, something to build on, so keep the prayers coming Reen has a big week ahead. Thanks to all who have been sending prayers and well wishes our way and of course all the great dinners..you guys are the best love to all

Fire works....but does the chemo!!! Happy 4th

In this season of cookouts, graduations,pool parties and fireworks, I've realized the events  we look forward to... Reenie not so much. The chlorine stings the sores or nodules, the sun is no longer her friend and the heat well if you can't use the pool to cool off, the heat's no friend either. This past week has been a reality check  for our warrior, beautiful weather she can't enjoy like she used to, and that has been a major disappointment. She hasn't been able to get out as much lately either since the treatment has been increased, she has become more tired and has had ALOT more pain. We are unsure of this new pain she is experiencing, she still gets bone pain from the shots, but the past few weeks the nodules on her abdomen have been very painful, is the chemo working, not sure, are the nodules creating scar tissue, not sure. We will learn more in the upcoming weeks. We will have tumor markers drawn this week with results July 14th which will also be the 8th dose of taxotere and another pet scan will be scheduled. Determination will be made then whether we continue this course or start another treatment. This schedule will be followed only if there are no more delays like a week ago when Reenie's white count plummeted and her treatment had to be delayed 5 days. Reenie has been bummed lately with having to miss a few events but is hopeful to get out over the holiday for a visit and have friends back for the Tinley firework display and maybe a couple days in Michigan with the Scobeys and Carneys if she is feeling better. Reenie wants to thanks her Angels of love who have made meals and taken us out this month, you don't know how much that means to her (us), thanks Kathy, Noreen, Jim and Carole and especially Dave and Brenda for arranging the dinners and driving schedule, our fighters spirits are lifted by every ones prayers, visits, meals and calls..love to all keep saying the miracle prayer.

Pain Pain go away.......come back never!!

Well as we walked on mothers day in support of our warrior and all the women in our lives that are or could be affected by this monster that doesn't fight fair, the message of the walk was HOPE, FIGHT, WALK. Walk we did, with family and friends, fight is what Reenie is doing each and every day, and HOPE, is what we are doing each minute. Hope that this treatment is the one, hope that Reenie is pain free, hope that our fighter continues with the strength and determination that she has displayed throughout. Well the rain has finally stopped and tomorrow is suppose to be a better day, lets hope so! Reenie has completed one round of the newest chemo treatment (Taxotere) she is tolerating it fairly well, I say fairly because after the first two doses she became nauseous 5 days after treatment, we think that may be under control. The nueropathy has continued, and the bone pain in the hips is back because of the need for the shots to increase the white cells, so fairly is the best way to describe her toleration of treatment. So far the treatment has not brought about the positive results we were hoping for, but our team is asking us to give it some time that we may not see results for a couple cycles, that's were the fight comes in. To not be able to see positive results yet go ahead and keep taking the poison, well that's some kind of strength, and that's were the hope comes into play again. So we will continue this treatment of Taxotere, the dosage has been increased and there will be no off week, it will be continuous. We will keep the hormone treatment of Faslodex going and the targeted cell killer Avastin, and a heavy dose of prayers. Reenie is still trying to be normal, get out once in awhile, have visitors and enjoy Ryan's hockey games. The Chicago Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup and the Sox taking 2 of 3 from the Cubs lifted her spirits, oh those were my spirits that were lifted, anyway it gives us all hope!!!
Reenie sends her love to all...thanks for every ones support in her fight..we need you and your prayers
Oh and sorry for the late update...

Round One, Round Two.....Round Four

Some of the things that we take for granted, that we don't think are special, that are so mundane and everyday that we don't know we take them for granted. Wake up and decide "I'm going to run to TJ Maxx I need a shower gift", go to lunch with a friend, your daughter asks " want to take a ride I need shoes"  or watch your son play hockey. The past month our fighter stopped chemo and started a hormone therapy treatment, less fatigue, less pain, her body had some energy. What a month, the roller coaster slowed down, the bumps felt manageable and the turns less fearful. Reenie was able to start enjoying herself, she was able to shop, drive over to her moms, catch a game and do yard work all things we fell are pretty routine but to her pretty special. The month was capped off with as our warrior put it " the best day I have had in a long while"

that was last Sunday also Mothers Day. On Wednesday Reenie had her second hormone treatment scheduled and it was also an appointment with her oncologist Dr. Baridi, we would review the last month and her latest tumor markers and a decision would be made to continue this course or start a new one..well we are starting a new one. The markers showed what we feared that the hormone treatment hasn't really helped yet (we were told it may take 6 to 8 weeks to see results) and we don't want to wait to see if it will work on its own. We all decided, Doctors and family that we want to start a new chemo, the month off was awesome, I think it helped Reenie's body get healthy, her mind get refreshed and she knows how it feels to "feel good again" and that is our ultimate goal. We are starting 3 cycles (3 months) of Taxotere given each week along with the monthly hormone treatment, we will draw tumor markers each month and a PETscan in July. We had a PET done on Monday to give the doctors a baseline of which to work, the tumor markers and PET showed the cancer has increased, but has not spread to any organs or to the bone which is always the fear, the doctors have had success with this treatment so our 'Pink Warrior' has a positive outlook and a renewed sense of fight, the last month was like the minute between rounds only she didn't just sit on the stool and listen to me coach, she enjoyed life .....

Love to all, thanks for all the prayers and thoughts

Reenie asks that you "pray longer,faster and harder"

Walk don't run!

Well it's taken me a couple days to try and put into words our weekend experience and I still don't know how to express it.  You see and hear the commercials about the breast cancer walks and how it can be rewarding, uplifting or emotional and life changing and think REALLY a walk, well I can attest it was every thing the commercials say they can be and more. In just a short time Reenie was able to gather a team of  70 plus family, friends, friends of family and family of friends, generated over $2200 dollars for breast cancer research and got to spend the day with each of them. Not to sound prejudice but "Reenie's Pink Warriors" also looked the best (great job on the shirts Kris). I think its remarkable to gather this amount of important people in your life for a moment like this and being able to accomplish this on Mothers Day, pretty cool. Being able to raise money for the cause is kind of rewarding and when all this research is able to help our wives, daughters, nieces and grandchildren well that is definitely life changing. Seeing your wife, her kids, her family and friends come together for her, very uplifting and quite emotional, I now understand the commercial. When you looked at Reenie on Sunday morning you didn't see a breast cancer patient, you saw a beautiful woman in the moment, the moment of Reenie. The sun was shinning and so was Reenie, I don't know the last time I saw her so happy, and for that I'd like thank each and everyone one of "Reenie's Pink Warriors" she smiled and enjoyed the whole day and she walked, she walked the complete course. Reenie was determined to not miss this day, 2 weeks ago the odds looked like 100 to 1 she would be able to walk to the car let alone 3 miles. Our warrior took a cortisone shot in the heal 1 week ago and couldn't walk for 2 days, like I said she was determined to do this walk. Reenie was able to start the day with her good friend Debbie Markham, who was, we are happy to say walking as a survivor, Debbie finished her treatments last month. The two girls have been an inspiration to each other and unknowingly daily inspirations to all of us followers. Debbie also had a team in the walk with a great turnout, 2 friends on a mission, job well done.
We completed the day with a cookout at Kristen and Josh's and spent the afternoon with our kids, Reenie's brothers and their families a couple friends and Kristens wonderful extended family..this was a good day, no this was a Great day.
Now its back to business for our fighter, we see the oncologist tomorrow (Wednesday). This will be our first visit since we stopped chemo and started the hormone treatment. We will receive our results from the tumor markers drawn last week. The doctors will assess Reenie's progress and determine whether she will continue this path or need to start another chemo regiment. The lack of chemo has helped Reenie build up strength and enjoy a more normal life style, but we need results so tomorrow is another big day.
Thanks and love to all "Reenie's Pink Warriors"

I think the roller coaster has been hyjacked !!!

Again I have let too much information get built up before putting my thoughts to print. Two weeks ago Reenie was about to get her third dose of the chemo drug Gemzar but was unable to because her platelets were too low and there was a fear that she could have a problem if she was to start bleeding for any reason. We had to delay her treatment until that count came up and there was no medical help to increase the platelets just time....which seems EVERYTHING is predicated on...need time to get her biopsy results...time to schedule an additional opinion with the University of Illinois oncolgy department...time to see if the Gemzar is working....time to get our doctors on the same page ...time. Reenie was able to get her treatment 4 days later so those 4 days or that time was spent being anxious which is now our normal frame of mind these days. Fridays treatment seemed to go ok but the weekend was HELL for our warrior, felt tired and the bone pain and musle ache was worse than the past few weeks. Sunday Reenie woke up with a swollen left arm and severe pain, now what we thought, well we have hydration Monday so we will see the docs then and explain the muscle aches and the swollen arm. I woke up Monday looked at the pain Reenie was in and thought I need to take some time off work, this could be a wild week....it was. Monday afternoon the doctors saw the swollen arm and thought "blood clot" but how could that be, the treatment causes the platelets to drop so clotting is not a problem, or so we thought. A trip to Metro South hospital and an ultrasound later we were now dealing with a blood clot. The technician explained that he was going to ultrasoumd each arm because thier facility demands that, I guess there are some facilities that only do what is ordered..good thing the clot was found in the right or opposite arm. This means more shots, shots to thin the blood, so back to the doctors office for the shots. Tuesday a new day and a new doctor, we had decided that once the cancer came back and was resistant to the second treatment of chemo we need to seek other opinions and thoughts on the case. We had scheduled this appointment weeks ago but had to wait, time to gather information, lots of information, tests,scans,diagnosis...lots of information to pass along to the University and schedule an appointment to see their director. We met with 3 doctors, one being the director of oncology for the University of Illinois and we were impressed, we were informed and we were encouraged. Encouraged being the obvious most important feeling walking away from our meeting. Before I get too far ahead with the University doctors,On Monday the day before, Reenie's regular doctors, before shipping us immediately to the hospital for the ultrasound, told us that one of Reenie's numerous weekly and monthly tests came back showing she was menopausal..this as it turns out ...big news. Reenie was always borderline and fake menopausal which determines certain treatments some are pre-menopasual and some post, we never knew for sure so this was sort of big. We now can start on a hormone treatment which will give us another line of attack. So before we left they gave our fighter a monthly shot of Faslodex which will be her hormonal treatment, which is actually another form of chemo but really doesn't have the severe side affects...I'm thinking this is good. Back to our meeting, Dr. Mehta said that the recent finding of being post-menopausal is the way to fight the beast and whoever requested this last biopsy (our Kristen) was brillant.we can now use this hormone treatment..Faslodex, I think I have a new favorite drug. He also felt that this should be the only way to fight this at the present time, he is not one to throw alot of combo medicine treatments at his patients and he had some credible backup and findings. So now lets get these two doctors together for some discussions..need time for that, later in the week that will happen. Still waiting for some biopsy results we had appointment with our surgeon and appointments with our primary to go over the increasing prescriptions and then finally chemo hydration day, yes this would be a wild week. Really I'm not sure if the roller coaster has left the track or it has been taken over by the energizer bunny, because it just isn't stopping anytime soon. So at this point our team of doctors are ALL leaning toward treating this beast with the hormone therapy drug Faslodex and ceasing the chemo therapy drug Gemzar. If this works, and we already have seen some benefits, smaller bumps, no increase in marks or bumps Reenie's quality of life should improve and that is the proverbial WIN WIN situation....Friday the day we had nothing scheduled, wouldn't stay that way too long. We recieved a call Thursday night that Shannon our oldest daughter was possibly having issues with her pregancy and had an appointment Friday morning, so Reenie as always would be there for her kids, took Shannon this morning to her doctors  to find out that her pregnacy was terminating. Shannon's rock her "mama bear" was with her this morning to console and explain how every thing happens for a reason, reasons that may take years to figure out but reasons none the less....maybe we needed another angel to look over us, and get us off this F$&#!%* roller coaster.
Love to all...

I'm a blogger not a fighter!...Reenie's the fighter

Well we have our new treatment and next course of action to tame the beast. Today we had our second dose of the chemotherapy regiment of Gemzar and Avastin. Gemzar is the newest chemo drug for our warrior who two weeks ago had an allergic reaction to Ixtempra. The roller coaster ride we hopped on a few weeks ago doesn't seem to want to stop anytime soon. Last week during our visit with the oncologist he explained how he wanted to handle our latest development of increased cancer cell activity, yes he was concerned that this monster had found away around the treatment of Abraxane that only weeks ago looked miraculous. This creature is aggressive, mean and somewhat smart, he has found a new pathway and we need to stop it's progress. Our oncologist will continue using a combination of targeted drugs which cuts off blood supply to the cells and chemo drugs which kills fast growing cells. The team (doctors,nurses,family and friends) are staying positive we will find the right combination and kill this freaking monster once and for all. We do have a biopsy scheduled for Thursday, this will verify the cancer cell makeup, we have had 2 different cancers to date and we need to positively identify the makeup of what really is the 3rd occurrence of cancer. There is no doubt that this latest turn of events has been worrisome, but our confidence is not shattered and Reenie's strength is mind blowing. I can't even explain or know what she must be feeling and dealing with as far as all the emotions she is going through daily..the unknown...the pain..the thoughts..the dreams and nightmares..I cry for her each day..but I also pray for her each day... and I believe each day.. that we will beat this. Growing up I probably thought I was tough, well I might not have won a lot of fights but I could take a punch, I would stand in there with anyone...but I know I don't have half the strength that our beautiful pink warrior has...she really is an inspiration...I am inspired each and every day.
The positive from treatment this week is that Reenie has tolerated the Gemzar so far, no allergic reaction, and its hard to say for sure but the visible bumps and marks have stayed about the same for the last few days where a week or more ago we could see the spreading of cells take place...so it may be that this new drug is already suppressing the growth....thanks to our family and friends, your support is unwavering and it is amazing the love you have bestowed on our family..the Haas'