The little engine that could......make Christmas special

The holiday season has been better than expected this year. Reenie is really doing a great job of managing her "feeling pretty good" time. During the days leading up to Christmas, Reenie made sure that our holiday was like any other, I don't know how she does it, she shopped a little, wrapped all the gifts, and even a little cooking. Well I guess I do know how she does it, it's those every other days that when she feels pretty good she manages to get alot done, then it's exhaustion the next day. Reen was able to attend all festivities planned during the Christmas weekend. Our traditional Christmas Eve celebration at Danny and Cathy's, the kids came over Christmas morning to open presents and then off to our newest tradition, breakfast at Kris and Josh's. We then spent the rest of the day relaxing, watching movies and taking the occasional nap. Saturday we attended the wedding of one of our oldest friends son, John Carney, what made this special was we were able to spend the day and evening with all of our children along with many of our friends and their children , with every one's busy schedule this does not happen too often, what a great party. Sunday was a day of rest!!!
This past Monday was Reenie's last chemo treatment in cycle 2, 1/3 of the way through not a big milestone for her yet but I need to start checking something off. I count down the days to "pitchers and catchers report" (52), days to St. Patrick's day (only 78), opening day (3 months away), that's my way of getting through winter and it is my way of getting through treatment (16 weeks), just before Mothers day. The pattern hasn't changed too much, Reenie's white count is too low each Monday so there is still the need for Nupregen so our girl has the "constant" bone pain. The other issue Reenie is dealing with now is laryngitis, no chest cold which is extremely important.
We are hopeful the pattern of feeling pretty good stays similar and look forward to attending the annual "pajama party" at the Massat's and then our traditional holiday dinner at the Scobey's. We are so very fortunate to spend the holiday season with so many friends...Love to all and lets hope for a cancer free NEW YEAR..Twenty Ten healthy again!!!!!
The handmade ornament above was given to Reenie from her friend Nancy Maher

Cops.Christmas.Carney.Cancer and ....Firefighters?

Well It's been awhile since we have had an update on our warrior. Reenie has developed somewhat of a pattern with her side affects, tired all the time, really tired every other day, pain all the time, really bad pain every evening after a shot but through it all never a complaint, hard to believe. Reenie has done just enough to make sure her family has the usually over the top Reenie Christmas yet making sure she is getting her rest when needed, or when her body tells her. I think she is doing a great job of managing her time when she feels good. I'm sure we (Ryan and I) could be doing more but that has always been the case, and we ARE trying to stay normal. A visit from the Broomriders (Reenie's high school friends)last week for thier Christmas gift giving brought some unwanted excitement, Tinley's finest escorted our Chicago friend Peggy into town, well it wasn't quite an escort I think it was more of a chase. Seems in Chicago you can do 40 on a side street and the kind officer from Tinley wanted to let the Chicagoan know it wont be tolerated in our town or something like that, but as we all know if you are female and cry and offer favors to the police you might not get a ticket...Peggy qualified for two out of three! no ticket!!. Reenie was also feeling good enough on Friday to attend a dinner and ceremony honoring Ryan and his class for completing the Firefighter II academy in Romeoville. The ceremony was a proud event and really important that Reenie could attend so it made for an awesome evening. With a little strength left we stopped by the Higgins for some Christmas cheer with the cheer moms (Reenie's friends from Tinley and cheerleading)(we have names for all her circles). A little shopping over the weekend with her girlz and quite a few naps, our fighter is ready for the holiday. Our friends, family and extended family continue to help us through this time, Kris received a pink tree of her own from her new aunt Jeri Lynn, the post chemo flowers showed up along with a friend, a friendly looking pink snowman hand crafted out of wood who now greets Reenie's visitors (Note: when things arrive anonymously Shannon or I take the credit!!), dinner from cousin Kathy, dinner from Patty R., and dinner from the Casey's (note: can't fit into my clothes I'm blaming everyone of you). To complete the week we had a had nice dinner and some drinks with the Massats and Reen was able to spend a special day with special friend Maureen to do a little shopping so you guys did it you've gotten your little patient into the holiday spirit...thank you. So we are please so far that it seems the chemo is working, I wish there was a way we could check every day that what we are putting Reenie through was working, the side affects have been somewhat manageable so Reenie has been able to enjoy some social time. We look forward to the holiday (I look forward to baseball) and some special time with family and friends. God bless each of you, you have made our Christmas season an enjoyable one when a month ago I did not think it would be possible this year (remember I'm looking forward to Sept, 2011 cancer free..Oprah..no more Lovie..etc) well thank you so much and love to all...The Haas'

Count up ,Count down, Count sheep

Cycle number 2 has begun, Reenie started her second of six cycles of chemo therapy Monday afternoon. Her white count was in the low range again so it will be another week of shots ahead for our little fighter. The good news given to us Monday was the first set of tumor markers (which will be drawn after each cycle) showed a numerical decrease which means....the chemo is doing its job, (insert cheer with expletive!!). We know the week ahead will mean more fatigue and probably more pain, which has made for some sleepless nights, but the realization that this poison is doing its job is giving us the hope we need. One hurdle Reenie has Wednesday is a visit to the doctor who inserted her port, she is having pain, no sign of infection but they need to take a look at it. Reenie was able to attend her family Christmas party Sunday because it was one of her best days since treatment started and she made the best of it. Thanks again to all our elves, bringing food, flowers, cookies, checking in, driving, you DO NOT realize how much this is helping our family get through this with some normalcy. Love always.

From poison to poinsettias, pain to pink ribbons

Yeah for hydration week..no chemo!!!! but still a visit to the infusion center where our warrior was given an injection of fluids and the drug Avastin (the drug that just targets cancer cells and cuts off their blood supply and life support), my new favorite drug. Reenie still feels bone pain daily but now at a tolerable level and she is constantly fatigued, but overall is doing really good (note: my opinion..looks really really good and probably lies to me when I ask how she feels). Reenie is showing remarkable strength and courage during this time,not really in the Christmas spirit I am sure she is disappointed she needs to stay away from crowds and can't shop (we all know she is lucky and doesn't have to put up with the mall traffic and crowds), but with her circle around they are making sure we are getting in the mood of the season. The kids brought over a pink Christmas tree they have the dubbed " the tree of hope", then decorated the family Christmas tree. Tom and Mary Restko sent beautiful Christmas poinsettias. Linda G.stopped by with a cute hat for our newly shaved patient. The amazing mysterious never-ending McDonald diet cokes seem to be present everyday.The tree the girls from Reenie's work brought last week keeps getting added decorations with each visit from the circle. The meals from friends and family keep coming in and are fantastic, we thank everyone, the Moores, the Finnertys, Massats and Kirks and the Broomriders, thank you thank you we need to keep our patient nourished. The week also brought back a visit from an old friend, the FAMOUS TUESDAY MORNING FLOWER DELIVERY GUY. When Reenie went through her first battle with the monster 3 years ago she had this special visitor every Tuesday after chemo who drop flowers on the front porch, well this side of hiring a private investigator Reenie sent out to find the mystery flower guy but never figured it out until a year later. Well he's back and Reenie couldn't be more delighted. Another special visit came from more unexpected angels, this amazing circle of friends I always speak of keeps leaving me in awe, and now a new fragment to the circle is born. The girls that we watched grow up into beautiful young women and who have been a support group to our girls Shannon and Kristen came over and spent an evening with Reenie bringing her a special edition Northface jacket, that is pink with the breast cancer ribbon. Reenie did feel good enough to get out for a couple hours to go into work to visit co-workers, but that really wears her out after a few hours. A visit from a portion of the circle ended a relatively pretty good week for our girl. Now we head into more Chemo starting Monday so we treasure these fairly good weeks. Reenie was able to see another friend last week she hadn't seen in awhile. Linda C., who is our surgeons nurse and Reenie's roommate after her mastectomy 3 years ago, was off for a few months recovering from open heart surgery. She came to see Reenie last week during her infusion time and not surprising Reenie presenter her with a gift, always giving even during not so good times. Well we are off to see Santa at the McSweeney Christmas party Sunday since Reenie's white count is up and she feels up to it. We will be celebrating Reenie's mom's 75 birthday also tomorrow. Thanks again to all our elves.
Love always Reen and Tom

Sisterhood of the Ya-Ya traveling steel magnolias

The last couple days have really been bittersweet. Friends from work surprised Reenie with a visit, they were fully equipped with a Christmas tree complete with pink ornaments, lights, garland and a breast cancer tree skirt, how cool. Reenie has had less pain this week even though she has needed Nupragen shots each day because her white count is still very low. Reen finisher her first cycle of chemo-therapy (3) doses this past Monday, one down and five cycles to go, pretty much five more months. The hair is gone though and we have two very different views I still believes she is as cute as ever and she thinks she looks like the picture on the Gierczyk real estate ad. The amazing thing about the lose of hair was the process that Reenie decided to undertake with its removal. Instead of waiting and watching the progression of hair lose each day with every brush stroke she took the inevitable head-on but not by herself. As you probably have surmised by previous postings Reenie's friends and family are her support group,her medicine and her traveling companions on this journey. The hair was going to come off and her circle of friends were to play a part. In a short 24 hour period with Reenie feeling pretty good she arranged to have as many friends as she could gather (or our house could hold) more than 20 women became part of the hair removal process. I was not sure this was a good idea for anyone, but I knew Reenie needed her medicine (her friends), and this might help her. What I didn't expect was how this helped everyone else. The shock of seeing your friend or loved one without hair for the first time, what do you say?, how do you react?, well Reenie was going to help us through that situation. I will get back to the process in a minute, the friends that came together Thursday night were girl friends from childhood that she has known for 40 plus years friends from the neighborhood she had known for as little as a year, some out of town call-ins and young women that are our friends children and friends of Reenie's girls, colleagues from work, women that have experienced sickness or have sickness in their families what a collection of beautiful people, we are blessed to know them. OK back to the process, again I wasn't sure this was going to be good, but it was therapeutic for all. Each of Reenie's circle came up took a piece of hair, started to braid it and told a story or joke or experience that they have ad with our warrior. Once the braid was complete and a ribbon was tied to each end they cut the braid and kept it as a keepsake. The stories and sentiments were what we all needed, we heard about the Reenie face, the Reenieisms, her issues with packing a suitcase, her ability to have a stuffed animal or crappy craft for all occasions, how the husbands of friends would do anything for her, her addiction to McDonald's diet coke, how those that work or have worked with her become lifelong friends, and how she is always in mom mode taking care of those around her. When the stories were done and the braids cut Shannon completed the job showing strength by shaving the last of her mom's hair quite a chore. This helped Reenie but like I said earlier it helped her circle. The strength that Reenie has is the strength from her friends, it takes courage to cut your friends hair as she is going through chemo, courage to find time in each day to call and check-in, courage to pray and believe that we can and will get through this, Reenie's friends that is her real medicine. I will take many things from last Thursday night, but one thing that I keep thinking of is what Kristen and Megan each brought up when taking about Reenie was the friendships that these young women are witnessing, not saying so but they are learning from you, all of Reenie's friends old and new, how to grow up and how to love, and take care of each other,thank you. Well that night you cried, you laughed and you shared and you helped Reenie through a tough time and she helped us through a tough time....at the end of the day we all were able to laugh...check out the slide show at the bottom of blog...it was a good night!!