Intermission, at the turn, halftime.......3 down 3 to go

Well the good news is our warrior has completed 3 of 6 chemo therapy cycles, she has managed to stay strong and determined to tame the beast again. The crummy news is that the fatigue and bone pain has continued which Reenie has been able to tolerate to a point. The addition of nerve pain in her hands has been at times debilitating making simple chores difficult and somewhat impossible. The doctors and physician assistants have been monitoring the pain and if it becomes intolerable they would scale back the doses of chemo. We don't want that, with the positive results from the last run of tumor markers, we really want to stay on this scheduled treatment. The coming week is a week of hydration and no chemo,time for our fighter to recover, just a little, than its back to anxiety ( a pet scan is scheduled for Thursday Feb 4th) and the second half of the chemo treatment starts Monday Feb 8th. We are looking toward the end of April as a completion date, can't come soon enough. We need to keep looking at all the positives, 1/2 way there, good tumor results, too cold to go out anyway. One thing that creeps into our house every so often is depression, that has been one of my biggest foes this time "keeping Reenie up". I would imagine that even with this &@*%%# weather, staying in the house for weeks at a time other than doctor appointments would get to most of us. So know that your short visits, cards, phone calls and text messages help her spirit. She may not answer, probably sleeping, she may not return a text, hands probably hurt, or may not answer the door, Lifetime movie on, but keep the encouraging words coming anyway. We have a long 3 months ahead, but we know that Reenie can do this, the weather will improve sometime during that period and soon we will be walking in the Beverly Mothers day walk and celebrating life for Reenie and Debbie. Reenie and our family send their love.

We are BLESSED!

It has been awhile since I have updated the blog, I am sorry if you have been looking for updates on our 'pink warrior'. The wonderful Christmas season turned into a uncertain start to the NEW YEAR. What I have figured out with my intuitive ability to figure things out is that the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) fall near the end of the month, and Reenie's most difficult times also are at the end of the month. The chemo treatments which have been the first 3 Mondays of the each month and leave our fighter pretty sick by the last week of the month. We looked forward to our annual 'pajama party' with the cheer mom's on News Years Eve but were unable to attend because it was a really low time for Reenie as well as myself. Reenie also has to miss the annual trip to Pompano Beach Florida with the cheer moms scheduled for this week. Reenie has the constant fatigue and the pain has seemed to increase with this last cycle, which was completed around the holidays. With the holidays over and the third cycle beginning Reenie's spirit seemed to be down but a lift from an out of town friend (Denise from Texas) was what she needed. The disappointment of a few missed holiday gatherings and just not feeling well left Reenie 'kinda down'. Last week, which was a non chemo week was time to recover and a visitor from afar did a lot to bring the spirit back. The girls (H.S. friend circle) had a movie night and a spa day all very fun but very exhausting. Reenie ended the week in preparation for the start of cycle number 3 of chemo treatments with a visit from a healing priest.

Cancer is such a devastating disease without a real cure, only medicine to kill existing cells, surgery to remove cells and hope they never return. Hope is one of the most important words thrown around the "Cancer community". So when approached about a visit with a healing priest the thought was we'll do ANYTHING. Maureen Scobey, Reenie's best friend felt the same and happened to be in a restaurant when the Catholic Servite priest was present and had the idea to make sure her friend was going to meet this man. The week after Maureen met Fr. Rookey Reenie was hospitalized in late November with low white counts, a fever and terrible headaches from the first chemo treatment. While in the hospital Reenie met a chaplain who said we should contact this Catholic priest, a Fr Rookey, a sign, maybe? Hey like I said before we'll do anything. Last Sunday Maureen and Jim opened their home to our family, Reenie's mom and brothers and a couple friends, we had dinner, prayers and a blessing from our new friend Fr. Rookey, a beautiful day.

Monday Reenie had tumor markers drawn, these are the numbers that help the doctors and P.A's see how the chemo is working, help decide whether the treatment is the correct one and like I have mentioned before give us non medical people a idea of whats going on.

Thursday Reenie received a call from the oncologist with some news they thought we would like to hear, the tumor markers have dropped SUBSTANTIALLY!!!!! Last month after the first chemo cycle the numbers decreased about 10%, this month about 50% more...it looks like the treatment is working!!!

Again thank you to all our angels, the prayers are working!!,thanks for all the food over the last few weeks from the Stells, the Lykes, Ilene, Jan, the broomriders, Patti, the Kosieks, the Heffernans, the Keatings and the Ganser's it has all been wonderful.
Love to all and Thanks again to the Scobey family!
Here's to a Happy and HEALTHY New Year!