Pitchers and catchers report

Another milestone has come and gone, cycle 4 in Reenie's treatment is complete. The pet scan that our warrior had done two weeks ago and the tremendous results have let the doctors tweak the chemo amounts by decreasing the dose about 10%. This reduction of the chemo drug Abraxane "in theory" should be more tolerable to Reenie, hopefully with less side effects....well not really much help. The bone pain in her legs and hips have lessened slightly because the need for Nupragen shots has also decreased. The latest problems have been nueropathy in her hands, leaving them tingling, numb and at times brutally painful. Her nails are discolored, tender with the possibility of loss. Reenie is also fighting a sore throat, cough and laryngitis, so she is back to texting if you are wondering why she is not answering the phone.
In keeping her wedding streak alive, 3 weddings in 50 days,she was determined to attend the wedding of friends Joe and Terry McElligott's daughter Candi to Eric Johnson, this ceremony was special in many ways, 1) well the wedding, 2) our daughter Shannon was a bridesmaid, 3) it was held in the cathedral known as "the Cell" the home of the White Sox, and 4) it marked a special passage of time for our cancer fighting warriors Reenie and Debbie Markham (Candi's aunt). The girls were determined to share this day together and celebrate not only the wedding but also the impending end to their battles. The big weekend did take a toll on Reenie for Sunday she was wiped out and unable to attend our annual Christmas dinner with the Cheer Moms or COF's.
Like I have mentioned in previous posts I was looking forward to the upcoming baseball season to help mark the time of big days in Reenie's fight. Pitchers and cathers report about the time Reenie finished up cycle 4. Opening day will mark the start of the 6st and final chemo cycle with the completion around Ryan's birthday, which by that time the Sox should be in first place by 3 games and the Cubs will be looking forward to next year.
As always Reenie sends her love to all the angels, thanks for everything and always being there for support...keep saying the MIRACLE PRAYER its working

Nervousness..scared..frightened......BLESSED

Near-resolution of prior diffuse abnormal radiotracer activity throughout the subcutaneous tissues.....
Near-resolution of hypermetabolic adenopathy in axillary regions within the subcutaneous tissues.....
THE APPEARANCE IS CONSISTENT WITH TREATED METASTATIC DISEASE!!!!

The chemotherapy, the prayers, the support and the love is all working. Today we were met in the hallway of Reenie's chemo appointment with a whisper of "we have good news" as one of our Physician Assistants walked by while attending to another patient. They brought our fighter into her infusion room and said the doctor is not here yet but when he comes we will move you into a private room. Well if we didn't hear the whisper in the hall we would have reached panic mode. I came home last night to a very frightened girl, man how much more can she handle. A wonderful weekend with an awesome wedding of friends Jim and Carole Lyke's son Phil, and a nice afternoon with her girlz ended with the reality of Monday starts round 4 of chemo and the PET SCAN RESULTS. Reenie was scared and I was nervous, yeah we had good results from the tumor markers but this beast is unpredictable. The pain that Reenie had for two weeks had let up for the last few days what a blessing that was, she was able to attend the wedding which helped the spirits of her family, we know she is felling better when she WANTS to get out. Well when the doctor and his assistant brought us into our room, well our PA was as excited as anyone she could not believe the results and couldn't wait until we got there today. Dr Baridi explained the results and after all the medical jargon he said that 90% of Reenie's cancer is gone...NINETY PERCENT after 3 rounds, pretty miraculous, like I mentioned earlier I firmly believe this has been a collaboration of many efforts, yes the medicine is doing its job and cutting off blood flow to the bad cells, and the prayers are doing their job I know there are many and keep them coming they are powerful,and the support and love from family and friends have helped Reenie keep her eyes on the prize, she doesn't have to worry about things that YOU, her support group are taking care of. The treatment will not change still 3 more cycles,3 months then we discuss the AFTER treatment,AFTER being the operative word, AFTER the cancer is GONE.
Reenie sends her love to all..keep saying the MIRACLE PRAYER

6 more weeks of winter...3 more months of Chemo

Reenie didn't see her shadow this week, cause Reenie usually doesn't see the sunlight. Well there really hasn't been too much sunlight anyway, our fighter doesn't get out much to see the sun or clouds and the last few weeks have been no exception. This was suppose to be the week of recovery, the week to enjoy not having chemo, the week to be somewhat normal. Last Friday Reenie woke up with a swollen arm and red spots on her chest and arm,she was scheduled to have blood work anyway that afternoon so she would let the doctors see the new development then. Her count was low and there was a concern she may have a blood clot in the arm so off to see another doctor. The doctors felt this wasn't a clot but most likely an allergic reaction to ...something, pain meds, food, not really sure. This was not part of the plan, to have another issue to deal with again. The treatment for the possible allergy was a mega dose of steroids, Prednezone, which seemed to work overnight. The swelling went down and the rash decreased, but with the good came the bad, her pain has been unrelenting and it seemed the steroid accentuated the pain. Reenie literally would just sit and cry because the pain would be so much, never complained, just cried and hoped for an end soon.
Today was really the first day in quite a while that Reenie felt good, so lucky her, she had a PET Scan scheduled for her good day. Reenie did have the opportunity to spend the afternoon with her girlfriend Jan from work so for Reen it was a good day.
Monday is really a big day I figure, our warrior starts the second half of her treatment and we receive the results from today's test. We don't know what to really expect other than the hope that the scans shows a reduction in cancer cells a good test that rivals our earlier news from last month's tumor markers.

Thanks to everyone for their love,support and most important their prayers.
Reenie sends her love to all

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!

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'