Update

I know that I've been more than a little remiss in reporting on Barb's ?progress?, but we have been seeing the doctor every 3-4 weeks, and there has been very little to report. The cancer "numbers" or indicators have been very consistant (the doctors like consistant) we just keep doing treatments and keep making plans to do things together.

The only real change we've had in our treatments has been that one of the drugs Barb takes intravenously has raised her blood pressure and she has now been put on another medicine to help her control it.

Since May we've driven to Virginia, camped at Lake Icaria, and taken a vacation with Eric's family in Wisconsin. We plan to go to Barb's mom's for a few day the end of August, and in November we have plans to go to Branson and then KC. Who knows how many other things we can sneak in before then.

Because Barb's "numbers" have been relatively stable, the doctors keep telling us that she is a "poster patient" for cancer. We are maintaining. Every visit to the doctor brings apprehension, What could be wrong now? Will the markers change and require another change in treatment? Will there be news we don't want to hear?

As far as her bones are concerned, there are days they hurt. The doctors won't scan them very often because they said the scans will show the same, whether the cancer is expanding or the drugs are working to repair the holes. She has never been given a go-ahead to lift more weight so we really don't know how much if any they will improve.

So we take advantage of our retirements. Except my classes for Iowa Western start next week and our traveling will take a bit of a hit. This weekend we will take it easy because the weekend after treatments do not lend themselves to a lot of activity.

As always we thank you for your prayers.

Nick

A little sunshine.

A glimmer. A ray. A bit of sunshine after a long rainy weekend. We had another checkup before Barb's chemo treatment today. The cancer markers were down a little, not the dramatic drop that we saw after treatments last year. But a little. Definitely better than the alternative.

Barb has been feeling pretty good, even after the long trip too Tennessee and Virginia. We had a busy two weeks as we took Sara back to Knoxville via Bellevue (Barb's mom's house) and Clarkesville, TN (Jason's parents' house).

We stopped in Knoxville to pick up Jason and made our way to Richmond where we set up base for a couple of days to visit Monticello, Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Virginia Beach. An historical vacation, so to speak.

When we got back to Knoxville, Barb and I stayed a couple of days to help Sara unpack - Jason had moved them from their apartment to their first house - while Sara was back for Adam and Clara's wedding. It's a first house, but it suits them.

And Barb? She handled the trip pretty well. Now, if the cancer markers would just give us a little more indication that we have a proper handle on the treatment.

I hope we have a little more sunshine the next time we see the doctor.

Once again

   We got the not so good news almost two weeks ago. The cancer markers are up and no matter how good Barb is feeling, the doctor recommends going back on Chemo treatment. So this week we will add Chemo and another drug to the two we are already taking. The treatment will take around five hours on Thursday.

   Although we have known for over a week, we have continued to make plans for a couple of trips this summer - one with Sara and Jason in May and one with Eric, Alexa and kids in July. We know that plans can change. We have no real idea how Barb will feel once the treatments begin. We can onlly remember some of the results from last year.

   Barb knows that she will probably lose her hair again. She will have to fight nausea and other side effects from the chemo and other drugs. I worry about how tired she will feel and how we'll go about fighting the lethargy this time.

   We had hoped that the first treatments would last longer. Many years longer. But it wasn't to be. Now we hope that this series of treatments will fight the disease even better than the first. We have a lot of things we want to do - a lot of places we want to see - a lot of life we want to live.

As if if all of the news about Pete isn't enough to digest, I wanted to give a quick update on Barb's treatments.
We had a checkup with the doctor as well as herceptin and zometa treatments this week, but did not have blood tests done. The doctor said he simply forgot to put it on the orders. He didn't seem too
concerned. 

As much as Barb and I dread receiving the results every six weeks, it was still encouraging when they were good or not too bad. This check up left us a little up in the air.

We took a long weekend trip to St. Petersburg, FL to visit a friend of Barb's and got back Monday. Barb has been very tired and sore ever since with a little extra pain in her bones. The doctor wasn't too concerned, but we did get the zometa treatment increased from once every six weeks to once every three weeks - the same as the herceptin.
Barb has been taking a little more morphine this week to handle the pain.
Both Barb and I think (hope) that her pain is being caused by too much vacation - too much walking on beaches - too much bending to pick up shells, etc. I don't get to take the morphine so I'm leaning about the healing properties of Captain and Coke.

Our situation seems much less dire than that Pete and Stacia are facing and yet I feel I am not doing nearly as good of a job handling it. I probably shouldn't have piggy-backed this note on Pete's news, but I know many of you still want to hear just what we are doing. 

Happy Holidays

As much as I love to write, I have to admit that I was not looking forward to working on this letter. The Christmas season is supposed to be one of joy and happiness and no matter how I write this, some of you will not realize just how lucky Barb and I have been this year..

After the celebrations last December of Sara’s wedding and the holidays and the birth of our 3^rd grandchild in January, Barb and I received the shock of our lives when we found out in February that she has breast cancer that was already metastatic and in many of her bones.

Surgery was not an option, and the proper treatment was not determined until almost a month after we heard the news, although she was immediately put on Zometa to strengthen her bones. When the doctors were ready to start her on chemotherapy, she was also put on Herceptin.

After 16 weeks of chemo (an IV once a week), the cancer markers went down to the level where we were able to stop the chemo. We have continued with the Zometa and Herceptin treatments, but have only traveled to the med center every three weeks instead of weekly.

Since this summer Barb has felt good enough for us to take several trips. We had a long weekend in Vegas with Barb’s sisters and their husbands, we traveled to Knoxville to see Sara and Jason and took a side trip to Ashville, NC to see the Biltmore. We’ve traveled to see Barb’s mom a couple of times, made a couple of trips to Kansas (for a wedding and for Thanksgiving) and naturally traveled to Dexter and Des Moines to see the grandkids and kids.

Our most recent doctor’s appointment on Dec. 10^th was good enough that we are still avoiding a second round of chemo. He said that it appears the main cancer tumor has shrunk and the bones seem to be healing some. The cancer is still there, so treatments continue every three weeks.

Our year has not gone as we had hoped, but we have so much to be thankful for including our family, our friends, and our faith.

When others ask what they can do for us, we simply reply that we accept prayers of all kinds, but just as importantly, we love to hear from everyone.

 

Best wishes for the New Year!
Nick and Barb

There is nothing in my life that occupies my thoughts and prayers as
much as Barb's fight with cancer. We seem to live in 6 week periods
between visits with the doctor. As much as we want to believe his
mantra - that the patient is doing as well as he/she feels, we still
wait breathlessly for the results of the latest blood tests.
 Six weeks ago the results were excellent - 12 weeks off chemo and
the cancer markers had fallen even farther - time to celebrate - we
went to Pizza Hut.
 This week we found that the markers had increased a little. It
didn't seem to bother the doctors and the nurses were not concerned,
but we were not so sure.  We still have the good news that no chemo is
in the offing for the next six weeks. That will mean that Barb will
have been off chemo treatments for nearly half a year. It seems hard
to believe.
 Of course we are still doing a Herceptin (another cancer fighter)
treatment every three weeks and a treatment with Zometa (to strengthen
the bones) every six weeks, so we have no opportunity to forget the
monster disease that we are fighting.
 After doing a little reading on those two drugs I feel so lucky that
our health insurance covers as much of the expense as it does.  The
cost of those two drugs would be prohibitive to patients with no or
little insurance.
 So now we live. And wait. And after six more weeks, we will hope
once again that the tests show no need of additional chemo treatments.
 We continue to thank all of those who keep us iin their thoughts and
prayers.  Family + Friends + Faith. = LIFE.

Another good checkup

After seven weeks of NO chemo, Barb's indicators were still good - even in the normal range. We don't presume to have the cancer defeated, but we have held it at bay just a bit. The best news is that we get to go another six weeks without chemo. Then another check up and another evaluation.

Barb has been pushing herself some this summer to try and build up a little more strength. We've taken a 5 hour trip to visit her mother, a two-day eight hour trip to central Kansas for a wedding and a 4 and a half hour each way - two day trip to South Dakota and back.

She says she's tired, but then, so am I.

We are planning to fly out to Vegas for a short vacation with her sisters and their husbands and then trying to figure out how we want to travel to Tennesee to see Sara and Jason. Of course, I'll be starting my community college classes soon, so some of our traveling will be limited.

In between all of the traveling we hope to see the grandkids as often as possible.  The doctor still doesn't want Barb to lift much, but he figured she can at least still handle the granddaughters. Ian would be another thing altogether.

As far as the cancer itself, we will continue to monitor, continue to do what the doctors and nurses suggest, and continue to pray.