Best Christmas gift ever!!!

My darling husband gave me a PUPPY! He is very young but darned cute. Still eating formula along with soft puppyfood. He has a white mark on the tip of his nose that looks like a question mark so we named him Ridley. The other dogs, Cletus and Maggie don't quite know what to make of him but it won't be long before he is chewing on their toe and they will have to engage. He mostly sleeps through the night but not always. Thankfully Michael takes t hose feedings during the work week. Here are photos: and a couple more Hope you had a Merry, Joyful Christmas! Wendy

Update and Christmas Wishes

Well the answer on the cancer front was kind of mixed, the good news is that the tumor on my thoracic spine cannot even be seen anymore, yeah! The not so great news was that there are more tumors in my liver and maybe one on my sacrum. Since the cancer has changed we will change also. I start a new chemotherapy drug called Halaven today and will continue on the Herceptin. Let's hope for minimal side effects with this drug also. There are still plenty of tools in the tool box to use. Cancer doesn't know who it is messing with! Of more importance I hope you are all going to have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends, celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus. Love you and praying that we are together in 2016! Wendy

Patience

Hanging out at ORMC today waiting to do scans. Things have been rocking along pretty well lately. I had a heart scan this week (routine) that showed my heart function was back in the normal range, yeah! Then some blood work this week sent me for new scans (which were due soon anyway) so here I am waiting to be scanned at 4. I seriously could have used this time for some Chrstmas shopping! Anyway at least you got a quick update. Last weekend Michael and I were in Pineland to celebrate his birthday with Chris and Gayle. Had a great time, ate too much good food and caught lots of fish. Good times! I hope this next week finds you with family and friends to celebrate the birth of our Lord, Jesus. His Love being manifest. Pleas remember that greatest gift. Hug your loved ones and pretend one hug is from me! Joy, Wendy

Home again!

Hi there, I got to leave the hospital yesterday after two days of IV fluids and antibiotics. The nurses at ORMC, Lewis Pavilion were awesome! My thanks go out to Chuck, Sharon, Nick, Faith, Mary, Monique, and Thu and others whose names I missed. Everyone on the 8th floor was kind and supportive. Drs Shah and Korman were great too and I appreciate the care. But I am so glad to be home with nurse Michael! A couple of lazy weekend days at home and I am sure to be right as rain. The dogs seem happy to hang out on the couch with me too. Just wanted to give you all a quick update. May the Lord Bless you and Keep you! Love, Wendy

I have a dang cold!

Well, it is more an upper respiratory infection and with fever it landed me in the hospital. I had a normal doctor appointment yesterday and BOOM! we are admitting you! Looks like I will be here a couple of days while we work to get the fever gone. Getting a couple of serious antibiotics to stop the infectio so I am hopeful that I will be home soon. Just wanted to let you all know. Love you all, Wendy 😔

Keys Trip 3

DON'T START HERE! Go to the first post regarding the keys trip and then read up for the best flow of the story. Now to continue, the following are photos from our snorkeling at Sombrero Light on Friday and a bit of fishing the last day. We caught over the course of the trip some nice Mahi Mahi, tripletail and ocean triggerfish. Much of it is in the freezer. The last picture here though is three chefs as we prepared mahi fish tacos! Yum! here are a queen angel and at puffer fish... a dinner plate size turtle and a friendly and curious Bermuda chubb... And finally Michael's big Mahi and the cooks in the kitchen making tacos! I hope you enjoy the photos as we sure had a great time in the Keys!! We are happy to fish and snorkel anywhere and anytime! Love to all of you and hope that all is well in your world. At the risk of boring you with more travel posts I will get some info and pictures up soon from my recent trip to San Francisco for the Association of Zoological Horticulture conference. TTFN, Wendy

Keys Trip 2

Chris and Gayle joined us on Monday evening and we headed out to fish and snorkel on Tuesday and Wednesday. The weather was sketchy those couple of days but we got some snorkeling in on Coffins Patch reef and near Sombrero Light. Here is a picture of Cap'n Michael and his hearty crew This is Sombrero Light Michael and Chris snorkeling at Coffins Patch and one of many Moon Jellyfish we swam with... And here is a beautiful jewel fish on Coffins Patch Once again continued in the next post....

Back in time to the Keys Trip

Hello Everyone! Okay I promised pictures from the Keys trip in September, so here we go (and this may take multiple posts to upload the pics. Here is our crew, Michael, me, and Chris and Gayle at Sparky's a great fish eatery at Key Colony Beach. Here is the house we rented and the boat at dockage. The first day it was just Michael and me fishing... Now I will go to the next post so I don't get into Blogger jail. Continued....

It can be very good to be a horse!

I just had to share this with you as it struck me funny yesterday. I have a 29 year old horse, Callie. She has a pretty good life as she hasn't been ridden for probably 10 years and her only job is to eat grass in the pasture. Every 6-8 weeks we need to trim her feet and it isn't really her favorite thing to do. So before she get's her feet trimmed she gets a mild horse seditive. Now yesterday she had her "cocktail" then got a bath, i gave her a hair cut and then the farrier, Bob Roser, came out to trim her feet. While she is standing for what is a horse pedicure she gets a massage from both me and Bob's wife Katy. Oh to be a horse! she basically had a full spa treatment! I should be so lucky, right? On a different note I will post some pictures of the week Michael and I spent recently in the Florida Keys. Of course you all may be tired of pitures of fish but some of these will be underwater again while we were snorkeling, so stay tuned! Love and Blessings to you all, Wendy

A beautiful if steamy September Saturday!

Hello all, I hope you aren't bored with fishing stories because that is really all I have to share. I can't imagine that you really want to hear that I washed the dogs and worked in the garden this morning. BTW the second round of black-eyed peas will begin to be harvested this week. I lost the okra that was in the ground but have two nice containers of it so hope for okra before too long.It is still very rainy and hot here. Yesterday we headed over to the coast to Yankeetown on the Citrus/Levy county border to fish. The weather was pretty much against us at first so we puttered around in the river and saw some great flocks of woodstorks and roseate spoonbills. Here is a tree with both perched in it to wait out the storm. I know they are small you may have to zoom in a bit. This is my Captain and fishing guide... And here is his trophy fish for the day. This snook was 38+ inches long and weighed about 25 pounds. The slot for snook is 28-33 inches in the Gulf so he went back in the water. I loved watching Michael cradling the fish in his hands as he revived it and it swam off. We did make it outside into the Gulf of Mexico and saw a lot of birds and bait but didn't catch anything. Still it was a lovely day! A big shout out to our friends Randall and Alison Stocker who are sailing in the south Pacific. I just got Alison's update and they are in American Samoa currently and soon heading to New Zealand. "Sigh" Michael and I are envious but hope the wind will always be right the anchorages secure and the fishing and snorkeling awesome! Love to you all, Wendy

Good scans!

hi everyone I do want to point out this post is within a month from the last one. Yeah, that means I am reasonably current. There is good news to share, last Friday I had CAT scans and they showed that all the mets (tumors) are stable or in other words nothing grew since the last scan. The doctor's call that stable metabolic disease. This is the first time since we found the mets in my liver that they haven't grown between scans. Yahoo and praise the Lord, our Great Physician! This is an indication that the new drug treatment is working. I love that since this treatment also doesn't make me feel sick. I really feel back to normal and have been swimming, biking and walking regularly. I am back up to speed at work as well. All this I am very grateful for and give appreciation to my medical team and then all Glory to Our LORD. Thanks for celebrating with me. I pray that all is well with each of you. Blessings, Wendy

Falling back into my slacker ways!

Hi there everybody! Wow once again I come to the blog and realize that 6 weeks have gone by since I posted last. I haven't been in a coma just being a slacker and not posting. But it has been a fun and busy siwx weeks. It was back to work after a great time down at Pineland, but we have still fit in a couple of fishing trips including one down off of Palm Beach. The water there is jsut amazingly blue and I love to watch the flying fish and the tailwalking houndfish and half beak fish!We caught small mahi and amberjack but nothing big enough to keep. Still it was a great couple of days fishing! We have also cleared out a section of the garden and started some things for late summer- more black eyed peas, okra and onions. This weekend it looks like the weather will keep us on shore so I plan on getting some herb containers growing too. We have had plenty of rain which is a good thing! Nothing exciting to report on the health front other than that I feel great, am back to swimming and riding the bike, and continuing the treatment with femara and ibrance with no side effects and good indications on my tumur markers in blood work. Big smiley face. Hope all is well in your part of the world. Blessings and love, Wendy

Shark!!

Here is a picture of a bonnethead shark Michael caught today. It was a pretty female and was quickly released. I also caught some snapper and a big grunt all of whom are going home to our freezer. It was another beautiful (but hot) day.

Tata for now! Wendy

The Fishing Life

Hi there We have been enjoying south Florida with beautiful weather along with lots of great fishing. We even got my Dad to come down and spend some time on the water with us. Here are some pictures of our fishing adventures and one beautiful sunset from this week. Here is Dad and Michael.

Here is Dad with a Bonnethead shark he caught today and me with a red grouper that I caught yesterday.

And a nice sign off for the day.

Sending you all blessings and love, Wendy

June, graduations and summer!

happy Monday and welcome to June! How did half a year go by so quickly? Over the past two weeks I have had two nephews, Bobby Matheison and Kirk Sidwell graduate from high school. I am so proud of both of them! I missed Bobby's ceremonies as it was the same day as the gallbladder surgery but proud of him for getting into the commercial music program at Florida Atlantic University. And this past Saturday Kirk graduated and he will be going to Stetson University. Wishing them both a great summer and then a fun and challenging start of their college careers. We are planning on being home most of the summer with some fishing trips in there too. If any of you are going to be in central Florida please give us a call so we can catch up with you. Those of you who live here are welcome to give us a call too! Love and Blessings to you all, Wendy

Life without a gallbladder is fine!

I am surprised at how much better I feel after yesterday's surgery. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise since they removed the organ causing the pain. Today I am still a little sore and tired but expect to be back at work Tuesday. Michael did agree that I didn't have to mow grass today even though I wasn't at work! My beloved is such a joker. It will be a quiet three day weekend because of Memorial Day on Monday. I will hope at you all have a nice weekend too and don't forget to find a veteran and thank them for their service. Love to you all around the world. Wendy

There is always a new wrinkle!

Howdy friends and loved ones! the new wrinkle has nothing to do with cancer but I am having surgery tomorrow at 1 pm to remove my gall bladder. It has been acting up since Sunday and it is time to get it out of there! the surgery is out patient and not expected to be any big deal. I will post afterwards (maybe not tomorrow but by Friday I promise). happy to have any prayers you can send my way. love and His blessing on all of you. Wendy

Feeling great!

Hi there everyione, Just a quick update that things are going very well. My white blood cells have rebounded and that allowed me to start back on the Ibrance this morning. Glad to be able to continue with the new drug and so thankful that I have not experienced any nasty side effects with it!! I very much am back to normal although that means I need to step up my activity level and get my butt in gear. The weather is perfect so no excuses! I just wanted to let you know that all is well and thank you for all the support over the years. You guys are treasures to me. Love you and praying for each of you.

Sunday and I am lazy!

Hi there ya'll, It is Sunday afternoon and I am lazy. Yesterday Michael and I worked in the yard and garden a lot. I am pulling out left over winter veggies and weeding the spring planting, oh and I also washed the two furry kids that live with us. Michael mowed grass and was a big sweetie and washed my car! Well here I am giving you minutia about my weekend when I laugh at folks who do this on Facebook. I guess the main point is to share with you that things are getting back to routine for us. The new medication is not giving me significant side effects and I am very grateful for that. After a few months on the new drug Doctor Moroose will order more scans and we can see if any progress has been made on the tumors. I must say I am extremely optimistic! Other than that I just want to say Hi to all of you! I hope all is well in your corners of the world! Alison and Randall are crossing the South Pacific, Dad and Arra Mae just got back from Holland, Vicki I think you are still in Khartoum and Cindy and Paul just returned from Canada. I heard this week from Jolly, a friend in Uganda which was lovely and hope to get to see Rocha from Thailand later in May. Check in if you aren't listed above but either way I love you all and pray health and happiness for you. Wendy

Happy Easter!

HE IS RISEN! I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Easter Sunday with friends and or family! We had special services at church and then I went to Dad's house with most of the family and had a great lunch followed by an egg hunt for the kids. Molly's friend Peggy brought her two little ones so it was especially fun to watch the toddlers hunt eggs and to see the teens being sweet and helping the little guys! And this was the second weekend in a row with great family time. My sister Cindy who lives outside of Boston came down the weekend before to celebrate our birthdays together (mine on the 28th and hers on the 29). Along with Cindy came her son Xander and we all tremendously enjoyed the visit. I am including some photos below of Cindy and Xander on the Wild Africa Trek out at Disney's Animal Kingdom. We also caught a spring training baseball game with the Red Sox at the Braves, had a big family celebration again at Dad's and Cindy and I went to see the new live action Cinderella movie in an echo from our birthdays as kids! Just had a great weekend. All is well with me. I started new super targeted chemotherapy treatment Saturday (it is oral medication) and have high hopes for it to tackle the cancer cells. And so far no side effects although it may be too early to say. Again Happy Easter and enjoy the photos below. Love you all, Wendy

Saturday evening

Hi there everyone! nothing exciting to post. Still just chugging along in treatment and doing fine. But I wanted to let those of you who haven't seen me in a while know the status of my hair. It is coming back as you can see in this photo. I don't like selfies but it was the only close up I had with hair! Hope you are all well and enjoying the spring weather. Love, Wendy

Next treatment and more

Hi my friends, Just wanted to update you after my talk with Dr. Moroose on Thursday. She had the foundation 1 study results from my liver biopsy to share. This is an assessment of the genetic mutations shown in my cancer cells. It also showed Her2neu positivity along with other mutations on additional genes some of which lead to other treatment options and some which don't currently. My doctor will be pursuing using Palbociclib,a newly FDA approved drug through my insurance company to continue to try effecting the Her2neu pathway. In the meantime we are focusing treatment with the estrogen blockers-Aromasin and Faslodex. Again I am glad to be on treatments now that have side effects I can live with! The study also referenced some potential clinical trials that may be available to me as well. So Dr. Moroose is doing research to determine if I am a candidate. Still seems like lots of tools in the toolbox! 😄 Love to you all, Wendy

In Between Again

hi there, Happy Monday to everyone! It is a warm and sunny day here in central Florida. The animals and guests are frolicking at Disney's Animal Kingdom. And I am doing well. The recent treatments for me included two different hormone pathways, one to block estrogen and one to block her2neu, another hormone that my cancer responds to. unfortunately the drugs for the her2neu treatment make me sick enough that I may not be able to continue on them. Right now I am on hiatus from them, so I feel good. This Thursday I will meet with the doctor again to discuss other options. Hopefully we can focus more on the estrogen blocking treatments as the cancer shows it is very responsive to that hormone. I will let you know more as I learn it. I definitely can understand that some of the treatments can make me sick but if it is putting me at risk for other health problems we need to have the discussion. So pray if you will for discernement to figure the best treatment tools and regimen to keep me healthy. I am definitely ready to get back to working out, swimming and bicycling! hope you are all well and that the winter where you are is enjoyable, okay maybe not so much for those of you in Boston! Love to all, Wendy

Lazy Sunday

Hello everyone! Just thought I should check in with you all. I started the new chemotherapy regimen this past Wednesday and so far it isn't too bad. It is giving me a little GI trouble but should be manageable. I did stay home from church just to take it easy for the day. About all I accomplished today was chatting with my neighbor Beverly and harvesting English peas from the garden. Michael is cooking a pork tenderloin for dinner and I will make little red potatoes and the peas. It has been a beautiful day here and it makes me feel guilty when I know my sister Cindy and her family are dealing with yet another nasty blizzard. Hope all is warm and lovely where you are this evening. Love to all, Wendy

The Next Step

Hi all, I met with Dr. Moroose yesterday and we talked through the test results and the treatment options. Have I mentioned how much I appreciate Becky Moroose? She is such a blessing and amazing doctor to be leading my team! Anyway we are starting a new regimen of chemotherapy that will target the HER 2-neu pathway and also the estrogen pathway. The drugs are delivered orally so I don't have to go to the hospital for treatments. They are still heavy duty drugs so it may cause side effects. Please pray that those will be minimal. Today I am feeling great. The pharmacy won't have the meds for a few days so I plan on enjoying them! Hope you are all well. Please remember how much you are loved! Wendy

Late again!

Hi everyone! I am delinquent again as it has been nearly a month since my last post. It has been a busy time with the start of the new year and all. Walt Disney World was busting at the seams over the Holidays! We hit all sorts of new records and still showed our guest a great time. I was still pretty sick through most of December but now am doing much better as i haven't had Chemo or radiation since before Christmas. Yesterday did bring a liver biopsy which was okay (it did hurt some afterward). Now we wait to hear the results from that and move forward on a couple other scans as prep for entering the clinical trial. Stay tuned for more information there as I get it. And yes I promise a post soon with the results and resulting treatment plans. In the meantime 10 days ago while on my way to church on a Sunday morning I was in an accident with a semi-tractor trailer. As you might imagine the mini cooper I was driving lost the battle. However here is the miracle, I was not injured in the least. The accident happened very slowly and so I had no impact against seat belts or airbags. It was pretty scary but I was in the palm of the Lord's hand and He kept me safe and sound. Wow and Praise Jesus! Since then we have been dealing with insurance companies and rental cars and replacing the mini. This past Monday we were able to get a new Mini Cooper for me to drive and it is very nice! I expect to enjoy driving it as much as the last one. Other than that Michael and I have been fishing over around Anclote Key quite a bit an enjoying the boat. The garden is producing lots of collard greens and the dogs are just as lazy as always. All is well here and I hope the same can be said for each of you. Love Wendy