Great News!

Hi there everyone! Today was a scan day. I had a CAT scan and an Bone scan and my doctor just called and said that everything is just like it was on the scan April 1. None of the mets have changed in the slightest. Lets all give a big thanks to the Lord who is in control of all this! God has been so merciful and I am thankful for all the prayers on my behalf. Now let's praise Him! With this news the treatment regimen that I am on will continue through the rest of the year as it is working so well. After that I don't know yet but God is in control. All is well. Love you all, Wendy

Farming on Saturday morning and another shout out for Alison

Morning all, Michael and I spent our morning working the garden. I weeded and replanted a couple of pots while Michael reworked two rows that we will plant in a second crop of cranberry beans. Later this week we will start harvesting black eyed peas. Right now we can hardly stay ahead of the tomatoes and the carrots, squash and onions went to good use last night in pork fried rice. All morning while we worked the red shouldered hawk chicks were hollering at is from two nearby trees. They are flying short distances but still hanging around the nest getting fed. And from the other corner of the garden we were watched by the bluebirds who nested in a old sycamore snag. If you look down the hollow of the snag you can see two baby bluebirds with mouths wide open. So here is the extra piece about Alison. My last blog was dedicated to her. Then in her blog this past week Alison included a couple of photos with her wearing the "suck it up cupcake" t-shirt we gave her and told the story about why there even exist "suck it up cupcake" t-shirts. I love her blog! Alison and her husband Randall are sailing the high season there sail boat Tregoning. Honestly Alison's blog is so much cooler than mine I am putting a link here for I you to check it out www.tripsailor.com/sailing-blogs/6087-blog-exploring-coastal-wa-and-bc-2013 I hope you enjoy it. From a treatment standpoint all is well. I have chemo again on Monday and the a three week break. Mid June are more scans. Oh and having just been to see my dermatologist here is a reminder for all of you to be vigilant regarding skin cancer! Love, Wendy

This is for Alison!

When Alison visited us a couple of months ago she got to see the newly planted garden. I promised to post photos as it grows along. So here is what it looks like this evening.There is a overall garden shot and then a peek at the tomatoes which are producing heavily but just starting to ripen. And there is a photo of one of the red shouldered hawk chicks in the oak tree next to the garden. I think the hawk family is responsible for very little squirrel damage in the garden so far. Hope where ever you are your Spring is going well and a big shout out to Alison and Randall in the Pacific Northwest on their sailboat Tregoning. Wendy

Doctors and Elephants

Hi there everyone, This morning Michael and I went into MD Anderson for an appointment with Dr. Constantino regarding the information from the last scans. Those were a CAT scan with contrast and a bone scan. The nurse for Dr. Constantino had read for me the radiologist's report so I was kind of expecting mixed news with some bad. Well that is why I am not a medical professional! Actually it looks like most everything that was seen in the original scans is either the same or has improved from treatment. The only challenge is we are comparing apples to oranges as one of the major initial scans was a PET and we don't have a repeat of that one. So we are going to stay the course we are on and in a couple of months redo the CAT scan and the bone scan to be able to compare apples to apples. Simultaneously and while much less scientific I do get to report that yesterday I swam for the first time in weeks and was very glad to be able to swim with no pain. I had done pulls previously (arms only) but yesterday I was able to do the full stroke and had no problem and even better I was able to switch to breast stroke and use a frog kick with no pain at all. That is a huge improvement because just 6 weeks ago I couldn't do it at all. I was so happy I was practically in tears when I left the training center. Yea! Okay now to the other part of my post title: After we left the hospital Michael and I drove down to the National Elephant Center (check it out at www.nationalelephantcenter.org)in Fellsmere, Florida. I went to take a look at how much space they have to grow browse for the elephants. We got the tour from John Lehnhardt and Jeff Bolling and I was very impressed. The team there has done a great job getting ready to establish the Center. The first barn is completed and they have functionally 4 paddocks on top of the 6 stalls in the barn. I am attaching some photos. Check the tractor in the shot of the barn to give you a scale for how big this structure is. Very cool that we could go help out with the browse production side.

An early morning

Hi everyone, I hope you had a lovely Easter yesterday. He is risen! This morning I was up and on the road early for an early appointment at the hospital. Starting the next round of big scans. I have a CAT scan first followed by. Nuclear bone scan. This is the first opportunity for the doctors to see the treatment impacts on the cancer mets. My instinct is that the results will show improvement. Those of you who see me regularly know that I am no longer limping and that movement is easier. This weekend my sister Cindy came from Boston to celebrate our birthdays together just like when we were children. It has been great hanging out with her and our family. Yesterday Dad barbecued his famous ribs and we ate like royalty. Dad really has the touch with ribs! Just wanted to let you know what is going on. Stay tuned for results from the scans soon. Blessings Wendy

Yesterday was a good day!

Hi there, I have been slacking on the blog updates. After the flu there wasn't much exciting to report. I pretty much laid around outside of work and slowly improved, thankfully. Unfortunately there are still a lot of folks at work that are ailing. Before I get to yesterday let me share a couple of fun things from the end of last week. On Thursday as I pulled in the driveway I saw what looked like white birds working a thermal updraft. After pulling out my binoculars it turned out to be glider planes from a nearby airport. Usually you might see a couple at a time it there were easily 20 of them. Very cool so I grabbed Michael when I parked and made him come to the backyard to see them too. After watching them a while it looked like they were heading back to the airport so we jumped in the mini and drove down to watch them land. There ,it's have been 100 different planes at the airport and we got to see a bunch of them land. There was a club having a weeklong meetup at the gliderport right there on highway 33. It was fun to see all of those cool planes. And then on Saturday we drove down for the Farm Day event at ECHO. It was a beautiful day and the event was well attended. We got to see many of our favorite ECHO staff and interns. If you don't know about ECHO from my previous blogs be sure to check them out at www.echonet.org So finally onto yesterday. I had a big schedule at MD Anderson with chemo, injection and a doctor's appointment. Everything went just fine and now I have another 3 weeks off from treatments. But I do have the next round of scans at the end of March. As my bones are feeling much better I expect that the scans will show that. I just wanted to keep you all updated. Hope everything is going well for you where you are. Enjoy Spring! We have the first tomatoes on the vine in our garden and that seems like a good sign of a pretty spring to come. And Blessings to you this Easter! Wendy

Wow! I can handle Cancer but this cold is kicking my butt!

Like many of you this winter I managed to catch a nasty cold this week. I certainly didn't mean to catch it but Michael caught it first and we do share a house and a bed. I hope to be on the upswing later today. I will just have to be tough and "suck it up, Cupcake!" Otherwise everything is fine here. I had chemo last Monday and now have a break all the way until March 18. That is wonderful, I just wish the silly cold wouldn't keep me from the gardening I wanted to do this weekend. Hope all is well in your world. Wendy