My Friends

I've only met two of you in person but I consider many of you to be my friends.

I have a favor to ask of you. My wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer, We don't know the details yet, plans are being made, tests are being scheduled etc.

We have been told it is treatable but they don't know if it has spread or not and we won't know this for two weeks after the battery of tests is done and they discuss the results with us.

She is obviously stressed out to the max right now. Best case scenario, she has 4 1/2 months of chemo ahead of her and then surgery and another 2 months of hormonal treatments and possibly radiation. This is what we are hoping for and what the oncologist is planning for. I think once she starts the treatments, she will be fine but the uncertainty and the dozen tests she has to get done in the next week are overwhelming her.

My favor is to keep her in your prayers. This is her second cancer attack since we've been married and prayer got her through the first one.

Will do Aragorn the power of belief and spirit is a mighty thing.

Aragorn, you can count on my prayers. Keep up and a big hug to your wife!

You can count on me for prayers too, Steve. My own family has been hit by the same type of cancer and I know that with the treatment advancements in the 15 years that have passed, that will be a plus on your wife's side, too. - Bob

Steve,
So sorry to hear that mate.
To help you and your wife absorb the current information and status provided from the medical staff, trust in the treatment regardless of what is offered. You and your wife will feel very low at the moment, and alone, but trust me, that will recede.
The treatment decided by your experts in cancer in the State, will target the issue directly, and I am sure like many of my family and friends who got breast cancer NOT ONE died as a result of what was on offer, as treatment.

They are the best the medical profession can offer as they deal with this everyday.
Good luck with the treatment, give her plenty of hugs mate, she will need them. Stay Safe.;)

Take care and stay confident. All will work out.

I really appreciate it guys. She does too. She seems to be in good hands medically. I met her oncologist, and he seems to be a good guy. She met with her potential surgeon yesterday and liked her as well. We are only 5 minutes away from all the treatment facilities also which is a plus.

Treatments for many cancers are improving and getting better all the time and so it is best to remain positive.

Praying for you. Another plus is that treatments are becoming less and less invasive as well.

All the best,

Bob

PM me all the info you can. My wife worked in breast ca research and I am in medical imaging. We will help with info as best we can.

I will be praying for your wife

Putting in my prayers for the best outcome. Stay strong, and my best wishes to you both.

the best medicine is a positive attitude. all will be well.

I have two sisters with successfull outcomes with no long term affects.
Your wife and family are in my prayers as well.

As per my PM, best wishes to you both. Chris Beat Cancer - A resource for healing cancer holistically by Chris Wark. Just one of many such.

Today starts the tests. Bone scans, MRI's and Cat scans. She has a total of 8 today. Tomorrow, she gets her port put in. She's holding up pretty well so far. Friday will be the day we probably find out test results. These are all to determine if it has spread anywhere else yet or not. Hoping for not.

Hopefully it will all go well.

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

Today starts the tests. Bone scans, MRI's and Cat scans. She has a total of 8 today. Tomorrow, she gets her port put in. She's holding up pretty well so far. Friday will be the day we probably find out test results. These are all to determine if it has spread anywhere else yet or not. Hoping for not.

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Come on, it'll work out all right! Think positive!!!

She is your best friend. I know you will provide her with your full support leading up to Friday and you will both be concerned about its findings............always think positive with cancer, together we can beat it!
All the very best for that, and I am sure everything will pan out well for you both ;).

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

Today starts the tests. Bone scans, MRI's and Cat scans. She has a total of 8 today. Tomorrow, she gets her port put in. She's holding up pretty well so far. Friday will be the day we probably find out test results. These are all to determine if it has spread anywhere else yet or not. Hoping for not.

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Praying for NOT and a quick recovery for her!

Russ

So far so good. She only has a couple more tests to go and they aren't finding any spread. They are finding other minor issues. She has arthritis and she has a benign growth in her liver which is harmless and pretty common. What's amazing is how fast we are getting results. Next day or even same day in some instances. She got her port in yesterday and is more or less recovered from that. She's not allowed to shower for two weeks so it might get pretty ripe here but we'll manage. (just kidding, she can bathe) They are doing a final test on her breasts tomorrow and then are going to double check the liver next week I think but they are doing that just as a precaution. They don't think it is anything other than what they told us. It's a mass of blood vessels, hemo something or other. I looked it up, a lot of people have them that are never diagnosed.

I'm glad to hear of the good report so far and we'll keep up the prayer.

Lots of love,

Bob

Cavernous hemangioma...very common benign mass that is technically something else but the name has stuck.

Depending on which test they found it with they usually use ultrasound, CT with contrast or MRI to test further.

And if you are at a large hospital same day results should be the norm. Most oversight groups require 24 turnaround time on imaging.

Most of my wife's test results are complete. They are not showing the cancer has spread which is great news. They have found a few unrelated issues that require some follow ups. She has a benign tumor in her liver which is common and requires no treatment with most people. She also has a small benign tumor on the outer surface of her brain which will require monitoring. It may or may not require treatment in the future but is unrelated to the breast cancer. This still is upsetting to her which is understandable. She has a final breast exam today to finalize the plan for treatment and a follow up on the liver in the near future.

The plan is approximately 20 weeks of chemo which we expect to start next week. Then surgery, then hormonal treatments and/or radiation treatments. Prognosis is excellent.

Please keep the prayers coming, they give her confidence, peace and security.

Glad to oblige

Keeping the line open.

will keep praying

Thinking of you both - sounds like the news so far is good. It sounds like she's in good hands, both medically and with a loving husband.

Take one day at a time, you'll get there.

You certainly have my prayers, sending positive thoughts, I know a good few who've been through breast cancer, including my mother and two friends wives, all out the other side and fully recovered.

One step at a time and push through the process.

Our "big" meeting with the oncologist was today to discuss all the results and moving forward.

It has not spread anywhere else, it is confined to the one breast. It is a little more advanced than they thought initially, early stage 3 but they caught it early enough for excellent treatment outcomes. She will undergo the same schedule I listed in the most recent post.

Chemo starts next week.

The brain tumor turned out to be nothing. Wish they had told us that Friday. They actually found it in 1997 and it hasn't changed since then.

Thanks for all the support. Our stress levels dropped considerably today which is good because I'm a stress buyer and I've bought more bayonets, canteens, machetes, entrenching tools, hats, helmets, etc over the last two weeks than I did the past two years. Posted some of the bayonets already. I still have a crap load of them coming in the mail.

Continued prayers for both of you and please give your wife our love.

Bob

Sounds like good for bad news.
Stay optimistic. God is the pilot.

Not such good news today. Test results from the liver showed anomalies they want to take a closer look at. This is frustration as they were made aware of her liver issues already. They diagnosed her with advanced liver cancer 13 years ago which turned out to be nothing but fatty tissues. It is most likely that this is exactly what they are seeing today yet they cancelled her chemo and are scheduling more tests. She is freaking out right now. Chemo was Tuesday and it took a lot of mental preparation to get ready for it. Now we have no idea when it will get back on track. I'm pretty confident it will, every other test she had done is clear and the liver is functioning fine.

I'd consider buying some books on cancer and how to avoid and ameliorate it by "lifestyle choices"; there are many such books published by those who have been there.

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

Prognosis is excellent.

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Very glad to here.

I would have thought they had done a liver MRI already but I'm guessing not. I am sorry for the runaround in the end it is better to know exactly what you are feeling with upfront.

We're they able to give you the info about the 'markers" because those can give you a great deal of insight by themselves.

They did a liver CAT scan, a liver MRI and a liver ultrasound. Now they want to do a liver PET scan. And a biopsy. It's ridiculous. I'll have to eat my words if they are right but she doesn't have liver cancer. This is the exact same thing that she went through 13 years ago. Everyone looks at the scans and says it's cancer. It's something they considered then to be very rare. It mimics cancer but it isn't. She wouldn't have survived six months back then. Supposedly, they will still do the PET scan even if the biopsy comes back negative. Why? They aren't sure of the order these are going to occur in. Her brain is clear, her bones are clear, both of these are typically infiltrated before the liver. Her lymph nodes are clear. These are nearly always attacked before the others. She had five removed back in 2009 so there is that. Her blood is clear.

She is clear!

That must be one confused lesion ..usually the MRI would have been good enough but sounds as though they need extra convincing.

Unfortunately at this point enough doubt has been created that they have to overdo it before accepting what the lesion really is.

It's an annoying and frustrating part of the process when you really just want to get started with treatment as soon as you can.

It isn't A lesion. Her liver is fully infiltrated with the fatty tissue. It shows up as multiple (many) small lesions. I don't know why it shows up as cancer in the scans but it did back then, I'm sure that's what is going on now. She is getting a biopsy done Tuesday and probably the PET scan next Friday. That one is still waiting on approval from insurance. Both are balking at this point which is odd because my primary insurance is non-profit and didn't balk at anything during my emergency and recovery three years ago. The second insurance is a state plan just for breast cancer and they were supposed to cover everything. That's telling me that they don't consider this to be a needed test. We shall see, the state got a 70 page outline on why the test is needed today. They have a week to process and approve it. I still think it's a waste of our time, resources and treatment time.

This is even more confusing as your description makes it sound like hepatic steatosis (fatty infiltration of the liver) and should be easily separated from cancer by the studies already done.

Unless she is trying for some trial medications or has some indecisive Drs involved I'm not sure what the delay is over. I will also say I have seen some Drs get hung up on something and require what others consider extreme proof before making a decision.

I'm sorry this is dragging out for you and her.

Yeah, I don't know. As I said before, this scenario is exactly what she went through in 2009. Multiple tests, each more precise than the last, all confirming cancer. Multiple radiologists, surgeons, doctors looking at the scans and all coming to the same conclusion. They even got consults from different hospitals back then. Only the biopsy cleared her. This time they even knew ahead of time she had a fatty liver and that this diagnosis was made in 2009. They said it is very rare but does occasionally happen with whatever type infiltration she has.

My father went through something similar. He had a lesion show up on a lung X-ray when he was an adult and his doctors began ramping up into high gear with multiple tests and a possible diagnosis of lung cancer, despite the fact that my father knew he had had histoplasmosis as a child. They finally decided they needed to operate and do exploratory surgery. Who finally brought sense to the process was a good friend of my father who was the foremost radiologist in the region. When my father's friend heard what was going on he asked my father to come into his department at a hospital before business hours at no charge. He checked out my father and his imaging and found only evidence of scarring from his childhood histoplasmosis. Apparently the doctors felt they couldn't ignore the imaging of scarring without fully clearing my father through all those tests and surgery... for liability reasons.

Bob

I pray that all will go well and you can resume your normal activities, I've seen enough of my family going south to last me until I go flat, he's had one go at me and I got hit but squeaked through, I remain positive your wife will be in the clear.

@Aragorn243. I hope everything works out for you and your wife. Mine passed away from breast cancer in 2019.

Opritve term practicing medicine.Stay strong.

I'm just super concerned that this delay due to the liver is going to allow her breast cancer to spread which totally nullifies any real treatment for her. I'm trying to trust in what they are doing but it's tough. I lost my mother to ovarian cancer when I was six. Totally unrelated and way back when there was no real treatment for cancer but still bothersome.

It is unlikely that a week or two day will affect the outcome. It is frustrating to wait but look at is a pit stop to make adjustments not a black flag to stop.

Some of these treatments are very dependent on whether there is anything to the liver or not. If there is liver involvement you are suddenly fighting a two front war and everything changes.

I get that but I'm 99.9% sure there is no liver involvement. As I said before, this is exactly what they did with her 13 years ago. They swore it was cancer then right up to the biopsy results.

The PET scan has been cancelled for now. The insurance companies will not approve it until after the liver biopsy results are known which fully makes sense and I questioned from the beginning. It is not necessary if she does not have liver cancer which I do not believe she does.

That makes total sense. At this point all they care about is that biopsy so anything else is moot.

Great thing we can have friends here we have never and may never meet. You have obviously made quite a few and it is obvious that they all along with myself are in your corner.
Thanks for sharing your struggles with us and keeping us posted.

My wife is recovering from her biopsy. Preliminary results are mostly normal with one they want to take a closer look at. The surgeon does not seem to be alarmed about anything. He did not think it was cancer going in, so far the only doctor saying that.

She thanks you for all your prayers and support. Just a few more days of uncertainty but it is looking good.

Good news so far, hang in there we are all thinking of you...

It is routine to not commit 100pct after the first look at a specimen. The staining process can take a few days depending on what is being tested for...so to speak.

Almost there now...

Yes, I'm still not too concerned. My wife is kind of freaking out though. It did make her feel better when the surgeon said what he did but she's still stressing out. I can't really blame her. I'm fairly tense as well. Trying to keep my mind off things and do other things. I had my heart check up on Friday and was all worked up about that. Everything is fine but we discussed what happened to me in more detail and that freaked me out. I figured it was time and the nurse practitioner said her father died of what I had, an aortic aneurysm. She said his was 7cm. I know that is large due to a support group I joined in November of last year. They are getting surgery at 5.5cm. I never knew what mine was so I asked and she tole me immediately that it was 6.1cm. So I then asked is she had all the info there and she did and printed it out for me. I was told by my surgeon after surgery that a five minute delay would have killed me. That I ruptured as they opened me up. I was OK with that. Got over it and all that. I now found out that I actually ruptured when I was at home. That was the tearing sensation I felt when I stood up. I was lying at the hospital chatting with my kids and the wife and I was slowly bleeding out into my chest. The first CT told them this. There was so much blood in my chest it was obscuring several organs. This was when they got verbal confirmation from me to transport me to Lancaster General by ambulance. In the meantime, they sent me in for a CT with contrast and that's when I lost consciousness and Lancaster General then refused to take me and recommended life flight to Philadelphia. So I passed out due to blood loss by the looks of it. Not sure why the surgeon told me what he did, maybe the tiny tear let loose as they opened me up. Anyway, it happened 3 1/2 years ago so it shouldn't bother me but it did. I'm over it now, just adds to the story. The thing that bothers me the most is the lost memories. At least two hours were lost including that verbal confirmation. My wife didn't even know about that. I will be glad when we get things settled Friday and she can begin actual treatment. She wants to get moving. We both need less stress.

If that was a thoracic aneurysm that is huge. Abdominal aneurysms (AAA) are considered huge over 6cm as well but thoracic is much more serious. Neither are a joke.

And after reading your message I would say that you likely had been bleeding and it had slowed...untile the surgeons opened your chest and basically removed the clot that was holding pressure on the rupture site.

When there is only so much space in a cavity and it fills with clotted blood..that can essentially stop the bleeding as there is no more space to fill.

We used to note that small framed people who had bleeds were less likely to crash than someone with a lotta internal space to bleed into .

Wow, didn’t even consider that but it makes sense. Oddly enough, that makes me a little calmer about the whole thing. It was right at my heart. Ruined the valve in the process.

Weird episode with the wife this morning. She got a notice there was a message for her on the hospital site. She didn’t want to read it, I did. She eventually said OK and then I couldn’t find anything useful. It looked as if the surgeon said nothing further to report but we don’t have the lab results yet.

We had a consult with the oncologist this morning, she does not have any cancer in the liver. I told them that two weeks ago but I didn't push the issue. They had to make sure. Anyway, she has some sort of rare condition, could have told them that also, but it is apparently harmless. They did send a sample to John's Hopkins for a consult. Her chemo starts Monday and after that will be every Tuesday for the next twelve weeks. Then she switches to a new form of chemo every three weeks. We are relieved, big weight off our shoulders.

Good news! We'll pray for a good round.

Bob

That's great news. I'm curious about what this mystery condition is though.

I don't think they know which is why they sent it off to John's Hopkins. I think but am not sure they did the same thing 13 years ago and we never found out then. She is healthy and doesn't have liver function issues.

Good to hear will keep praying

Good to hear. Hoping the next round of treatment has the desired effect. Thinking of you both, with all the best wishes.

We are both ready for something positive to happen here. It is amazing how fast this thing is growing I'd say about a centimeter a month which is why I did not like the delay. It also started making the skin on her breast red where it was located but that did diminish somewhat after her checkup yesterday so it could be partially psychosomatic. The doctor seems to think they will be able to shrink it considerably. Surgery will be in late September if all goes to plan.

The first chemo session is complete. She did very well. Did not and has not yet gotten sick. They have her pretty high on Benadryl so she's sleepy. We're going to get turkey dinners later so we'll see how that goes.

Great to hear good news.

Now we have another problem, not sure how serious it is. She has taste issues. But they aren't following the expected norms. So she doesn't want to eat but has to eat for strength. She was fine the first day but the second this just kind of came out of nowhere. She resorted to having me eat stuff she couldn't to see if I thought it tasted bad.

Normally it tastes like metal or cardboard but she says it tastes like neither of those.

Hopefully this will either pass or shel'll get used to it.

If food is bland it makes it hard to eat. You may have to experiment to find what she can taste and enjoy.

Imagine the worst sinus drainage you've had where your tongue is coated...then it's worse than that.

She needs a lot of will. Don't let her surrender. Keep fighting. We'll keep praying.

I did some looking and found some solutions she could try. Syrup being one. She had French toast with syrup and could eat that. She said today wasn't as bad as yesterday and she ate supper. Hopefully this is something that maybe lasts a day or two in the cycle and she can eat normally at other times.

I can relate some. After my surgery three years ago I couldn't eat either. The food was the absolute worst. I was losing a lot of weight. So I started eating ice cream, salads and fruit. Turns out the food was bad because it was bad. It was heart healthy food. So once I got out of the hospital I was fine. I didn't find this out until I had to go back into the hospital a month later and they wanted me to eat and I said no and told them why. That's when they laughed and said I was on a normal menu now. That was nothing really, I could just change food. She is stuck with this.

Meds do funky stuff to you. I'm on a combination, primarily for plaque psoriasis, that leaves me sitting at the table, scratching my head, having no desire to eat, even as my stomach growls. At lunch time at work I can't for the life of me figure out where to go for lunch. I just have to eat the amount required to keep me alive.

You have to think in terms of hiking or strong physical exercise. When I've spent the day on a long mountain hike I often find myself completely unable to face the food I planned for myself and often must use another day's ration.

At breakfast sometimes eggs make me nauseated but cereal (sweetened with Splenda) beckons. I have to eat the eggs anyway because they are a protein source and as a diabetic I can't eat carbs without protein to slow the release of calories.

Find a path that she can tolerate and we'll keep praying.

Bob

When I had Covid in Dec '20, I completely lost my sense of taste and lived on Ensure for 2 weeks. It's ~ 250 calories per drink, comes in 3 flavors and I actually liked it. Still lost 15 lbs during that time...

Russ

The taste situation is rather bizarre. It appears to have come back to near normal today. I only had a small job this morning and she went along with me so we could to other things afterwards. Our food choices were limited in the town we were in and we were stuck there because I was waiting on a background check on a Ross MKII project rifle. She picked Taco Bell because she and I figured the little bit of spiciness of the food would be of benefit. I didn't want her to order something she couldn't eat so I asked the woman taking our order if she could have a spoonful of meat before we ordered. I did tell her why and she didn't hesitate and got her a small bowl of it. She liked it so we ordered and she ate most of the meal. Turns out the woman's mother had chemo and knew exactly what we were talking about.

She was also able to eat a small meal she picked out, tater tots and beefy cheese or something like that and she just told me ginger ale tasted like ginger ail again so maybe this will be a two day a week event. Treatment day one, normal, day two normal, day three nothing tastes edible, day four can eat but it tastes bad and day five back to near normal. I guess we'll find out as this goes forward.

She can stand to lose some weight but not so much she doesn't have strength to function.

You might want to research salvestrols and their anti-cancer effect, as well as what foods they can be found in.

Someone won the Nobel Prize for demonstrating that cancer cells feed on sugars so soft drinks are not exactly beneficial.

Two steps forward, one back. We weren't expecting anything today, she just had to go do her bloodwork for chemo tomorrow. The doctor was waiting for her with news from Johns Hopkins. They do not like what they found. I don't think they know what they found. They want to do a battery of consults with her. It may be a one time thing, it may be an annual screening, we don't know. It is NOT cancer but could become cancer. So it's another round of trying to get approvals for testing something unknown. Supposedly, they found her test results from 13 years ago. Johns Hopkins might have had them. They said something has changed from then but were not specific what. Fatty liver can lead to this condition they said yet our oncologist has never heard of it. All pretty bizarre.

He was pleased with the results of her first chemo treatment and said he already notices an improvement. So that's good. Chemo also continues so that also is good.

She has not lost her sense of taste this week. Indigestion is not as bad either. The tumor feels softer and is hurting hopefully this means it is being killed.

The potential progression of hepatic steatosis (fatty liver) can be NASH or non alcoholic sclerosing hepatitis. Essentially the liver becomes cirrhotic due to scarring.

That being said I don't think it would be seen as an exotic or puzzling finding so it may not be the case.

But ready seeing improvement from the chemo is great to hear.

I spent Monday through this afternoon out of town. When I got home today, she was all excited and wanted me to look at her breast and feel it. The tumor is now soft and about half the size of its max after just three treatments. The bruising is fading, and the redness is nearly gone. I don't think either of us expected this fast of a change. We just hope it continues. She has nine more of this chemo, then 8 weeks of another type.

Continuing on the positive side, her taste this week so far has not been badly influenced.

On the negative side, her hair is slowly falling out and her nails are now brittle.

Not everyone has the same problems with chemo but the hair and nails are often affected. There is a lot more support now for those that have hair loss no matter how she chooses to handle it.

It's a tough road y'all are on but I am glad it is going this well.

Hope the curve is an upward spiral to good health for your wife again Aragorn.

Glad for the good news. Remind her that she's beautiful! I'll keep you guys in prayer.

Bob

Most of us love to come home to our wife asking us to look at and feel their breasts but this kind of excitement is just a bit more special.

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Originally Posted by mnmkeller

Most of us love to come home to our wife asking us to look at and feel their breasts but this kind of excitement is just a bit more special.

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It was and I was a little unsure of how to present that but figured you guys could handle it.

Today's adventure is dealing with insurance. We have Medishare which is not insurance anyway but we are happy with them. They won't pay if there is another funding source which they know is available in Medicaid. She is now on Medicaid. Has been since the 15th and it goes back 60 days. So Medishare is off the hook. But they keep sending these pending forms for bills and havent wiped out the annual household portion yet which they should because they stopped processing her bills. At the same time, they are asking us for information we already gave them. Again, I'm not upset with Medishare, they are doing what they are supposed to, it's just FRUSTRATING. They are killing trees and funding the US Postal service all by themselves with these pending notifications. I believe my monthly share (premium) is to be reduced as well.

I'm not worried about the bills, they will be paid for by one or the other, but I get irritated, she then gets upset which I can't do anything about. She still blames herself when she has nothing to do with it other than being the patient.

Fun.

I once had a medical aid / insurance company try to get me fired from a job after an altercation with them using a company email address and phone. Misuse of IT infrastructure. So I can understand your frustration there. Especially with the stress from what you and your wife are currently going through added to the mix.

I am glad to hear your wife is better and that is happening as fast as it is. It could easily have been the other way around.

Only thing A is to get to the letter box and filter out those pending letters but keep on track with what they say and relate to your wife when she asks about why there are no pending letters just say that they must have worked it out and all is good. The last thing either of you need is that stress, the power of the mind can have critical outcomes to a patients well being so filtering letters it is, anyway if your wife is like mine or any ones wife that is, I'm not smart enough to out fox my wife at all. Getting busted time and again for well doin stoopid (stupid) stuff and like Winnie The Pooh with a finger in the honey jar when all the while deny deny deny......
Keep your heads up and enjoy each day one thing if I am feeling off I go into the lounge and read the large wall hanging we have "The Desiderata" it offers a perspective and for me up lift.

Quick update. Emotionally she's up and down. Chemo is making a mess of her body. It is also destroying the tumor which is almost gone to the touch now after five treatments. It's something new each week however. Magnesium deficiency, indigestion, now blood in her urine. It has her on pins and needles when she isn't sleeping. She does a lot of that. Seven more weeks of this chemo.

C'mon Steve!!! We keep up the prayers!

As someone who has gone through chemo twice I can tell her even though it does not feel like it , she will live through it . With chemo you are basically poisoned with a 95% fatal dose . The side effects are really bad , and many . But as I was told , the alternative is worse . She will have some of the side effects for the rest of her life , but she will have a life . It really messes up your sense of taste , but the up side to that is you will end up liking things you used to hate . The count down with the doses is bad , each week just when you just start to feel a little better they get you again . Just remember , if you have not gone through it you really cant understand it . So bare with her .

Ok Lance Armstrong was a total prick but his book did give an unglossed look at how brutal chemo is. I have never been through it myself so I can only say what a nurse told him...it will get better and there will be a time where this is a distant memory. That does not mean there will not be times where she will say she can't do it anymore but the truth is we are all more capable than we think we are.

Arnold himself once said all that matters is the next rep...and when we can minimize our life to that next rep we can achieve and endure the unbelievable.

I am glad your wife is better. If the chemo works, great. Catching it in time, treating it, the treatment working. All positive things. Sometimes that is not the way these things go. And hopefully once done the cancer stays away.

I have a sister in law that has to go in to have a rib removed at the end of the month. Five years after her breast cancer.

My challenge is keeping her active. She seems to want to just shut down and sleep all the time. I know she's going to be more tired than usual but she has to keep moving. I'm taking her to a garden we are members of today. Several types of flowers are blooming and they have a display of Jackie Kennedy memorabilia in the museum. It's about an hours drive away at Winterthur Delaware.

An update: Chemo is progressing, her hair loss is substantial now. I encouraged her to let it alone until after she visited her mother who they have not told. She visited her Friday and again on Sunday. The difference between the two days was enough to wear a hat on Sunday. Her mother didn't notice anything out of the ordinary and loved her hat so all was well.

Physically, she is doing less and less. We went to a series of touristy places on Saturday, and she did get out and walk some but just seemed to want to go back to the car quickly and sleep. She also commented yesterday that she didn't want to buy anything because she was going to die and the kids would have to dispose of it. We had a discussion about that, I wasn't happy with her. Not sure where it came from either as she has been pretty positive about it publicly. I know she's depressed. I mentioned that before.

She is eating fairly well. Sometimes she just stops in the middle of a meal but for the most part she has normal taste and appetite. Son in law had Covid last week so grandson is off limits for a bit, this week anyway. Her work ends in two weeks for the summer. Not sure if that will help or make things worse.

Be tough Steve!!! Keep thinking of you both, and praying.

I remain positive for you both things will come good in due course just gotta hang in there.

Very tough haul. Stay positive for both of you. Know that we, and many others, are praying for you.

I'll keep you both in my prayers.


Bob

I have been keeping your wife and you in my prayer's thanks for the update.

Her mood has improved a bit which is surprising. She got the remains of her hair shaved off yesterday. I suspect that upcoming event was a big contributor to her depression which may be why now that it's over she's feeling better.

She needed a lot of assurances she didn't look bad, she actually looks a lot like a bald male friend we have but I didn't tell her that. She didn't cry when they were taking it off either which is good. Today she went back to the school and there was some concern the kids would react negatively but they didn't. They did ask the other workers if she was OK so it was more of a concern thing than teasing her or anything. Elementary school kids are more thoughtful than older ones.

Still little energy. We have two movies we want to see, Top Gun and Downton Abby and Jurassic Park comes out next week and I told her to pick one but she just wants to stay home tonight. These are movies SHE really wants to see, not me necessarily. I'm more interested in Jurassic Park.

Still praying. My wife and I have a movie trade-off going as well: Top Gun (me) for Jurassic Park (her).

Bob