Continuing to Improve

It’s hard to believe that my health continues to improve, but that is exactly what’s happening. Four weeks ago my oncologist gave me a complete exam and was very impressed by my progress. This doctor has been quite optimistic from the start but even he seemed genuinely surprised at my obvious energy and stamina. His comment that I was doing “better than average” was an understatement.

Last week bloodwork was drawn. My white count (immune system) is continuing to climb but the best news is that my tumor markers have dropped significantly again putting BOTH into the normal range!! It’s hard to believe that just a few months ago we weren’t sure there was much hope for me. Once in a while I’ll remember an activity or movement that I wasn’t able to do before but am doing easily now, and I’m sooo thankful!

In the midst of my joyful progress is the sad reality that not everyone with cancer is doing so well. A dear family friend recently passed away, another one was recently diagnosed and a couple others are in the throws of treatment and even hospice. I write this to remind myself that there but for the grace of God, I could be. Thanks again to all who have been praying.

With gratitude,

Yvonne

Good News!

There are so many good things to report that I thought another update was in order. Those of you who live near enough to see me in person will know how well I’m doing, but for those who don’t, I will tell you. Although I didn’t think I was doing too badly before – my interpretation being that I wasn’t in constant pain – I realize now that my limitations were more severe than I wanted to admit. The cancer in my lymph glands under my arm and in my breast were hardened to the point of not being able to raise my left arm above my shoulder level. The bone pain in my ribs prevented me from being able to cough or sneeze without intense, searing/burning, excruciating pain. Even laughing was uncomfortable. Hugs had to be very gentle to avoid pressure. Turning from side to side in bed was painful and Walt had to help me get to a lying position. Halfway through the night, I’d have to go to the living room and try to get comfortable on the recliner chair we borrowed. I had to curtail my morning jogs early on when the jarring movement hurt too much to continue.

That was then. About a month ago we started noticing changes. Turning from side to side at night without pain enabled me to stay in bed through the night and thereby get better sleep. Little by little we noticed all the above mentioned problems disappear. Sometimes I didn’t even realize things were improving until my family pointed it out. Miriam watched me laughing one day and reminded me that it used to hurt to laugh. Now there is absolutely NO pain or discomfort of any kind to deal with.

Yesterday we got even better news. The doctor said the PET scan I had done last week showed so much improvement that he took me off chemotherapy after only 8 weeks! I will still be getting Herceptin – a drug that works with your own immune system to fight the cancer, but instead of weekly treatments, he changed it to once every 3 weeks at an increased dose. To top it off, my 2 cancer markers are vastly improved with one of them back within normal range!

As you can imagine, we are thrilled with this good news and the speed at which it has happened. There is still cancer present so the fight persists, but it is great to have hope. We have learned not to take anything for granted and every morning I wake up and thank God for a wonderful new day. I expect that everyone who is reading this has prayed for me at one time or another – many have said they pray for me daily. What a wonderful gift you’ve given me. It’s very humbling to be on this side of so many prayers and well-wishes. What a joy to have much love and support. We are so grateful.

Wigs!

Last night I couldn't stand another day of thinning, graying hair falling out everywhere so we had a shaving party. My daughters, Miriam and Hannah had a great time cutting what was left of my hair into various looks including a mohawk and a punk rocker. In spite of the fun and laughing we did, in the end I felt the loss as I caught a reflection of myself in the window (while trying to avoid mirrors). As I left the room to cry Hannah followed me, put her arms around me and told me how beautiful I was to her. Walt & Miriam followed suit a few minutes later. It's wonderful to be surrounded by people who love me no matter what I look like!



Next, we began trying on wigs! Walt suggested that instead of shaving their heads in solidarity, that they all wear red wigs. We laughed at how funny my blonde daughters looked as redheads. The long, straight wig made Hannah look like she was from the 70's. The short, curly wig gave Miriam a "Shirley Temple" look and the short, straight one I wore hopefully looked "just right".

2 week update

  On Monday, the 18th I went for my 4th treatment. No chemo that week but they gave me something to "strengthen the bones". Said it would make me feel like I had the flu. They weren't kidding! Didn't hit me til the next day but was enough to be very uncomfortable. Besides the flu-like symptoms, there was also muscle pain in my legs. I finally took some Tylenol and laid down for a couple hours. Felt better after that. Very grateful the symptoms didn't last any longer than they did. This past Monday (25th)showed my white count was back up again - almost double what it has been the last two weeks! The dr seemed surprised at how well I've felt and esp. at my energy level being so high. I've also noticed a reduction in my pain at night. Main perk is being able to turn from side to side without discomfort which has improved my overall sleep. They added chemo back into the regimen this week but the dr said he may be able to take me off chemo and just use Herceptin if the cancer is responding well. He will run tests in a month.

Looks like my hair is finally succumbing to the chemo. I'm getting piles of it in the shower drain as well as on my brush and pretty much everywhere else. I'm afraid there will soon be rules for me like the dog who sheds - "Dogs and Yvonne stay off the furniture". I still have enough to be presentable but went wig shopping this past weekend in preparation for baldness.

In an effort to help me answer my email, my dear husband set up this cool blog site for me. (I'm still learning how to use it.) However, not everyone likes this method and some have said they have trouble accessing it. Plus, I fear that it sounded like I'm too busy or tired to receive and answer emails. I admit that it's sometimes tricky getting every email answered in a timely way but I like to try and I certainly don't want to discourage anyone from writing. If you'd rather get the updates in email form, please let me know and I'll set up something for those people who prefer that. 

Happy 50th!

Yvonne is dragging her feet about posting anything about her 50th birthday; classic denial :)

But here are a few photos for you to enjoy.

Walt

(Yes, there really are 50 candles on that cake. Needed a leaf blower to put them all out!)

Flowers from the Faith Academy class of '74

Sept 11 Update

I've had 2 more chemo treatments since I last updated everyone. Both went well - things are much less fuzzy since they substituted a non-drowsy medication for Benedryl which makes me sleepy. Second treatment went so well that Mom and I ran errands and went shopping afterwards. I was up till 10:30pm and still running strong! Today after my 3rd time, I'm a bit more tired. Yet we managed to get some errands done and I haven't needed a nap. So apparently nothing serious.

One drawback is that my white blood count has taken a serious hit. It's running at 1.7 instead of the normal 3.9 - 11 that it should be. Next week is a treatment with Herceptin only (non-chemo drug) so they're hoping my immune system will have a chance to recoup. Overall I'm still feeling fine and sleeping pretty well. Hard to ask for more than that!

We were able to talk to our daughter Megan in Manila a couple days ago which probably did me more good than any medicine. It was great to hear her voice and have her tell us that she is doing well and enjoying being in the Philippines. It was her 16th birthday.

Thanks for the many prayers and emails. I so enjoy reading each one.

Aug 29 Update

Just wanted to let everyone know how chemo went. It turned out to be much more traumatic mentally than physically. So far, no drug allergies and no side effects. In fact, other than getting dopey and dry-mouthed from the Benedryl, I can't tell that I've suffered any ill effects. 'Course it's my first go round but I'm still encouraged. Doc said I might have trouble sleeping but I slept very well. Not only do I not feel tired today, I feel fairly perky. So all in all things are going well.

Will keep you posted,

Yvonne

P.S. I highly recommend that everyone have a Port-a-Cath. It works so well.

Aug 28 Update

Dear Family & Friends,

This is the first“Update” I’m sending out. Since I’m still working on adding email addresses to my list, it’s a worry that I may have left someone off by mistake. So please email me if you’re not reading this so I can add you on. (How do I find out whoI’ve missed?)

I saw the oncologist on Thurs (24th). He is very optimistic that the treatment regimen will get the cancer under control but he basically said I’d be doing chemo once a week for the next 6 months to a year and then periodically the rest of my life. The first treatment starts this Tues (29th) andwill last 3 hrs. After that, they will be shorter.

Besides the chemo drug, I’ll be getting Herceptin – a fairly new non-chemo drug which works with your immune system to attach to the cancer cell and bring other immune cells to help kill it. There are side effects to everything, so more meds will be added to combat those (one of my pet peeves with medicine). I have a nice short haircut and a wig waiting in anticipation of losing my hair.

Some of you know I’ve been taking and even selling a nutritional product (Reliv) that helped my son-in-law overcome his horrible problems with Crohn’s disease. Unfortunately I didn’t understand that I still had cancer cells running amok so the minimal maintenance dose I was taking wasn’t enough. In the last 6 weeks since my diagnosis, I’vebeen flooding myself with this nutrition figuring it couldn’t hurt and there wasn’t much else I could do. My lab work came back showing the white count (indication of your immune response) was the highest it’s been in the past 3 years! In fact, the doctor’s comment was, “It looks like your immune system is working overtime.” I also have a friend who says Reliv helped her tremendously with the side effects of chemo. This is my hope as well.

As an anti-chemo, alternative, nutrition-seeking person, it is difficult to agree to this treatment. But for some reason, I feel at peace with it – at least for now. My dear husband also really wants to be aggressive with treatments from all angles. So our plan is three-fold: Determined prayer, heavy-duty nutrition (Reliv), and chemo with Herceptin.

Thank-you for all the cards, emails and phone calls. My wish is to respond to each one but I’m having a hard time doing that. Whether I answer or not, please know that I read every word that comes to me and appreciate the brief ones as well as the long ones. Your encouragement keeps me going when I feel discouraged.

Feel free to call if you like (some have asked if they may). If I don’t feel up to it, I’ll let you know or you can leave a message.

Thanks again for the prayers and support,

It begins again...

Dear Friends and Family,

I need to get this news out to many people so in spite of the fact that I’d like to talk to each of you individually, this seems to be the only practical way to do it.

Most of you know that I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. After a mastectomy, chemotherapy and reconstruction surgery, I’ve been followed by an oncologist and have felt great. Since there are no reliable breast cancer blood tests to go by, the follow-up is mainly symptomatic – if you have pain, it is followed up with appropriate tests. So when I developed pain in my shoulder and sternum recently, many tests were run. It was discovered that my cancer has returned and has spread to most of my upper bone structure, lymph nodes, neck and a spot on my liver. Although the doctors are reluctant to give a prognosis, it is clearly not a good scenerio.

This week I had a Porta-Cath (permanent IV line) inserted in the anticipation of starting chemotherapy in the next week or so. If this cancer turns out to be the same as before (estrogen receptive), then there is a newer chemo drug that is more specific to targeting it.

As you can imagine, this has been a difficult road to travel – one we had hoped to avoid. My personal concern has been for my family – besides our 2 daughters who live here in town near us (one is married, the other a freshman in college), our youngest daughter (15) is spending a year attending Faith Academy in the Philippines where I went to school.

Another concern is my mother who is still recovering from the loss of my father, and my younger sister who lives in Saudi Arabia and feels frustrated at not being able to be here to help.
Even though this has not been public news until now, we’ve already seen an outpouring of love and concern from those who knew. Those caring acts and prayers have held us up when things have looked darkest. We will continue to need wisdom as we face each new challenge.

In an effort to keep everyone informed, I hope to be able to send out periodic updates. This will save me the effort of repeating myself dozens of times. If you would like to be included on this update email list, please let me know by sending a short note to that effect. Only those I hear from will be put on this list so nobody gets extra emails they don’t need.

We appreciate your prayers at this time,

Yvonne (& Walt) Everly