Celebrate!! April 23rd more happiness in my life!

John and I had been planning on this before the "'diagnosis" - but it met with some snags along the way....  questions of timing and implementation which finally lost out to the need to act normal,  try to lead as normal as possible an existance,  not the the cancer rule our lives... and a tremendous desire to make US official and to celebrate.

So we Got MARRIED! Saturday the 23rd of April in Suffield, CT at the Second Baptist church.  A very small affair - just our immediate families - 13 in all.  Short and sweet ceremony with personalized vows. Then a ride back to the house for a dinner John insisted on cooking to celebrate!  Friends helped with flowers, dress selection, gaity and celebration.  Family all make it even David Jr who left Austin at 6 that morning.

I feel so beautifully blessed and still amazed that I John is in my life.

Here are a few pictures of the event.... speaks more than words right now!

Love to all and thanks for your interest.

I now face a few days of chemo recovery and then we are off for a week of honeymooning!

Another PET scan

 Last Friday was another PET scan!  It was supposed to be Monday but, like many others around here, I had a horrible cough and cold/flu.   I couldn't be still for 15 minutes..  The good news is that my reaction to chemo wasn't so bad-or didn't appear so since I felt so bad from the flu!

. So we rescheduled the scan to Friday..  I didn't sleep well.  On the way to the hospital we had a flat tire!!! John suggested I call the hospital.... I called UBER!!!!  I didn't have to reschedule.  John got new tires while I fell asleep during the scan!    Word back from the scan.... All is still working with chemo and we will continue!

Daffodil update!  A spring has sprung and it't glorious!  First batch is up.

Happy little faces follow the sun!  This is one batch, those surrounding the house are a bit later!   I am hoping they will all be flowering by the 23rd!

I am putting this and the previous post up late because..... I need to get this info out to keep you up to date... Because more news is coming of a different sort... Happiness... I needed to clear the info of medical stuff.

So great that Spring is here... New life everywhere! 

10th Chemo. Written April 2nd

One more treatment yesterday.... Had to come home from California and a wonderful trip visiting both John's family and some of my friends.  An India Indian wedding provided great entertain and an education!  

Here's a picture of the Deweese contingent- John's two sisters and their husbands, a nephew and wife with new baby and a cousin of John's with her husband...the father of the bride!  Beautiful series of venues, beautiful sari's and dancing... And lots of people.

Then a trip to Santa Rosa, Leigh and Greg Furda and some vineyards followed.

Here we are at vineyard on our way to see Leigh and Greg.  

A visit to Oakland with ELLEN and Bob ANSEL followed by a dinner with Ting - another of John's "adopted" daughters.

 It was a great trip which kept me from thinking too much about the Cancer.  Unfortunately, not completely as I realized more that walking up altitudes left me short of breath.  I really need to exercise more!!  Also swollen feet became a new symptom to be dealt with!  

At the Doctor visit for the Chemo I mentioned the swollen feet which led to the need for ultrasound to check for blood clots... Fortunately nothing found!

So we are off to New York for the last opera of the season!   Make these cancer thoughts go away!  

I am at the juncture for another PET scan in the next couple of weeks!  Keep me in your prayers.

Late blog and Early Spring

I have been quiet on the blog because everything is going according to schedule and there is, happily, little to report.   The three week cycle from chemo to chemo is pretty predictable now.  Nausea,sleepiness, gassiness, itching, difficulty sleeping, .... all take their toll during the three weeks.  A very strange side effect is that my palms, beneath the baby finger, goes through something like 5 days of itching!   No rash, nothing visible, just feels really good to scratch it!  I must ask the doctor!  Fortunately I have more than two weeks of feeling pretty good.  

Appetite change has also been significant.  The metal taste in my mouth, along with "fuzzy feeling" teeth make foods taste quite different and the appeal is not consistent with what I used to like - or like when I don't have the metal taste.  I still have a very good appetite and have gained 10 pounds since this started.  We must attribute that to John's cooking!  He keeps me well nourished.

John and I were not able to get to the lake house this winter because there wasn't enough snow for the snowmobile!  We were both disappointed, as was his son John who was going to join us.  The colors are so beautiful in the winter and everything is amazingly quiet.    We are hoping to get there early spring before the blackflies come. When I left for the last time last October, I was doubtful I would return.... But life goes on.   I think I'll celebrate!

  In the meantime we've been to Maine, New York City, Coronado CA., Vermont, and Naples, Florida.  We are headed to California for a wedding and more travel is imminent!  I know I am a very lucky girl - in an unlucky situation.   Got to stay positive!

Remember the daffodils I planted last Fall?  Some are more advanced than others.  It's  A little early for the daffodils to be this large.   Crazy winter in New England as far as weather goes.  Other daffodils I planted are not quite so mature.   Hopefully will have some time for the pretty yellow flowers around the yellow house!

I do apologize if my silence in the blog has caused any of more concern about me - know that I am still doing very well health wise and life wise.  Stay in contact even if I may go quiet.   I will try to be more consistent - every two weeks?   We will see.

Love to all.  Enjoy the Spring- you know I will be!  Rebirth and hope.

Suzan's labyrinth

Since the beginning of MY journey with this disease, I have had the support of many friends.  All your cards, notes, emails, calls, and even viits have been most encouraging!   

I am singled out one particular support story because I think you will like it.  SUSIE ZEDER is a writer,  by profession but also by an amazing gift.   She was obviously gifted in High School and the gift has been nurtured, grown, shared, and inspired many.   When shel learned I had Cancer, she had 5 other friends as well.   She committed to walking her labyrinth,  invoking our names,  and seeking a WORD of inspiration, strength, or just what we might need to know.   More people have been added, and fortunately theatres have continued.   I will give you a sampling.  

Here is her first word from the labyrinth

Dearest Legion of Ladies!

I did not get to the labyrinth yesterday because we were supposed to go to my sister’s for Turkey day and at the very last minute her oven went kaput  and everything had to be moved here.  So it was a culinary ballet of flying pots and pans and sauces splashing, culminating with my browning the marshmallows on top of the yams with a blow torch because there wasn’t a free spot in the oven. But we all survived, except the turkey who was a nobel bird raised by local turkey farmer dedicated to providing his free ranging turkeys with the highest possible quality of life before T’day. His motto is “All Turkeys die, but not many of them truly live!.”  I like the “truly live part” and I think it a great way to start my words to you from the labyrinth in the spirit of the mantra of “truly living.”

So I went the the labyrinth this morning, a blustery, chilly morning with snow flurries racing about and a wind chill that sliced through the open air like a paper cut! I stood there overlooking the mountains that seemed a chilly blue themselves, even the sky seemed cold. I evoked each of your names and dedicated the walk to you and asked for a word. It came about 3/4 of the way through my trek, on the homeward lap… Perseverance!  Now it may have been the weather, but one simply can’t deny a word from the labyrinth!  

In walking the labyrinth,perseverance is putting one foot in front of the other and trusting that the path will take you out…or in, depending on where you are in your journey.  On the way in it takes you to the center, but the path is never a straight one, it loops and turns back on itself, and just when you think you are getting to the heart of the labyrinth, it swings you outward again, but eventually you get there. The same is true with the path on the way out, you never think it is going to be over and then it is…. so whether you are on your way in or on your way out of the labyrinth, all you really have is just that one step, and then the next, and then the next!

So I am sending each of you love and healing thoughts, whether you are on the way in or on the way out of this part of your journey. Each step holds a different experience, each step is hard  and each step is precious because it lead to the next one and the next… I hope your steps today are peaceful and filled with the abundance of Thanksgiving.  I give thanks every day that each of you are in my life!

Suzan

This next word really got to my as my instinct to run away was strong.    I hope you enjoy it as much as I did... I cry when I read it out loud!!!

Dearest Legion!

It was 19 degrees when I walked this morning, ground frozen with a slight sheen of ice crystals and my breath a cloud of silver. Zack accompanied me, but knew not to enter the labyrinth….no dogs allowed inside, so he hunkered down at the entrance, but did not lie down paw over paw feigning disinterest as he usually does.  I was soon to discover why. He sat bolt upright, alert, ears pricked…

So I started walking as the sun spread a buttery glow over the rocks bringing them to life one by one. A few words flitted through my mind, as quick as the sparrows peppering the bird feeders.   The first word was ”breath", no doubt inspired by the frozen puffs from my nostrils. Another word, “wholeness", which came to jim on his walk, but that was his word for you, not mine. Finally when I got to the very center of the labyrinth, where words usually wait for me to catch up to them, I heard it. A sharp piercing sound followed by a cacophony of yips, yaps and yelps, somewhere between terror and ecstasy, shattering the silence, tearing through the air: A choir of coyotes in full throated pursuit of their breakfast, lots of them, much too close, many too many, seemingly circling us in the arroyo  below us just out of sight!  Their cries were ragged with wildness!

Zack lurched in their direction, about to bolt.  “STAY!” I barked.  I made eye contact and held it. He sat back down, every muscle quivering. The chorus continued, circling and circling. I resisted the impulse to leap out of the labyrinth, grab Zack by the scruff of the neck and escape down the path back to the house.  Instead I stayed put, holding eye contact, saying over and over again… in my calmest voice, “Stay, stay, stay” …and stay he did.  Only the strength of my tone and the leash of my voice held him in the place where he was safe.  Every animal cell in his body called him to race in the direction of the wildness , chasing,  or following, or blindly heading into the trap of the pack.  Slowly I backed out the the labyrinth, following the circuitous route in reverse, keeping eye contact, saying over and over….”Stay, stay, stay, stay!  In a suspended moment of the triumph of domestication over instinct,  he stayed put until I reached him and patted his head.  The spell was broken and we walked quietly together  to the house without looking back, just as Jim was headed out the back door to see if we had lost our minds.  The coyotes continued wailing in vain, their power broken, their cries now hollow.

So, the word for today is Stay.

STAY, when the wildness of fear is everywhere in the air.  Stay, when despair and danger beckons.  Stay, when instinct bids you to fly into the very place that can do you the most damage.  

My wish for each of you today is tostay in that safe place within you, a place so deep that the wildness cannot touch you.

Be well!

Suzan 

Please know all your support sustains me the rough this fight and journey

Jan

Pet Scan

Anxiety was higher than usual for me before this Pet scan.   I don't know why , exactly,  but I think having had a great weekend in Naples with JENNY and Mike Field followed by a Tuesday visit with Dale Cullum from Dallas,  I had much to be thankful for and little time to ponder!  So 24 hours of anxiety was concentrated together.

Good news continues!   The Dr. Called Thursday morning and said the scan was "very, very favorable."  We will continue on the same track for another nine weeks.  I am writing this while waiting for the next treatment!  John is with me.

Here is a picture of me and Jenny... We've come a long way since GA days.

And a selfie with Dale

Labyrinth still coming!

Update of David

As far as me,  

Many of the f you have asked how DAVE is donning, so I asked him to write.  He was happy to, and I hope you enjoy and appreciate his progress since June 20th.  

Hi everyone…Jan invited me to post on her spot a David E. Anderson update in my own words…so here goes an autobiographical effort which will fall far short of those gifted works composed by John Adams and other notables.

I spent a large amount of 2015 as a guest of St. Francis Hospital and its auxiliary institution, St. Francis/MT. Sinai rehabilitation.  Both places are in Hartford. I suspect; however, that my illnesses began a good deal sooner than they were diagnosed.  Since the fall of 2014, I had been really dragging and suffering with back aches; thus in the first half of 2015, I had made several visits to my GP (4), Cardiologist (2), Neurosurgeon (1), and back specialist (1), plus many sessions in physical therapy, all in search of a diagnosis and/or means to jump start this old wreck. 

The bad good news bad news came to me all on July 20.  First an early morning call from my GP stating that the most recent blood scan showed an alarmingly low hemoglobin count and that I was to report to an emergency room immediately.Coincidently, Jan called to check up on me right then.  After I allowed that I had to drive myself to the hospital, she stated that was not going to happen and that she would take me.  Sit tight was the word; she arrived in short order. 

For a variety of reasons, I decided we should go to St. Francis. At the emergency room after no wait and super quick analytical tests, the probable situation was stated to be 3 compressed vertebrae (which I knew about), exacerbated by multiple myeloma (bone cancer), and kidney malfunction brought about most probably, by the bone cancer which was giving all forms of red and white cell production instructions.  After I somewhat cheekily asked the neurologist why he was bothering, the doctor said all was not lost, to hold on tight and that we would see what progress could be made.

With the bolstering of old friends, family, great people at Home Depot, and doctors, progress we have made.  After leaving St. Francis on October 23, quite a stay huh, I have been rehabilitating under the care of my good sister Janet and her husband, Dan.  The sons Anderson have made several visits back east and have been, individually and collectively, sources of great comfort.  In fact, I think this past Christmas spentmainly with David, Tyler, John, Will, and Will’s spouse, KA,was the most peaceful and fulfilling a holiday I have ever had.As a further note about food and company, past Christmas eves I usually contributed something to the meal, my sister Janet always having been the mainstay.  This year she did most everything, hosting a very tasty smorgasbord; the following day we all joined Janet’s in laws, Debbie and Donald Platz, for a super Christmas day meal and gathering at their home.

These days, I am getting around with the assistance of a cane and/or walker.  My reliance on oxygen tanks to produce hemoglobin and energy is greatly reduced and the doctor is weaning me from that support over the next couple of weeks.  I am not driving but hope a decreased reliance on pain medications will allow me to do so in the next few months.  All and all, things are looking up. and strangely enough, when viewed from some of the earlier- in- life perspectives which were held so strongly by me, I have much for which to be thankful.

Should the moment strike you I can be reached at 860-214-5349; deawlpro@gmail.com; 202 Skinner Hill Road Coventry, CT 06238

 

As for me,  I am keeping busy and as preoccupied as I can be to not think about the upcoming PET scan on Wednesday.   John and I are in Naples, Fla. For the weekend with deer friends from way back.... Like High School.   

JENNY Field!

We head home tomorrow but it's great to be away from the cold!   

I know I promised labyrinth stories... But that will come.

Meanwhile,  Happy Valentines Day.