A few pictures

Hi everyone --

Sarah left a few pictures on my computer that I thought would be great to share. You can see just how amazingly beautiful Granno looks, and how awesome she's doing these days.








Gardening at Vashon


Lounging at Vashon



On Saturday, Granno & Sarah joined my family, along with Jan & Tom, Eric, and my parents for a BBQ at my house. Then in true Granno Fashion, she sat on my front lawn with me & helped redesign the entry to our house. I invited Sarah & Granno at the last minute, and I'm so, so glad I did. It was great fun having her here.

Also, she told us that she walked around Greenlake with Jan & Sarah that day! She's just amazing.

Katie

Chemo #4 done - Doing great

Anno left the hospital Friday night and took a lovely top down drive with her son John to LaConner for a fabulous dinner on the water. Saturday she drove onto the ferry and met Sarah and Chris at downtown Vashon for a relaxing day in the sun at the cabin. Sunday was a birthday bash for grand daughter Alison's 13th birthday with all the family. Today is duplicate bridge!
We continue to be amazed and thankful for her fortitude. She loves the fitness room at Horizon House and keeps adding more weight to her hour routine.
Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, love and kindness.

Sarah

Busy Weekend & Return to Swedish for Chemo #4

Anno had a busy weekend:

• Friday dinner out with Jeff and family
• Saturday 8am - 5pm Lymphoma Workshop with Jan
• Saturday dinner out with John
• Sunday Mother's Day brunch at Katie's with the Kirkpatricks
• Sunday afternoon at Kirkpatricks watching golf
• Sunday Mother's Day dinner out with Boyds

This morning to her oncologist's office for a blood draw and to activate her port in hopes of starting the chemo earlier at the hospital. Checked into the hospital by 10:30. Chemo started at 2:00. She is feeling great and is all set up with laptop, cell phone and reading material.

More on the workshop Mom and I attended Saturday:

The Seattle Chapter of the Lymphoma Research Foundation put it on at the Sheraton Hotel just a few blocks from Mom's. It was called:

Lymphoma Workshop:Understanding Lymphoma Basics and Current Treatment Options For Lymphoma Patients, Survivors and Loved Ones

We got a lot of background information on lymphoma from expert physician-researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. We realized just how rare Mom's lymphoma is. The final break-out session of the day included a presentation on T-Cell Lymphomas. While there were probably 200 or more patients at this conference, when we got to the room where the T-Cell Lymphoma information session was to be held, there was no one but the speaker there! Only one other patient with a T-Cell Lymphoma came in so it was basically a private tutorial!

The session was presented by the physician that Mom has consulted with at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. He is extremely knowledgeable and a good presenter; it was good to get a refresher and additional background from him.

We learned that of all cancers, lymphoma is a small number and of all lymphomas, T-Cell lymphomas are a small number. There are about 12 variations of T-Cell lymphoma so each of those is quite rare. Even this expert drawing patients from a wide region said he would see maybe 15-18 T-Cell lymphoma patients in a year. A regular urban oncologist might see one every two years.

Mom lasted through the entire 9 hours of conference! I glanced at her from time to time to see if she might nod off but she never did. We had a very interesting time at the conference.

Jan

Doing Well

Mom is feeling well, exercising, has a great appetite and fabulous fortitude. Her 4th Chemo begins Monday. She spent Sunday and Monday at Vashon, did some gardening and relaxing in the sun. She is using the fitness center at her retirement home and is healthy enough to spend more time alone. We are so thankful for her progress.
Sarah

Resting

Anne did a lot Thursday! The Physiatrist is very happy with her progress and increased strength. Each day in the hospital she did more exercise than the entire chemo floor combined! Way to go Anno! Her legs are getting their strength back and she has gained back a bit of weight. She walked from the Physiatrists office home. Her blood draw showed WBC at 1,000. Low but expected and that means the chemo is working. She went to ACT theatre last night with her friend Phyllis and had a wonderful time. Today she will rest up to get ready for the wedding shower tomorrow of her future granddaughter-in-law.
The Boyd families (daughter Jan) loyal dog Max layed down and left peacefully yesterday and we are thankful for all his loving memories and he will be layed to rest under a tree at the family cabin on Vashon.

Happy May!

April 30th

Anno's WBC on monday was HIGH at 16.2 that is 16,200 per drop a normal person's range is 4,500 to 10,000. This means the Nuelasta shot is working really well which she get's the day after her last Chemo day. We go again tomorrow as we now go twice a week to check her blood counts. So far she is really doing quite well. Friends brought her dinner last night and stayed until 10pm and she was thrilled to see them and show off her new home.
Feel free to call her cell phone to chat (the Horizon home phones are still not working well). It's a good time for visiting while her counts are good and she is feeling good. Her next chemo date is May 12th to 17th. I will return to Calgary the 9th and come back the 15th.

Love to all

Sarah

Chemo #3 going well

Anno started Chemo #3 Monday the 21st of April - she will go home on Friday the 25th
She is feeling very well and walked 10 times around the 12th floor yesterday. Her Physiatrist visited her and told her the "drop foot" he does not feel is permanent and she should recover after the chemo. Her splint for her foot is really helping her mobility until then. The ENT came to her in the hospital and took out her stitches from the cyst surgery and it is mending very well.
Keep those great thoughts coming - they seem to be working!
Anno plans on getting strong enough to golf this summer. Any wonderful courses available?
Sarah

April 14th to 16th

Mom is doing great. She had her surgery Monday and came home Tuesday by noon. She is recovering well and breathing easier.
We are off for a quick trip to Vashon to cut the rhubarb and do a few errands.
Tomorrow morning Mom is getting her assessment done at the Physiatrist - Dr. Zucker for on going active physical therapy treatment to keep her strong during the chemotherapy. She is looking forward to weight training.
Thank you all for your kind letters, emails and support.
Sarah

Thursday April 10th

Busy day! This morning we met with Dr. Shustov, the UW doctor at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance who specializes in T-cell lymphoma. All 4 of Anno's children where present and he answered all our questions and concerns very knowledgably & in a way we could understand. He feels very confident about this R-EPOCH regimen. He spoke with Dr Fer after we left and agreed on some small changes for mom’s care and a few things to test.

In the afternoon we went to Dr Fer’s office and mom had 3 hours of hydration to help with kidney function. It is very difficult to drink enough fluids during chemo to keep up with the large amount of drugs in the system. Her blood count was good WBC were 8500. We had a long visit with Dr. Fer and planned our next few weeks.

Monday mom goes into Swedish for a minor surgery to remove the cyst on her neck and fix her deviated septum and chronic sinusitis (she can’t wait to be able to breathe!) She will be in overnight with IV antibiotics.

Chemo number 3 will begin April 21st.

She is busy watching the masters this weekend visiting with family. She is diligent with her exercises and looking into using the weight machines in the fitness room downstairs. She has a great appetite and no nausea. Way to go ANNO!

Sarah

A quick update

Just a quick update from the eldest granddaughter that Granno continues to feel very well after this 2nd round of chemo. I know that my dad, John, had dinner with Granno at Horizon House. Granno called dad to tell him that the "men 'dress' for dinner" at HH, so dad was to bring a jacket and tie. LOL! Dad said they had a lovely dinner. Dad also said that Granno is just so happy to be home at HH, and using it in the way she'd been envisioning for so long (meals, the pool, work out room, etc).

Saturday Granno spent the day at my mom & dad's house, and my husband Todd took the twins over to visit for a while (I was gone for the day). Dad stayed at Granno's on Saturday night, and took her to Barb's this morning. She was planning on going to church with Barb, however felt like maybe she'd overdone it the past couple days & took some extra rest instead.

Jeff & Trudy are home from Mexico tonight, and Sarah returns on Tuesday (I think). I'm sure there will be more reports throughout the week.

Katie