I am Cancer Free!!!

Hi Everyone!
I apologize for being so tardy in posting, but it's been a busy month!  We have spent the last three weeks moving into our new home!  We love it!!!
Our first night spent here was with our good friends, Janis and Tom Henderson from Boston/France.  They were on a West Coast trip, beginning with our daughter Jenn's wedding.  We celebrated with champagne on the patio and dinner, then we were all in bed by 9:00pm!!  It was wonderful to share this memory with special friends and now they will be able to relate when we talk about our home.

My last chemo treatment was Thurs. Sept 8th!  We brought brownies to celebrate!  All my girls there have been special and although I am glad it's behind me, I will still be receiving Avastin infusions every three weeks, so I get to see the girls!! And Al !! Special thanks to James, the receptionist!  Here's some pictures of them!

Monday Sept 12th was my CT scan at PAMF Mt. View Center.  It's the first time I have had any medical appt. that I was taken, the test completed and released before the time my appt was to begin!!
Tuesday Sept. 13th our new livingroom furniture was delivered!  It's beautiful and I promise to post a video when the pictures get hung.  Chelsea came for dinner that night.  We got a phone call that her grandmother, my ex mother in law, had been diagnosed with liver/lung cancer and she was not doing well.  Chelsea and I drove up to her home that night in Santa Rosa.  Annabelle Caltagirone passed away the next morning with her two children, Cindy & Gary, Chelsea and myself by her side.  It was so sad, but so peaceful and she didn't suffer.  Here is a great picture of her with Cindy, Ryan and Chelsea at Ryan's 30th birthday in July!

Thursday Sept. 15 was my appt. with Dr Chen for my scan results!!  My blood pressure was up a bit, but maybe I was nervous?  Also, it's a side effect from the Avastin.  Dr. Chen said my scan was clean!  WOO-HOO!!  I asked, does that mean I'm gonna be ok?  He answered, you're not gonna, YOU ARE!!!
We will continue in the clinical trial with the Avastin (Cycle 7 after this appt) until next July.  It's a failsafe and will prevent capillaries from feeding any possible tumors in the future.  I am a happy girl!!!
We celebrated with a picnic lunch in the Cuesta Park before my Avastin infusion, which only took a total of one hour with pre and post port flushing and 30 min. Avastin infusion--what a piece of cake!  Thank you to all my wonderful nurses at PAMF Mt. View Infusion Center.  After the infusion we talked to Katie, our clinical trial coordinator.  I asked if it was ok to say cancer free, she replied, your scan shows no evidence of disease, you ARE cancer free!!!
I must say, I have never slept better in the past week!  I am slowly gaining more energy, celebrating everyday how lucky I am to have all you wonderful friends and family in my life!!  I could not have done this without your ongoing support and cheering!
We celebrated Annabelle Caltagirone's life on Wed. Sept 21st here's a picture with my two beautiful children, Chelsea and Ryan.

I have joined the 24 Hour Fitness Super Sport and will begin some personal training sessions next week with a gal that has worked with cancer patients.  I look forward to rebuilding my strength and to be back riding our tandem bicycle next summer in France!!!
I will continue to update after each Avastin treatment and keep you posted!  Thanks for the love!

Busy is Good!

Hey Everyone, will try to catch up the last three weeks events.  Our daughter, Jenn Viksne, arrived during my infusion appt on Aug. 4th.  John picked her up after getting me settled.  It was so fun to see her and we enjoyed catching up on all the wedding plans.  Jenn and Chelsea had a ball together, as they get older, the five year age difference disappears!  We had dinner at our favorite Celia's.

Sat. I attended a Memorial for a high school friend, Johnny Schmidt.  It was like a high school reunion and we enjoyed sharing stories of Johnny and catching up.  My friend Karen Horn Cooper drove me and we ended the evening with dinner at Vivace with our friend Joyce Rolletto Faulknor.  It was so fun!

Sunday we had a small wedding shower for Jenn at Lisa's Tea Adventures in Menlo Park.  It was so fun to play dress up and enjoy the dainty sandwiches and different teas, not to mention the desserts!  Might be what's attributed to my healthy weight gain!  Afterwards, Chelsea, Jenn and I went to Stanford Mall and found her blue shoes and make up for the wedding.  Love my daughters being here together!

We enjoyed giving Jenn a keepsake necklace from us before the wedding and were thrilled that she liked it.
Jenn and John enjoyed a bike ride, and a couple good hikes at WaterDog Lake and Old La Honda.
I laid low a couple days due to fatigue.  Amazing how it catches up with you, but also in talking to my chemo nurse, she assured me it's a normal reaction at this point of my treatment.  I just slept a lot and rested and Tues. we were out to IHOP and Wed. we had a nice lunch together before Jenn flew to Oregon to meet her fiance Kyle.
Sunday John and I began our road trip to Oregon.  The ride through the Presidio SF was so beautiful with the fog layering the spans of the GG Bridge.  We stopped for breakfast in Novato, where else, IHOP!!  We had promised my nurse we would stop every two hours for me to stretch my legs.

We had a picnic lunch along the river in a campground.  The sun was shining and it smelled so fresh out.  I believe my senses for nature are so keen now--I appreciate the flowers and trees so much more.  We took the 32 mile drive through the Avenue of the Giants and loved the big redwoods.
We spent the night in Fortuna, Ca. because the hotels were booked in Ferndale, but we drove there and walked around town looking at the Victorians and enjoyed yogurt at a local shop.  We met two gals working at a boutique and they gave us a name of a great local Mexican restaurant in Fortuna.  We did go there for dinner and it was awesome.
After breakfast we were on the road again,  now speeding along the coastal route-it was gorgeous!  We picked up wraps at a market and had a picnic lunch along a beach.

 Priceless views!  The climb through the mountains to Oregon was breathtaking.  It's such a beautiful drive up Highway 101, you must do it!!
Following Jenn's directions, we took the 7 Devils Highway to Charleston, but were amazed at how rural it was, unpaved, gravel and steep grades.  We found out later we took the OLD 7 Devils, and that ran into the NEW 7 Devils!!!  We arrived in Coos Bay and after passing it twice, we found our beach house in Charleston.  We were really pleased with our choice and the view from the entire back of the house, including our master suite, was breathtaking of the ocean!  We saw a whale the first day!!!
After unpacking, we drove to the Casino and picked up our son Jonathan.  He spent the afternoon with us hiking around and we had a nice dinner together.  He checked out of his hotel the next day and spent the remainder of his time with us.
Jenn and Kyle's beach house was just across the street, so we were able to work on wedding things easily.

Wed. night was the Meet and Greet the Parents dinner at the Tide Waves restaurant.  It was fun to meet Kyle's family and see Jenn's mom Janet and meet her husband Ed.

Thursday morning we shopped for groceries for the Viksne Family dinner that night.  In the early afternoon Jenn, her college roommate Danni, Jonathan, John and I went for a tour of the Coquille Tribe Plank House and grounds.  Kyle is a member of the tribe, so Jenn will be a spouse of the tribe.  She worked for the Tribe four years ago as an Archeologist.  We visited the Bastendorff Beach where the Rehearsal Bonfire would be held Friday night.
Throughout the afternoon, everyone arrived.  Chelsea, Janis and Tom Henderson drove down from Portland Airport.  Anita Viksne Davis and our nephew Joe Byrne arrived from Eugene Airport.
Along with Jenn and her two bridemaids Danni & Monica, we had a beautiful dinner of BBQ pork tenderloin and London Broil, baked potatoes with all the fixings, salad, bread, spinach dip, hummus, sauteed mushrooms and onions and ice cream for dessert.  It was fun to catch up with everyone!!  My sister Debbie and David arrived about 10:30 that night and enjoyed leftovers!!
My son, Ryan, wasn't able to attend as he had booked and filmed a commercial for Verizon all that day and Friday.  While disappointed, we were thrilled he got an acting job.
The Bonfire Party was a hit!!  Although the weather had been foggy and windy, it was really nice at the beach that night and the huge bonfire kept us warm.  We had sausages on a stick, the best fried chicken and potato and macaroni salad, pesto salad and watermelon.  Dessert was S'mores!!!  And so fun making them yourself!  A Viksne tradition was performed that night.  John's sister Liga writes a song about the Bride and Groom and we sing it!  It was a lot fun and Jenn and Kyle were definitely thrilled.

I was especially happy to be able to stay at the beach the entire evening!
Saturday everyone helped set up for the reception.  Jenn and Kyle had changed the location from our beach house yard to theirs as it was more protected from the wind and better access from the kitchen to the yard.  I laid low that morning, but everyone else enjoyed helping with the flowers, tables and linens.  As my daughter Chelsea said, you really felt like part of their wedding by participating!  The ceremony was magical!  Jenn and Kyle had so many little personal touches throughout the day.  The fog seemed to lift during the ceremony and recede back so the photos were perfect lighting~after the ceremony, we were served champagne, sparkling cider and three wheels of different cheeses that the kids love.  It

was a chance to visit with people while the wedding party took photos.  When they wanted different families for photos, we just walked across the street.  The reception began at 3:00pm and was perfect!  We danced, the food was prepared by their friend Chris, who teaches at the Culinary Institute!  He even made an ice carving of an octopus at Jenn's request!!

The cake was spice, yellow and chocolate cherry!!  I ate a piece of each!!!  That probably again has attributed to my weight gain!!!  At dark, Jonathan lit 108 luminary bags along the yard--it was magical!

We later changed into warmer clothes and continued dancing until about 9:00.  We left the kids still partying at that time and called it a night!  They had a ball!!
Sunday was a lay low day, just relaxing.  We combined both houses food and Tom Henderson managed to make an excellent meal along with clam chowder from the Tide Waves restaurant.  It was fun to have all the kids for dinner and all that leftover cake!
Monday we said our goodbyes after a hike down to the beach below our house.  We drove back Highway 5 marveling at the view of Mt Shasta as we entered Calif.  We drove to my brother Bill's house in Anderson, Ca and spent the night.  We enjoyed catching up, seeing my nephew Michael, Angela and their five kids!  After they left, we went out for burgers.  In the morning, we had coffee in their gorgeous garden while Kathy made us blueberry pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup.  It was a nice ending of our trip.  We made it back to San Mateo by 2:30.
My doctor appt. yesterday was great, just a little infection in an old laparoscopy incision, so they have removed the scab and filled it with incision glue and I'll take another ten days of antibiotics.
Yesterday was my last "big chemo" of taxol, carboplatin & Avastin.  I had to laugh, they had to increase the Avastin due to my weight gain!!  Ok, I started tracking my food again!  It seems my taste buds are affected now and the only thing I taste well is sweets!!!  Chemo went well though and I now have the date for my CT Scan~Sept. 12th. and I continue with just Avastin on Sept. 15th and continue every three weeks!  That will be a new life for us.  We enjoyed the road trip to Oregon so much we are talking about where else we want to travel to!!

Today, we do the walk through on our condo, it's been cleaned and carpets are done, so we will receive the remaining keys to the pools and John plans to start working on some projects this afternoon.  I will start lining the shelves and we hope to be sleeping there by the end of next week.
This blog was a bit long, but so many fun things to share, thanks for checking in!!

Homeward Bound!

Last week was busy with more documentation for our mortgage~~what a process!!  I enjoyed coffee with my friend Donna Palmer, catching up and thanks for taking me for my blood work.  Deb, David, John and I enjoyed breakfast/lunch out at Mimi's Cafe on Sunday afternoon.
This has been a busy week, starting with signing final papers on Monday for our new condo!  It's the first home purchase in my 57 years!   We are sure excited!!

Chemo on Thursday was a breeze!  I am so happy that my medicine regimen is working to keep me symptom free and tolerating the weekly chemo so well!!  My blood counts continue to be good, so I am anxiously awaiting completion of chemo Sept 8th, my CT scan, then on to the continuation of the clinical trial drug Avastin for 16 cycles.
John continues to enjoy his bike rides, working on the deck here while I am enjoying shopping for our new home!
Friday afternoon our realtor Nonnie Dinges, delivered the news our mortgage had gone on record and we were the proud owners of 1139 Shoreline Drive San Mateo, Ca 94404!!  WOO-HOO!!

 Our seller now turned tenant, will rent back from us this month August, then we'll start moving in Sept. 1st!  This works our wonderful as we will busy with our daughter, Jenn's visit August 4-10, then we leave for ten days for Coos Bay for her wedding on August 20th!  We are so excited for all the wedding festivities.
Saturday I attended a tea party at Lisa's Tea Treasures in Menlo Park with friends Vivian and Laura.  It was so fun!!  The lunch was delicious, not to mention the crumpets, scones and dessert afterwards!  What a fun day with the ladies!

Thanks for checking in!!

Parties, Condos and Warm Weather!!

If I haven't written on the blog, please know it's because you can't keep me down on the couch long enough to write!!!  I have been feeling so good the past five weeks, I've taken little down time except to sleep at night!  Every day I have a breakfast, lunch or coffee date or specific errand to attend.  I have driven the car a couple times, but do feel more comfortable as a passenger!

To recap the past two weeks, we celebrated our son, Ryan's birthday weekend starting with lunch at the Fish Market after picking him up at the airport!  Saturday July 9th we had about 40 people here at the Shong's residence.  It was a great success, lots of food, drink, roaring fire in the fire pit in the garden, visiting with cousins, reunions and lots of smiles.  We loved seeing all his friends as adults now, visiting with Ryan's Aunt Cin, Uncle Mark, Uncle Gary, cousins Ross & Garrett and Grandma Ann that traveled from Kenwood/San Jose for the

day.  Our friends Rick, Judy, Elena & Jody(celebrating his actual birthday that day) joined us with flowers and gifts for me, too!  Lots of good friends and thanks to my sister Debbie and brother in law David for all the work and opening their home continually for our use.  Ryan surely welcomed in his 30th birthday well!  Sunday I spent the morning with Ryan and Chelsea going to IHOP for breakfast and running some errands together.  We were all pretty pooped and just enjoyed the day.  Monday we took Ryan to the airport, but his flight was delayed due to the fog, so we stopped at Starbucks and continued the visit!

The rest of the week was busy with signing the never ending paperwork/recovering documentation for our new condo, but now we can honestly say, we are homeowners as of July 29th!  We received our mortgage loan and will sign the final papers next week.  The seller plans to rent back the month of August so we will not take occupancy until Sept.1st.  August is very busy for us with our daughter Jenn visit Aug 4-10, then we drive to Coos Bay for the 15th-22 for her wedding!!
July 13th we attended a Genetic Counseling appointment with Tricia Benjamin NP at the PAMP Mt. View Oncology Center, next door to the Infusion center.  I had prepared our family history online ahead of time, so we had a long overview of the process to determine whether I carry the mutated BRAC1 or BRAC2 cell to pass down the generations.  We decided to have the testing and that would involve drawing blood tomorrow at chemo.  Chemo on July 14th was Cycle 4 Week 1 which is the longer day with Taxol, Carboplatin and Avastin.  Tricia was able to have Laura draw my blood through my IV port before chemo and again after chemo.  The results will be here in three weeks from draw date.
I spent a fun day with Chelsea on Monday shopping and tire hunting for her car.  It's so fun to just have that time together, getting a Starbucks and hearing about her work and friends.
We are happy to have some sunshine again since that foggy weather is depressing and COLD!  John continues to ride in any weather and always comes home with a smile after a good ride, even if he's getting tossed off the mountain bike into poison oak!!!  He's had some work done on both bikes and he spends lots of time maintaining his bikes.  We shopped and ordered our new living room couch, chair with ottoman and recliner from Macy's and they will deliver Sept 13th.  It's so fun decorating a new place!
We are asking for your prayers for our nephew Kurtis White and his wife Katherine, of Austin, TX.  Kurtis has been diagnosed with esthesioneuroblastoma, a rare cancer of the nasal passage and  he will have surgery August 4th in Houston,  He is in his early 30's and hopefully he won't require chemo or radiation as it has been detected early.  They will clean out his nasal passage and rebuild it, but being close the eye and the brain is always tricky. We are sorry they won't be able to fly to the wedding in August but we wish them healing and lots of love. We have special memories of them with us on DLB in St. Thomas USVI last year.

Yesterday was Cycle 4, Week 2 chemo, Taxol only so it was a short day!  We arrived and 9 and were home by noon!!  I love seeing all my chemo nurses, they are all so special.  It's a fun day, in spite of!!!
This morning John and I will meet Ryan for a quick breakfast date.  He is driving up from LA with another couple to be ushers in their friends Matt & Alison's wedding this weekend in Campbell, so we have a two hour window to see him.  This weekend we continue to look at furniture and ideas for our new condo!  When we close we'll try to post pictures.  The beautiful part is we are on an inner lagoon, so all our windows look out on the lagoon.  There are fountains that move the water so it's always a peaceful sound.  There are patios off the dining room, living room and our master bedroom.  We plan to spend most of our relaxing time on the patios!  I am so excited!!!!  It's not our Lagoon 380 but it's still a lagoon!!
Monday my sister Debbie is having laser surgery for glaucoma, so we will be turning the tables and taking care of her!!  I am so glad she is having this procedure done before it becomes more serious than it is!!  Please keep her in your prayers, too.  It's great to be with Family!  Best wishes for the summer and keep the warm weather coming!!

Happy 30th Birthday Ryan!!

Today is a special day for me~30 years ago I had the pleasure of giving birth to my son, Ryan!  He has been a joy in my life, and is one of my best friends!  We have been through a lot together and he continues to make me so proud to call him Son.  He is sweet, kind, very handsome, a good friend, a hard worker and someone you enjoy talking with.  Today he flies up from Los Angeles to spend his birthday with us!  We will go to lunch today and celebrate with a big BBQ tomorrow with his friends and our families.  I will post pictures after that event, but wanted to take this time to share this joy in my life!  I have been feeling wonderful for three weeks now.  A couple very minor infections that have healed nicely with the antibiotic keflex.   I had chemo yesterday, Week 15 of Cycle 3 and my white count is getting pretty low-in the 700's, but per the Clinical Trial, I am still able to have chemo but must be especially careful with infection or being around sick people, so the hugs are minimal these days but the love is there!!

We are in the mortgage process of buying our condo.  I don't want to jinx it, so have kept it quiet, but if all goes well, we'll be the owners July 31st!!  We will wait to move until Sept. since our month of August is focused on our daughter, Jenn's wedding.  Jenn will spend Aug. 4-10 with us before traveling to Coss Bay, where the ceremony will take place Aug. 20th!  Can't wait to spend time with her, too!  She and Chelsea will have fun hanging out, doing make up trial runs and we will love having her to ourselves!! Here's a picture of hte bike jersey she and Kyle sent John for Father's Day!

My hair is starting to grow, I've stopped wearing the caps (too hot) and I am looking more normal everyday--good to be back to "me" again.  Thanks for all the love and support!  I'll post pictures from the party later this weekend!  Hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July weekend, too!  Cheers!

Feeling Great!

So happy to report this has been a great week!  It has been a busy one filled with

shopping, dinner out with childhood neighbors, Elaine, Frenchie and Andrea, preparing for my niece Amber's surprise 35th birthday party and condo/townhouse shopping!!!

Wednesday I had my doctor's appointment with my NP Eva, she is wonderful.  I got many questions answered and was so excited to get my most recent CA125 results.  Here's the trend, keep in mind, <35 is normal:

Pre-surgery  1511.3 YIKES!

5-4-11              95.9

6-1-11              26.4

6-22-11            16.1  WOO-HOO!!!!!

I am over the Moon!!!

Thursday morning began Cycle 3, week 1, pre-meds Benedryl, Aloxi, Decadron, then Taxol 30mins, Carboplatin 30mins, and Avastin 60mins!

So far very little reaction, just trouble staying asleep if I wake up in the middle of the night, that would be from the steroids I take post chemo for three days.  My chemo nurse Katie said I've already experienced the worse in the beginning, hopefully nothing will bother me now!!!  I feel GOOD!! 

Amber's birthday was a huge surprise and we had a great time!  Love you Amber!

John is busy getting his road and mountain bikes back in rideable condition, enjoying daily rides in the beautiful weather we've been having.  

Hope you are having a wonderful summer, too!! Thanks for checking in!

One Day at a Time

It's amazing how wonderful you can feel for a couple days and then it can turn in a heartbeat!  Everyday last week until Wednesday evening was wonderful!  Actually Wednesday morning I went to breakfast for my beloved pancakes with my friend Lauren, and afterwards she took me for my weekly blood work.  In the afternoon, John and I bought him two new suits at the Men's Wearhouse sale!  Quite a switch from bathing suits, cutoffs and tank tops, he now sports two new suits, shirts, ties, belts and socks!  He will look dashing walking his daughter Jenn down the aisle (beach) in August!  We helped my daughter Chelsea move items into her storage--John helped, I observed!  We had a late dinner and shortly after I started experiencing some gas pains.  Unfortunately the pains worsened through the night, without relief from Gas Ex.  The vomiting began around 3:00am and continued with diarrhea through 5:00am.  Lastly, I passed out on the toilet and fell off hitting my head and landed on my face before John could catch me!!  Man, this is not fun!!!!  I really felt bad and after talking to Dr. Chen, my sister Debbie drove us to El Camino Hospital ER where we spent the next six hours making sure the fainting wasn't my heart and I didn't have a bacterial infection or head trama!!  All tests were negative, so either I got a viral infection, or because my intestinal system is so compromised, I experienced food poisoning where a healthy person would not!  I slept most of the afternoon and by the next morning, I was able to have my chemo session I had missed the day before.  Chemo was non eventful, and again I slept about five hours afterwards and enjoyed a wonderful weekend of sunshine!

Thanks Anita for more darling scarf hats!  I have a color for every outfit!
Father's Day was a gorgeous day!  John went on a bike ride early before it got too hot.
I went to church with Debbie and David.  John and I looked at another condo in Foster City and spent the remainder of the afternoon on the deck under an umbrella enjoying the great weather hearing from all the kids for Father's Day.  Chelsea joined us for a salmon BBQ and we ended the evening with a good movie.

Looking forward to a drama free week!  Is there such thing?!!

Farewell to s/v Don't Look Back!

I am happy to report that I am gaining energy everyday and that chemo on Thursday was a breeze!  We arrived at the Infusion Center for my 8:30am appt. with the first hour pre-meds Benedryl and Aloxi IV, then 60 mins. Taxol IV.  I got a wonderful neck and shoulder massage that actually put me to sleep and before I knew it, my nurse Peggy was waking me up to go home!!  We left the center at 10:30am--nice!!
I slept for a couple hours when we got home, but felt really good the rest of the day and have continued to feel good!!  I am so happy to have the IP port drama behind me and feel so confident in kicking cancer's butt now!
Thank you Kelly, for the fabulous tropical floral arrangement-made us feel like we were back in the Caribbean!

The past week has been so normal for me!  Lunch in San Francisco with Chelsea, my sister in law Cindy and friend Carole, shopping at the Stonestown Mall, too!  I got my dress for our daughter Jenn's wedding and a wig!!  My oldest childhood friend, Janet Bench Bell, came for a visit yesterday and we went out to lunch to celebrate her birthday.  We have known one another since birth!  It was so fun to catch up on all her sisters and kids and reminisce about our childhood.

Bittersweet though is the news that our home of the past four years, S/V Don't Look Back, has sold!!  The closing date is June 15 and we are so lucky to have such a great broker and his wife, who will pack our personal belongings tomorrow and ship them to us so John doesn't have to leave me again.  We are lucky to have sold so quickly and it saves us so much drama!  We have so many wonderful memories of our time cruising and thousands of pictures to remember every experience.  We will now start looking at condos/townhouses in the area as we feel the need to have a home base.  We still plan to go to France next summer and also plan to buy an RV to land cruise, but want a little "home" to come back to, also!
Thank you to my sister in law Anita, for the darling hats she made for me!  So, thanks for checking in, for the many wonderful cards I receive and all the love you continue to shower me and John with ~ we are so grateful!

The Right Decision

Although my side ache continued, we spent a wonderful Monday driving to Half Moon Bay with Debbie and David and headed up to Princeton to have lunch at Mezzaluna, an old favorite.  I was able to walk to the restaurant from the parking lot by Barbara's Fish Trap.  We had a wonderful lunch (more like a dinner) with dessert, but my side ache returned and I needed to use a borrowed wheelchair for the rest of the walk. It was great to walk along the ocean, and down the pier to watch the fisherman catching an eel!  We stopped at several souvenir shops and enjoyed looking at their sea glass jewelry.  Debbie bought a beautiful plate for her china cabinet.  We stopped for them to buy some flowers but it was the end of the weekend and there wasn't much left.
Tuesday night I enjoyed an evening with my daughter Chelsea and her three best friends and their

Moms for a Mother~Daughter Dinner at Celia's.  It was the first time we've all been together since Ginger and Ofilio's wedding in Sept. so it was fun to catch up!
Wed. we had blood work done at PAMF Mt. View,  then my appt with Dr. Chen's NP Eva.  She was wonderful and it was a group decision that I discontinue the IP treatment chemo due to the multiple side effects I have experienced.  I had been approved by the Clinical Trial to switch to the IV arm of the study so I could continue and start Avastin the next day.  My friend Karen Cooper picked me up and we went out to lunch at TGI Fridays, where we used

to hang out in high school!  She brought me a beautiful pashmina shawl blessed and some magical hand cream.  It was wonderful to catch up and it definitely raised my spirits.  My left foot was swelling again, so we headed home and I took a nap with my foot elevated.  We had a nice visit from our friend Nancy Anderson for dinner on Wed. night, but I did get to bed early for my chemo date.
Thurs morning we were off to the Infusion Center at 9:00am where I received pre-chemo drugs, Benedryl and the long lasting anti nausea IV Aloxi.  Chemo drugs were Taxol for 60 minutes, Carboplatin (replaces the Cistoplatin) for 30 mins. and at last Avastin for 90 minutes.  I

tolerated all well and thoroughly enjoyed a foot massage by a volunteer massage therapist!  My chemo nurses, Katie and Christine took extra care and I appreciate them so much.  We left the Infusion Center around 2:30.  I enjoyed a nice dinner and again, early to bed.
Friday was a fasting day before checking in at El Camino Hospital at 1:30pm for surgery at 3:30 to have my IP port removed.  I am so happy for this procedure and was reassured by Dr. Chen's visit to me  before surgery that it was the right decision.  He assured me I would not have any regrets but that it was not good to have so many side effects, so that was reassuring.  Dr. Lee put me under just in a twilight state, but I don't remember a thing.  They just used a local anesthetic and popped the port right out, suturing the original incision inside and glue on the outside!  YAY!  Also, all meds were given in my IV power port, so no extra IV's had to be placed!  We were released at 6:30pm and home to a great dinner Debbie prepared.  The only effects I felt was slight nausea, back aching which I expected and some flushing which I have meds for all.  I got a good nights sleep and today I am on my medicine regimen and just relaxing.  I think this is the right decision and I have not felt a side ache yet so far!  Hope it is gone for good!  My chemo schedule now will be the three chemos week one Thursday, week two Thurs. will be Taxol, week three Thurs. Taxol, then week four begins the three chemos, Taxol, Carbo and Avastin until the first week in Sept. when I will have a scan to see where we are, then begins 16 cycles of Avastin only.  Thanks for checking in!