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Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa. I have been publishing every week right after Gay's taxol treatment but I decided to wait this time. She had some friends over RIGHT after the treatment, played golf the past three days in 90 degree weather and shows absolutely NO signs of ANY side effects. She wears this white long sleeve shirt with a sunscreen equivalent of about sixty while playing golf and has this Katherine Hepburn look out there. I had a physical myself today and asked if Gay might be getting "ladies tee" doses (forgive me for using that term). He told me that she's getting the full dose and is "just tough"! We just hope it isn't cumulative and her treatments keep going well.
We have just been overwhelmed with the support of our friends. Our mail person Patti Jo (only in North Carolina) asked me yesterday if someone was having a birthday because of the incredible volume of cards and letters. We have been getting meals, cookies, breads and even ice cream from the dear local folks and even Omaha steaks from afar. Beautiful cut flowers are all over the house! Gay's treatment center is cold enough to hang meat and someone brought over a shawl to keep her warm there. Talk about a wonderful group of friends! We are blessed with you all.
I mentioned your humble scribe had a physical today. Things went well but I was told in no uncertain terms to lose weight or grow taller. I guess I have to keep out of all of those inbound cookies!
We returned from our family reunion in Pawley's Island on Sunday (That's Gay with our four grandchildren) and she had her second chemo treatment yesterday. I'm pleased to report that she fell asleep right after the chemo and left the house at 7:30 this morning to play golf of all things! Its supposed to hit a 100 today so I hope she'll be able to handle the heat OK. As the man said passing each floor after jumping off a building "so far so good"!
The family reunion was great and it was a good time for everyone to rally around Gay in person. We finally told Grand Mary and she took the news pretty hard but she's a trooper like her daughter (albeit a 92 year old one)! The kids were wonderful both with Gay and her Mother and the week just flew by. If you look closely, you'll notice a lime green family reunion theme (picked out by Grand Mary). We also had a family golf tournament (Gay was on the winning team....I wasn't) and she hit the ball well. She doesn't belong on the red tees but I won't go there now!
I'll enclose that picture of Gay with the kids (three days after the first chemo treatment) and a rather interesting lie we found at the Caledonia Golf Course. I imagine that ball is still there!
Again we sincerely thank you for all of your support. We couldn't get through this without you.
Today is the first of Gay's twelve chemo treatments. Her oncologist, the eminent Dr. Doogie Hauser, has decided that the drug Taxol would be the best means of attacking her cancer. Taxol is derived from a plant (latin name.....Zealous Whackacellus) which literally means "attacks all". This stuff will be dripped into her port and will meander through her veins, arteries, corpuscles etc. It will then attempt to attack cancer cells (good) but will also attack weaker cells like hair (not so good). The possibilities are such that Gay might be joining the other follicly challenged member of the Strojny household. She has stated that she will not wear a wig so hats will be the style around here.
Last evening we went to dinner after golf and were totally surprised by a bunch of wonderful Pinewild women who had been working on this "Hug" quilt for over a month. It's so incredibly beautiful and it's a shame you can't read all of the kind thoughts these gals sewed into it. Even your humble correspondent got a little misty with this generous gesture.
As I write this, Gay is over at the Cancer Clinic starting the battle of her life. She is certainly ready for each and every skirmish in this war and we welcome all of your support. Look up "tough" in the dictionary. Gay's picture is there.
Gay's back and looking great. After dinner and a few minutes of berating me for numerous things (which I richly deserve) I realized that things are pretty close to normal around here. She's sleeping now and deserves every minute of rest. Now I'll try to get some too.
We left the house at 6:45 this morning and arrived at the marvelous Pinehurst hospital at 7. I guess there's something about golf courses luring doctors as this is quite a facility. The purpose of this trip was minor surgery for Gay called a port insertion. I don't know about you but I personally prefer a "Port insertion" after a fine dinner!
The port has been inserted to facilitate chemo dosing, blood withdrawal and changing her oil. It really is a neat device just under the skin and makes all of these procedures so much easier on her veins. They put her into a semi-sleep and it looks like the insertion went well. I did a little reading while Gay snored away the sleepy drug and they let us go about two hours later. She's pretty sore right now and has some limitations she just doesn't like. These include no swimming for ten days, no golf for a week and absolutely no heavy lifting. There's also a "no alcohol" clause so I'll have to take up the slack.
The chemo starts next Monday and I'll be back for a status report then. Again thanks so much for all of your kind comments. We both enjoy them and they give us strength and determination. The photo on the left is yet another candle for Gay lit by a dear friend at the Notre Dame Grotto. We ain't kidding around here!
Happy Fourth of July! We've had some friends who are still having difficulty posting comments. At the end of each post (such as this one) there is a "Posted by Gay Strojny etc. with a time and a comment counter. This is where you can leave your own comments. Just click on "__comments" and it will take you to a page with all of the comments on that particular post. There's a prompt that says "Jump to Comment Form" and you can simply add your comment there (again to that particular post or in general). You can also scroll down through the comments and you'll find the "Leave your Comment" form there. When you've finished commenting , PLEASE click "Publish your Comment" or your kind words will be all for naught. You can either add your name where is says "Name/URL" or simply sign it so we know who you are. Don't worry about that "Sign In" in the upper right. That's for me; not for you.
We are a work in progress so please bear with the Blog Meister. Thank you for your patience (I used to say that a lot when I was an Airline Captain)!
We're now down to eleven days before the start of chemo and all of its yukky side effects. On July 8th she'll have a port installed in her right upper chest to facillitate the chemo applications and give a "one-stop shopping" site for drawing blood and those types of things. The son of one of our dear friends (which automatically makes him a dear friend) lives in South Bend and works at Notre Dame. He has been generously lighting candles for Gay there and I'll enclose a really neat picture he took from a "candles" point of view. We've had so many nice comments and emails from you and Gay enjoys reading each and every one of them. She has "only" played four rounds of golf (quite well, I may add) since the diagnosis and is getting ready to go out again. Breaking news! She just got home after shooting an 83 with a triple bogey! There's NOTHING stopping this girl!!
Gay's fight with Cancer
Dear Friends of the Strojny Family,
Those of you are unfortunate enough to be on our Christmas letter list know that I try to get out a yearly update on the Strojny Family around Christmas or Easter (if I procrastinate). I also try to be somewhat humorous and not too verbose. We now have "breaking news" as they say on TV and we decided that this would be the best venue to keep you advised.
For those of you who don't know, Gay (aka Gabby to the grand kids) is a two time breast cancer survivor. She was first diagnosed in her forties, had a lumpectomy and radiation (we used her as a night light) and SHE BEAT IT! Within a year this stuff came back and she went through a mastectomy and chemo. I lost more hair than she did during this bout but again, SHE BEAT IT! She has been clean for twenty-one years and is in wonderful health. Then we got the news this week that the cancer has returned. As her doctor says, "you can treat the cancer, you just can't cure it".
I won't attempt to sugar coat this. Gay's cancer is stage four (there is no stage five) and has metastasized into her skull, upper spine and scapular. Luckily these are very slight lesions and don't affect any major organs including the brain. We have a marvelous oncologist and daughter Heidi who works for Cisco health care has set up teleconferencing with the brightest and the best. We have a plan to fight this and, as of now, it will be done locally.
Right now Gay is on hormone therapy and will begin aggressive chemotherapy in two weeks. We've all read how tough that will be but I can attest to the fight in this lady. The kids are already picking out cool hats (Gay will not wear a wig) and she hopes to continue her beloved golfing and volunteering. She will be taking the chemo once a week for twelve weeks and then reevaluated. We hope to put the cancer to sleep and then knock the hell out of it. As an example of her "toughness" she had to have two upper teeth pulled prior to the chemo. Note the swollen jaw in the "Fightin' Gabby" picture. This was taken two days after the extractions! I'd still be in bed with my pain pills and some whiskey!
That's the news up to date. We have friends lighting candles at the Notre Dame Grotto (pretty powerful stuff here) and we'd really appreciate your thoughts and prayers. I'm just looking forward to to day when I can report again, SHE BEAT IT!!!
Please feel free to comment to the postings. It's really easy to do. I just found out that I had checked "only members of this blog can post comments" (DUH)!! I've now checked "Anyone can post" so hopefully you'll now be able to comment without too much trouble. If in doubt, please read the "Adding Comments 101" post. I'll be back here with more info and status as we get it. You can bookmark this blog to get back to it periodically. Stay tuned!
