Dear family and friends,
I hope this finds all of
you well and enjoying the beautiful days of summer.
I cannot thank all of you
enough for the amazing support you have given us during this challenging
time. Your emails, cards, phone calls,
and offers to help are overwhelming and VERY much appreciated. I am moved by all the beautiful words that
have been expressed by so many of you.
As I wrote before, I am truly blessed to have all of you in my life. The support and love you have shown is truly
the best gift one could receive.
I do, however, owe all of
you an apology for not communicating sooner.
The good news is that I have been feeling well over the past few weeks.
The bad news is that I have been keeping so busy that finding time to
write a blog entry or answer emails has been challenging. Those emails I did respond to ended up in my
draft box and I just discovered they have remained there. (Oops!)
Hopefully, I will now be more diligent with my communication.
Here are answers to some
of your questions:
How am I feeling?
I have felt quite well the
past few weeks. Fortunately. The side effects I am experiencing are
minimal and tolerable. For this, I am
extremely grateful.
What side effects do I have?
Following my three days of
infusions (June 25-27), I had
practically no chemo side effects. Thankfully, probably due to anti-nausea
drugs, I had no problems with nausea. My
energy level has been pretty good, and although I am consciously pacing myself,
I have been keeping my life as “normal” as possible.
The radiation side effects
are minimal thus far. They are mostly the exacerbation of ones I have been experiencing following the radical hysterectomy. (Pelvic issues and leg lymphedema.) I will deal with the cumulative effects of
radiation when they appear. In the
meantime, I am happy to have had these few weeks where I have felt good and
energetic.
One of the dramatic and psychologically
difficult side effects of chemo is now here.
The molting season has begun. I have been experiencing hair loss over
the past few days. Fortunately, I have a
lot of hair, so the shedding process may take a few more days. I am trying very hard to not pull at my
hair, brush it very hard or do anything to hasten the process. When I
do, clumps of hair end up in my hands. I have been preparing myself for this and
already have two wigs to help me through this challenging time. I had thought about being dramatic and
selecting something such as these"
Purple is my favorite color. 
or this one which would be my yin and yang look,
appropriate for the good/bad or lightness/darkness of my present life
challenges. However, practicality took
over and I have thus chosen the more conservative mop to don my head during
this molting period. Hopefully, I will
still be recognizable to all of you.
There is a positive side to almost everything. In this case,
I know that hair does grow back..
And I will save money and time not having to have my hair blow dried or cut
for a while.
How have I been spending
my days?
Over the past few weeks we’ve
been keeping quite busy. We had our
granddaughter, Maia , (now 7 as of July 9th) staying with us for
five days of Grandma/Grandpa Camp while her sister, Abbi, was at overnight Camp Tawonga. We had a lot of fun together. Swimming, visiting with cousins Eva and Ben, playing
with friends, etc. kept us quite busy. We
spent time at the Moraga Commons 4th
of July Celebration, attended a BBQ at our friends home and then watched the
Moraga fireworks from our car high on a hill in Moraga.
Another day, Maia’s Moraga
friend Kira, joined us when we took the ferry from Oakland to San Francisco. There we spent time at the
Aquarium of the Bay near Pier 39. We
walked a lot that day, including an almost
two mile walk from the aquarium to the ferry building to take the return ferry. Kudos to the girls who were having so much
fun together, they never complained about the long walk. And, fortunately, I had the energy and
commitment to walk that far as well.
Marty, Maia, Kira, and Judy on the SF Bay Ferry
My days are limited as to
how much time I have to visit with friends or run errands since the first half
of every weekday is devoted to radiation.
(The actual radiation is usually 20 minutes. However, the transportation to and from is close
to a half hour in each direction.) And the
end result of drinking 38 ounces of water for each treatment also limits my activities
directly following radiation. (You can
guess what I am doing the next hour following that liquid intake!)
What next?
Monday thru Wednesday (July 18-20) will be my 2nd round
of chemo infusions. However, due to a low white blood count, I have been given
Neupogen shots over the weekend for a total of three days with hopes that my
count will be high enough on Monday to continue with the planned infusion.
I will begin to have some special
weekly massages at the John Muir
Lymphedema Center in Concord for the leg lymphedema. Hopefully, this will help ease the
swelling. The lymphedema cannot be cured,
but can be controlled. (It is a result
of the removal of many of my pelvic lymph nodes as part of my recent surgery.)
Hurrah! I am just about half way through my 25 rounds
of radiation, which will continue
weekdays until August 3rd. A
few weeks following that will be another PET scan. Sometime after that, the tentative plan is to administer a
different chemo drug (Carboplatin-
Taxol) ½ day every 3 weeks
for probably 3 sessions. (This will most
likely begin upon our return from Spain at the end of September.)
A recurrent question: Where am I receiving treatment?
My oncologist, the
infusion center, and radiation center are all in one place: Diablo Valley Oncology and Hematology
Medical Group which is located in the building of the California Cancer and Research Institute in
Pleasant Hill off of Taylor Boulevard. I
call it my “one stop shop” since everything is located under one roof. Very convenient.
What are our plans for the
next few months?
While my motto has been: take
one day at a time, we are also continuing to plan for our future travels
and family celebrations, true to another of my mottos: *Carpe Diem.
Dan and Jennie will be
visiting here at the end of July. Their
next two weeks, their last as residents in The City of Light, will be difficult
ones for them as they say au revoir to their friends and wonderful life in
Paris. They are already busy with plans, packing,
etc. for their move to San Diego. How lucky they are to have had such a
fabulous experience for the past 4+ years.
And now… a new beginning. They arrive in the Bay Area on July 29 for a
week. On August 6th, D & J will go
to San Diego for four days to look for a house to rent. Dan will begin his job in San Diego. Jennie will return to Moraga to pick up
Auguste and head to Atlanta for several weeks to visit with her parents. Hopefully, they will have luck finding a
house to move into so when Jennie and Auguste arrive in late August, they can begin
settling into their new surroundings.
Adira and Leo just returned from a month in Israel. They were missed! We look forward to spending more time with them and Josh as well. We're happy that Leo is going to spend the night with us a few times this month.
Adira and Leo just returned from a month in Israel. They were missed! We look forward to spending more time with them and Josh as well. We're happy that Leo is going to spend the night with us a few times this month.
I am determined to keep
myself energetic and feeling well enough for our August 11-17 plan to take Abbi
and Maia to a dude ranch for a week. This
Grandma/Grandpa camp experience will be at Rankin Ranch in Caliente,
California. The days there are filled
with many activities including horseback riding, swimming, hiking, fishing, games,
sports, etc. In the evenings, there will
be many fun activities such as square dancing, bingo, pool, fooseball
tournaments, talent shows, hay rides and much more. After dinner, the girls can join other children and head to Sarah’s
Farm to help feed and care for the baby animals – (goats, chickens, pigs, etc.) We are very much looking forward to this
adventure.
We are still optimistic
that we will continue with our travels
at the end of August. We will be in Israel
August 29-Sept. 12 and then head to Spain to attend our nephew, Aaron”s
marriage to Veronica in Bilbao. We will
travel for a week following that celebration and return home from Spain on
September 26. Then, I will begin my next
round of chemo. (Not a fun thing to come
home to, but I am keeping my perspective, knowing how very fortunate I will be
if I am able to complete these travel plans.)
I will look forward to
being together with many of you in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, please feel free to email or
call me, if you so desire. My cell phone is the best way to reach me:
925-980-3590. And… feel free to send photos of you and
your family - something that gives me great pleasure and comfort. All of you have a special place in my heart.
With much love,
~ Judy ~
For
those who are interested: An addendum to this already lengthy blog entry:
*Carpe diem
Some people have commented or asked about my motto Carpe
Diem (Seize the Day)
I interpret that as: EMBRACE LIFE – ENJOY THE MOMENT…
But here is some
documented commentary on this:
Text from Odes
- CARPE DIEM
“Ask not ('tis forbidden knowledge), what our
destined term of years,
Mine and yours; nor scan the tables of
your Babylonish seers.
Better far to bear the future, my Leuconoe,
like the past,
Whether Jove has many winters yet to give, or
this our last;
This, that makes the Tyrrhene billows spend
their strength against the shore.
Strain your wine and prove your wisdom; life is
short; should hope be more?
In the moment of our talking, envious time has
ebb'd away.
Seize the present;
trust tomorrow e'en as little as you may.[2]”
“In Horace,
the phrase is part of the longer "carpe diem, quam minimum credula
postero", which can be translated as "Seize the day, put very little
trust in tomorrow (the future)". The ode says that the future is
unforeseen and that one should not leave to chance future happenings, but
rather one should do all one can today to make one's future better. This phrase
is usually understood against Horace's Epicurean background.[5] The meaning of "carpe
diem" as used by Horace is not to ignore the future, but rather not to
trust that everything is going to fall into place for you and taking action for
the future today.”
There is a similar phrase in Hebrew:
