Something New & Different

First - I had a wonderful trip to Women's Conference at BYU a couple of weeks ago with two of my daughters (and one daughter-in law - but I never consider any of my daughter-in-laws anything but daughters). It was a bit tiring but SO uplifting and inspiring. I even attended one class on dealing with cancer and long-term illnesses. It was so awesome and helped us to focus on HOW to deal with it not WHY and getting over all of the fears that we all have. We all came home with full buckets that were emptied rather quickly with being back in reality!

But on to the bigger news. I had two scans yesterday, another PET scan and a regular CT scan, and met with a new Dr. today (Dr. Nixon) since my regular doctor ended up having heart surgery and is out of commission for awhile. He was wonderful and I liked him immediately. The sort of bad news is that the chemo drugs I have been on have quit being useful after ten rounds. He said that was quite impressive that they worked for so long. The scans showed that the lymph nodes near my heart are enlarging (these can carry the cancer to other parts of my body - not good.) The good news is that these can be treated with radiation. The sort of bad news is that that will be five days a week for the next five weeks beginning Monday. I was marked and tatooed (whoopee my first tatoo!) today. The treatments are very short though but the trip out there every day is an hour long! After the radiation we will probably start more chemo therapy which will be greater in intensity and have more side effects. But as always, I am in the Lord's hands and trust in His continuing care for me and thank Him for each day he allows me to remain with my loving family and friends. I thank you once again for your continued faith and prayers - I am continually amazed at the power of those prayers! My gratitude for your love and concern are the subject of my prayers daily!