Update 9/7/09

Hi friends. Hope you all had a nice 3 day weekend. Labor Day already--where did the summer go? I sure enjoyed having an extra day off. Got some extra sleep and caught up on a few chores as well.

We've had a busy week--more dr. appts. Dr. Skilling has me seeing both Dr. Box (my oncologist) and Dr. Burgos (my gynocologist) every 3 months to check on things and make sure no cancer has started up anywhere. I saw Dr. Burgos last week for that check up and everything went well. He had a CA 125 blood test run (an ovarian cancer marker) because my last one had been elevated. This one came back fine--he e-mailed the results to me on Friday, which made me happy, because I didn't want it on my mind all weekend. He said the last one had been high because it was taken just a few weeks after my surgery in June, and abdominal surgery can alter the test results. So no worries, yeah! I go see Dr. Box in 2 weeks, and she will run another bunch of blood tests to monitor my progress as well. She'll also check on my remaining side effects from chemo--fatigue, numbness in my feet (I still cannot feel my right foot), joint pain, bruising, and hearing loss.

Tomorrow it's back to the dentist for more work on my damaged teeth. I have several more appts. with him to go to get my teeth all repaired.

Will has an appt. with his p.t. as well tomorrow. It's his last one before surgery next Monday, the 14th. We both really like his p.t.--he's a nice man who sees alot of high school sports injuries, so he understands these kids who come in devastated after being told they are done for the season or, as in Will's case, the whole year. He has talked to Will about what he's going through--he's a former athlete himself--and he is really helping Will to gain a little perspective on his situation. JoAnne, you were asking about Will's surgeon. His name is Dr. Safian--he's a Kaiser orthopedic surgeon at Fresno Kaiser. Thanks for your recommendation, but we have to choose a Kaiser doc for everything medical we do. Even the p.t. has to be with Kaiser. We don't know Dr. Safian very well--only met with him once--but Will's p.t. says he does good work, and he sees all his patients after surgery, so we'll trust his opinion:-). Please help us pray for Will next Monday, that all will go well and recovery will be smooth.

Our Husky football team had their first game last Friday night, and they got their first victory of the season! Will was out there on the sidelines, pumping up the guys all evening. He said at first it was tough to be out there and not get in the game, but as the game went on it got a little easier. The team came over to our house for dinner Thursday night before the game. We fed about 50 (players and coaches) in our back yard. They also played volleyball in the pool and seemed to have a good time. They are a great group of kids--polite, well behaved, and hungry! A couple of friends came over to help us get them fed, and we all had a very nice time.

Saturday we went up to Menlo Park to see Aaron's first game of the season. It was Occidental vs. Menlo College, and it was a good game. Oxy won, 17-0. After a difficult year attempting to play linebacker last year, Aaron has gone back to playing safety, where he would much rather be! He earned a starting spot Saturday and had a great game. He had 2 interceptions--one of which resulted in a touch down. If you're interested, there's a nice picture of his interception on the oxy athletics website at www.oxy.edu go to athletics and then football for the picture and game article. Will told Aaron after the game that he's proud of him, and that he's now going to have to live vicariously through him, since Aaron's the only one in the family playing this year!

Well, it's back to work tomorrow. Have a great week friends.