May 3, 2021

It seems unusual for those of us in Denver to have two days of rain in a row.  Overcast skies, consistent drizzle, rarely used umbrellas under the pile of equally rarely used rain gear dug out and put to use.  I remember when I was a kid spending weekends and sometimes weeks in the mountains that surrounded our valley home.  Every afternoon we could count on rain in the mountains, every single afternoon. Our sneakers got wet, our rain ponchos were seldom dry. Today, I’m watching the rain wash away the dust and grime that has settled on the trees and bushes surrounding our home.  Watching tulips emerge from the damp and yielding soil and the trees as they begin pushing their leaves, searching for the sunshine soon to follow is breathtaking.

My latest scans remain stable with more slight reduction in the watched tumors.  We are all very happy with the results the clinical trial drug is producing and hope that I can stay with this treatment for many, many more months.  The side effects remain the same; days of nausea and fatigue followed by days feeling good with varying degrees of both. Each time can be different. I’ll be getting scans again next week along with my every twelve week echocardiogram followed by lucky treatment number thirteen. This will make eight months on DS8201a, a combination of drugs targeting the HER2 receptors on my cancer cells while linking and delivering a chemotherapy drug.

In other news, I’ve been excited about my fellow lung cancer survivor friend Heidi and her husband Pierre’s labor of love, “The White Ribbon Project”.  If you’ve been by my house, you will see a large white ribbon on our front door.  Heidi and Pierre started making these last year for Lung Cancer Awareness Month and very generously delivered them to nearby friends living with lung cancer.  They have now made and delivered hundreds through out the US and it has become an amazing grass roots movement with survivors, caregivers, major cancer centers and oncology teams supporting their efforts.  What’s so special about these white ribbons?  They are a tangible symbol for changing the public perception of lung cancer while raising awareness that anyone with lungs can get lung cancer. You can follow them at #thewhiteribbonproject.

I’ll also be sharing in a later post SURVIVEiT’s latest news and our fundraising efforts for 2021. http://www.surviveit.org.

And finally, I wanted to share with you that our baby grandson is doing GREAT!  He was in the NICU at University Hospital for four weeks, was released to go home with supplemental oxygen and is now thriving without the supplemental support.  He’s growing and showing off his well earned baby rolls and his parents are trying to find time to sleep as this little one likes to keep his sleep schedule a guessing game. Jim and I were able to help out for a week in April and I see many road trips back and forth in our future. Thanks to all who sent messages and prayers throughout his NICU stay. 

Here’s my favorite picture to date of Mimi and Ben. I’m in love…