Welcome 2008!

It was a quiet New Year's Eve for us. But still we felt great anticipation to put 2007 behind us.

Steve is not feeling great right now: the metal mouth, crushing fatigue and nausea are back although still not as bad as round one. The result is he's not doing too much and not eating much.

But Thursday will be the last chemo treatment, after which he'll ring the bell and we'll walk out with this experience hopefully behind us forever. (There's a big cow bell in the chemo suite and when a patient completes their last treatment they ring it on their way out to the cheers of patients and staff.)

What made 2007 even more difficult for us was the challenges that our friends faced as well. And yet we should celebrate 2007 because it was a year that we learned we were tougher than we thought. A year we all - steve, marilyn, our friends nancy and chuck who battled cancer surgery about the same time as steve - learned how much fight we had in us. And certainly a year in which we learned to really appreciate the simple pleasures in life - friendship, generosity of spirit - that are so often taken for granted.

In 2008, the only resolution I can think to make is to give back some of what was given to us.

Play the short video clip below for a very Happy Doggy New Year wish from Sable, Bogey and their person - Steve!

Merry Christmas to all

Seems like a couple of weeks since I posted. And that's very good news because essentially it means there is nothing new to say. In the world of cancer, that's a good thing. Steve has been feeling fairly good with this round. Although just in the past few days some of the nausea has creeped back.

But nothing like what it was in round 1. We have only two more treatments to get through and hopefully we'll be able to put this whole cancer thing behind us and get back to LIFE!

This holiday season has a lot more meaning for us because of this experience. We are more appreciative of what we have and less fixated on the things we don't, more aware of the importance of our friends and family and the depth of those relationships.

We hope you all had a great Christmas and join us in looking forward to a healthy and happy 2008!

A good day

One of the reasons to love living down here is that you never know when you might get a beautiful summer-type day in the middle of winter. This week has been like that. It's been 72+ degrees since Saturday.

So today, I took off, and Steve and I went and played golf. The golf was so-so, but the day was wonderful. Steve's still feeling good. Really very little side effects at all so far, which is quite a change from the first round when he started feeling lousy pretty much right after his second treatment.

We played with Gerry Riley, who has been such a good friend during all of this. None of us will be applying for a tour card, but we had a great time.

Tomorrow is treatment #3 of 6,, so we'll be halfway through. Keep your fingers crossed!

Santa Steve

I guess Steve was feeling pretty good this week as he hauled out all the outside Christmas stuff and started decorating. Of course, it's a little hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it's 72 degrees outside - as it is today. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same and we are scheduled to play golf with Gerry Riley. I may let Steve go on his own: as much as I would love to play (haven't picked up a club since August!), I am a little concerned about leaving Sable alone for 5-6 hours.

Today, Steve's feeling, what he describes as, "a little funky" - some queasiness after he ate breakfast and he seems tired. He took a nausea pill (even though it wasn't bad, taking meds before it actually GETS bad is a good idea). I always ask him to evaluate how he feels on a scale of 1 to 10 (something I picked up from the nurses in the hospital). I'm sure he's sick of hearing it, but it helps me know how he's doing. This morning, he said 6.

Hopefully, this is just a little of the bumps you expect with chemo and won't escalate. After the last round, I am concerned when he has any side-effects.

Today we'll get the outside lights up and then probably next weekend we'll get the tree up.

Chemo day update

Hi, ya'all.

I am writing this update from the chemo suite (a high-falootin' name). Today is week 2 of 6 in the second and last (woo hoo!) round. After his first treatment, Steve felt fine all week. He really wasn't even tired and - thank goodness - kept his appetite up.

So we are hoping things will stay this way - at least for the bulk of the time.

Steve's had a few new side effects: his hands and feet are very dry and the skin is cracking; and some funky discoloration (i hope that's all it is) of his gums. But the NP says that's all normal. She gave us some samples of something called Udder Cream. Lousy name, but supposed to be very very good.

Nice woman sitting next to us today. This is her last day of chemo. So when she walks out today, she'll get to ring the bell and everyone will applaud. I can't wait until we can do that!

Dog Days of November

What a 10-days it's been! First Bogey ate a rock and had to have emergency intenstinal surgery to remove it from his intestine (see third pix - if your stomach's up to it). Then came Thanksgiving (which was great, see previous post) and Steve's birthday.

And finally, my birthday. Which went like this: Get up at 6:30 a.m. to have Sable to the veterinary surgeon by 7:30 for her TPLO. Drop her off, pay 1/2 of the $2500 charge (!) and head for the cancer center for Steve's new round of chemo.

The oncologist said they were going to keep the dosage at the same levels. We had thought they were going to dial it back some based on his reactions to round 1. But because Steve had three involved lymph nodes, he wanted to make sure they were as agressive as possible. He thinks that Steve is stronger now (I agree) in starting this round than he was starting Round 1, which was only a month or so after surgery. They also seem to think that we waited too long through the bad stuff before calling and getting fluids and better medications. This time we'll know better and if the diarrhea and everything start up, we'll act more quickly.

The first round of chemo was uneventful and Steve feels fine. Yesterday, he felt so good, he did a lot of yardwork - raked and bagged leaves, cut back bushes, etc. In the process, however, he lost his wedding ring! He only discovered that about 7 p.m. and we started retracing his steps - the stores he had been in, what he had done, when was the last time he was absolutely certain he had it on.

We went to bed pretty bummed and worried and planned to retrace his steps today. So after we got Sable home from the vet and settled in (a very EARLY saturday morning, especially for me!), we went outside and started opening up the bags of leaves and dumping them on the driveway. We sifted through one bag and were halfway through the second when we found it. Amazing. I was 90 percent certain (and 100 percent hoping!) that he lost it in the leaves, but nonetheless i was pretty amazed that he found it. We were just lucky yesterday wasn't garbage day!

Our rings have a storied history and they have more stories than most. So sable goes to the vet next friday to get her staples out and then were on a four-month track to recovery. I've set up a page on my website to track her recovery. If you're into it, check it out at http://www.lauraharrigan.com/pages/sablesurgery.htm.

More to come on everyone's health and recovery next week!