| [Saturday, Sept 9, 2007] Hi Everyone, The response to my last email [which became the Sept 5th news item -- webmaster] was overwhelming and everything has worked out better than I could have imagined. I have ample places to stay when I head up north to help Shelsi and my boss is allowing me to take Family Leave when I'm gone and work part time when I can. What an incredible blessing that is, since my biggest concern (other than Shelsi of course) has been maintaining an income while doing my most important job of being mother to an ill child. She made it though her first round of chemo well. No serious side-affects. The type of chemo she is on this time is pretty toxic, so they actually have an antidote they use every six hours to counteract the bad affects from it once it's done its job killing off the bad cells and before it can start damaging good ones. I spent Thursday and Friday nights with her to allow Eric to work - and then he came back Saturday. She will most likely be released to go home on Monday after they have done a procedure to insert a portacath in her thigh where they will deliver the remaining rounds of chemotherapy. Because of the position of the mass in her chest they can't do it up high where they usually do because the main vein they use is the one that is constricted by the mass. So the other option was to use the lower vein. They have been doing the injections through veins in her arms, but the chemo kind of destroys the lining of those veins and it's hard to draw blood. So this is the best option. She also had a lumbar puncture on Friday to test her spinal fluid for lymphoma cells. The preliminary findings are NO CELLS! But the more conclusive results won't be back till around Tuesday. They told her that she would get a spinal headache from the procedure which, if it got too bad, they would do a caffeine injection (that's the treatment for it:-) But the headache never came. However, today I spoke with her and it seems it was a little delayed. She's not feeling very good today - very tired and a pounding headache. I think the nurses were coming in to figure out how to give her some relief. A doctor from Neurosurgery will probably come in today too, to remove the 42 staples in her head. When she's feeling well enough, he is able to get up and walk around the floor. On Friday she was walking so fast I had difficulty keeping up with her. Her spirits were pretty high and she still has her positive attitude and beautiful spirit and smile. We asked the nurse yesterday if she could take her IV pole, blankets and pillows and go watch a video in a family lounge on the floor. She said it would be okay. So we got her all set up, she picked out Heaven Can Wait, I put the tape in the VCR and the VCR quickly ate it. So - since she was all comfy, we just stayed in there and watched T.V. for awhile. After I left last night she got her first non-family visitors, Devin & Alissa, friends of Shel & Eric's. She said that was really nice. I will be heading that way to help her Tuesday thru Friday and then I plan to head home and work the weekend. The following week she will be readmitted on Wednesday 9/19 for about 5 days for round 2 of chemo. My plan is when she is in the hospital - I will work, when she is home I will be with her except for weekends when Eric will be there. Thank you all so much for being here for all of us. Believe it or not, this type of event is often more difficult for observers. Those of us who are in the middle of it are often sustained by forces seen and unseen so we are buffered from the brunt of the emotional turmoil. It creeps in every once in a while, but for the most part, there is an amazing feeling of comfort and love, which I know comes from all of you and a very loving Creator. Love and Blessings Sheri 
Sweet soul Shelsi |