On the Move!

This will be my last post to this site - no, I'm not on my death bed! A friend pointed me to a new place to post that seems easier and one that you guys can post to as well. Here's the new address.
Visit my website in two easy ways:

1. Visit my CaringBridge website by clicking the link below.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/shellyfries

2. Enter my website name, shellyfries, at www.CaringBridge.org.

You can
• Visit and keep up to date.
• Leave a message in my guestbook.
• Receive e-mail notifications when my journal is updated.

See you there! xoxoxox s

Status Quo

Man o man, does time ever fly! Cycle five has come and gone. All in all, not bad. Didn’t throw up – all pills stayed down. I will call this a ‘good cycle.’ I start cycle 6 on Mar 31. Unfortunately, it spans over Easter and the girl’s Easter break, but I guess they don’t stop cancer for holidays – darn. Next set of scans should be around the end of April.

In the meantime, feeling pretty good. I plan to jump back on Fandango this week, if only for a few minutes. Trimmed 3 of mare’s manes on Friday. Spring cleaning if you will. Not much in the housework department, though.

That’s it for now. Thanks for listening! XOXO

Ever Hopeful

Well, on Wednesday I went in for my second set of scans since 10/26/09 when my baseline was established. This time the results were certainly not as encouraging as the results we got 8 weeks ago. The scans taken on 12/23/09 indicated the size of the tumors had shrunk by 30%. This time there was an overall 34% reduction, so only a 4% gain. Unfortunately, one of the tumors on my left lung is growing again. Not exactly what I wanted to hear. At first I was really bummed out, but I have now sucked it up and I’m re-dedicating myself 110% to my recovery. I had gotten a little lax about a few things, falling back into regular life. I’m chugging down my wheatgrass again. Once I’ve started the chemo therapy, lots of things that I used to like are now on my “Yuk” list. Wheatgrass is one of them, but it’s mind over matter, so I swill it down. Yum.

I’m not discouraged (much) and trust God and my doctors. The good news is that if this treatment isn’t working, we are definitely not out of options. The doc is doing a test to see if have the mutated B-RAF gene that would qualify me for a highly successful trial that’s going on right now. Anyway, we are going to stay on this trial for 2 more cycles (I start the next one this coming Wednesday, Mar 3), do another scan in 8 weeks and see how it’s going.

So that’s it for now. Still, if you look at the overall picture, my tumors have shrunk by 1/3 and I’m in partial remission. Definitely not dying today. Lots of love to you all.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope you all had a great Valentine’s day over the long weekend. We went up to the cabin for a couple days of R & R – very relaxing.

My last chemo treatment week had its ups and downs. Started out pretty good - not too sick, appetite healthy. Then I took a downward spiral at the very end. I threw up my PARP Inhibitors on Saturday morning, but managed to keep everything else down for the rest of the time. My sister, Candace, came down from Oregon again to help me out. I just love it when she visits. Makes the whole thing more bearable. And the drama in her household takes my mind off things here (hey Sis, just kidding – don’t let this keep you from coming down again, although we have to quit meeting this way).

My "Dr. Day" has changed from Tuesdays to Wednesdays. This week was just a routine check up. My blood work all came back good. We scheduled my second set of scans for Wednesday, Feb 24th so I’ll be sure and update you all as soon as we get the results.

Thanks to all of you who help out on a regular basis to keep my life and the ranch running smoothly – Deb & Dan, Donna, Ray & Maxine, Sherry & Tim, Dan M, Dory, Renee, Tiffanie & Justin to name a few. And thanks to everyone who has offered and I have yet to take them up on it – that list is WAY too long to mention, but you know who you are and I appreciate you all and all of your loving thoughts and prayers. Thanks for taking this journey with me.

Just another day

Not much to report. Went to the doctor Tuesday. My blood work is coming back pretty good, although my white blood count is still a little low. With any luck, I’ll be able to start my next treatment (Cycle 4) on Feb 3. Then, just before Cycle 5, I’ll have another set of scans done.

I’m feeling pretty good, actually. It seems like it took me a little longer to come back from the treatment this last time, but I’ll take that as a good sign. Must be doin’ something! So between now and my next treatment I guess I’ll live it up. More later!

The New Year and Getting Better

Well it’s a new year and I’m among the living. Just finished with Cycle Three. For some reason I thought it was going to be easier – it should have been. The Second cycle was easier than the first, and this time they took my dosage down from 255 mg of chemo to 175 mg chemo. Guess they were worried about my bone marrow. So . . . should be easier, right? Not so. This was a tough one for me. More nauseous. But I keep telling myself, embrace it, Shelly. If you’re feeling bad then it has to be doing good things in your body. And I’m sure it has. But today is a new day. NO PILLS! And I am free for three more weeks until Cycle Four. So for theses three weeks I have 3 simple things planned: I am going to ride Fandango which I haven’t done in a very long time, I’m going to braid Junior’s mane (he’s my stunning grey Fandango 3 yr old son) and I am going to groom my mares. I’m also going to go on another tour of USC with Katie.

Thanks again to all of you who helped from near and far. Thanks especially to Maxine who stepped up to help administer my pills this time. Oh yea, pathetic, I forgot to tell you that it has turned into a 3 person process. Remember the ritual I told you about a couple posts back? Well now it takes an extra person. I try not to even look at the pills. Just the sight, feel and smell of them can get me going. So while Maxine is pressing on my pressure points and praying for me, I have someone put the pills on my tongue and feed me liquid (which I am also experimenting with – changing from water to pear juice to peach nectar etc). Who knows the answer to this one . . how many people does it take to take a pill? If you figure it out, let me know! Love to you all.

Merry, Merry Christmas

OK, this is a really SHORT one, because I’m running out the door, but I wanted you all to know. Fabulous test results yesterday. Believe it or not, my tumors have shrunk 30% overall, which just barely puts me into a category called “partial remission.” I guess when tumors shrink by 30% or more, but are still present, that is considered partial remission. My doctor was very excited, because they rarely see such accelerated progress this early in treatment. He’s convinced I’m getting the PARP inhibitor. Me too.

I believe God has worked through me, my doctors and all of you who are praying for me. I am so grateful and could not have asked for a better Christmas present. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas – I’ll check back in soon.