VISIT WITH DR. HOMSI

Following is what Daryl wrote to our family yesterday:
 

As you are aware, your mother had the usual CT scans and MRI yesterday, February 12, and we met with Dr. Homsi this morning to review the results. He informed us that the last two chemotherapy infusions with the two drug dosage are not controlling the continued growth of the tumors in her thigh. The lesion containing multiple nodules now measures 4.0 x 4.4 x 3.1 inches. Dr. Homsi recommended that we discontinue the current chemotherapy treatment as the cancer has become resistant to it, so no chemo was administered today. There is also a new 1/4 inch nodule in her lung that raises concern for metastatic involvement.
 

He discussed several future treatment options with us. The first option is to meet with Dr. Matthew Callister, Radiation Oncologist, who we know and has helped us at Mayo and is now at Banner MD Anderson. Dr. Callister will get the radiation records from Mayo and discuss possible treatment with radiation. We like Dr. Callister and are pleased that we will be seeing him. Another option would be with Pazopanib which is an oral anticancer medicine that is used to treat adults with kidney cancer.  It is also used to treat advanced soft tissue sarcoma (STS) in patients who have received cancer treatments.  Another option may be to see if she is eligible to join clinical trials at research facilities such as the University of Arizona in Tucson or other research facilities.

 

This is not the news we were hoping for, but your mom has a great attitude, and we are moving forward with faith.

We hope that you all have a very

"Happy Valentine's Day"

as we plan to!

 

 

 

 

FAMILY NEWS FOR THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED

We have had a lot of good things going on in our family for which we are so very grateful.  Our granddaughter, Kylee (Greg & Rebecca's daughter) left for the MTC last Wednesday, February 6.  She will leave for Morristown, New Jersey (Spanish) on Monday, February 18 as she knows Spanish quite well -- 12 days in the MTC.  She is very excited and has a great testimony to share with others.

Max Garn (Byron and Michelle's) received his Cub Scout Arrow of Light in a fun ceremony on January 24th.  We are proud of him.

We have a new great-grandson, West Wade McCann, born on January 9 to Jenny (Brad & Laura's) and Kelly.  He is a very cute baby, and they are all doing well. 

Our youngest son, Kevin, was made the Bishop of our Fairway Groves Ward on February 3.  He and Tara and their little family are a great blessing to us.  His first week he had New Beginnings, a funeral and ward conference, so he is right into it and in his mother's opinion, he did a great job.  He is very sweet and humble.

Josh Peterson, (Chuck and Gayla's) received his mission call to the Dominican Republic Santo Domingo West Mission.  He is coming home from BYU this weekend to go through the temple and will leave on May 9, two weeks after school is out.  They are all very excited as the Dominican Republic shares the island with Haiti which is where Chuck served. 

Hope I haven't missed anything.  I may add some pictures later.

CHEMO UPDATE

As is obvious, it has been a while since I have written.  Things went fine with my last chemo treatment on December 12.  Having the port worked well, and now that it is completely healed, it will be even better.  Having the two chemo drugs was definitely a harder hit than one.  It took me about a week to feel back to normal, but I was not really miserable – just weak and a little queasy – enough not to want to do anything.  I sometimes wonder if it is just an excuse to be lazy.

Anyway, the inevitable happened.  My hair had grown in to the point where I could almost go out without my wig, but on December 28, Daryl’s birthday, it started to come out again.  I decided I would go out a couple of days with just my hair which felt really good, but by three weeks from my chemo treatment, my hair was all gone.  My daughter, Gayla, used her clippers to clean up the little that was left.  I had done it before, so it was not too traumatic.

I am scheduled for chemo tomorrow, January 9, but my brother, Byron, passed away in Washington, DC, so we are going back for his funeral.  He was 90 and not doing well, so we are grateful he could go without having to move to a care center.  He is the one for whom I did the book on his World War II journal earlier this year.  We leave on Thursday and return next Tuesday, then I will be right back into chemo on Wednesday, January 16.   

The exciting news is that we have a new granddaughter, Molly Garn, born to Byron and Michelle on December 31 in the middle of the night.  It was a serious scare, as Michelle started bleeding and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance.  She had a C-section, and all is well that ends well.  We are hoping that Molly keeps her dark hair – more than any other Garn babies we have seen.

To all of you who check this blog more often than I post, I apologize and appreciate your continued interest.  You are the best. 


We hope you are all having a great beginning to 2013.

THE BATTLE GOES ON

The battle goes on, but we are up for it.  After more tests this week (blood, CT scan and an MRI), we found out that the tumors in my leg are still increasing, so I will go back to the more aggressive chemotherapy treatments that I started with last year about this time.  The one chemo drug is just not doing the job.  I am very excited that on Monday, December 10, I will have a port surgically placed in my chest that will make the whole process much easier, as it has become increasingly difficult to get IV’s placed.  Last Monday it took four tries before it worked, and with the stronger chemo drug, it is almost essential to have either a port or a pic line.  I will be as happy for the nurses as I am for me.

For those of you like me who had never heard of a port until a year ago, it is a device which is surgically placed in the chest below the collar bone underneath the skin.  A catheter connects the port to a vein.  The drugs can then be injected by inserting a needle into the port.   Blood samples are also taken by using the port.  It can be left in for months or even years.  I have a friend who has gone through a lot of treatments and to quote her, “I love my port.”

 

The thing I felt the worst about is how this dominates our life and especially Daryl’s life, but he continually reassures me that the thing he wants most is for us to be together.  We do have a lot of togetherness, as next week we will spend fIve days at MD Anderson with the port placement, Echocardiogram, Dr. Homsi, chemo treatment and two days following, more treatments for anti-nausea drugs.  Luckily, that isn’t every week. 

It was exactly a year ago now that I was about to lose my leg, so this is an alternative that I can deal with.  I am grateful every day that I can walk and do most of the things that I want to do.  But I will have to admit that I was a little discouraged as I felt the change in my leg, then I spent an evening looking through last year’s Christmas cards and many other cards and notes I received at that time.  Your love and kindness totally buoyed me up and made me want to be half as strong as many of you think that I am.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!

We hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season.  We know that many of you are dealing with more difficult problems than we are, and we continue to pray for you.  It is a beautiful season which gives us hope, as we celebrate our Savior’s birth and think about how he suffered for each of us.  We love you and wish you choicest blessings now and in the year 2013.   

An added note:  Our granddaughter, Kylee Garn, (Greg & Rebecca's daughter) received her mission call to Morristown, New Jersey, Spanish speaking.  She will enter the MTC on February 6 and already knows Spanish quite well.  We are so excited about her call.  Our grandson, Josh Peterson will have his papers in soon, and we love receiving letters from our grandson, Jason Garry, who is serving in Tampico, Mexico.  These are great blessings for grandparents as many of you know. 

 

 

ARROW OF LIGHT & EAGLE COURT OF HONOR

This was a great week for scouting.  Tyler Garn, Kevin and Tara’s oldest son, received his Arrow of Light award in an impressive ceremony – complete with a flaming arrow on Thursday, November 15.  The adults as well as the children were mesmerized.  Tyler turns 11 on January 4^th and will hit the trail to Eagle after receiving all of his Cub Scout Awards. 

 

Mesa District representative explaining the points of the arrow.

The flaming arrow

Tyler with his proud parents, Kevin & Tara



Proud grandparents, Daryl & Irene
 



Delicious refreshments in the shape of an arrow

 

Nathan Garry Eagle Court of Honor

Sunday, November 18, 2012

 
Sunday evening, Nathan Garry, Steve and Dana’s second boy, received his Eagle Scout Award along with the Mormon Battalion Award in the Mesa 30^th Ward.  He is our fourth grandson to receive his Eagle Award, preceded by Jason, Josh and David.  It was an impressive Eagle’s nest with all of Nathan’s uncles and many others.  Daryl had the privilege of presenting the Eagle Award to Nathan.

Color Guard for the Court of Honor
Nathan's brother, Andrew and cousins, Dax, Tyler and Scott

David Smith presented the Mormon Battalion Award &
Grandpa Daryl presented Nathan with his Eagle Award.

Nathan with his brother and cousins, all future Eagle Scouts

 

Great support in scouting and in every aspect of Nathan's life



Mom and dad are especially happy!
 



Grandma and grandpa are especially proud!

One last hug from mom and Aunt Gayla

IT'S ALL ABOUT HAIR -- HALLOWEEN 2012

If you are a female, a good part of your life is spent worrying about your hair – cuts, color, style, perms, etc.  It is a constant go-around.  Then if you add cancer to the mix, you lose your hair and have to deal with wigs or being seen bald – not a good option.

Anyway, after that process, and a change of chemotherapy drugs about six months into this, my hair began to slowly grow back.  What a surprise to see what I would look like with white hair.  Our grandson, Ryan, saw me one day and ran to tell grandpa that grandma looks like a boy.

Come Halloween, I had the idea to spray my hair purple.  I called Tara, Kevin’s wife, to run it by her.  Nicole (7) answered and just giggled when I asked if they had some purple hair spray that I could use.  That clinched it – I would go with purple.  Tara actually did the spraying for me, as it takes some experience. 

Each Halloween, after the grandchildren are finished trick-or-treating, we meet up at Byron and Michelle’s where the kids dump out their candy and do a little trading plus admire each other’s costumes.  Well, the reaction was pretty fun and funny.  The grandchildren really liked it, but my children were the most shocked and surprised to see their mother with purple hair.  Mind, you, I did not go anywhere else.  This was strictly for family, and it turned out really fun.  Why did I choose purple?  Of course, it is Daryl’s favorite color.

 

You will see the pictures below.  Since this has become somewhat of a grandma blog, I have posted a bunch of the grandchildren pictures which will not be of interest to many of you, except, if you are a grandma, you will understand.

Irene & Tara

Gayla, Tara, Irene, Dana

 

 

Kurt Peterson

Tyler Garn & Paul Peterson (Customized costumes
by Dr. Chuck & Gayla)

Emily Garry, Paul & Scott Peterson, Andrew Garry

Dax Garn

Southern Belle, Addie Garn

Nicole & Ashley Garn, Lucy Garn

Ashley & Nicole Garn, Lucy Garn

Sam & Suzy Garn

Ryan & Tyler Garn

Tara & Allison Garn

Chuck & Gayla Peterson Family



Halloween 2012!  It doesn't get much better than this. 

 

CHEMOTHERAPY -- NOVEMBER 6, 2012

Too bad to associate my last chemotherapy with Election Day.  I hope the chemo has better results.  The thing about cancer is that you are never really sure what is going on or if the treatment is doing what it is supposed to, but we are always hopeful.  This turned out to be a long day with much of it spent in waiting time.  We arrived at Banner MD Anderson at 10:30 in the morning for blood work after which we met the Dr. then had chemo.  We left at 6:30 p.m.  The thing that saved the day is the Dana and Gayla came so they could meet Dr. Homsi, as we talk about him all of the time.  I hadn’t had any new tests, so it was almost like a social visit with a few questions.  He was pretty funny, and the girls now know who he is.  I will have another MRI and CT scan on December 3 which should tell us if resuming the chemotherapy is helping. 

The day after chemo, I always go in for another IV treatment for anti-nausea drugs and hydration.  I was only there about four hours, so we came home and were able to go to the temple, as it was our stake temple day.  The day after that, I had several things to go and do from morning to night.  I got along just fine, but Friday, I “hit the wall” so to speak.  I did as little as I could that day and just recouped.  I have been fine ever since. 

When I look back at a year ago now, how I was feeling and what I was facing, I could not be more grateful.  I continue to “live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you,” or upon me!  Alma 34:38

Also appropriate as we approach Thanksgiving this week:  “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.”  1 Chronicles 16:34 

 

The Lord surely is good to us, and so much of his goodness is manifest by each of you.  Thank you once again for your love, your continued interest and encouragement.  May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

More to come soon.  Halloween and "It's all about hair."