May 21, 2011

     People usually associate the word 'luck' with Irish.  But actually the Irish are probably the most superstitious,  unlucky people ever.  It is just that we keep smiling and find humor in the most gruesome situations.  The optimist falling from the 14th floor must have been Irish.  At the 7th floor he yells "So far, so good!"
    But today I feel lucky.  Lucky that Sara is going to be okay. We can do this.  Lucky that I discovered my family is even more exceptional than I thought.  Lucky to know so many people rush to help throwing caution to the wind. Lucky that I can get up face another day optimistically.
    Because some people that have a crisis are not so lucky.  Their life takes a turn and they can never come back.  I feel like we went through the storm, but we can come back to a certain degree of normalcy.  Cancer will always be in our vocabulary, now. {You S.O.B}  But we have the cowboy boots and pistols to give it a run for the money.  So, this is gonna really be mushy, stop now if you can't take it. 
    Count your blessings today.


Posted by Colleen

May 19, 2011

 Sara is back to work part time.  She is off her TPN nutrition and is eating like normal. She looks fantastic, feels fantastic and is fantastic. Still a long road, but a little less rocky. Sara, you are amazing! Need I say more?




Posted by Colleen

From Me

I had so much to say after the Doc. Appt, but I think mom and Sissy took care of it pretty good.  All I have left to share is that i learned a big lesson at Dr. Lin's office, (who is by the way AWESOME), and I bring this back to a place where I began questioning myself on what kind of cancer patient I want to be.  The answer is, well I don't know, I've never had cancer before and i'm pretty sure that there is no handbook on how to be the ideal cancer case.  All I know is a questioncertain of moral had come up, and questioning what kind of cancer patient I was going to be. And I decided this last doctor's appt.

Until you have a very smart Doctor tell you, "you have a non-cureable cancer, and will have cancer the rest of your life.  You will never be able to go off chemo therapy", that's when i decided everyone else can F*&# Off. Sorry I had to say it.  What made me really mad is it made me questioin myself.  I have had the best support anyone can ask for, and wonder how the people that don't get through this.  So if there are people who don't want to support me?  Then don't.

I am posting the picture of the scan I had done last Monday, the results are amazing and this is what the hugs all around were about.  My progress with the treatments is great, although we still have that stubborn mother ship tumor that Dr. Lin referred to Osama Bin Laden.  I said, "well we got him, so what's the problem with my Osama?".  All he'll say is, "later".  He is overly please by the treatment to my liver right now.  The orig scan in on the right, my one last week is on the left.  The big black mass on the orig is my liver you can see it was overtaking my whole abdomen.  The dark circles on it are the tumors. You can also see my stomach on the right is being pressed between my huge liver and spleen.  On the new one you can see the little white bean on the right is my stomach and has room to grow, you'll also see organs you couldn't see before because the liver was so big.  I'm on my 3rd round of Chemo now, so this progress is after only 2 sessions:)

That's it for now, thanks to all with all the goodness you all are.
~s

Sissy Here!

Hi! It's Shanna posting from the SC (Snohomish County, glamorous I know!).

Part I

Well, if you hadn't seen the low for yourself, you would think Sara is a thin, gorgeous, vivacious young woman without a care in the world. This just proves we can never judge another person's life or circumstance by looking at them.

My Sara came to visit and it's the first time I've seen her as I have always known her to be since September 2010. She made our Christmas wonderful and fun but she was feeling so sick then she barely ate any food.

When she came to take care of my 3 girls so Wes and I could go to the hospital and have #4, I was too preoccupied to notice how bad she was feeling. When we came back from the hospital to a nice clean house and happy kids and got to hang out and talk with Sara, I realized how sick she was and we started Googling. Well, we diagnosed her with gallstones. I would love to have been right. When my mom and sister called two days after she left with the news I felt terrible.  She had been doing my laundry and dishes with cancer. Now I knew why she didn't seem herself at all.

So now she is here to visit for a couple days and go to the Dr for Big News. I get my turn rubbing her feet to help with chemo pain in the heels. She has energy to help put kids to bed and hang with them, mostly while sitting down. One more day and then back to chemo so we have to hurry with our acting as if we are normal people having a visit. After being absolutely sick with worry for so many months it's nice to put everything else out of mind.

Part II

So you know about the awesome doctor visit by now. I will finish telling about how Sara, after buzzing around and not having a nap for 2 days, crashed a little the night before her Dr appt. EEEK! We were a little worried but she recovers a little faster now and we made it to the appt the next morning only 2 minutes late.

Well, in the room at the doctor's we were laughing our heads off, then crying, then laughing. Dr. Lin left for a few minutes when there were tears and when he came back we were laughing like hyenas. He is used to Sara's entourage so he just goes with the flow, he said "Now what are you doing?" Have I mentioned how awesome he is? He has a sense of humor but is nice too, and you can tell his brain moves at speeds and levels far above normal people. Also, he did hugs all around after we looked at Sara's awesome scan.

So, we have won a couple of battles and it is time to celebrate. Always in our minds we know that this is a long war against a cancer with no cure (yet!) only long term treatment. So my sister looks beautiful and thin and stylish but she carries a burden so heavy I don't know if I could be so strong were our roles reversed. 

Part III

This experience made me think a lot about caregivers and patients with such serious illnesses. My sister and my family have been extremely lucky to have so many caregivers and of such high quality. My sister would not be so well now without them. There is no way to adequately thank them for all they've done except to follow their example, should the circumstance arise, and hope to do as well for someone else.

May 11, 2011

    Just got a call from Sara D.  Shanna, Sarah and Sara all went to the appointment.  Dr. Lin read her scan and was very pleased with the results.  He said her liver is normal size and some of the tumors have actually disappeared.  The tumors are shrinking drastically and she has responded to the treatment better than was expected.  Dr. Lin wants her off the TPN nutrition right now. That is certainly encouraging because that means he thinks Sara can get her nutrition from eating. { Look out Sandpoint restaurants!!} The news today could not be better and I, for one, am ecstatic.  Yay Sara D.!!
     The recently released treatment for this same cancer that Steve Jobs is taking is for more advanced neuroendocrine cancer.  Well, I guess we don't need that! I told Sara he should come stay at her house and let the Dreamteam take over.  Of course not to mention everyone's laser beams of faith and prayer.  This is so wonderful.   Sara is going to try to post on here later today. Whew!

May 9, 2011

    Sara is over in Seattle.  Sarah Hess took her on a 'round about way to the Dr. appointment. Via the San Juan Islands. They took the Ferry and had dinner at a reknowned restaurant where Sara ate her first restaurant meal in 3 months. They are enjoying the relaxing trip immensely and I only know this through Shanna and total strangers I see at the shoe store.  Because I am leaving them to their own devices {yikes} and not calling or texting. Now, that is hard! Because Sara needed some time to be her ownself. {Love you Sara and Sarah!!} Tuesday she will go see Dr. Lin and do a scan and we will know exactly what the h#^& is going on.  I am totally confident that Sarah Hess will take excellent care of her. I am so grateful to everyone who has been there for us. So, no news is good news. Sara and Sarah, I hope you are giving Thelma and Louise a run for their money. I love you and am on pins and needles myself.  Will report accordingly. Stay tuned all you  loyal bloggers.

This has been posted by Sara Dalebout's Mother, Colleen

May 4, 2011

    I once over heard a man say "Oh, how the Irish love to suffer."  It made me realize Sara missed that arrow because it occurred to me that through all of this, she has never complained  or asked 'why me' or taken  adverse advantage of her situation. That dutch Dalebout blood.  She has stood strong and independent as the situation would allow.  She will come up from being doubled over in pain or a nasty bout of nausea and say "do you need anything? Are you comfortable?"  Now that we all feel that the strain is not so bad because she is doing so well, I am amazed at her fortitude.
    Today is the last day of her second chemo treatment.  She is progressing well.  She still gets very tired and has to rest or 'suffer' the consequences.  We also have to be careful not to get over confident about her energy level and start making her get her own drink of water.  She has been able to cut down on her pain and nausea medication. Also, we are tapering down her TPN and she is eating more. 12 weeks without food for someone in our family is really unacceptable.  Going back through her med schedule notebook, you can see the pattern of improvement.
    She will be going to Seattle to the Big Doctor appointment this next week. At this appointment they will determine by scans just how much the treatment, the chemo and the once a month Octreatide shot {%^*&^%$} is working. Stay tuned for updates after the appointment.  Sarah Hess is taking her and they will try to do some site seeing and give Sara a change of scenery from basically being trapped in her house since February 7.  And stop at her sister's, Shanna, to get some hugs from her marvelous nieces who really want to see Auntie Sara!!!
    Thanks to everyone for everything. Love to all!!