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Alaina and her big cake!

Mom and I took a trip to Ransom this weekend. Cousin Alaina's 50th Birthday was yesterday, so we went to church and then out to lunch to celebrate. Alaina is also a newly-minted grandmother to Rayland James who arrived earlier than expected. So technically she was a grandmother at 49! Mom made Alaina an apron, placemats and hot pad out of dog print material (for Ginger the dog).

Ransom (mom's hometown) is relatively the same. Population 400. The downtown pretty much consists of a couple of bars, the post office, war veteran memorial with a grain elevator at the end. My grandpa Glenn McCann built that grain elevator with an ungodly amount of concrete. Mom said she remembered when he was working on the job and mentioned how much grandma would worry about him working 24/7 to pour the concrete and get it done. And there it still stands.

The grain elevator.

We went out to the cemetery before church to check on grandma and grandpa's grave. We didn't stay very long because it was just too windy. As long as I can remember there have not been many still days in Ransom (and grandma and grandpa's farm outside of town) because it has always been windy. And now, energy companies have tapped into all of that flat farmland because wind turbines are surrounding the town - everywhere the eye can see. It's really bizarre.

Mom is getting her labs done this a.m. and then she has her monthly appointment with Dr. Porubcin next Monday. Hopefully the news will continue to be good news. We have had a run of bad news in the family lately - cousin Heather was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer a few months ago. She went through surgery and is now going through chemo. Heather is younger than I am - and her diagnosis has mom rethinking the genetic testing. Our family (mom's side) really hasn't had a lot of cancer (breast, gynecologic) so if there's something there now I guess we'll find out.

One thing we do know is that prayers do work wonders... it was nice to see mom's name in the Ransom church bulletin for prayers (as well as Heather's name) and that is the one constant that doesn't have anything to do with insurance, drugs or doctors visits but has had the most impact IMO.

Port maintenance

Mom made her standard 6 week trip to Trinity on Monday to have them check her port and attempt to flush it out. No real difference from the last time - the port is still letting fluid through but there isn't much of a return, so the nurses will just keep an eye on it for the next time. Mom has her labs scheduled for April 22 and then we will visit with Dr. Porubcin on the 29th for an update.

Mom and I are going to make a trip back to Ransom next Sunday. Cousin Alaina is "celebrating" her 50th birthday - and the word celebrating is a loose definition as I don't think she wanted a big to-do... but you know how those AUNTS are. Mom and the rest of her sisters want to celebrate us children getting older, so celebrate Alaina's birthday we will do.

So the plan is to go to the Ransom church first thing for the Sunday service (9:30 a.m.), and then head to Applebee's in Ottawa for lunch. If that doesn't scream "Happy 50th Birthday" I don't know what does. Pictures to follow.

Mom's strip club...

One of the things that has been keeping mom busy is her sewing group at the Quilts and Blooms in Geneseo. Well imagine my surprise when she turns up in one of Fran Riley's features (a local TV reporter for KWQC) about the Jelly Roll Strip Club...!

For all of the non-quilters out there, a jelly roll is a big fat pack of strips of material for quilting. What is nice about a jelly roll is that the fabrics are cut and good to go - plus the colors are usually in a nice theme which takes out a lot of the guesswork for those of us who have a hard time picking out colors.

If the video player doesn't pop up below - click here to go to KWQC web site >>

KWQC-TV6 News and Weather For The Quad Cities -

Doctor update

Mom had a visit with Dr. Porubcin last Thursday and he was very happy with her overall blood counts and CA125... it went down slightly to 31. That is very good news since the last time she met with him it had went up slightly. 

She does not have any other symptoms so that is another good sign that the cancer is under control. The possibility of doing any more chemo treatments has been pushed back indefinitely so mom can enjoy the spring (when it gets here) and not have to worry about treatments on the horizon. 

Dr. Porubcin still likes to joke about her cough though! The man has a sense of humor. 

Mom is thinking about getting the genetic testing done sometime later this spring. Her insurance will cover it (the cost is about $3,000 I think I heard). Overall she doesn't fall into the category... according to the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, about 10-15% of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer have a hereditary tendency to develop the disease... and Eastern European women and women of a certain Jewish descent are at the high risk of carrying the gene mutations. I don't believe we have any Jewish decendents in the family and our ancestors are to my knowledge all Western European (Irish and German). BUT, as we have known all along... Dr. Mullin and Dr. Porubcin have said that my mom is NOT NORMAL and everything thus far has been out of the norm. So we shall see what surfaces, and then go from there. 

Monthly counts

Mom had her monthly blood counts and it looks like the CA125 went up a smidge to 37. The alarms aren't going off just yet - as the number has been hovering around there and even dropped a couple of months ago so Dr. Porubcin's office is going to see where her counts are at in February at the end of the month.

Mom isn't having any symptoms - such as bloating (and some of those other bodily dis-functions that I don't like to describe on the blog) so that is a good sign. If anything, she has learned over the course of this experience is to always pay attention and listen to your body.

And you will hear her say that to everyone - pay attention to the little things that aren't in the realm of "normal" for your body. Sure every once in a while things get out of whack - but if something persists then go get it checked out. Even if it is subtle - go get it checked out.

I have had friends who have had terrible experiences - where their physicians treated them like a crazy hypochondriac, only to find out that they had something seriously wrong after getting a second opinion. My mom was lucky enough to have doctors who listened to her concerns, and I am always thankful for that. It could have been much worse - and here she is five years later, back at morning Jazzercize and feeling good.

We know that there may be some chemo in the future to keep things in check, but that is the way it goes. Once you have cancer, you live with cancer.

Happy Christmas

The whirlwind of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day came and went. Mom came over to our house for presents and Christmas Eve dinner and then stayed overnight. Yesterday, Christmas Day, we pretty much took it easy and ate leftovers and watched movies. Mom and I went on a short walk at Longview Park with the dogs. It was very cold and the sidewalks weren't very clear so we did the best we could. At least we were outdoors for some fresh air. Mom also had a chance to try out the new coat she received for Christmas - her two requirements are that the coat cover her bum and have a sturdy hood. She said she stayed warm for all of the 20 minutes we were outside, so I guess I did ok in the gifting department. 

The good news for the week is that the doctor's office called last week to give mom and update on her blood counts - and her CA125 dropped a couple of points to 34! That means that she will just have to check in again at the end of January to do another port flush and get a new series of blood work done. Hopefully that number will just stay the same, and as long as she doesn't have any other symptoms, she could be good for the winter and not have to look at starting chemo again.

Trinity visit

Mom had a scheduled port flush yesterday morning, and as usual the nurses weren't able to get a return after pushing some fluid through. They are able to get the fluid in but just can't get anything to come back out. This is not a huge concern at the moment, but if mom has to start chemo again in the next couple of months, they will need to get the port in working order.

The nurses also took blood to measure the counts. They may call her with some results this week, or may wait until her next visit with Dr. Porubcin which isn't for another couple weeks. I will have to double check on the date of the dr appt. because I sync'ed my phone wrong the other day and lost a lot of information. Typical technology.

Mom is coming over on Christmas Eve so that we can have our usual Christmas Eve dinner with the boys (an now their girlfriends too) and then open gifts. Christmas Day is a pajama and movie day pretty much, which is nice. Looks like we will also have some snow!!!

One movie that mom and I like to watch on Christmas is "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. It brings back good memories of watching the movie with Grandma McCann and the fact White Christmas was one of her last tunes she was able to belt out at the Hillcrest Nursing Home. Looking back, it's really funny to me because Grandma McCann and I would watch that movie in the summertime back when I would visit the farm. Mostly because we both enjoyed the movie, but also because they had a VCR and we felt that it justified watching it just cause we could.