Lizzy (McGovern) O'Brien Sets the Chemo Bar High on #13, Monday, August 24

Just when I thought chemo wasn't a good time Lizzy (McGovern) O'Brien makes chemo on Monday, August 24 a wonderful memory that I will never forget.

What did she do you may ask to make it so memorable? Keep reading to find out!

The infusion center (chemo) was running very behind so I had Kelly (awesome nurse) paged so I could pop in and see her about some headaches I have been having and about the sties on my right eye, which was healing. Lizzy must be my lucky charm because we got to see Kelly AND Dr. Gradishar.

Meeting with Kelly and Dr. Gradishar went well. They were both happy to see that my eye was healing, but both were unhappy to hear about my headaches. While neither of them thought that the headaches were signaling that anything was wrong they agreed better to be safe than sorry so a brain MRI was scheduled for Monday, August 31 at 8:00am. I will post the results as soon as I have them.

Unfortunately, there was much discussion about whether or not I would need one more cycle (three treatments of chemo) before a follow-up CT. Lizzy and I both came away from our appointment not sure about the final number of treatments that I needed. Sometimes when I'm talking to someone and I either have no clue what they are saying or lose interest and completely zone out I think it's because of what the drugs are doing to my brain. It made me feel better to know that Lizzy didn't understand what the Dr. and Kelly were talking about either.

Back in the waiting room Lizzy and I were just talking and all of a sudden this man walks in and I swear we both almost fell off our chairs with laughter. Imagine this - man walks in wearing a Panama Jack type hat, Tommy Bahama shirt, linen khaki colored baggy pants and is talking to the receptionist as if he is getting ready to order a Margarita. Then we see his companion who (I'm not kidding) in wearing shorts and a shirt that reminded me a a boat captain. We just looked at each other and could not contain our laughter. I mean they seriously both looked like they were getting ready to do the Limbo on the Lido Deck. I don't think that the woman sitting across from me, who was perplexed that the infusion center was running so far behind found our laughter all that amusing, but if she had just stopped in her anger to look around and find the humor in the people and things that were going on she and her friend might have been laughing as hard as me and Lizzy.

Finally, we were called into the infusion center. Laura (awesome chemo nurse)got to the bottom of the 6 treatments (2 cycles) or 9 treatments (3 cycles) then CT Scan confusion and well the answer is 9 treatments (3 cycles) then CT Scan. While I was really looking forward to a break after the next two treatments I guess if the drugs are working keep em coming. Bottom line I'll be done with chemo the first week in October. I don't think that my Christmas wish of hair, not peach fuzz, but hair will be granted....oh well...hopefully I will still get that Cabbage Patch Doll and Barbie Dream House (OK I'm cracking myself up).

Much to my dismay Lizzy and I got the bad chemo room that I have mentioned before. It is an interior room with three chairs (so three patients). Thankfully there were some light hearted patients in the room with us because Lizzy and I were about to be very loud.

Lizzy set the chemo bar high and let me tell you I would not want to go to chemo with me after her because Lizzy brought props - yes props. She brought two photo albums/scrapbooks, our senior year Nazareth yearbook, our 8th grade graduation autograph book, Nazareth Carnation Day cards (Naz Alum you know you remember), Appreciation Day cards (these were from second grade and I didn't even remember Appreciation Day until she reminded me) and no joke a homemade card that I gave to her when we were kids. I mean c'mon I would never have thought to do something so awesome.

The photo albums were great. I love looking at the people that I thought were SO important when I was younger and realizing that I picked some pretty awesome friends because those people are still in my life.

The 8th grade graduation autograph book was amazing because while I wrote like an 8th grader (one who swore a lot - I blame my older brothers) everything I wrote I still believe today.

The Naz Carnation Day cards brought back so many great memories. For those of you that didn't attend Naz -we had "Carnation Day" where you could send other students a carnation and a note for I believe $1.00. Again, everything I wrote on Lizzy's Carnation Day card is still true today.

The card I made for her was very pretty (not at all - I can't draw), but the fact that she still has it is very cool.

She is not going to be happy about this but it has to be said.....

There was a comment I made in one of the books along the way that said "you have been there through thick and thin." I can honestly say that when I wrote the comment I never knew how thick it would get. Lizzy is still in the thick with me. She is always standing beside me, holding my hand, giving me a hug and always lifting my spirit. We have been friends for so long that I don't remember a time when she hasn't been in my life. I could not get through from day-to-day if it weren't for her support.

I thank you and I love you Lizzy!
B/F/F
Maria

Chemo #10 with Mom August 10th (also K&ED's Anniversary - yeah)

Good start - we got our muffin, Starbucks and water - MD Anderson didn't have the right muffin, the Starbucks came out of one of those gas station cappuccino makers (not good).....from moment one this morning it was nice to be home.

Good day. The hospital was almost on time, but the delay didn't seem to bother either of us. We were busy watching the jets practice for the air and water show. I swear I thought the planes were going to come straight through the building.

We were finally called in for chemo (all of the blood work was fine) and I reminded them that I had a treatment while in Houston so today would be Taxol and Avastin. This shook them up for a moment, but then we were cruisin. Unfortunately, (for me) my normal nurse Lora (who I adore) is on vacation this week was I was unable to give her my personal run down on MD Anderson, but I will be sure to do that on the 24th.

Mom and I spent our time reading three different clinical trial studies that Dr. Green said we may want to consider in the future. OK... so for those of you who can't find the humor in cancer you will not want to read this part........Mom and I were laughing pretty hard about some of the side effects listed...to name a few...

Coma (Mom's biggest laugh), Spinal Breakage (my biggest laugh), a New Cancer, Heart Attack, Bleeding, Opening of Healed Wounds (think this one could really mess with me if it wanted to). It felt really good to laugh so hard about something so serious, but it felt even better to be laughing about it with my Mom. I know how tough this is on my parents so it is truly a gift to me when one of them really laughs.

It may seem odd to laugh about this sort of stuff, but when you are living it all you can do is look at everything presented to you and say is this really my life?

Then think to yourself, clinical trials in the future YES - I WILL EMBRACE YOU AND ALL OF YOUR potential bleeding, coma, heart attack, new cancer, burning, skin rash, shedding skin and spinal breakage side effects if it means you will give me more time with the people that I love.

Once treatment was over we headed back to the burbs for a little lunch (ya should always stop for a little lunch and chatting) in La Grange. We went to Grapevine along the tracks and I must say I had a lovely salad and turkey sandwich on multi grain bread with roasted peppers, Swiss, arugula, tomatoes that I would highly recommend. We chatted for a good while and then I went home and zoned out in front of the television.

Today was a good day, but of course it's now 2:06AM, I took an Ambien CR at 9:30PM (clearly they aren't working their magic anymore) and I am still wide awake. So today was good.......tomorrow not so much!

Some May Say Who Was MD Anderson....

This post is really for my fantastic Auntie Gussie who thought I was being cute when I kept saying I was going to MD Anderson as if I was calling my doctor MD Anderson and when I kept saying MD Anderson she was thinking I was being a little overly cute.... (my actual Doc was a woman named Dr. Green).

When she told me this I about howled. So just to prove that I haven't lost my sense of humor through all of this drama......
here you go Auntie Gussie.....let me introduce you to M.D. Anderson!!!


Who Was M. D. Anderson?
Frugality and thrift (we were clearly separated at birth), industry and integrity — these were the most prominent characteristics of Monroe Dunaway Anderson. To these may be added shrewdness and acquisitiveness, which made him wealthy beyond most men of his time. He was also friendly, humble, kind, humorous and a little bashful (again, bashful - it's like he's my brotha from anotha motha).

Monroe Anderson was born June 29, 1873, in Jackson, Tenn., a small city 70 miles northeast of Memphis. His father was the first president of Jackson’s First National Bank, which he helped organize. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. William Monroe Dunaway, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. His Scottish Presbyterian ancestors pretty well endowed him and his siblings with frugality and thrift; indeed, these qualities prevailed widely in a South devastated economically as well as physically by the recently ended Civil War.

Monroe attended Jackson’s public schools and Southwestern Baptist University at Memphis before going to work in Jackson’s other bank, the Peoples’ National, where he learned the banking business thoroughly. In 1904, his older brother Frank and Frank’s brother-in-law, Will Clayton, decided to establish a partnership to engage in buying and selling cotton. They needed more capital and invited Monroe to become a partner. Thus was established Anderson, Clayton & Co., with its principal office in Oklahoma City, a new city in Oklahoma Territory where cotton grew bountifully. In 1905, Ben Clayton, Will’s younger brother, was made a partner, raising the partnership to four members — two Andersons and two Claytons.

In Jackson, Monroe continued his banking career until 1907, when he moved to Houston to give his company access to larger banks and, eventually, to deep water shipping on completion of the Houston Ship Channel in 1914. With full-time devotion to partnership affairs, he became the chief financial officer and later, following incorporation, he was named treasurer. For a time, he also served as president of Anderson, Clayton & Co. The company continued to prosper, and Monroe became wealthy through a combination of good management, good fortune, and the capable efforts of himself and his energetic associates. Anderson, Clayton & Co. came to be the world’s largest merchant of the world’s most popular commodity; for nearly a century it was known as “King Cotton.”

In the mid-1930s, M. D. Anderson and Will Clayton owned more than half the corporation’s stock. The death of either, if resulting in a large estate tax, might have made it necessary to liquidate the company. Partly for this reason, in 1936,
M. D. Anderson created the charitable foundation that bears his name and funded it with about $300,000. This foundation was destined to receive $19,000,000 more after Monroe’s death in 1939.

The charter of the M. D. Anderson Foundation did not specify precisely how its money should be used, but the trustees leaned strongly in the direction of health care. Soon after taking possession of the estate from its executors, the trustees noted that the 1941 Texas Legislature had authorized The University of Texas to establish a hospital for cancer research and treatment somewhere in the state. No location was specified, but $500,000 was appropriated for the purpose. The Anderson Foundation agreed to match this sum if the hospital would be built in Houston and named for its benefactor. A site was offered in the new Texas Medical Center, another creation of the Anderson Foundation.

The hospital began its operations in temporary quarters on the James A. Baker estate at 2310 Baldwin Street in downtown Houston during World War II, under the acting director, Dr. E.W. Bertner. M. D. Anderson Cancer Center rightly regards the Baker home and extensive grounds as its place of birth. Several war-surplus buildings were added in the late 1940s and 46 patients were being treated in those primitive quarters when the hospital moved to its current site in March 1954. The first permanent building, clothed in pink marble, is now the core of a complex of more modern buildings that surround it. Those buildings are sheathed in concrete and glass; the Georgia quarry was depleted of pink marble before the demands of M. D. Anderson ran out.

M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is deeply indebted to the people who worked there. Dr. Bertner deserves special thanks for developing a great medical center for Houston and serving as first president of the Texas Medical Center, as well as acting director of the cancer center during the organizational years, 1942-1945.

In 1946, the first full-time president, Randolph Lee Clark, M.D., took firm charge of the fledgling institution and lifted it to great heights in terms of successful operation and worldwide recognition. He served 32 years until retirement in 1978 and was replaced by Charles A. LeMaistre, M.D., who continued the great work begun by Dr. Clark. Dr. LeMaistre’s retirement in 1996 after 18 years brought in the third full-time president, John Mendelsohn, M.D., who in every way is living up to the standards of excellence exhibited by his predecessors. It may truthfully be said that M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is as much a monument to Lee Clark and his successors, and to the thousands of physicians, scientists, nurses and others who dedicated themselves to this splendid institution, as it is to the memory of the man whose name it bears.

While he died unmarried and childless, M. D. Anderson was the “father” not only to the Texas Medical Center and the institution that bears his name, but also to libraries, auditoriums, college buildings and even a planetarium in his native Jackson. If he were to return to earth and look about, he would be amazed and probably a little amused at the prominence his name has attained throughout the civilized world.

— Thomas D. Anderson

The late author, Thomas D. Anderson, was Monroe Anderson’s nephew and a devoted friend of the institution that bears his uncle’s name. He was a member of the M. D. Anderson Board of Visitors from 1962 until his death in 2007, and chaired the board from 1965 to 1974.

New Chemo Schedule

I have just finished my third chemo treatment in the first cycle. My first and third treatments were done at Northwestern. My second treatment was done while we were down in Houston at MD Anderson (I will write more about that trip later). I will have next week off and begin again on August 24th (YEAH WEEK OFF).

Monday, August 24
11:30AM - Labs
12:00PM - Chemo

Monday, August 31
10:30AM - Labs
11:00AM - Chemo

Tuesday, September 8
11:45AM - Labs
12:20PM - Appt. with Dr. Gradishar
1:30PM - Chemo

I am hopeful that Dr. Gradishar will order a CT Scan for the end of the week so that we can see if the tumors have continued to shrink.