The Day Before Surgery

November 7, 2009:

The “Three in One” Celebration Party at our house. First, to say thank you to so many people who have been overwhelmingly supportive. Second, to celebrate my “last” chemo treatment on Nov. 10th and third, to welcome the new decade of my life! Yes, I’m a 49er – I turned 60 of the 2nd of November. This birthday had started to be one I wasn’t looking forward to. None of the others (40, 50, 55, even 59) bothered me, but this one was different. As you can imagine, however, my previous concerns now seem so trivial. Keeping the big picture in mind, from now to “whenever”, I’ll take every birthday I can!!

The week before the party was absolutely the most beautiful Tucson November weather I can remember. Temps were in the 70s & 80s, no wind or rain in sight. With 80+ guests (87 actually showed up) & plans for dinner outdoors, I was hoping the weather would cooperate. In fact, it couldn’t have been more perfect! Daytime temperature was in the mid-80s with no wind or rain. We had fires in fireplaces and didn’t need to light the heaters. By the time the party ended at 8 pm the temperature was still in the low 60s.

It was fun for Mike and I to open/read/look at all of the cards and gifts after the party, (even though you weren’t supposed to bring gifts, were you???). So sorry, I have been remiss in saying thanks for everything.

Thank you to all that attended the shin-dig. It was a wonderful show of support and love that I will never forget.

November 10,2009:

My 6th Chemo Treatment – but I prefer to call it my LAST! By now I may just be used to the horrible feeling and low blood counts, but the recoup time was only about 7-8 days, normal “yucky” feeling, but nothing significant. Just knowing that it was the last one was enough to make whatever came with it tolerable.

November 23rd:

Follow-up Pet Scan from the base of the skull to mid-thigh. This is intended to “light up” any cancer. Takes about 2 ½ hours (25 minutes in the tube).

November 24th:

Dr. Brooks, my oncologist called with the results of the Pet Scan. It was “normal” – no signs of the cancer. The chemo had done everything that it could do. The “hell” I went through had all been worth it.

The potential for this type of result, is the main reason that the doctors (and I) opted to have the chemo first, and THEN the surgery. This allowed us to track the tumor/cancer & literally watch it shrink with each chemo treatment.

As I'm sure you can all imagine, this was great Thanksgiving news, - adding to all we have to be thankful for - but doesn’t change the follow-on treatment plan.

In fact, the surgery is tomorrow (Dec. 8th @ 8:30 am), to be followed by 6 weeks (5-days a week) of radiation once I’ve healed from the surgery. I anticipate starting radiation the middle of January.

Please continue to keep me in your prayers, especially tomorrow. Mike is on vacation and will provide updates next week. His email address is: mandghawkins@comcast.net (he gets messages on his phone) or you can call or text his cell: 520-481-6556.

More later--