Dear Friends and Family,
This is just a quick note to tell you that I had my quarterly CA-125 ovarian cancer tumor marker blood test today and it was normal again! As a reminder, a normal reading is anywhere from 0 to 30, and mine was 12.8.
We are rejoicing over this good news and in fact, are about to go rejoice over a plate of spinach enchiladas to celebrate. News this wonderful might even require a side of guacamole and chips, don't you think?
Thanks be to God for all the prayers that He answered for me through this great test result, and thanks to all of you for praying! Fifty-three and cancer free--that's me! :-)
Love,
Gabrielle
P.S. Daniel was interviewed and photographed for a story that will appear in the Seattle Times either tomorrow (1/17) or Friday (1/18), so if you get the Times, look for his picture!
P.P.S. Go Seahawks!
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Saturday, January 4, 2014
1/4/14 Happy New Year!
Dear Family and Friends,
Happy new year to you all! I'm sorry I am so late with this blog post. After rejoicing over my great CA-125 score in late October, we threw ourselves with gusto into making memories in November and December.
November brought Steve's 57th birthday, celebrated with carrot cake from our favorite bakery, Simply Desserts in Fremont. And our counter is now totally overcome by his b-day gift--a fancy 14-cup coffee maker. I thought that he wanted this just for "entertaining," but alas, he loves his new toy and does not want to put it away. Then we hosted Thanksgiving for Steve's family, where a good time was had by all. And Daniel's chocolate chip pecan pie with bourbon whipped cream was a huge hit.
One week later, Steve, Renee, and I took off for Kauai for 8 nights of heaven! We had not been to Kauai since our honeymoon in 1982. On that honeymoon trip, the island had just been devastated by hurricane Eva and our trip to Waimea Canyon was hindered by fog. On this trip, the weather couldn't have been more perfect and Waimea Canyon was one of the most beautiful sights I've seen, as were the beaches and mountains of the north shore. We swam in the ocean, pool, and saltwater lagoon at our hotel, snorkeled, read good books, and had deep and wonderful conversations. Oh--and Renee and I took an intro to SCUBA diving course. She was a natural--a true fish, like her dad.
I was also blessed on this trip to meet three women on their own cancer journeys. One woman at our hotel, about 35 years old, was struggling to walk up the path from the pool to the lobby. Her head was bald and she had little strength or breath. We spoke and I learned she had just finished chemo. This was her celebratory trip. I encouraged her, I hope, that just months after chemo ended, I had hair and energy, and told her she would too. I told her she was doing GREAT! Then at the top of the water slide, I met a 29-year-old bald woman and her husband. I learned that she had just had chemo to shrink her tumors and that in three days time, she would return home to a double mastectomy. She has a baby boy. She is a strong Christian and I was able to share more words of encouragement and hope. We had a great hug. Lastly, I met a woman about my age as we were both gazing at an endangered monk seal napping on the beach (there are only about 1,000 of these left in the world!). We got to talking and the next thing I knew, she showed me her breast surgery scar and said her chemo would begin in January. She was also a Christian with whom I exchanged words of assurance that God would help her through. We hugged and committed to pray for one another in the year ahead. What a joy to play a small part in comforting others with the comfort I myself have received from God in my cancer journey.
December 18th brought our 31st anniversary, which we celebrated at Canlis. Daniel's friend Kyle, who is a manager there, made our evening extra special. This was our "do-over" from the Valentine's Day Canlis trip we had to cancel last year as I had just finished double chemo! Later in December, we arrived home from a movie with Renee to a dark house. As we entered, lights flew on and many of our dear friends yelled "surprise--happy anniversary!" We could not have been more shocked! A perfect surprise party, complete with some good friends, tasty appetizers, fun games, and lots of hugs and smiles.
On Christmas Eve, we went to a Mexican restaurant near our house, Puerto Bonito, for a new favorite tradition--Feliz Navidad dinner. Check out the photo below to see the mammoth amount of food I enjoyed! Oh man, does it feel good to be able to eat after starving with nausea for half of last year. We also enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Eve church service at Ballard Lutheran church, complete with a live nativity acted out by the kids in the church. When we walked up to look at a real "baby Jesus" in the manger, he was sound asleep, sucking his thumb. His real-life mom, playing Mary, smiled at me and said "this is a true Christmas miracle!"
Christmas day brought few gifts to the Dudley tree. We decided this would be "homemade" Christmas, since money has been a bit tight after cancer, med school, Kauai, and a master bath remodel. This simple Christmas was one of our best ever. We hosted Christmas dinner for my mom and aunt and uncle, Julianne and Oliver, as well as Renee's girlfriend, Riley. Daniel and I treated everyone to a choreographed dance we had worked on to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You." So much fun! Then on the 26th, we celebrated with Steve's family at an amazing dinner hosted by Steve's mom at Anthony's restaurant in Kirkland. Once again, there were lots of smiles, hugs, good food and more Christmas memories to cherish. It was extra special since Aunt Peggy made a special trip to be with us all the way from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
To work off some of that Christmas food, Daniel and I headed to Snoqualmie Pass for "snowshoeing." Alas, we needed only boots. The ski area was closed due to lack of snow. But we did enjoy a snow "hike," with a little bit of snow, here and there.
On New Year's Eve of 2012, I just lay on the couch with severe stomach pain and was unable to eat any of the king crab leg dinner Steve had made. We had no idea what was about to unfold just a week later with my cancer diagnosis. Well guess what? On New Year's Eve 2013, I ate three king crab legs! I was overcome with memories of all we went through last year and how faithful God was to provide strength, peace, hope, expert care, loving support, and ultimately, healing. My heart is full of love for God and for all of you, who were the hands, feet, and voices of God (in prayer and words of encouragement) for us.
Now it's January and though it's only the 4th, a lot is happening! First, we resolved to learn to make homemade pasta and practiced last night before a debut dinner we are hosting tonight. It turned out GREAT! So much fun and so much better than store bought pasta! Second, we (Steve, Gabrielle, Daniel) are having "no sugar January," to make up for all the excesses of Daniel's baking while he was home for Christmas break. Day four and so far, so good. Next, I am leaving my job at SPU on January 9th after seven years of joy serving my alma mater. I will have a few weeks off then will be heading over to the University of Washington. I hope to give you more details on that as they develop.
Please enjoy the photos below and please, would you pray with us that my CA-125 test on January 17 will be normal? Thank you!!
Love and hugs,
Gabrielle
 |
Renee and Steve take a dip, Kauai, Dec. 2013 |
 |
Steve and Gabrielle enjoy 31st anniversary dessert at Canlis, Dec. 18, 2013 |
 |
Steve and Gabrielle at Feliz Navidad dinner, Christmas Eve, 2013 |
 |
Renee and Daniel enjoying happy hour at Sunshine Tavern, Portland, Dec. 2013 |
 |
Gabrielle on our "snowshoe" hike, Dec. 2013 |
 |
New Year's resolution--learn to make homemade pasta! |
Friday, October 25, 2013
10/25/13 Giving Thanks!
Dear Friends and Family,
Gabrielle here. Our hearts are overflowing with joy to tell you the news that my five-month CA-125 test today was 12.5! That is DOWN from the July test number of 13.4!! As you will recall, the normal range for any healthy woman off the street is 0 to 30. I am below the middle of normal. We are so relieved and thankful to God!
I have been feeling really great lately. I have good energy (about 90% of pre-cancer energy) and am able to exercise at my pre-cancer levels. Some of you know that I am a fast walker and recently, my friends have been telling me to slow down. What an amazing thing this is after earlier this year I could barely walk up and down the stairs in my house a couple of times a day. And on November 1, I will be returning to my 80% work schedule at SPU, working full days Mondays through Thursdays. This past two months I've been at 70% time.
Next month I have been asked to speak and give my personal "story of thanks" at SPU's all-campus Thanksgiving Chapel. I wish I could speak for an hour because I have so much to say on this subject! Unfortunately, they only gave me six minutes. What were they thinking?? How can I condense the last year's worth of my thankfulness into six minutes?! I will do my best. If any of you would like to attend this Chapel, it will be held on November 26 at 11:00 AM in the First Free Methodist Church main sanctuary. Free hugs afterwards for anyone who comes! :-)
Thanks be to God for wanting to keep me around a bit longer (!) and thanks to all of you, my dear friends and family, for your continual prayers on my behalf and your frequent inquiries into how I am doing. We love you all.
"Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Eph. 5:19-20
Love,
Gabrielle
P.S. Thinking of making music in our hearts to the Lord, here's a fun video from pre-cancer days--Daniel and me dancing to "The Monster Mash" while Renee films on her phone and laughs! :-)
http://vimeo.com/24887010
Gabrielle here. Our hearts are overflowing with joy to tell you the news that my five-month CA-125 test today was 12.5! That is DOWN from the July test number of 13.4!! As you will recall, the normal range for any healthy woman off the street is 0 to 30. I am below the middle of normal. We are so relieved and thankful to God!
I have been feeling really great lately. I have good energy (about 90% of pre-cancer energy) and am able to exercise at my pre-cancer levels. Some of you know that I am a fast walker and recently, my friends have been telling me to slow down. What an amazing thing this is after earlier this year I could barely walk up and down the stairs in my house a couple of times a day. And on November 1, I will be returning to my 80% work schedule at SPU, working full days Mondays through Thursdays. This past two months I've been at 70% time.
Next month I have been asked to speak and give my personal "story of thanks" at SPU's all-campus Thanksgiving Chapel. I wish I could speak for an hour because I have so much to say on this subject! Unfortunately, they only gave me six minutes. What were they thinking?? How can I condense the last year's worth of my thankfulness into six minutes?! I will do my best. If any of you would like to attend this Chapel, it will be held on November 26 at 11:00 AM in the First Free Methodist Church main sanctuary. Free hugs afterwards for anyone who comes! :-)
Thanks be to God for wanting to keep me around a bit longer (!) and thanks to all of you, my dear friends and family, for your continual prayers on my behalf and your frequent inquiries into how I am doing. We love you all.
"Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Eph. 5:19-20
Love,
Gabrielle
P.S. Thinking of making music in our hearts to the Lord, here's a fun video from pre-cancer days--Daniel and me dancing to "The Monster Mash" while Renee films on her phone and laughs! :-)
http://vimeo.com/24887010
Saturday, September 21, 2013
9/21/13 Happy Fall!
Dear Family and Friends,
Well, the gray skies arrived today, after a most beautiful summer and early September, as we welcome in the first day of Fall tomorrow. After a very active summer, I am ready for the cooler days, big pots of soup, and curling up with some good books.
After my GLORIOUS normal CA125 blood tumor marker test in July, all four Dudleys had a fun trip to the San Juan Islands on our boat in August. We spent one night with friends, Howard and Nancy, having fun eating great food and fishing, and then explored on our own for a couple of days, with hikes at Sucia and Jones islands. Last weekend Steve and I went to Crater Lake for the first time. Below are some pictures from that trip. We were blessed with nice weather and we SWAM in that cold lake, jumping off rocks into the cleanest, clearest water we have ever seen. You can drink the lake as you swim! It's that pure. You can't look at Crater Lake without seeing the majesty of God's design and creativity. It was spectacular.
The final picture below is of my one little inch of new hair. Man--I never knew how slowly hair grows! It is growing in thick, and brown (not gray!), but totally straight. My previous hair had been kind of wavy. But believe me, I don't care at all. To have any hair is a wonder to me and I will try to never complain of a bad hair day ever again!
In other Dudley family news, Renee is interviewing for jobs with nonprofits in town. Please pray she will get just the right one. She is pretty awesome at interviews and already got offered one job. Unfortunately, after learning more about it, she needed to turn that one down, as it didn't feel like the right fit to her. And Daniel is already in his fourth week of medical school! He had a huge anatomy exam yesterday on everything you can find in the head and neck. I guess there is a LOT of stuff in there! Afterwards, the school hosted the first year students for a pizza party to celebrate their survival of that exam. So it's off to the races for junior doctor Dudley.
As to my health, I am feeling pretty well, overall. I am at about 90% energy, and have been so delighted to be able to hike and swim and travel this summer. Thanks be to God! Though I'm physically doing well, emotionally, the post-chemo days have been pretty rough. Once you quit chemo, and there are no more drugs killing cancer cells, you begin to fear that any "chemo-resistant cancer cells" that might be in there are beginning to grow again. Every ache or pain you experience, you get a pang of fear that cancer is returning. It is a constant psychological and spiritual battle EVERY day. I tell myself "you don't have cancer TODAY." "You are not going to die TODAY, so quit worrying and enjoy the day." And of course, I pray continually and ask God to help me "run with perseverance the race marked out for me, looking unto Jesus..." It always comes back to "eyes on Jesus" to get through each day. And of course, I am fully engaged in looking for joy in each and every day, and with seeing each day as a total gift from God. I hope you are too!
My next CA125 test is October 25. Please pray for another normal test and for continued remission. Thank you! May God bless you and hold you close through whatever trials you are facing. If I can pray for you for something specific you are going through, I would be honored to do so, as your prayers and support were such a lifeline for me. Just let me know!
Love,
Gabrielle
Saturday, August 10, 2013
8/10/13 Dancing the coast of Maine
Hello! This is Daniel. I just want to say thank you once again to all of you out there, some of whom I know, some whom I may never know, who have kept my mom in your thoughts and prayers this year. I am convinced that this loving support and consistent prayer has played an instrumental role in her healing journey. You have all given our family hope, joy, laughter, support, sympathy, and compassion. Thank you for being with us through the darkest hour, which at the time seemed like it would never pass. Now we can all celebrate together, because my mom is healthy, happy, and cancer-free! To celebrate her victorious completion of 19 weeks of chemotherapy we went on a celebratory trip to the coast of Maine, where none of us had ever been before. It was truly a wonderful time to relax, and play, and celebrate the wonderful Gabrielle! We saw lots of amazing lighthouses, ate lots of lobster (it's so cheap over there!), and of course we did some dancing! If you have ever worked with Gabrielle, you probably know she loves to dance, and of course it has rubbed off on the rest of us. I hope you like this video I put together, "Dancing with Lighthouses".
Thanks again for your love and support! Praise the Lord for my mom's healing! -Daniel
Dancing with Lighthouses
Thanks again for your love and support! Praise the Lord for my mom's healing! -Daniel
Dancing with Lighthouses
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
7/23/13 July 2013 Update: First post-cancer CA125 results!
Dear Family and Friends,
It is with a smile on my face and immense gratitude in my heart, to God and all of you who have prayed for me, that I report my "passing grade" on my first post-cancer CA-125 test! As you may remember, the "normal" scale for the ovarian cancer tumor marker in a woman's blood is 0 to 30. My score yesterday was a 13.4!!! Smack dab in the middle of normal!
This first test score weighed heavily on our family's minds and hearts because you don't know what will happen once you no longer have the weekly chemo that has been destroying your cancer cells. Did it miss a few? Are they multiplying like crazy again? This great score tells us my cancer remains firmly in remission, and allows us to relax, breathe, and live each day to the fullest for another three months until the next test comes along.
Since we last blogged, we "took a break from cancer" to celebrate the end of the long surgery/chemo journey. The four of us enjoyed a wonderful trip to the coast of Maine where I believe we saw just about every lighthouse and ate just about every lobster and gourmet ice cream cone on that 350-mile stretch of coast we covered! If you love sandy and rocky beaches, quaint little towns and coves filled with fishing boats, and the aforementioned lighthouses, lobster, and ice cream, then go to the coast of Maine!!!
Last weekend Steve and I travelled to San Diego for our nephew's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and great chance for Steve and I to go on walks and lay on a sandy beach in the sunshine doing absoultely nothing (didn't even bring a book to the beach). We also hit the pool with enthusiasm as we are both training (along with Renee) for a Children's Hospital fund-raising swim on Aug. 25. It is 1.4 miles across Lake Washington and I am up to 45 minutes of continuous swimming so far. Need to get to one hour, 15 minutes before the race (I think I can, I think I can...).
I have also returned to work at SPU! Just three days a week to start. The first week back, I would get home from work and collapse on the couch before I could even think about helping with dinner. Did you know that if you remain collapsed on the couch long enough, your husband, son, or some other kindly person visiting your home might end up making dinner for you?! ;-) But each week I feel my strength returning, about 5% per week, I would estimate. By September, I hope to be strong enough to resume my normal four-day work weeks.
I can't tell you what joy it brings me to go to work, ride on an airplane without getting sick, to work out again to near my previous levels of fitness, and to EAT all the foods that I couldn't tolerate during chemo, including last night's splurge of king salmon with some friends...king salmon being my all-time favorite protein. It was also a joy to go crabbing and to catch so much that we could give crab cakes away to family and friends and take a crab meal to a family just beginning their cancer journey (surgery over, but chemo yet to start). To be able to give again, and not just be on the receiving end of so much love and kindness, is both humbling and heart-warming. Thank you, Lord!
I will try to get Daniel to add some photos to this blog post later this week and then we will blog again in August. Until then, bless you for your continued prayers for the nerve pain in my feet (a long-term side-effect of chemo) and that my cancer will remain FIRMLY in remission. I hope you are having a wonderful summer, wherever you live, and that you will find moments (or big huge hunks) of joy in each and every day of your life this summer!
Love,
Gabrielle
It is with a smile on my face and immense gratitude in my heart, to God and all of you who have prayed for me, that I report my "passing grade" on my first post-cancer CA-125 test! As you may remember, the "normal" scale for the ovarian cancer tumor marker in a woman's blood is 0 to 30. My score yesterday was a 13.4!!! Smack dab in the middle of normal!
This first test score weighed heavily on our family's minds and hearts because you don't know what will happen once you no longer have the weekly chemo that has been destroying your cancer cells. Did it miss a few? Are they multiplying like crazy again? This great score tells us my cancer remains firmly in remission, and allows us to relax, breathe, and live each day to the fullest for another three months until the next test comes along.
Since we last blogged, we "took a break from cancer" to celebrate the end of the long surgery/chemo journey. The four of us enjoyed a wonderful trip to the coast of Maine where I believe we saw just about every lighthouse and ate just about every lobster and gourmet ice cream cone on that 350-mile stretch of coast we covered! If you love sandy and rocky beaches, quaint little towns and coves filled with fishing boats, and the aforementioned lighthouses, lobster, and ice cream, then go to the coast of Maine!!!
Last weekend Steve and I travelled to San Diego for our nephew's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and great chance for Steve and I to go on walks and lay on a sandy beach in the sunshine doing absoultely nothing (didn't even bring a book to the beach). We also hit the pool with enthusiasm as we are both training (along with Renee) for a Children's Hospital fund-raising swim on Aug. 25. It is 1.4 miles across Lake Washington and I am up to 45 minutes of continuous swimming so far. Need to get to one hour, 15 minutes before the race (I think I can, I think I can...).
I have also returned to work at SPU! Just three days a week to start. The first week back, I would get home from work and collapse on the couch before I could even think about helping with dinner. Did you know that if you remain collapsed on the couch long enough, your husband, son, or some other kindly person visiting your home might end up making dinner for you?! ;-) But each week I feel my strength returning, about 5% per week, I would estimate. By September, I hope to be strong enough to resume my normal four-day work weeks.
I can't tell you what joy it brings me to go to work, ride on an airplane without getting sick, to work out again to near my previous levels of fitness, and to EAT all the foods that I couldn't tolerate during chemo, including last night's splurge of king salmon with some friends...king salmon being my all-time favorite protein. It was also a joy to go crabbing and to catch so much that we could give crab cakes away to family and friends and take a crab meal to a family just beginning their cancer journey (surgery over, but chemo yet to start). To be able to give again, and not just be on the receiving end of so much love and kindness, is both humbling and heart-warming. Thank you, Lord!
I will try to get Daniel to add some photos to this blog post later this week and then we will blog again in August. Until then, bless you for your continued prayers for the nerve pain in my feet (a long-term side-effect of chemo) and that my cancer will remain FIRMLY in remission. I hope you are having a wonderful summer, wherever you live, and that you will find moments (or big huge hunks) of joy in each and every day of your life this summer!
Love,
Gabrielle
Monday, June 3, 2013
6/3/13 Celebrating!
Dear Family and Friends,
I'm sorry I haven't written sooner to tell you how overjoyed I am to be done with cancer treatments...but I've been so busy celebrating, I haven't had a second to touch the computer until now!
Final chemo #18 on Friday was so much fun. I know--how weird is that to call chemo fun?! But Daniel and I and everyone at the Seattle Women's Cancer Care Center were celebrating that my chemo was ending. They sang to me and blew off those New Year's paper poppers. Then we ate chocolate raspberry cake from Simply Desserts (my favorite cake bakery in the world). We couldn't even finish a Scrabble game because everyone kept coming in and hugging me and congratulating us. And we gave hand-written note cards and Molly Moon's ice cream gift cards to the six people on the team to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude for helping me through. They loved getting those!
Since then, I feel as if I am floating and need to pinch myself with how surreal it feels to be done. To have plucked the last pink paper chain ring from the banister. To not have to return to get blood work checked until July 19. Seven glorious weeks of life ahead with no visit to the cancer center. And knowing that each day will bring back my strength, my taste buds, my hair--it's all too wonderful for words.
The four of us went out to dinner Friday night to celebrate at my favorite Mediterranean restaurant--The Mediterranean Kitchen in Bellevue. After, it was a sunny evening and we walked about the beautiful park near Bel Square. On Saturday we went to the Saturday farmer's market in Edmonds and then out for a boat ride on Lake Union. And on Sunday we took the boat to Blake Island with my sister and her husband where we picnicked, laid on blankets on the beach talking, and hiked the island trails. What a great weekend of celebrating the start of cancer remission. Thanks be to God!
From this point on, I will need to have my chest port flushed every six weeks (or seven this first go around), and every 12th week they will also check my CA125 to keep it "under surveillance" and make sure it remains in the normal range of 0 to 30. They will keep the port in for a minimum of two years (!) just in case we need it again. Those words send shivers through my spine!
Will you please continue to pray for me that we won't need the port again? That I will be in the "statistical group" for whom this cancer will not recur? I know recurrence is a possibility. I had a very advanced stage of this dreadful cancer. But each day I pray that God will allow me to see Daniel graduate from medical school, to see Renee and Daniel get married, to know and be a blessing in the lives of my grandchildren, and to be there for my beloved husband, Steve, in our old age.
And while I lift that prayer to God each day, I also ask Him to help me trust Him when fear of the future creeps in. To focus on the gift of the present day and not waste the days God is giving me now on worry about things that may or may not occur later. I know Who holds the future and He can be trusted with all of it. He has proved that time and again.
When the disciples were afraid on the Mount of Transfiguration it says "But Jesus came and touched them. 'Get up,' he said. 'Don't be afraid.' When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus."
And it all boils down to that. The words my friend, Loretta, gave me right at the start of this difficult journey. "Eyes on Jesus," she said. How right she was (is)!
Love,
Gabrielle
P.S. Thank you all so much for reading our blog and praying for me/us these past five months. We felt every prayer and were encouraged with every card, meal, and kindness. Please continue to pray for smooth remission sailing and we will update the blog from time to time to stay in touch. We estimate we will write about once a month moving forward (so we won't have to think/focus on cancer "too" often in this surveillance period)! We love you all and could not be more grateful for our magnificent "rope team!" :-)
I'm sorry I haven't written sooner to tell you how overjoyed I am to be done with cancer treatments...but I've been so busy celebrating, I haven't had a second to touch the computer until now!
Final chemo #18 on Friday was so much fun. I know--how weird is that to call chemo fun?! But Daniel and I and everyone at the Seattle Women's Cancer Care Center were celebrating that my chemo was ending. They sang to me and blew off those New Year's paper poppers. Then we ate chocolate raspberry cake from Simply Desserts (my favorite cake bakery in the world). We couldn't even finish a Scrabble game because everyone kept coming in and hugging me and congratulating us. And we gave hand-written note cards and Molly Moon's ice cream gift cards to the six people on the team to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude for helping me through. They loved getting those!
Since then, I feel as if I am floating and need to pinch myself with how surreal it feels to be done. To have plucked the last pink paper chain ring from the banister. To not have to return to get blood work checked until July 19. Seven glorious weeks of life ahead with no visit to the cancer center. And knowing that each day will bring back my strength, my taste buds, my hair--it's all too wonderful for words.
The four of us went out to dinner Friday night to celebrate at my favorite Mediterranean restaurant--The Mediterranean Kitchen in Bellevue. After, it was a sunny evening and we walked about the beautiful park near Bel Square. On Saturday we went to the Saturday farmer's market in Edmonds and then out for a boat ride on Lake Union. And on Sunday we took the boat to Blake Island with my sister and her husband where we picnicked, laid on blankets on the beach talking, and hiked the island trails. What a great weekend of celebrating the start of cancer remission. Thanks be to God!
From this point on, I will need to have my chest port flushed every six weeks (or seven this first go around), and every 12th week they will also check my CA125 to keep it "under surveillance" and make sure it remains in the normal range of 0 to 30. They will keep the port in for a minimum of two years (!) just in case we need it again. Those words send shivers through my spine!
Will you please continue to pray for me that we won't need the port again? That I will be in the "statistical group" for whom this cancer will not recur? I know recurrence is a possibility. I had a very advanced stage of this dreadful cancer. But each day I pray that God will allow me to see Daniel graduate from medical school, to see Renee and Daniel get married, to know and be a blessing in the lives of my grandchildren, and to be there for my beloved husband, Steve, in our old age.
And while I lift that prayer to God each day, I also ask Him to help me trust Him when fear of the future creeps in. To focus on the gift of the present day and not waste the days God is giving me now on worry about things that may or may not occur later. I know Who holds the future and He can be trusted with all of it. He has proved that time and again.
When the disciples were afraid on the Mount of Transfiguration it says "But Jesus came and touched them. 'Get up,' he said. 'Don't be afraid.' When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus."
And it all boils down to that. The words my friend, Loretta, gave me right at the start of this difficult journey. "Eyes on Jesus," she said. How right she was (is)!
Love,
Gabrielle
P.S. Thank you all so much for reading our blog and praying for me/us these past five months. We felt every prayer and were encouraged with every card, meal, and kindness. Please continue to pray for smooth remission sailing and we will update the blog from time to time to stay in touch. We estimate we will write about once a month moving forward (so we won't have to think/focus on cancer "too" often in this surveillance period)! We love you all and could not be more grateful for our magnificent "rope team!" :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)