Saturday, April 12, 2014

4/12/14 Lots of love for Gabrielle!

Here's the latest batch of We <3 Gabrielle photos! Thanks for all the encouragement, friends!

 Gabrielle's friend Laura

 A heart from Gabrielle's Aunt Julianne and Uncle Oliver

 Gabrielle's niece Katia sends love from her college in Alabama

 Renée's good friend Marissa and Dakota the horse

 A message in the sand from Steve's cousin's family

 Our friends the Coghlans

Gabrielle's good friends Bill and Luanna

 Two of Bill and Luanna's cute granddaughters

 Gabrielle's friends the Sclars and their dogs

…and Renée's friend Luis rocking out for Gabrielle!

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

4/9/14 More pictures!

Getting these great pictures from friends and family is a bright spot in our day. Thank you!!!

 Gabrielle cute pregnant niece Mandie

 Renée and Daniel's friend Alicia at work as a nurse

 Renée's friends Jane and John

 The entire church council of Ballard First Lutheran Church making hearts for Gabrielle!

Some of Steve's coworkers at the urgent care clinic

And more of Shannon's awesome elementary school students!








Monday, April 7, 2014

4/7/14 More love!

Second batch of We <3 Gabrielle photos! Thanks for the encouragement, friends!

Renée's friend Shannon, a teacher in Oregon, sent in these adorable pictures with her students:
 So cute!

 Renée's girlfriend Riley, her cousin Pete, her sister Ivy, and Pete's grouchy cat :)

 Riley and Ivy's fierce cat Sam is rooting for Gabrielle!

 Daniel's best friend Philip in front of his impressive art collection

 Our friend Anthony with his super cute new puppy!

 Renée's great friends Karissa and Peter

Our cute stripey friends Ami and Matt

 Gabrielle's friend Janet with some friends

And finally, this wonderful and impressive picture featuring tons of Gabrielle's old SPU coworkers.

We all love Gabrielle!!!

Sunday, April 6, 2014

4/6/14 Photos come pouring in!

 We've received our first batch of "We <3 Gabrielle" pictures! It gives us all a boost of encouragement to see that people all over the country are thinking about us. Please keep them coming, and help us show Gabrielle lots of love! ~Renée

 Adele taking a study break in the Linguistics Library of her college

 Gabrielle's cousin Elizabeth and family

Arlo and Penny, the awesome kids Renée nannied last year (with their own interpretations of "We <3 Gabrielle")

 A Christmas family photo from Steve's aunt Peggy

Renée's good friends Houston and Megan send love from California 

Adorable Arlo again!


Even crocodiles love Gabrielle!

Grandma Abby loves Gabrielle!

Please keep sending pics to rdudley10@gmail.com or post them to Renée on facebook :)
Thank you!

Saturday, April 5, 2014

4/5/14 Send us a photo!

Hi friends--Renée here. We've thought of a fun way that you can help encourage my mom: take a picture with a "We  Gabrielle" sign and post it to facebook or email it to me: rdudley10@gmail.com. We'll compile them and show my mom that tons of people are rooting for her!
Let's see how many pictures we can get! 

And as always, thanks for your support--we are feeling loved!




4/5/14 First chemo session done

Steve again (who else would be up early on a Saturday morning around here?).

Well, we got through the first chemo session and it was a marathon day.  Gabrielle and the kids (speaking historically, of course, as they are now 24 and 25) showed up at the day surgery area of the hospital for her infusion at 10.  By around noon, the first of three drugs arrived.  Normally, she gets the chemo right in Dr. M's office, but they were so rushed to get started that there was no room at the inn, hence the little change in venue.  I thought it was nice as this is the same wing of the hospital Gabrielle spent a day or two in back in July, 1988 as it was the post, "just had my first baby" wing.  For all I know, we were in the same room.  Somewhere in the basement, we've got a picture of me holding Renee sitting in a giant rocker in the lobby of this same wing.  OK, so much for memory lane.

Aunt Julianne came by with chocolates to help keep everyone's spirits up.  The drugs went in one after the other, but it was indeed a long session of one infusion after another.  By around 3:00, she was ready to go home, so got unplugged and made a bee line for Casa Dudley in Shoreline.  Upon her arrival, she was greeted on the doorstep by a wonderful care package from the Poulsbo Dudleys (Paul, Heidi and gang) containing a beautiful blue scarf, amazing gourmet soap (OK, gourmet isn't the right word, but I can't think of it...designer? fancy?  Anyhow, it looks good enough to eat), and gourmet chocolate (now that's gourmet), and a candle.  It warmed our hearts and showed up at just the right time.  There were also two bunches of flowers...a wonderful assortment of pink tulips from Riley and an assortment of cheery yellow ones from Lynette.  They are beautiful and so cheery. Aunt Peggy from Rehoboth send cards (thanks so much!).

Gabrielle had so much energy, that she corralled us all into going on a long walk at Richmond Beach.  It was a beautifully sunny afternoon and the perfect thing to do after being indoors at the hospital all day.  When we got back home, our dear neighbors Jerry and Laura brought us dinner.  They asked Gabrielle (not me) what we wanted and since her appetite hadn't tanked yet, she asked for a super combo pizza with the works and Greek salad from Spiro's.  It hit the spot!  They are good friends, neighbors and moderately good canasta players. 

We topped the evening off with a couple of TV shows while we noshed on chocolates and sat around in a stupor from the wonderful food and unpleasant news of the past 36 hours.  I am pleased to say that we are all doing a tad better emotionally.  We only went through half a box of Kleenex rather than a box a piece the day before.  It has been great getting so much well-wishing from all of you.
As for now, she's upstairs asleep, which is great.  If things go like before, she'll feel "fine" till about 2:00 today then have a couple challenging days, then will do better for a couple more.  As far as I know, next week's session will only be one drug and the following week will be no drugs, which is great as that'll be Good Friday and we all know what that means:  Easter Eggs!  OK, there's something about Hope, the Resurrection and stuff like that in there too!  But the nice thing is the entire Easter Weekend will be a "drug free" weekend (except the resveratrol in chocolate, of course).

We are still trying to figure out how to manage in the next few weeks.  I still have some work obligations I need to attend to...it's tough being the local expert at ear wax removal...and Daniel has this little academic journey he has embarked upon which demands at least a modicum of attention.  People have already offered to come by and keep Gabrielle company.  Be forewarned, if you do come by, she'll challenge you to canasta or Scrabble or cribbage and she likes to win, is wicked good at all three and she takes no prisoners.  Of course, she might make you sit in the basement and watch Jeopardy re-runs as well (she's good at that too).  What she's not good at is playing the pity, poor me card.  In the midst of all this, she hasn't uttered a word of complaint and has the most amazing spirit of calmness and serenity.  She is cheerful (as much as she can be) and spends more time making sure those around her are doing well than the other way around (unless she is your opponent at a game, then the gloves come off).  Even in the hospital, she was asking the nurses how they were doing and offering them chocolates.  Whatta gal! 

So that's the news so far.  We are having a birthday celebration for Daniel later today.  He wants to go to the art museum (SAM) and then grab a bite to eat.  We had planned on sushi, but that's off the list, now that Gabrielle is on chemo.  We'll find something for her to eat.  Oh, she's rustling around!  She just mentioned she had a good night...only woke up for one hour.  That's not too bad.  Will keep you posted.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

4/3/14 Déjà Vu

“It’s like déjà vu all over again.”  Yogi Berra.
Hi friends.  Steve here with some sad news to report.  For the past two weeks, Gabrielle has been having some stomach and GI issues, which we initially attributed to a little overindulgence at a wonderful weekend beach getaway to Long Beach (aside: thanks so much to Elliott for the loan of his wonderful digs down there…I think I remembered to water the cat and put the house plants out, or was it the other way around??).  Anyhow, back to my story.  The drive home was associated with nausea, abdominal pain and then a fever.  Gabrielle wisely high-tailed it to Dr. M. as soon as she got back.  She met with both Dr. M and her fellow (kind of like very advanced resident, uber smart).  They were sufficiently concerned that they repeated the CA-125 and ordered a CT scan of her abdomen for a week later (today).  The CA-125 had risen by 3 points—still well within the normal range, but it was still a matter of concern.  In the intervening time frame, Gabrielle continued to improve but still had some stomach upset, and not much of an appetite.
The CT scan went smoothly and an hour later we met with Dr. M.  She came in and simply said that the result was “not what she had hoped for”, that the cancer was back.  Before anything else, she stood up and gave Gabrielle a gigantic bear hug (then me too).  She then went on to explain, that there was one spot on the liver along with some lymph nodes which showed obvious involvement near the pancreas.  She said that surgical resection was not an option as some of the lymph nodes were not accessible and the recommended treatment at this time is more chemotherapy (aaarrrggggh!).  So Gabrielle starts in again tomorrow with a triple dose of medication.  There was some initial talk of signing her up for a trial with a “cancer vaccine” as well which is part of a study to see if the host’s immune system can be stimulated to recognize the cancer cells as foreign and attack them.  She quickly found that she was ineligible due to the fact that she also has lupus and is on steroids which would counter the vaccine. 
Daniel cut out of class, broke all the speed limits on his race to the hospital.  Renee, likewise, bowed out of her work and I cut my schedule short this afternoon as well.  So we’re all just hanging out at home with one another, trying to get over the shock and numbness of it all.  Dr. M. worked hard on maintaining hope amidst all of this, and we are all trying to do so as well.
So that’s it in a nutshell.  More cancer, more treatment.  We are still not sure of the long-term plan.  Initial goal is to have three cycles of treatment (I forget the exact drugs she’ll get, but tomorrow will be the worst of the three).  Will re-assess after two cycles, I believe.  Renee and Daniel are both going to go to her initial chemo session tomorrow.  After that, we aren’t sure.  Renee is thinking she can change her days off to Fridays such that she can take Gabrielle, but expresses some nervousness over needing to match wits with Gabrielle at Scrabble.  She forgets that the Benadryl pre-chemo ought to give her a decided advantage.  
We have appreciated all of your kind words and prayers, cards, etc.  Today alone, I have gotten several hugs, many kind wishes and they go a long way.  At this point, am not sure what sort of help we’ll be asking for in the future.  We may try and bum a meal from time to time, but not quite yet.  I am pretty handy with the grill and we are planning on fresh halibut tonight.  If my luck holds, I may even just beat Gabrielle at Scrabble after dinner. 
We will definitely keep you posted as we move forward.  After all, you are all part of our rope team and are a key element in this…our very own “12th man”, to borrow a Seahawk analogy.  And since I started with a Yogi Berra quote, I may as well end with one as well:  “It ain’t over till it’s over.”