The Last Post

Stephanie's Obituary in the Chico Enterprise-Record, click here

All,

As the person that Stephanie trusted as her 'CIO' to post to her wonderful blog, I wanted to let you know that Stephanie passed away at 2:30am on September 13th.

Because I don't know many of you, much less how to contact you each personally, I felt you would want to know and this was the only way for me to reach many of you.

I have been given very few details, I will pass them on to you as I was told...

She went into the hospital at 5:00p on the 12th with Pneumonia, as you know her system was weak from all the various other things she was battling. I received a call the next morning informing me that she passed overnight in a hospital in Chico, CA.

If you have questions, please post a reply here and I will try my best to reply if I can with any updates.

Please keep her in your thoughts, I know I will.

We love you and miss you Steph...

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**Update: service/informal gathering for Stephanie, scattering of ashes and if you wish to make a donation 'Memorial Gift' in Stephanie's name**

There was a service on 9/17 and a gathering on 9/18 for Stephanie by family and friends.

Based on her final wishes, she has been cremated and her ashes were scattered in the San Francisco Bay on 9/28/2011. I've included 4 photos, 1 of the boat we went out on in the bay, and 3 (1 at the top) of her ashes as they were scattered. For those of you who are familiar with the area, that is the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.






Lastly, on a somewhat personal note, if you can, please make a donation to the American Cancer Society in her name. Your donation will go to research to fight the disease and to helping people who live with it daily:

https://www.cancer.org/involved/donate/donateonlinenow/index> item #2: Memorial Gift

Back in the Saddle Again...NOT

See how much better my ARM looks? It's getting those nice yellowy edges just in time to go in tomorrow and get blood drawn out of the *other* ARM for this week's labs.

And, apparently, my body isn't too thrilled with this return to chemo after so long. There were far too many weeks when I was "bumped" thanks to low white cell count - as many as five, if Lloyd and I are remembering correctly - which had me wildly off schedule. Then I had to take my little unplanned three-week "vacation" from chemo while we were dealing with getting the air conditioner fixed (someone just had to be HERE - 3 different times), handling Oliver's surgery, the kids getting back home - you name it.

Well, add up all of that time away from chemo. The answer really isn't pretty.

My system is entirely freaked out now, and it seems like all I can do is either sleep, barf, sleep, lay around, or if I'm having a good time, read. I think the term is "shock to the system," don't you? I think that many weeks of no poison might have affected me a tad.

A week or two of sleeping might set me back to rights, assuming that the lab tech I see tomorrow doesn't leave me with major internal bleeding in my other arm!!!

It's "Back To ________" Time!!

Insert your "Back To" item - I kinda started this a few days ago, but technical difficulties interfered... So,for the kids, this week was back to school. All three of them are in one school again, for the first time since we were back in Fremont. It's still hard to believe that Anna's in high school, for everyone, including her! I still wonder where that not-quite-seven year-old went when I look at this gorgeous young woman in front of me. She's not 100% sure how she likes high school yet, but, it was only the first day. One very positive note, in her opinion, is that not a single one of her teachers did the "you must be Conner and Trevor's sister" bit on her. That is a sure way to make a very negative first impression with her!

For me, its "Back To Chemo" time. I feel like it's been forever since I've been there, because I've had so few treatments this summer. Stupid white blood cells!! Let's hope after these 3-4 weeks I've taken off as my "chemo vacation" that all my cells of all types have had time to build themselves back up to the right levels and I can get back on track. The sad thing is, I hate not going to chemo more than going - actually, I don't dislike going at all, because then I feel like I'm doing something to fight this fucker instead of just sitting there and letting it eat me.

SOOOO, I'm sitting here jumping out of my skin when the phone rngs, afraid it's the cancer center telling me not to bother coming. Today is my pre-chemo doctor's appointment, and I really need it. My doctor is an Oncologist/Hematologist, and unless I miss my guess, that second part means "blood doctor," and I could really use one of those today. Thanks to my least-favorite phlebotomy technician, I have THIS

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decorating my arm!

Since this picture was first taken, the blood has welled up in a lump, then started to pool out further into my arm, just as my PA, Roni, said it would. Right now, it's about 4" long x 2" wide at the longest/widest points.

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It hurts like the giant bruise it is, but at least I know that too is normal, in order for the blood to slowly resorb into the tissues. My wonderful chemo nurse were suitably horrified at the sight of this booger and told me not to go back to that tech! I'm going to have to see if that's at all possible.

What a wonderful beginning to my return to chemo! Now, just wait - my next blood test will show I'm low on RED cells because half of them bled out into my arm from the last test. Surprise, surprise, surprise...