Chemo Round 5 & NBC News

Thank you all for your wonderful comments and for watching Kansas City NBC News yesterday evening. Cynthia Newsome and her crew did a wonderful job compiling the news segment dedicated to colon cancer. Ella is famous! I'd like to reply to each of you who left a comment, so please leave an email address.

Below is the 5PM segment that Doug embedded on this page. Sorry for the audio synchronization. Doug's co-worker computer nerd Shane is working on that :). Hopefully he won't get into trouble for copyright infringement...

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I had my fifth round of chemo treatment yesterday as well as bloodwork. My "protime" (blood thinning) was checked. I met with Dr. McKittrick too. Doug went with me yesterday. He is so wonderful. Cynthia said it just right... I married the love of my life! He has truly been so great through all of this and he is in it as much as I am, so please continue to pray for him as well! Thank you.

Dr. McKittrick had pretty good news... the cancer has not spread to any other organs or areas. The liver spots, at this time, did not look indicative of cancer. Cancer still exists in the omentum (abdominal lining) but we aren't sure if it has improved or stayed the same since we don't have anything to compare it to. I am no longer on bedrest/low activity but will have to continue taking Coumadin for probably 6 months to a year to prevent additional blood clots. I may have to be on chemo for longer than 6 months if I can tolerate it. I'm lucky to have had very minimal side effects (so far). Today I have some tingly fingers but no nausea. I'm a little tired (I don't think more so than any of you though.) I'm still experiencing back pain, but it has been a little better the last few days. I'm going to try a NSAID that is compatible with Coumadin to see if the pain may just be muscular in nature. I think that is all we discussed. It was a great meeting though, Doug and I felt reassured and happy with the results. Oh, they are going to continue to monitor my CEA level (tumor marker) since it has gone up slightly to make sure it doesn't continue to rise.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We sure did. We were at my 94 year old grandma's house. She is truly the greatest. I hope to be like her someday! She is amazing. We spent Saturday at my aunt's farm house. All of us went outside to do a egg toss, jump rope with a laso rope, and play tug-of-war. I stayed out of tug-of-war for fear of injury and risk of bleeding. It was great fun to be with my family. I am so blessed to have a wonderful family on both sides. I truly have terrific friends and support system. You are getting me through this!

Ella is doing well. I think she might have a cold or ear infection. Last night she awoke a few times crying and pointing to her ears. She slept in, ahhh, and now seems as spunky as ever.

Andrea, my sister, arrives in town today. She and Greg and their kids are moving back to Kansas City, as many of you know. They just sold their house in Houston. Yaaa! They are going to be spending the next few days looking for houses here. Andrea will be going on a couple of job interviews, and Greg will have an orientation meeting for his Physical Therapy program he will be starting in June. We are so excited to have them back in KC! Andrea has been amazing through this time, she has kept family and friends informed with her well worded emails and has such great faith that I am working on achieving myself. Thank you Dre for all you have done for me! Love you lots.

This is getting lengthy. Sorry. But thank you for following my story, I think this "diary" helps me. The responses you leave me lift me up! I am amazed how many people I've known in the past and even those I do not know who have reached out! I can't thank you all enough and again I wish I could respond to you to tell you how appreciative I am.

Some more light blog entries to come... Love, Shawndra.