Helen vs. Cervical Cancer

If you have had the privilidge of knowing my Mom, you will know that she is not only kind, sweet, caring, funny and a really great time, but she is also a fighter. She fights for her kids, and right now, she is fighting for herself.

Because my mother is not an exceptionally public person, but so many people care about her well being, I have decided to begin a blog for her to update her friends and family about her progress as she fights for her life against cervical cancer. If you would be so kind as to NOT mention the blog to her, I would greatly appreciate it. It can often times be difficult to reach everyone with any news that we have received, so I thought that this may be a great way to keep everyone in the loop.

She has been battling this wretched disease since late 2008, and once before in 2002. To the shock of her oncologists, she is still fighting a year and a half later and is no where near ready to throw in the towel.

Yesterday, we did not get great news about the most recent chemo that she was on (Taxol and Bevicusimab) because the tumor grew a bit more. *Note: a successful round of chemo can be considered as no growth of the tumor or shrinking of the tumor. This coming Monday, July 26, Dr. Saidman will begin her on Gemzar, a new type of chemo, and we will see how this one fights the cancer.

With the most recent round of chemo that she was on, she unfortunately lost most of her hair and has also lost a significant amount of weight due to appetite loss, etc... However, her spirits are intact. She is thrilled with good news that her grandson, Jack will be living with her full-time (with Chris and I of course) beginning next Saturday, July 31.

Additionally, after many years of flip-flopping, she has decided to finally remodel her galley kitchen! And we will all be taking a much needed vacation at the end of August together to Dewey Beach!

Many good and positive things to look forward to, as well as her weekly bridge games with her girlfriends.

Please do not anticipate a daily update, but this blog will be updated as needed. Feel free to add it to your Google Reader (if you do not know what that is or how to do it, let me know and I can walk you through it) or e-mail subscribe to the blog so that you will know when the blog is updated.

Thank you as well on behalf of my Mom and my sisters for all of the cards, phone calls, flowers and visits! It is great to see everyone and have all of the positive messages reach my Mom.