NET/30, INC. Garage Sale!

For the past few months, George's colleague's at NET/30, INC., have been collecting items and saving them for a garage sale to be held on our behalf.
Recently, Lianne has made several trips to our house, all the way from Thousand Oaks, to pick up additional items, for the sale.
This past Friday, Lianne, Karen, Lana, Nelly and Shelley spent Friday afternoon, and evening, preparing for Saturday's sale. 
Lianne hosted the event at her house. She and husband Dave made dinner for the group, provided sleeping accommodations and geared up for the big day.
Lianne placed an ad in the paper and posted signs throughout the neighborhood.  She set a dollar goal and achieved that exact amount!
We want to thank everyone at NET/30 for their generosity.  Jo-Ann, Becky, Beth, Lisa, Debi and Robin were also big contributors to this day.

Lana, Nelly and Shelley
"The Night Before the Garage Sale."

   



Lianne, Lana, Shelley and Karen
"The Day of the Sale".

                              
Thank you for your overwhelming support!

~Donna

"A Simple Gift"

I have wanted to share this for the past few weeks, and got a little side tracked with George's recent Hospital stay. We received a package just prior to Mothers Day, from one of Georges faithful friends and colleague Lianne. She had made a beautiful card for Mothers Day, and stated that the enclosed gift was for Donna to wear because it's pretty, and for George to read so he can be reminded to "Never Give Up".

It's a "Simple Gift" that "Means a lot"

Thank You Lianne!

Catching Up...

I'm going to attempt to catch everyone up on the events of this past week or so. On Monday May 9th chemo went well for George. His blood counts were good, with the exception of  low potassium (but easily corrected with a supplement) so no hold up with cycle # 3. We had Susan again as our nurse. Not sure if I have mentioned this but she is a down to business nurse. She knows her stuff, and is very efficient. She is not really the warm and fuzzy type but she knows what George needs and gets the job done. She happened to be in charge last week, but still took George as a patient. The infusion center was very busy, and our first "Chair" where we were placed was not the best. Susan was able to move us into a window seat half way into the infusion, which was more private and comfortable. It was nice because Rick V. came on his lunch hour to hang with George and give me a break for a bit.
Dr. Wainberg and Dr. Chung (The fellow) rounded and were both pleased with how well George has handled the chemo. He stated "You have been handling this particular toxic Chemo about as good as anyone I've ever seen." George felt good upon hearing this.
Dr. Wainberg decided to give George an extra week off chemo to help re-gain his strength and some weight. We will get cycle # 4 on June 2nd. That week is Memorial day and the infusion center is closed Monday so we decided on a Thursday appointment. Dr. Wainberg will be doing another high resolution CT scan after cycle # 4 to measure the progress of the Tumor. We just found out the date will be June 7th. We scheduled Cycle # 5 although that might change depending on the CT results.
George had seemed to be doing better this round. He has been able to keep food down easier, and with fewer trips to the bathroom. His overall fatigue level is his biggest problem at the moment.
Many have asked if he's losing his hair. Well he still has hair, it's just thinning quite a bit. My friend Leanne, who cuts my hair, came to the house, and cut George's. She didn't buzz it off completely, but trimmed it real short.

On Thursday May 12th I had been at work all day, and I came home to find George in bed with no energy to eat. My Friend Jan delivered a wonderful meal (Thank you Jan!), when I headed up stairs to bring George food, I found him under the covers telling me is was very cold. Took his temp, and sure enough he had a low grade fever. Took it again and it was at the mark that meant "Call the Doctor" so that's what we did. We headed to the ER, and started the long process of getting admitted and started on Antibiotics. George stayed in the Hospital until last Monday night, and was very happy to get back home.
The last few days have gone well; he continues on antibiotics taken orally for another 5 days. His strength is getting better each day, and he is able to eat and even gained back a few pounds. The plan is to get Cycle 4 on June, 2nd along with the drug Neupogen. I failed to mention that he received Neupogen after being admitted to the Hospital to increase his Neutrophil count. From now on Dr. Wainberg will give it to him on his Chemo infusion day.
George is looking forward to the extra week off, and getting his strength back. Thank you to everyone who helped us with the kids during his Hospital stay. The Finn family, and the Stewart's, for the last minute overnight stay with the kids. Shelli for staying the weekend and spoiling the kids. Diane for making sure Hanna got home from school and Andy and Kari M. for the large stack of reading material. All of the emails, texts and calls have kept George encouraged while he was in isolation for four days and feeling very much alone.
We are grateful to all of you!

~Donna
(Sorry for the long post)

Hospital Stay

Well it's been a long night, so this is just a quick update. George developed a fever last night so our oncologist had us go to local ER to get started on antibiotics. It turned out to be longer process than thought to get them started, and treated as our oncologist had hoped that is a story for another post. He is now admitted and will stay for a few days to get the antibiotics via IV. It was a long night, and George is very tired, so for now we need to limit the visitors. His counts are low so his risk for infection is high, another good reason to limit the visitors. You may send him emails (gets them all on his iPhone) and I will update the blog later today via twitter as to how he is doing.
If you don't have his email here it is:
gmvanca@aol.com

~Donna

Difficult Days

 I wish I could tell you that George bounced back from this cycle quicker, however that is just not the case. It has not been until the past few days that he has really been up and going. The fatigue, and general weekness has really set in. The stomach issues still come and go, with today being the best for handeling all his meals. We appreciate all the help this past week, and expecially the all the food that has so graciously been delivered. The kids had a great time hanging out with Cousin Dan last weekend, they went to see the movie "Soul Surfer" and really liked it. George and I will wait for it to come out on DVD, we hear it is very inspiring.
Our goal these next few days will be to once again get as many calories into George as we can. I'll update again on the weekend to let you know how he does.

~Donna