In the arms of Jesus

After a journey fought with passion and grace, Cynthia has arrived in the loving arms of Jesus. She passed,as she lived, surrounded by her family and friends on Thursday morning.

Cynthia wanted for all of her family and friends to gather to celebrate her life and the influence that she had on every person that she met. Information for the celebration is below:

Monday July 25th, 2011

11AM - 12PM ~ Visitation and share stories

12PM - 1PM ~ Memorial service

Luncheon to follow

The Rock of Southwest Church

10393 W. Alamo Place

Littleton, Colorado 80127

Google Maps Hyperlink:

http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=10393+West+Alamo+Place,+Littleton,+CO+80127-2002&hl=en&cid=0,0,13013622230095541888&fb=1&gl=us&geocode=17684064813999068537,39.613453,-105.115617&z=16

Truley a debbie downer..

Well, I finely met with the doctors over at University to get everything rolling. The doctor said there at least 30 clinical trials to choose from and since I am still having some diarrhea he wanted to look at some others. Then my blood work came back.......it is showing liver dysfunction and because all of these trials need to be metabolized by the liver, I can not do any of the them but one. That one did not sound entirely promising. I will start this in 2 weeks and we will just have to pray alittle harder. In the meen time I am going to lay down and close my eyes and rest.

Crap!

It had been a very long week.....or two......or 72.....But who's counting? Let's just focus on the last two or so. Last Monday on the 16 I started to feel funny, just not right. Know what I mean? So I called my onc and explained to them all my weird symptoms. My legs were swelling up to my knees, stomache completely bloated (I looked like I was six months prego) and a sharp pain in the middle of my sternum with deep breathes. Never mind the fact that I was pooping water out of my.....ok, tmi. They went ahead and bumped my scan up a week to Wednesday the 18th. That was fun. I worked, went for blood work somewhere in there and had my contrast hand delivered to me to start drinking. They all rock! My lab work came back on Thursday as normal but my swelling and diarrhea was getting far worse. I called on Monday and asked them to just call me about my CT results. You should have seen my knees! They were ginormous! Mind you I was working a ten hour shift this day so requesting CT results over the phone was NOT the brightest move on my part. What a doober! Three o'clock I find out all my cancer is not only growing but spreading more to lymph nodes in my abdomen....hence the #^*&!#$ swelling. It is now all the way up to my belly button! Arg!
So, I have stopped my chemotherapy and am now on a four week dry period before I can start any clinical trials. Basically they want all chemo out of your system so they know that the only thing they are studying is the drug that is being used. Symptoms that go along with all of this? Well, diarrhea of course! And nausea, vomiting, fatigue and rash. Rash? You have got to be kidding me! That is pretty damn funny. Who would like to by me my first supply of depends.....are there any Halloween stores open this time of year?
I do have some fun things planned with the kids before the chaos begins and I am looking forward to this! My girls are my shining hope and my God is my strength. Continue your prayers....I definitely need them and I can honestly say I am afraid. Love out to you all!

Oh the joy of it all!

You see, I haven't blogged for a while with good reason. Life throws you curve balls and I have been thrown a few curve balls in the past month or so. I have had a really difficult time learning to deal with these curve balls in order to make just the right decision that is required after the curve ball has been thrown. A good friend of mine did say to me that I better get ready to catch them......or duck really fast. I feel like when I duck I get clobbered in the head and when I catch them....they sting like a you know what. So, I am blogging instead. writing seems to be one of the main tasks I can do that help me process my crazy life.
One of those curve balls I am not quite ready to talk about. Too many emotions and too many people are already being impacted by it in so many ways. For this, though, I am really reaching out to you all for as many prayers as possible to give me strength and grace to face, understand and even to find some realm of forgiveness for. My life has been altered in such a way....I don't wish it on anyone. And I most certainly don't believe I deserve at this juncture. Strength and grace.....
Curve ball number two. I met with the doctors over at Anschutz for clinical trial consultation. I was so impressed by both of these doctors! They gave me so much time to go over everything from November 2009 till now. Two and a half hours....wow! Who would have thought? Towards the end of the meeting was when we went into other possible conventional treatment that they wanted to do before the first clinical trial. They suggested Erbitux and Irinotican combined for IV infusion every two weeks (if I can handle the symptoms) or every three weeks. I said no. Wait! I actually lifted my hand up, and said no way, go ahead and put that in your back pocket! Both doctors kind of tilted their heads in a questioning manner, so I explained to them that there is something very healing about quality of life and that I truly believed that this particular combo would kill me. So, they gave me a consent packet (book) for the first clinical trial they want to put me on. I will read it and get it back to them but I wanted to finish off one more round of this chemo. We all agreed. If I need to go to this treatment, I will have a four week chemo break after this next CT and then start it in the end of June. Caught that one for Sure!
I have been back to work officially part time now for a month. Although it has been amazing to be back in the groove and caring for patients again, it is also extremely exhausting to my body. I am lacking in normal muscle mass and at times feel like a winy little putz around there. I am not sure if my co-workers have noticed this yet, (they will now) I have a lot of trouble lifting the linen bags out of the holders. I look at them as thousand pound boulders! I can wrap my fingers around my biceps....what the heck??! I can push a bed or cart with a patient just fine, but when the carts need to be cleaned.....I struggle get the dumb reclining back down. How dumb is that? Otherwise, my patients have been fun and my friends at work are adorable!
That's all folks! I have to get up early to start the daily grind.....kids, school drop of, work, CT, dinner, homework and.....BED! All in a lovely day of Cyn-bad! More to come very soon....especially about my trip to Arizona! Ahhhh the pool! Blessings to you all!

Still fighting

This is probably the longest I have gone without blogging. Sorry guys! I guess the most important thing you want to know is the results on my CT scan. Well, that's gonna have to wait! Lets see. I have been working a bit more. that has been really nice. It is always good to feel productive. I've been really busy hanging with my girls. That is always fun! The other day it was nice enough out that we were able to go to the barn and visit the horses. We brought a bag of carrots with us and made our rounds. I felt like every horse I went by, reached out his head to me in a sort of hug. Can horses hug? These can. We then went to see Gnomio and Juliet. Very cute movie. Much cuter than I expected that is for sure!
Today I am pretty tired. For good reason I suppose. Monday was cat scan day and then lunch with one of my fellow cancer survivors. Tuesday, I went to work.Wednesday I had chemo, which was supposed to start at 10:45 but was bumped to 1:00pm that morning. I had to drop off my car to have it serviced, picked it up after chemo and went straight to my Bible study. Thursday I went to work and then Friday the kids had their testing at school and then we ran around and enjoyed the day. So, today, I am tired. I did manage to take the kids to the ridge to swim and then to Aunt Anna's to wrap up polish roses. I will be going to bed as soon as the Easter Bunny makes her appearance.
So, about my CT scan. My doctor says that my liver tumor is "perfectly stable", there is no new growth anywhere, although a few of my lung spots grew maybe a millimeter in size. Can we get a hip hip hurray?!!! We are continuing the same chemo, sending off a chunk of my liver biopsy to have it tested for another specific chemo treatment and he has referred me out to another oncologist at the University to discuss clinical trials. That is the plan. Except for being tired today, I have felt really great! My side effects are minimal, sleeping pretty good and eating great! What more can you ask for? God bless you all!

quick up date

Hope everyone had a great spring break! We really did! I took the kids to Glennwood Springs and hung out with friends, enjoyed girl time and some quiet time as well. We had one day where the weather broke, so we took the kids up the tram to the caverns. While we were up there, we did some rock climbing (yes, me too), watched 4D movies, cave tour and the alpine slide. I was like a kid of all kids. Every time we got back to the top of the slide I would ask Mrs. Houston if I could do it again. I would take turns taking the kids down. The goal was to make it down to the bottom without touching the breaks. It was awesome! I laughed so hard I was crying and the girls squealed, "Mrs. Curro! You are crazy!" I came home physically exhausted but emotionally rested. The rest of the week we filled with simple outings, pottery painting, sleep overs and movies. Chemo on Thursday went smooth as silk and I feel GREAT! I have been having severe night sweats (2-3 an night), fevers, gas and uncontrollable diarrhea for weeks now. Good news is, I haven't had any of that since Saturday! What a miracle......they do come in all kinds of packaging! More later....love out to you all!

quick update...

I have about 15 minutes to post this blog. It has been a long time since I blogged and I know many of you worry when it goes too long. I am grateful for this. First of all, my trip to Indianapolis was too fast. I met my sisters friends, ate good food and watched some great soccer games! I had an amazing time and it was all too short. Pat McGroin is as funny in person as he is on the blog and Christa's passe of girls are as sweet as ever! I can't wait to see you all again so when I have some dates set for the summer...save them!
I came home very tired yet content with my mini vacation. Spent some time getting rest, caught up around the house and taking care of major GI issues. I believe I have gotten this under control with meds, probiotics and dietary changes.
This past week has been pretty rough. I am emotionally exhausted and drained. I am actually leaving today to go to Glenwood Springs for a mental vacation from all the stress. I will be spending time with friends, playing with the kids and getting some quiet time to reflect and pray for guidance. Life is complicated enough....throw in cancer and family dynamics....you have a pitiful Farside. Keep us all in your prayers and lots of love out to you all!