Round 5

Mom completed round five and though it wasn't easy, she powered through and managed to take some time for herself and enjoy an overnighter in McCall with Dad. The worst part of round 5 for her was the nausea and headaches. The doctors took time to do an MRI and, luckily there wasn't anything alarming that was found. The FINAL round starts May 1 and on May 21 she will get her stomach port permanently removed. The IV port in her chest, however, will remain. They recommend keeping it in for the next two years as they monitor for recurrence (which we know there will not be!! :)) ..As soon as she can bounce back from her final round, she and Dad will start to make plans for a sailing week and, perhaps, a France visit next Spring (at least we hope :)).

All and all she looks incredible and we are all so impressed by her strength and positive attitude.

Turkish Hand

Olivier and I have a friend who is taking on a grand adventure for the next 10 months, travelling the world. He sent this beautiful helping hand to mom and he told us that is is from a cave church that was dug 1000 years ago (approximately) in Cappadocia. Gorgeous!

Thank you, Xav, for your thoughtfulness. We hope you are having a wonderful and safe journey!

The Parker Family

(Check out Xavier's tour at: http://www.xavierpilard.canalblog.com/)

Pretty in Pink

I snuck a snapshot of Mom right before we left for St. Luke's. She looks great in pink!

I spent that Friday with her and was amazed at how many hospital personnel are in and out of the room during a day. I don't believe we had a full running 5 minutes to ourselves. That said, they are all incredibly kind people. As much as I hate what they are putting into Mom's body, I have to say the way they go about it is with immense care. No complaints there...

Today, we are home and she is suffering from nausea and bone ache but she is finding some solid time to sleep. This week, the routine is much of the same until Thursday when she completes this round of treatment. The goal then is to get her feeling good enough to go to Grandma's 80th Birthday Celebration.

Super Hero Day at Work

Mom starts her fifth round of Chemotherapy tomorrow. Round four was really tough, but given some boosts of supplementary medicinal recipes and some additional sleep, she did well overall.

Mom's amazing co-workers organized some extra-curricular activities on her behalf today. To help boost her spirits and give her strength, they dressed up as Pam Super Heros....The photos below tell this great story.

Laughter is the best medicine.

"Pam is our Hero
On Wednesday April 9th we would like everyone to dress
up as a Pam-inator, Pam-urai or a super-Pam..
To rally some super strength through laughter.."

The Super Heroes Group

Pam with "The Bogus Ranger" aka CEO Mike

Jen as "Pam-Bo" armed with an arsenal of spray Pam,

to make her bullet proof to all the icky-sticky stuff

Pam with The CFT (Cancer Fighting Trio)

- Tanya, Irene and Peg

Bat-Pam (Karen) , Super Pam and Wonder Pam (Ilene)

Pam-Urai warriors

(Alan - is that a tin foil hat? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin-foil_hat )

Pam covets Tammy's eyebrows

---Pam gets Tammy's eyebrows

Pam gets her own Super Hero Gear