First Round: Nora.

The bad news: The PET scan showed that Nora had a sinus infection.

The good news: The PET scan showed no cancer, at least none the scan could “see.”  Nora wins the first round!

But because she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), a very aggressive form, she’ll be going through the weekly chemo treatment (last one June 28), have a mastectomy, and have a full, daily round of radiation therapy. As her doctors keep reminding us, every case of TNBC is different, as different as the individual.

While I know this phenomenal result is from the chemicals Nora has had to endure all these months and the excellent medical care she has received, it is also because of the energy that comes from others, from simple good wishes to something more powerful, whether it be strong prayer or profound belief.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And there is more good news

We will be seeing doctors and have procedures for quite some time. You have been beyond kind in helping us meet some of the expenses that entails. Now comes a very generous challenge.

An anonymous donor has offered to add a dollar for every two dollars given to Nora’s medical fund. But our goal of $30,000 must be met by June 30 (when the bills come due … really come due … wise donor). Family and friends and friends of friends and total strangers have already knocked that down by over $4000. That means, with the donor’s matching gift, we are about $17,000 from our goal.

That seems huge to me. However, “crowd funding” networks, like GoFundMe, are simply amazing.  This site is such a simple proof of human kindness.  But I’ll need your help.

If possible, I just need you to pass our links (www.gofundme.com/27fscs and/or www.noradevere.org ) with a kind word, to friends in your network, on Face Book, Twitter, wherever. But it has to happen by June 30 … or we just continue on.

LOVE EXPLAINED
Only the wind knows
the right speed
for a leaf.

Paul

Very hard to believe May is drawing to a close. I haven’t even finished April yet.

The good news is Nora didn’t need a blood infusion. The correct numbers were up Thursday. Small victories are good. But the waiting …

Busy week ahead. Tuesday another PET scan (to see if this stuff is working); Wednesday, a meeting with Nora’s oncology surgeon; Thursday, chemo; and Friday, a meeting with Nora’s PA to see if Nora can reduce/eliminate her blood pressure meds.

We finally have spring here on the Ridge. A gentle rain today, which means more flowers in Nora’s garden just off the deck. (I get a nice view of it from my office.) Gardens and Nora have always gotten along well. She touches stuff and it simply grows.

Her relationship with animals is similar. In just the past few days we’ve had a fox, deer, (our) armadillo, and raccoon … in our yard all near a window where Nora can watch. Or do they (except the armadillo) watch her? A great egret seems to favor the end of our ruined dock as a place to contemplate his kingdom.

Our dogs, Tybee and Bob, do watch Nora. I say the watching is excessive but I am voted down, even when I have THE BALL.

Bill Barnier, “Brother Bill,” (my stepbrother who, with wife and author Cyndi, also live on The Ridge), present Nora with roses from his garden. Pretty darn spectacular.

Thank you for all your prayers and support, your cards and letters and calls.

Paul

Rain and Nora at Boyd Creek
The front lawn needs
mowing  again. She is
resting. I will get to it.

We do not look forward to Wednesday because the next day is Thursday, chemo day. Taxol day. Understand, everyone at the Lewis Center is wonderful, caring. What a hell of a job. Think about it.

Back in the dawn of time, when I was at the University of Wisconsin, I had the pleasure of co-authoring and co-directing a stage and television production called, “A Gentle Smoke Signal,” for stage and television (the open scene was an atomic bomb test at Marshall Islands). Except for my co-author and I, the rest of the cast was Native American (Winnebago and Menominee). Among other great many things, I learned that an old custom was that if you had a bad day, say Thursday, one year, it was acceptable to discard it the next year and replace it with another day, like Friday. Nora and I now have two Fridays a week. (My personal week consists mostly of Wednesdays and is 23 days long.)

Nora does look forward to visits with Regina, who visits all the chemo patients every Thursday, offering cookies and sweets. A survivor, someone who sat in one of the overstuffed, comfortable chairs Nora sits in.

Nora is there Thursdays. Regina comes Thursdays. They talk, laugh. I have little faith in coincidence. I have great faith in Regina and my wife. How did that happen?

Nora may need another blood infusion. Taxol really takes its toll.

The chemo was tough on Nora this week.  Energy down but she fights it. Two (or more) cups of coffee each morning. She wakes up before dawn. It was one cup, unfinished, before all this. I make it a point to have coffee a button-push away the night before. I often need to make a second pot. After all, I am a writer.

Mother’s Day was good. Rebecca, Dustin and Aaron called. Sarah and Jeremy came for the weekend. A wonderful present.

Someone contacted me about a matching gift program for our medical expenses. I’ll work it out in the next few days and let everyone know. Such kindness. Actually, it is more than kindness. I am without words.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. Keep writing to Nora on this blog. Say anything. She reads it. Her computer skills have improved significantly!

Paul

P.S. Here is a picture I have not shared with family (or friends). It was taken a few months before we moved from Hilton Head Island to The Ridge. We have the pleasure of dog-sitting Aaron’s “Buddy” and Sarah’s “Indy.” St. Francis, eat your heart out.

L to R: Nora (arrow), Buddy, Indy, Bob. Foreground, Tybee.

Dear family and friends,

Rainy weekend. Due to our nephew Cole and Betty Edmonson’s wedding in Charlotte Saturday, we had the pleasure of seeing son Aaron, up from Orlando, daughter Sarah and beau Jeremy, in from Hilton Head.  They met up at our house on The Ridge for a shared trip to the “Queen City.” We also inherited Aaron’s dog, Buddy the Drooler, for an overnighter.

Nora spent most of the time in her new chair, resting up. She was surrounded by a wall of dogs, laying in a semicircle around the foot of her chair, very attuned to her every move. All five of us enjoyed the Derby.

Nora’s heightened energy and appetite have worn off since the blood infusion two weeks ago, typical for chemo patients. Her numbers were lower last Thursday, also typical. Remember, the stuff they pump Due to the lowering of her immune system Nora can’t be around crowds. Our friend and neighbor into her each week is an indiscriminate killer, doing its job.

Melanie, asked me the other day if Nora was still in “lock down.” We laughed but sometimes it feels like that.

“Rush Hour,” Boyd Creek

We spend our time at home, me in the office and Nora walking the dogs, enjoying the spectacular view, and whizzing through her multiple computer games. I no longer tease her about her laptop. She remains something of a Luddite, but the geek in her also shows. We were given a slide show of Cole and Betty’s wedding in almost real time.

Thank you all so much for your encouragement, your help, your kind thoughts. Please let your friends know about Nora. She spent 25 years caring for gardens, then the owners of those gardens, then simply others, the oldest of us.

Paul