Had a great consult with our surgeon today. She’s optimistic about the chemo and the outcome. We start the six week chemotherapy program tomorrow.One heck of a Valentine.

Nora is feeling good, but a little tired from all the poking and needles. We are both relieved that treatment is finally starting.

Nora’s dog,  Tybee, knows something is up.

My dog,  Bob,  knows that the tennis ball should be in her mouth, in the air, or under a cabinet, unreachable.

We’ve added a private message area for anyone who would prefer to keep their thoughts and comments for Nora alone.

Nora has read your comments and greatly appreciates all them and your text messages, care packages, and positive energy flowing this way. Might be able to avoid the light bill with all that power. We’ve very excited about a visit by Dustin this weekend. He’s never been to “The Ridge.”

Keep commenting whenever you want. It really helps Nora’s spirit.  Our neighborhood is the greatest! Thank you all.

Paul

Family and Friends,

Nora’s surgery to put a “port” in her chest wall for the chemo went smoothly yesterday. She had everyone laughing until she “went under.” She was given a really neat hat (sort of like a super sized beret) by one of the surgical staff to use when she loses her hair. As I understand it, the nurse who makes them also survived stage 4 breast cancer.

Today, to quote, Nora is “sore as hell.” However she’s doing her stretching exercises and getting her right arm (that’s where they put the port) back in working order. We see the cardiologist (he’s my cardiologist too!) next (to make sure her system can take what’s coming) and meet with the oncology surgeon, Dr. Herrmann, to map out our future.

In a very short time (I’ll let you know) we’ll have a blog site (www.noradevere.org) up and running so you can leave comments any time you want and see updates from me, like this one. A special thank you to Bill Edmonson for hosting the site and filling in for my IT ignorance.

Next stop is our chemo doc. I’ll let you know what’s happening. Thank you for the emails, phone calls and positive energy coming from everywhere.  I want everyone to know my Mirror Image Golf Swing team (Steve, Mitch, Sara, Dave) has made Nora and my world a better place. Thank you all. Thank you, everyone.

Paul

This will be the place for my update on my beautiful wife’s progress. A little background.

In the fall of 2012, we moved from Hilton Head Island, where we had lived for 30 years, to “really rural Ridgeland” South Carolina on the banks of Boyd Creek, a tidal estuary off the Broad River. We had friends here and made more wonderful friends when we arrved. That keeps happening.

Through self examination, Nora noticed something wasn’t right in the fall and contacted her primary care provider, Stephanie. Nora went in for a check up and Stephanie immediately began to set up a team of doctors, headed by Dr. Virginia Herrmann, who specializes in breast cancer and teaches breast surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston.

Nora has been diagnosed with “triple negative” cancer, usually found in younger women (as I’ve always thought of Nora). Bottom line, it’s more agressive and needs special chemotharapy, a (double) mastectomy and radiation therapy. This will be a long process.

As you probably know, Nora is a stubborn, aggressive, onery, “take no prisoners” sort of person when it comes to someone or something she can’t abide. She cannot abide cancer.

Nora is also a very private person and while phone calls and emails and texts will be greatly appreciated, her focus will be on fighting this stuff. Which is why I created this blog. I ENCOURAGE YOU to join the blog, leave Nora notes, pictures, whatever. Come visit as often as you’d like. Even more often. Tell your friends, her friends, heck strangers, about the courageous young lady. We’ve been together 30 some years and I still find her (see above, i.e. “stubborn …”) an amazing person.

I’ll post updates as they happen. Show your love by joining the blog. Everyone loves Nora (well, I’ve identified 3 really low lifes who don’t, but they are being taken care of as we speak … they are being escorted to the Sabarmati Ashram (Gandhi) where they will have to give the peace sign every 10 minutes (for those who support Nora) followed by that other sign (somehting to do with “the bird”) to show their hatred of breast cancer. They will be at Sabarmati for 8 months.

This is where you can talk to Nora. Please let us hear from you!

Paul