Chemo is over...now, the vigil

Hi everyone: Last Thursday Karen did her final chemotherapy treatment. Saturday and Sunday were spent inside with excruciating joint pain (especially in the legs) and disrupted sleep. She is not due to return to the doctor until the end of February, and then the vigil begins.

In the last blog I mentioned that her CA125 - the measurement of protein that reacts to ovarian cancer - was down even further, which of course is good news. This test will be the standard of measure from here on out. We will much more earnestly pursue the no-sugar diet we began in November - Christmas somewhat got in the way, as you can imagine - and we've both started drinking Xango, a mangosteen juice that has been proven to help with inflammation. I take this for recurrent headaches, which have since disappeared...and I don't yawn anymore, even after I have only slept a few hours. If you want more information about this let me know: soulwise@msn.com.

Last Friday we received a beautiful goodie basket from my sister Marilyn Beyer and her team at Kemper Insurance in Jacksonville, FL. The girls and I immediately gravitated to Season One of "The Office" and Karen went right for the dark chocolate! :) Thank you to them! Karen and I continue to write Thank-you acknowledgements from the benefit as well as for the many gifts given to us through this whole ordeal.

Prayer is still needed as we approach the "now what" question in our lives. I'm still waiting to hear from an out of state company about a position that would be ideal for me that nobody else has interviewed for. Please keep this situation in prayer. Resolution of this would ease Karen's mind and make her life easier. She talks about going back to work, but I believe she needs to rest and focus on herself - something she doesn't like to do. Of course, Kylie and Shelby are both at challenging ages (12 and 11) and dealing with this at this crossroads in life is challenging. In the meantime I continue working at Allianz and just focus on the day by day.

Keep watching this space and we love e-mails and posts to this site - they keep us encouraged.