bruski1959

Thanks Joan!

We are people of strong faith, and we firmly beileve in the power of prayer! Today some co-workers sent Jackie some more flowers for her birthday and to let them know that they are praying for her. Jackie is BRAF-negative, so Yervoy is pretty much it for he too, especially considering her other underlying health issues. Stay hydrated!

Thanks,
Bruce and Jackie

Thanks Joan!

We are people of strong faith, and we firmly beileve in the power of prayer! Today some co-workers sent Jackie some more flowers for her birthday and to let them know that they are praying for her. Jackie is BRAF-negative, so Yervoy is pretty much it for he too, especially considering her other underlying health issues. Stay hydrated!

Thanks,
Bruce and Jackie

Thanks Joan!

We are people of strong faith, and we firmly beileve in the power of prayer! Today some co-workers sent Jackie some more flowers for her birthday and to let them know that they are praying for her. Jackie is BRAF-negative, so Yervoy is pretty much it for he too, especially considering her other underlying health issues. Stay hydrated!

Thanks,
Bruce and Jackie

Hi Maxximom!

Think compared to many Jackie hasn't had that bad of a time, but she is already fighting an uphill battle with her rare lung disease LAM that just affects women. She was already on 10mg of prednisone prior to starting Yervoy first dose.

Jackie had a nice quiet uneventful Heinz 57 birthday at home. A friend from church came over, brought us some blizzards, and brought Jackie some nice sleep shirts and chocolate for Jackie's birthday and we sang Happy Birthday to her. Jackie had her 3rd Yervoy infusion today, and is home resting now. Praying that the Yervoy side effects aren't too bad, that Jackie can cope with these side effects, and can cope with the countermeasures for the side effects. The 4th and last Yervoy infusion has to be given within 16 weeks of the first dose, which would be May 25th. The more Yervoy doses Jackie can tolerate the more her melanoma tumors are likely to shrink. 

Friday I found out that I am on the P&G transition team until the end of October. Possibly/probably I will be kept on the team for the transformation project, as they will be deploying phone systems I have been training on over the last year or so, obtained certifications on etc. This week I have 39 hours of P&G meetings, so I was able to be on my work cell phone and mainly just listen in on the call today, even while we were at the Cancer Center, while we were out and about in the car going to/from the Cancer Center, going to Walgreens, etc. Now that I don't have the expectation that I will be traveling all the time, and my time is 100% allocated, that takes a lot of stress off of me/us, keeps my head off the chopping block, etc. I have worked on the same phone system for the last 8 years, and even though I have been getting trained on other phone systems, this is all I have know for the last 8 years, so it is a bit un-nerving to on a long term project working on different phone systems form what I have been working on. Typically my projects are 1-3 weeks long, ocassionally last months.

Something we have been discussing is renewing our vows around our 20th anniversary on June 12. Probably the weekend before or the weekend after is what we are thinking. Jackie and I talked about it most recently this morning, so I know it is on her mind. Just wanted to mention it, as it one important milestone for us that I wanted all of you to be aware of. The good Lord willing we will make it to that point. Hopefully by then, Jackie might have had another PET/CT scan, and we will find out what the positive effect has had on the Yervoy tumors.

Jackie remains on 60mg of prednisone, but we will be discussing that with her oncologist on Wednesday, to see whether she should try to taper off that again, maybe to not quite as low a level as previously.

We are blessed to be able to have me close to home as we are in the second half of the Yervoy treatment, and that Yevoy treatment is even available just for this last year. We really sense the hand of God in all of this right now. As always we appreciate your encouragement, support, prayers and thoughts!

Thanks,
Bruce and Jackie

Hi Maxximom!

Think compared to many Jackie hasn't had that bad of a time, but she is already fighting an uphill battle with her rare lung disease LAM that just affects women. She was already on 10mg of prednisone prior to starting Yervoy first dose.

Jackie had a nice quiet uneventful Heinz 57 birthday at home. A friend from church came over, brought us some blizzards, and brought Jackie some nice sleep shirts and chocolate for Jackie's birthday and we sang Happy Birthday to her. Jackie had her 3rd Yervoy infusion today, and is home resting now. Praying that the Yervoy side effects aren't too bad, that Jackie can cope with these side effects, and can cope with the countermeasures for the side effects. The 4th and last Yervoy infusion has to be given within 16 weeks of the first dose, which would be May 25th. The more Yervoy doses Jackie can tolerate the more her melanoma tumors are likely to shrink. 

Friday I found out that I am on the P&G transition team until the end of October. Possibly/probably I will be kept on the team for the transformation project, as they will be deploying phone systems I have been training on over the last year or so, obtained certifications on etc. This week I have 39 hours of P&G meetings, so I was able to be on my work cell phone and mainly just listen in on the call today, even while we were at the Cancer Center, while we were out and about in the car going to/from the Cancer Center, going to Walgreens, etc. Now that I don't have the expectation that I will be traveling all the time, and my time is 100% allocated, that takes a lot of stress off of me/us, keeps my head off the chopping block, etc. I have worked on the same phone system for the last 8 years, and even though I have been getting trained on other phone systems, this is all I have know for the last 8 years, so it is a bit un-nerving to on a long term project working on different phone systems form what I have been working on. Typically my projects are 1-3 weeks long, ocassionally last months.

Something we have been discussing is renewing our vows around our 20th anniversary on June 12. Probably the weekend before or the weekend after is what we are thinking. Jackie and I talked about it most recently this morning, so I know it is on her mind. Just wanted to mention it, as it one important milestone for us that I wanted all of you to be aware of. The good Lord willing we will make it to that point. Hopefully by then, Jackie might have had another PET/CT scan, and we will find out what the positive effect has had on the Yervoy tumors.

Jackie remains on 60mg of prednisone, but we will be discussing that with her oncologist on Wednesday, to see whether she should try to taper off that again, maybe to not quite as low a level as previously.

We are blessed to be able to have me close to home as we are in the second half of the Yervoy treatment, and that Yevoy treatment is even available just for this last year. We really sense the hand of God in all of this right now. As always we appreciate your encouragement, support, prayers and thoughts!

Thanks,
Bruce and Jackie

Hi Maxximom!

Think compared to many Jackie hasn't had that bad of a time, but she is already fighting an uphill battle with her rare lung disease LAM that just affects women. She was already on 10mg of prednisone prior to starting Yervoy first dose.

Jackie had a nice quiet uneventful Heinz 57 birthday at home. A friend from church came over, brought us some blizzards, and brought Jackie some nice sleep shirts and chocolate for Jackie's birthday and we sang Happy Birthday to her. Jackie had her 3rd Yervoy infusion today, and is home resting now. Praying that the Yervoy side effects aren't too bad, that Jackie can cope with these side effects, and can cope with the countermeasures for the side effects. The 4th and last Yervoy infusion has to be given within 16 weeks of the first dose, which would be May 25th. The more Yervoy doses Jackie can tolerate the more her melanoma tumors are likely to shrink. 

Friday I found out that I am on the P&G transition team until the end of October. Possibly/probably I will be kept on the team for the transformation project, as they will be deploying phone systems I have been training on over the last year or so, obtained certifications on etc. This week I have 39 hours of P&G meetings, so I was able to be on my work cell phone and mainly just listen in on the call today, even while we were at the Cancer Center, while we were out and about in the car going to/from the Cancer Center, going to Walgreens, etc. Now that I don't have the expectation that I will be traveling all the time, and my time is 100% allocated, that takes a lot of stress off of me/us, keeps my head off the chopping block, etc. I have worked on the same phone system for the last 8 years, and even though I have been getting trained on other phone systems, this is all I have know for the last 8 years, so it is a bit un-nerving to on a long term project working on different phone systems form what I have been working on. Typically my projects are 1-3 weeks long, ocassionally last months.

Something we have been discussing is renewing our vows around our 20th anniversary on June 12. Probably the weekend before or the weekend after is what we are thinking. Jackie and I talked about it most recently this morning, so I know it is on her mind. Just wanted to mention it, as it one important milestone for us that I wanted all of you to be aware of. The good Lord willing we will make it to that point. Hopefully by then, Jackie might have had another PET/CT scan, and we will find out what the positive effect has had on the Yervoy tumors.

Jackie remains on 60mg of prednisone, but we will be discussing that with her oncologist on Wednesday, to see whether she should try to taper off that again, maybe to not quite as low a level as previously.

We are blessed to be able to have me close to home as we are in the second half of the Yervoy treatment, and that Yevoy treatment is even available just for this last year. We really sense the hand of God in all of this right now. As always we appreciate your encouragement, support, prayers and thoughts!

Thanks,
Bruce and Jackie

Thanks ElaineLinn! Encouragement by others is so important and we haven't give up hope!

Thanks,
Bruce and Jackie

Thanks ElaineLinn! Encouragement by others is so important and we haven't give up hope!

Thanks,
Bruce and Jackie

Thanks ElaineLinn! Encouragement by others is so important and we haven't give up hope!

Thanks,
Bruce and Jackie

Hi Roxy1453 (Nancy),

Wow I thought that they tried to give the Yervoy in a 12-16 week timeframe from start to finish of the 4 treatments to try to maintain a Yervoy serum level. I guess everybody responds differently to treatments and has different side effects. We tried to keep Jackie out of the hospital with the side effects but finally she got to the point where nothing was staying in either end. I guess I see how things will go as Jackie tapers off of the steroids. She is normally on a low dose of steroids due to complications of her lung disease (LAM), so we are trying to get her back down to that maintenance dose by Friday. The colitis is not fun. The decsions we have to make are hard, kind of the lesser of two evils.

I like your quote with the signature of Phil 4:13. That was my father-in-law's favorite bible verse! 🙂

Thanks,
Bruce and Jackie

Hi Roxy1453 (Nancy),

Wow I thought that they tried to give the Yervoy in a 12-16 week timeframe from start to finish of the 4 treatments to try to maintain a Yervoy serum level. I guess everybody responds differently to treatments and has different side effects. We tried to keep Jackie out of the hospital with the side effects but finally she got to the point where nothing was staying in either end. I guess I see how things will go as Jackie tapers off of the steroids. She is normally on a low dose of steroids due to complications of her lung disease (LAM), so we are trying to get her back down to that maintenance dose by Friday. The colitis is not fun. The decsions we have to make are hard, kind of the lesser of two evils.

I like your quote with the signature of Phil 4:13. That was my father-in-law's favorite bible verse! 🙂

Thanks,
Bruce and Jackie

Hi Roxy1453 (Nancy),

Wow I thought that they tried to give the Yervoy in a 12-16 week timeframe from start to finish of the 4 treatments to try to maintain a Yervoy serum level. I guess everybody responds differently to treatments and has different side effects. We tried to keep Jackie out of the hospital with the side effects but finally she got to the point where nothing was staying in either end. I guess I see how things will go as Jackie tapers off of the steroids. She is normally on a low dose of steroids due to complications of her lung disease (LAM), so we are trying to get her back down to that maintenance dose by Friday. The colitis is not fun. The decsions we have to make are hard, kind of the lesser of two evils.

I like your quote with the signature of Phil 4:13. That was my father-in-law's favorite bible verse! 🙂

Thanks,
Bruce and Jackie