Leap to 2024
Hope For Barbara
by
3M ago
Mom with her Great Grandson!  I don't know where the time has gone - and here we are in January, 2024! I would say overall 2023 was a great year for many reasons. Mom celebrated her 14th year as an Ovarian Cancer Survivor! No one saw her surviving 14 years when she was diagnosed. In March, 2009, she was Stage 3 and was told that she had about three years. Fast forward through surgery and 5 rounds of chemo, we are here celebrating 2024.  She did make it through 2020/21 without getting COVID, however COVID caught up with her in December 2022. It didn't really hit her as hard a ..read more
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Christmas Island
Hope For Barbara
by
2y ago
The holidays were balmy in Rock Island! On Christmas Eve day all of our boys - Chad & wife Katie; Scotty and Stephanie; Ethan and Katie's sister Becki were in town for the day. We were able to have a nice dinner together and spend time hanging out and even went for a nice walk at Longview Park! We haven't been able to be together for over a year - so it was nice to spend time with family.  Mom has been relatively healthy this year in spite of COVID - and that is largely due to her being vaccinated + boosted and keeping a mask on. Her blood counts and checkups are going well and Dr. Po ..read more
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NOCC Team TEAL for the NYC Marathon
Hope For Barbara
by
2y ago
This year I deferred my Chicago Marathon app to 2022 and joined the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition Team Teal Charity to run the TCS New York City Marathon! My fundraising page >> The event was last Sunday, November 7 - and overall the team raised $315,000 for ovarian cancer research, education and awareness! I was incredibly proud to be among such amazing people who each had a story behind their motivation to raise money for the cause. We even had an oncologist and an ovarian cancer survivor on the team. That speaks volumes about how important this cause is to everyone.  ..read more
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Easter Blessings
Hope For Barbara
by
3y ago
Easter Sunday 2021! Mom is vaccinated (Pfizer); Ethan, Chad and Tom got on the Moderna train; and Scotty and I got the J&J one-shooter.   THEREFORE - we were able to enjoy a nice Easter dinner together (made Coconut Cream Pie - Grandma McCann's recipe) and then sit outside for about three hours to visit and enjoy the sunshine! It was a great afternoon!  I feel very fortunate that we all made it this far without a COVID diagnosis and were able to get vaccinated. If there is one reason to get the COVID vaccine it is to protect those people who are vulnerable... like mom - an 82 y ..read more
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Holiday Postscript
Hope For Barbara
by
3y ago
I usually do a holiday blog post, but we didn't gather over the holidays, so there are no photos or occasions to review. We all kept our distance - Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.  Tom and I went out to mom's on Christmas Eve to deliver gifts and food... I made some more of Grandma McCann's apple bars! You can't beat comfort food on a bitter cold day - and it was cold!  That was the extent of our Christmas.  We are all doing what we need to do to make sure that we can have celebrations in the future when this pandemic ends. From mom's perspective - she has been through a ..read more
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Cancer, COVID and Small Celebrations
Hope For Barbara
by
3y ago
Each year when flu season comes around, I worry about people spreading germs and about mom coming down with some weird flu strain and how something as simple as the flu could take her down fast. Because it happens - I have known people to die from the [regular] flu. Enter the COVID 19 Coronavirus. IF there was any good to come out of all of this, it is that people are wearing face masks (mom included) and are taking extra precautions. Mom's immune system has been severely compromised. Since 2009, mom has been through invasive surgery, 5 rounds of a variety of chemo cocktails and terrible (at ..read more
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Christmas 2019
Hope For Barbara
by
3y ago
Mom, Chad w/ girlfriend Katie, and Mother-in-law Anna. Christmas 2019 - a busy week with family! It was a full house on Christmas Eve (three boys and the girlfriends!) and we all managed to squeeze around the dining room table for a lasagna dinner. As usual, we had our fill of cookies, snacks, candy, a very good variety of cheese (thanks to Chad). On Christmas morning, Mom went with Tom on his daily walk through Longview Park. All said and done, they put in over 2 miles of zig-zagging around the park while Tom picked up trash. A little while later, we decided to walk to Friendship Ma ..read more
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September and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month! Teal Toes!
Hope For Barbara
by
3y ago
My teal toes along with my cousin's and aunt's teal toes! There are two great things about the month of September - my mom's birthday (Sept. 15) and it is also Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.  Teal is the color of Ovarian Cancer Awareness, and every year I paint my toes teal in honor of mom and recognition of Ovarian Cancer Awareness.  My mom, Barbara, has been battling Ovarian Cancer for 10 years ... she is a strong girl and is a source of hope and inspiration to me. Her oncologist calls her his "miracle child." I share mom's story whenever I can - about how there was no ..read more
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Post Port
Hope For Barbara
by
3y ago
This is a late post but an important one nonetheless. Mom's port was removed last Tuesday without much incident. There was a little more bleeding than normal - but she has been on Xarelto (SP?) for the last year and that was expected. She stopped taking it a couple days prior to the surgery but sometimes it takes a little while longer to get out of the system. The nurses bundled her up good and had her keep pressure on the incision points for over 24 hours and it worked out fine. Some have asked about removing the port - and yes this is a good thing as there is no chemo in mom's foreseeable f ..read more
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Ovarian Cancer at Bay but Fight is Never Over
Hope For Barbara
by
3y ago
NOCC Illinois Walk May 2019 A couple of pieces of good news to share - mom had her regular check up with Dr. Porubcin last week and her blood work was very good and her CA 125 was at 7! Even better news: Dr. Porubcin gave the go-ahead for mom to have the port removed! She is getting the port out on August 20. Mom's story keeps getting better and better! I wrote a piece for the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition's web site after we did the NOCC's annual walk in Chicago last May. http://ovarian.org/component/content/article/33-latest-nocc-updates/554-keeping-hope-alive This does no ..read more
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