Rough Week

It has been a rough week for Brian. The chemo side effects have included increased heartbeat irregularities and palpitations. Not to mention the old stand by: nausea, loss of appetite, fatigue and dizziness. Brian of course doesn't want to take drugs, but I finally got him to take some pain medication he had previously for treatment. He has had some heart arrhythmia's previous to chemo and we had talk with a cardiologist at CTCA when we were back last. Brian had an EKG and echocardiogram done and results were normal. The doctor prescribed a medication if he continued having problems with irregularities. Brian immediately started to have problems once the steroids wore off after his chemo and so has started taking the medication everyday. Hope his side effects will level off soon!

Brian is to help Jessamyn this Saturday by keeping track of Jessamyn's sales at the Pieper Red Angus fall production sale. I am going to Scottsbluff to do the spooktacular at the zoo with Zeyda. I am also going to a big red game on Saturday with Paqui and Marc. Hope next week will be more productive and less stressful. I have a hard time focusing when I am worried about my man!
Mary

Lots of news

I must apologize for the lengthy absence! Brian and I went to visit Julie and Jim in Maine. We stayed at their "camp" which is more like a beautiful lake house on the Little Sebago Lake. Both are pilots and took us up in their sea plane over the trees, mountains and coastline to get a birds eye view, very breath taking. The second week we rented a car and drove up the northeastern coastline and eventually into New Brunswick Canada. Took car, train, ferry, and bus rides throughout the seventeen day stay. I ate all the lobster I could poke down and had seafood everyday but one. They have the best seafood ever! Brian and I also saw whales and had a moose cross the road in front of us. The best though, was seeing the beautiful fall colors of the trees. All there is are trees and water and the coastline of granite. It is amazing to see the tides go in and out and exploring towns settled in the 1700's.

Now for the more serious topic. Before we left for Maine, Brian got a call from his internal medicine doctor stating he found some cancer cells in his last biopsy. His oncologist wanted Brian to come back and get a PET scan after our trip. We flew to CTCA Wed. and he had his scan Tuesday. Today we were told he has 2 active cancer nodes in his right lower neck between his mid sternum and jaw. He also has one inactive node back in his lower right lung. Brian started chemotherapy treatment today and he will probably have three to six more sessions every three weeks. There have been some suspicions due to Brian being more fatigued, having headaches and increased neck pain the past couple of months.

We were blessed with an active, wonderful summer with Brian in remission. His official retirement was celebrated in grand style at the Alliance Country Club with the Postmasters organization and Alliance employees last Saturday night. He was grateful for the silver engraved belt buckle with a pony express rider and years of  USPS service (2010) on it.

It is however; now time to start another round in the fight for his good health. We would appreciate your continuing love and prayers as we enter into another fragile time.

We fly home tomorrow and I will try and get some new pictures of our trip on the blog.  Love you all.