Anniversary

Hi There!
I just wanted to give you a few updates.
My Uncle Mike is still on Life Support at NMH. They did an MRI of his brain, and noted that after two treatments of this chemotherapy that his brain tumor is much smaller. He is only on 40% strength for his life support level. Please pray that he gets through this!

I am up in Door County for the summer and having a blast. I am working at Al Johnson's one day a week, and have been filling it at Ecology Sports. The problem is, I don't think that I am as spry as before I got sick. I am extremely exhausted at the end of the day, and end up passing out around 8:30, and sleeping twelve hours. I wonder how things will be when I go back to teaching in the fall!

I am also taking golf lessons, spending time with friends and family, and scheduled to take paddling lessons. The weather has been so beautiful that I am just trying to keep as active as possible!

I am also working on my book about my cancer experience and have touched base with a wonderful copy editor that my friend Anita used for her book. My goal is to finish my complete rough draft by August 1.

Today is the two year anniversary of when I found out I was sick. My how time flies. I have written a little bit about that day in my book, and here is an exerpt.

"The weekend crawled by, and considering it was June in Chicago, the temperatures creeped up into the 90’s. On Monday, I woke up and decided that I couldn’t feel bad anymore. I showered, threw on a cute summery outfit and curled my hair. My Mom and I were going with my sisters Lizzie and Katie to meet my Auntie Sherry for lunch in Lake Forest. I was awfully quiet on the ride to Lake Forest. We approached a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop, and I got a call from a strange 847 number on my phone. “Pull over,” I told my Mom. We knew that this is the phone call that would determine my fate. I paced around the car and answered the phone. “Sherrie, this is Dr. Charrous. You have Hodgkin’s Disease which is a type of cancer. You didn’t do anything to get this, it just happened. A lot of young people get this type of cancer. You are going to have chemotherapy. Do you know what that is? You are also going to have radiation, do you know what that is?” I answered meekly, “Yes.” Also, I want to let you know that this is a very curable, treatable cancer. If you are going to get any cancer, this one is the good one.” The good cancer? After all of my treatment and hardships, NO cancer would be the good cancer!
You would think that a person, especially a young person, would be hysterical and upset when someone tells them they have cancer. I wasn’t. I was so relieved that they found something. I took the news graciously, and was so at ease knowing that the determinate of my symptoms had been revealed.
My Mom and sisters knew it was bad as I paced around the car. When I told them, seconds later, all I remember is my sister Katie, who generally does not show emotion broke into hysterical, wet and salty weeping sobs. She was sobbing so hard, her face was beet red, and fat tears stung her eyes. My Mom just gripped my hand. I called my Dad right away. I could hear him on the phone, choking away the sadness. Later on that night he told me that he had known I would be diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease all along. There were three indicators in which he discovered the source of my symptoms. The first was the day of my lymphnode biopsy (the previous Friday), Dr. Charrous really didn’t come out of the OR and tell my parents that things were all right. He came out of the OR and when my Mom and Dad inquired about my status, he remarked, “It doesn’t look good.” My parents told me later that he came to talk to them, and stared directly past them; he couldn’t even look them in the eye. He explained that a Hodgkin’s Disease cell resembles a large circle with two big eyes, almost like owl eyes. The lymphnodes he collected from my neck were big, puffy owl eyes. I don’t even know how my parents could look at me all weekend, knowing that I had a potentially fatal disease, and still remain positive. The second inkling that my Mom and Dad had was the research that they were doing online. All signs led to Hodgkin’s. As my Dad sat at work that frightful Monday morning, he was forced to participate in a meeting. All the while, a strange number kept on popping up on his caller ID. Finally, after many tries by the caller, my Dad answered the telephone. “Gary,” said my Uncle Joe. “I’m calling you because I need to prepare you and your family for the news you are about to receive.” My uncle, who was a doctor at Glenbrook Hospital had been sleuthing around that Monday. He said when he found out the results of my biopsy, as well as my abnormal chest film, that he instantly went weak at the knees. I was his favorite niece, I was one of the first kids to be born in the family, how could this be happening to Sherrie?"

Hope all is well!
Sherrie