Boston Marathon T-Shirt

Hi!
A friend of mine sponsored someone who is running the Boston Marathon. That person has my name on his T-Shirt, and is wearing that shirt as a tribute to my cancer. It's really neat!

Second Photo Shoot

Hey!
I had my second photo shoot for NMH today, and the pictures will be used for the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Cancer Survivor Walk which will be held at the lakefront on June 3. These pictures will be on banners highlighting the lake, and I guess I am going to be on them!
In May, the NM Faculty Foundation Magazine will debut with an article about my transplant experience, and how it relates to Celebrating Life and the survivor walk.
The photos from today should be posted on the following site: marcharris-photo.com/
When you get there, log on to "Clients." Then, add the password lurie. The pics are not up yet, but my name is. It is amazing how many survivors are out there. The woman getting photographed before me was pregnant, and the little girl after me (absolutely adorable!) must have been only 4 years old. It's exciting to see that even though I feel like a cancer minority because of my age, there are so many people out there like me.
Love,
Sherrie

Happy Easter!

Hi Everyone,
Happy Easter! Today is a special day for me. A year ago today, I was told that although I wasn't in remission, my Hodgkin's Disease was on the run, and Dr. Winter wanted me in for a transplant a week and a half later. The rest is history. That, along with finding out I was in remission, was probably the happiest day of my entire life! Hopefully I will someday have more good days to top that, but for now I am so thankful to the Lord.
Have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends!

12 Hours of Travel and I'm Finally Home!

Hi There!
I just got back from a week in the Cayman Islands with my parents, and Katie. We had a very fun time, especially while swimming with Stingrays on Thursday. Notice how my hands are strategically placed on the Stingray. I am kind of a baby when it comes to touching marine animals. It is such a weird sensation to swim with them. They are like giant portobello mushrooms that glide around your feet, and forage for squid out of your hands. It was a very freaky feeling, but an incredible experience. Have fun with the pics!

Stem Cell Panel

Hi There,
I have been working on this short clip from a stem cell patient panel I was on two weeks ago. Hopefully it works!
http://homepage.mac.com/fundraiser2/iMovieTheater9.html

My Journal: The Picture Worth A Thousand Words...

My Journal: The Picture Worth A Thousand Words...

Dear Alese,
You are amazing and you look as adorable as ever! I am so happy that you are feeling better! Love, Sherrie Teuber

Playing Around

Hi There,
I was playing around with my scanner today and took some pics from yesteryear of my Grandma and Grandpa on both sides, of my Mom and Dad and some pics from when I was little...

Thank You!

My friend Alese, although not completely out of the woods, is doing so much better! Thank you Lord!

Prayer Request

Dear All,
Please pray for my friend Alese Coco (alesecoco.org). She is going through a horrible time, and she needs prayers from every corner of the Earth. Please be with her as she continues her battle against Hodgkin's Disease. She has fought so hard, and so long, and I know that she is going to be okay. Please help me, and everyone else believe that. You know what they say...When two or more are gathered in His name, His will will be done. She will beat this.

Help another cancer survivor

Hi There,
With the spirit of luck, and St. Patrick's Day coming up, I wanted to let you all know of a young girl who is having tandem stem cell transplants at Children's Memorial Hospital (the sister to NMH).

She is adorable, and she is Irish! Her name is Meghan, and she was diagnosed with Wilm's tumor, which has metastasized to her lungs.

She is having a fundraiser in her honor at US Cellular Field, where the White Sox play. I wish I could go, but I will be out of town. If you are interested in seeing someone who is going through double what I went through, check out her sight.

It is: missionformeghan.org.

It might be a good way to volunteer, and help someone out who is very young, and is fighting very hard.

Fun Day

Hi There!
Although I have been up since 4:50am, my Mom and I had an exciting day. We were in the city by 6:30 to meet with Dr. Winter and her fabulous PA Elizabeth. Although I had labs on Monday, my blood counts are still extremely low. You have two counts to ward off infections...Your WBC (White Blood Cell Count) and your ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count). Mine are remaining steady, but very low. A "normal" person probably has a WBC and ANC between 4.0-10.0. My WBC is around 1.8, and my ANC is .9. So I am very at risk for getting sick, even though I look and feel great!

I am so thankful because Dr. Winter also said that I can have full scans again in 3 months. That takes the edge of worrying about reoccurance.

I met with Robert, a photographer for NMH, and we took pictures for an article that they are doing about the cancer survivor walk, and my stem cell transplant. He had me wear pink for the occasion (How suitable!) I can't get the pics for three months, but when I get them, I will shoot them your way.

Also, I will send out invites to the cancer survivor walk. It is on June 3 at the lakefront and a big celebration.

My Mom and I were ladies about town today and hit every store/restaurant in a 500 mile Chicago radius. By 9:30am, it felt like it was already 4:00 in the afternoon.

Also, yesterday I got my first haircut. I got it shaped. It still kind of looks the same just a little more "shapley." I found the best hairdresser and our goal is to grow my hair out.

Have a fun weekend!

Sherrie

Such Exciting News!

I just got awesome, exciting news from downtown! My PET and CT are totally clean! Also, my right ovary has egg follicles on it! In December when I had my scans, my left ovary was functioning...Now my right is! Each ovary works every other month so these studies are telling us that both have some sort of function! Also, the mass in my chest keeps on getting smaller and smaller, and it is just a few mere cm.! I have been having a lot of hip pain which has concerned me, but the PET noted inflammation in both of my hips. Maybe it has to do with the weather or something! I am so excited and thankful!

PET/CT Scan

Hello There,
I have been up since 4:10am, and was at NMH by 6:20. I had my PET and CT scans. From what I can see, (based on my stellar radiology skills) my PET scan is clean! I kind of sensed that it would be, but you always have that doubt.

It is really interesting to see what an unclean lymphoma PET scan looks like. If you go to Google Images, and Google "Hodgkin's Lymphoma PET scans" you can see what I mean.

When you get a PET, they introduce radioactive sugar into your body based on your blood sugar level. Any organ that metabolizes glucose (the brain, heart, kidney's, bladder etc.) show up black on a PET. Cancer cells react in the same way, and they are also black on a PET. Luckily, my scan looked very "grey scale" which is great news! I know I have to wait for a radiologist's interpretation, however, I think I am in the clear!

I will be meeting with Dr. Winter on Thursday and hopefully having my "photo shoot" for the Northwestern Cancer Survivor's calender!

At night lately, I have been watching Joel Osteen videos. If you have ever seen him, he is a phenominal religious, as well as motivational speaker! I kind of think I want to take an overnight trip to Houston to see him. If anyone is interested in doing that with me, let me know!

Also, do you any of you have a racing heart after you drink alcohol? Even if I only have one or two drinks at night, I wake up in the middle of the night with my heart absolutely racing. It is a scary feeling because "alcohol pain" is a very common Hodgkin's Disease symptom.

Off to watch last night's Desperate Housewives!:)

Hello!

Hi Everyone!
I have a lot of news to report, some good, and some not so good.

I have been having a lot of hip pain, and pain in my femur. I am having an MRI tomorrow, to rule out any lymphoma type of activity. Also, this Monday, I have my PET scan and CT scan at Northwestern. This I am praying will be clean, but I always error on the side of caution.

Some really exciting things are happening to me right now. I was emailed on Valentines Day by the head of media at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. They want me to do three things for them. The first thing is to be the subject of an article for the NMH faculty magazine. They want me to do a photo shoot next week, and be a calender girl for the NMH cancer survior calender. Also, they will use those pictures and make banners out of them for the NMH cancer survivor walk on June 3. This is a celebratory walk focusing on survivorship, and when people are walking the 4 mile walk by the lakefront, I will be on the banner cheering people on! I am so excited!

On St. Patrick's Day, I am going to be part of a patient panel, along with the top doctors in Chicago (the lovely Dr. Winter included) to discuss bone marrow transplants. I am so happy to get my life started, by helping others.

I also started a book about my cancer experience. Things are taking a little bit of time because I am not that motivated to write right now.

I hope all is well with you, and I look forward to seeing and talking with you soon. I recently changed my cell phone number so if you would like the new number, please contact my email for that information.

Love,
Sherrie

Here are some pics from yesteryear...When life wasn't so complicated. Sorry about the bad quality!

Dr. Fox

Hi There!
It is almost my one year anniversary of my femur surgery. Last February, I had a rod put in my femur because the disease was so bad in my left hip, they needed to protect the area. I have been having a massive amount of hip and knee pain as of late, and went to Dr. Fox today to get X-Rays and check it out. The X-Ray could show if any Hodgkin's Disease were back, and luckily it didn't. He put me on a prescription of Alleve twice a day. He said that for anti-inflammatory purposes, he thinks that the drug in Alleve is better than Ibuprofen in Advil. Also, with Advil, you need to take three pills, three times a day, whereas with Alleve, you only need to take two pills, twice a day. If any of you are having some aches and pains, I guess Alleve is the way to go!

Doctor Visit

Hey Everyone!
Everyone here in Chicago is mourning the Bears loss in the Superbowl, and well as absolutely freezing! The warm trend for this week should be about 14 degrees! It is brutal.

I got some not so good news right now from the doctor. My hormone levels from last week came back, and they are again consistent with the fact that I am very post menopausal. I was getting my hopes up, and it is kind of sad. Who knows what advances they will make in the future though!

Stay warm!
Sherrie

Mixed Feelings

Hi Everyone,
I just got home from 6 days in Florida with my Mom and my Auntie Sherrie. We visited my cousin CJ for two days in Miami, then headed to Tampa and Ocala to hang out with my Grandma and Grandpa Teuber.

It was a fun trip but not really vacation like. We spent most of our time in the car shuttling between the different cities with a lot of luggage. Wherever my Mom and Aunt went, TJ Maxx bags seemed to follow them!

I slept at my Grandparents house, and that was nice to spend time with them. They are very spry, 84 and 89, and they work around their house as though they are 40!

I feel so well, and I look healthy. It is just so hard to think that a year ago, the doctors were telling me that my cancer had spread, and I wasn't harvesting stem cells. It was not that long ago, but it seems like my world has changed, and I never had cancer.

My friend, that I met over the Internet, Alese Coco, is a Hodgkin's champion, and has been working at eradicating her disease since 2001. She just found out that she is to have her second stem cell transplant. She is so spunky, and pretty and full of life. I can't believe that she is going through this some more. Please say a prayer for her at alesecoco.org. There you will find links of cancer surviviors and a memorial page. She has been sweet enough to put my blog on her page. The disturbing thing was to see how many memorial tributes there are with people who had the same crippling disease that I had.

It just makes me put everything into perspecitve. After I started feeling better, I started to do things like before I was diagnosed such as drinking alcohol, and eating food that wasn't so great for you. And now that I am better, I feel like I am back up to my old tricks.

Seeing people who lost their fight, or are still fighting Hodgkin's, brings back a sea of emotions for me from my illness, and a reality check. I fought so hard to be here, and now that I am here, I am not fully appreciating my life as much as I should be. It is almost like I have forgotten everything I have been through. Sounds crazy doesn't it?

I just need to always keep my experience close to my heart, and never forget. The scariest thing with cancer is that even though it is gone for a while, it doesn't mean it is going to stay away forever.

I see Dr. Winter early on Thursday, and we will do full labs, full hormone testing and a panel to see if my measels, mumps and rubella immunizations have been compeltely wiped out, or if I have some immunity left. This will be great because with the fertility tests we can gain a sense of if I really am menopausal or not. I will let you guys know when I find something out.

Love,
Sherrie

Good News, I think?

I talked to Dr. Streicher, the new Ob-Gyn I saw, and she had the results of my hormone levels which would determine if I have beginning ovarian functioning or not. The levels are extremely surprising!

In July, when I had the levels tested, my doc said that they showed I was in the latent stages of menopause and would never recover. He then put me on an estogen/progesterone patch to make my bones stronger and curb menopausal symptoms.

After being on the patch for 5 months, I had the levels tested again. In November, the levels were even worse, and showed that I was in menopause.

But then I got my period, and my PET scan showed my left ovary glowing a bit. The radiologist at the time, said that my ovary was lighting up because I could be re-gaining ovarian function!

Well now the levels are showing wacky things! My Estrodiol level (three different estrogens mixed) in November was less than 10 which is majorly menopausal. Now, a little less than two months later, my estrogen level is at 146! My LH level still says I am menopausal, and my FSH level shows that I am in the later stages of menstruation before menopause! I don't know what to think!

I am going to stay off the hormones for a few more weeks, and have my levels tested again when I see Dr. Winter on February 1.

Some not so great news....A wonderful man, named Frank Fromm who worked with my Dad for 15 years passed away yesterday. He was a driver for the business, and would make deliveries. He was well over 80 years old when he stopped working at RT, but he was so strong. I loved him so much! He was such a talker! I remember when I was teaching in Buffalo Grove and I would run to Deerfield's Bakery for lunch. I would see an RT car sitting in the parking lot. I would walk in, and Frank would be socializing with all of the ladies and having coffee and doughnuts. I used to tease him that he was on a perpetual coffee break. He was such a nice man, and I am so upset that he has passed away.

Have a fun weekend! Rainy, sleety, icy, snowy and cold if you are in Chicago!

Happy New Year!

Hey!
Happy Belated Holidays! I hope you all had fun with your family and friends. I cannot believe how time flies. A year ago, this week, I was preparing for my second week of ICE chemotherapy, and now I feel so great! Let's just pray that it stays that way.

Please help me in saying a little prayer for a friend of mine. He had Stage IV Hodgkin's, and as of late, Dr. Winter thinks he may have relapsed, and is due for a stem cell transplant. I talked with him today, and he has such a great attitude!

I just arrived home after two weeks in California and Hawaii with Chris. We had a blast! I will post some pics as well.

Tomorrow, I meet with Dr. Streicher at NMH. She is going to run many fertility tests on me so we will see how that goes.

Love,
Sherrie