Mac pictures and fight cancer update

The kids and grandkids left last Saturday to fly back to India. It was a short (9 days) but very sweet trip. We mostly just did things together close by. Family get togethers, playing in the irrigation, sailing boats in the ditch and hanging out. Quote from Dilly (after going potty by himself), "I tan do anything! I am strong! I tan even fight dinosaurs!
Kirsten and Rowan, picture taken by Niko who has quite the camera eye. He always gets great shots!
Kirsten and Dilly
Another hug for little brother and big sister.
Kirsten, Rob and Grandma Coral at Faye and Javier's house.

Back to Julian and an update. He had treatments the whole time they were here, but he was still able to spend time with them around the house. We saw both doctors in the past 2 weeks and they both say that he is done with treatments at least till the end of June maybe longer. He will have more tests at that time and they will decide then. They were all very pleased about how well he tolerated having both radiation and chemo at the same time. He's tough, I tell you. His WBC counts especially are low now, but his bone marrow will slowly build them back up. He still is very tired and has postural dizzyness. We think that he's a little better each day, but it's slow. Eating is a struggle. He's able to eat, but I can give him 5 or 6 choices and get maybe one that sounds good. The radiation people tell us that it will still be working fight the cancer cells for 2 weeks after the last treatment. Of course it's hilarious how each doctor thinks that the other doctor's treatment is the worst and causing the most problems. There was a cartoon in the Sunday funnies today that was very appropriate to the doctors working together (or not!). Dr. McBride and Dr. Kukkonoor talk about having philosophical discussions about the best treatment.



We are trying to keep our sense of humor with all this. We really appreciate your prayers and cards. Thanks so much!

Kids visit from India and Jules update

Kirsten, Rob, Rowan and Dylan have spent the last 9 days with us in Phoenix. They live in India and we haven't seen them for a year. One of their first nights here were spent at Faye and Javier's house playing with, "my cousins, they boys" as Rowan calls them. She walked into the door in one of her rare shy moments, hiding behind my legs. We walked into the boys room, they showed Ro and Dil how to play pool and the shyness was gone in about a minute. From there it was rough and tumble fun and games all evening.
Ro and Dilly with Papa. A quick update on Jules: He finished radiation yesterday (Friday) and had his last weekly Chemo on Thursday. The day Kirs et.al arrived (May 20) he was supposed to have chemo, but his counts were too low (platelets). I drove him to radiation and chemo that day because he was dizzy, went to school a little late, left to pick up the kids from the airport, dropped them at home and returned to school. I would have gotten a sub, but alas, none was available. It always takes about an hour to get the blood work results back before they start chemo, so I just dropped him off thinking he would be there all day. As it was they gave him some fluids which helped him feel somewhat better. Mainly he is just energyless and feeling washed out. However, the timing of having to miss one chemo was perfect. He was able to enjoy their visit. They will do another ultrasound in about a month and Dr. McBride (radiation) will decide what's next. He goes back to chemo in 2 weeks and we will see what they say. Right now we are on hold and happy for it. The kids left today,but we had a great visit. I will put more pictures up in the next day or so.
Niko teaching Dilly how to fight with foam padded swords
Niko teaching Rowan how to fight. Notice the fancy leg movements. Later in the evening Maceo was playing hide and seek in a dark room with them resulting in many delighted squeals.
This is Rowan with her sting ray. She got to touch a real sting ray at the aquarium in Salt Lake City and was very proud.

Hangin in there, shower cat, baby shower

Here's Jules on Saturday the worst day of his week. He looks good, huh. He gets washed out over the weekend after chemo on Thursday. He has 2 more weeks of radiation. Eating is getting a little more difficult, but he is still eating. I made him power bars (I can give out the recipe if you like). I made up the recipe, wrote it down cause I knew that I wouldn't remember what I put in them. There were about 30 or so bars and there are now only 2 left. I guess they are good. He sometimes has popcorn for dinner. Pretty much eating whatever sounds good to him or that he thinks he can get down, concentrating on high carb, high protein, high calorie.
He decided to clean out the rain gutters and trim the Palo Verde tree in the morning. After resting and watching the horse race which took about 3 hours for a 2-3 minute race, he cleaned off the patio in the afternoon.
Not bad for feeling washed out. I guess it's called mind over matter, guts, bravery, toughness
This is Merlin soon after he and I took our morning shower. A little scraggly, but clean! I'm trying to break him of the habit of drinking out of the toilet bowl, but not because I'm worried about him getting sick from it. Did you know that there are many, many more germs on desks than on toilets? Toilets tend to have less germs because we wash them more often than most desks, or pens, or phones. So why, do you ask am I trying to break him from drinking out of the toilet? Because he puts his front paws into the toilet water as he drinks and leaves cat paw prints around the house. Sounds cute maybe to a cat lover, to have cute little cat paw prints around the house. Maybe it would be cute if they were painted on and not adding to my dirty house!
This is Faye and Javier, Niko, Nathan and Maceo. Jeremy is 16 now and doesn't always go on trips, you know how teenagers are. His friends are around his Mom's house so he spends more time there. Anyway this is the family that Baby Jules (Juliana) is due to join the end of July. Can you picture those boys holding her, baby sitting, changing diapers? They will probably have long conversations about wet burps, vomit and poop.
Faye's surprise baby shower at school. It was very sneaky and she had no idea they were planning it.
She got so many cute little girl clothes!
Faye and I at the shower.

Prayer Quilt & Tribute to Chris

This is the quilt being knotted and prayed over in church. There is a story about the material. My Peru roomie, Susan who you see reaching up in the right side of this picture bought the material with the forest scene on a trip to Calif. She states that she had no idea why she was buying it, but did
none the less. When she asked what colors and things Julian likes, he responded greens and blues and the outdoors and she know why she had bought the material. It was up in church being knotted and prayed over when he was sick with a high fever. It was delivered on Wednesday the day Chris died just before we left for chemo. The quilt was the one bright spot in that horrible day.

This is Chris. He is funny, caring and a bright spot in the world. He and Jules have talked almost daily for years, jokes, politics, guy stuff. When Jules got cancer Chris called twice a day to see how he was doing and to keep his spirits up. He can built anything, loves to ski (always wanted to ski with Star), loves to make music, eat at Mickie D's, and play practical jokes. Everybody liked him instantly. He likes cats even though he is allergic to them. He always said that our cat Merlin converted him to a cat lover and he would have adopted him in an instant.
We went to the North Rim with Don and Connie and Chris and Mary. We have had great couple times together. We have watched the show "24" together for years. We have appetizers, dinner, watch 24, then half way through have a delicious dessert. We switch off one week at our house, the next week at their house.
Chris and Mary
Mary and Chris and Jules. Chris had fun every day, whatever he was doing. Chris and Mary are really funny together as you can see in this picture. Chris we really miss you. We wish you were still here. I went back and read this and thought, you are still here. However, I being selfish want to be able to talk and laugh with you. It's just not the same.

Welcome to our world Julian Vincent Romey!

This is my sister Jacki and 5 of her grandkids, Archer, Airah, Aubree, Romey and Bailey. We welcome #6, Julian Vincent Romey!! He is the son of Holly and Noel Romey, born today at 12:22. He weighed in at 6 lb, 6oz and is 19 and 3/4 " long with lots of dark hair! Welcome little Julian to our family! I'm happy to be a Grand Aunt once again. I could go on and on telling stories of Noel. I would often pick him up from Preschool for the Blind when he was little. He came back to my house late afternoon when it was time to cook dinner. He was curious about everything and liked to explore every knob in the house. One time he almost set his hair on fire when he was playing with the knobs on the gas stove! After that I invented a game called experiencing time. I sat him on the little yellow stool, gave him a timer, turned it to one minute and challenged him to stay on the stool and experience time for one minute. He did it and was thrilled that he could stay there till the bell rang one minute later. Each day we increased the time a little till we got up to 30 minutes! He would just sit there, talk and experience time! That little guy now is a chemical engineer and has a baby of his own!
This is Papa Julian with his grandson Dylan. We are really looking forward to the visit of Kirs, Rob, Row and Dilly in May coming clear from India!
This is Julian with Rowan when she was little.
I have to say that this man is one tough cookie. He is going to radiation every day for 5 and a half weeks and going to have chemotherapy every week during that time. I'm tired just being his support. I have to say it's not easy for either of us, but it will be worth it to get rid of the cancer. I drug him "kicking and screaming" as he said to the Wellness Community. This is a free cancer support community housed in a old home on Palm Lane in Phoenix. They have support groups, exercise classes, nutrition classes and other talks on fighting cancer. Well when we walked in the the leader of the group thought that I was the patient and she praised Julian for coming along to support me! She did say that she thought that I must be in recovery so that made me feel a little better. Needless to say, he is doing pretty well and so far is tolerating the treatments well. They give him all kinds of IV meds before the chemo to prevent side effects (a steroid, antinausea medication, benadryl, extra fluids etc) and he has 3 - 4 different anti nausea meds to take at home. Julian says, "I'm still vertical and above room temperature"!

Spring garden and Radiation tattoos

This is spring in my yard. I love these change of season things in my own yard. Spring brings snow peas and broccoli which means sweet dipable veggies and many more stir fry meals. The orange blossoms are blooming and fragrant. We still have some oranges to pick and juice so I can have fresh OJ in the freezer all year. It got a little warm over the weekend, so I made the first iced tea of the season and turned on the swamp cooler for the first time
Roses are sending out their first beautiful enormous blooms.
Irises are blooming
Purple irises bloom about a week after the white ones.
These are my Rio Samba roses. They start yellow, turn to orange and then pink. All flowers love spring in Arizona.

For other news on the home front, Jules and I went to the radiation oncologist yesterday. Studies have shown better results using both chemo and radiation at the same time, so he went today to get tattoos to guide them in the radiation each day. He wanted to have the last supper tattooed on his chest however, they put tiny little dots which almost look like a freckle. He will have radiation for five and 1/2 weeks, five days a week. It will take a maximum of a half hour each day. They don't expect that he will have burning on his skin and he will hopefully tolerate it well. He will have to get a feeding tube, but will only use it if he starts having swallowing problems. This may happen temporarily due to inflammation and swelling of the tumor in his esophagus. We would have waited on the tube, but the doctor said that it takes about a week to get a feeding tube put in. He could become very weak if he cannot eat for a week and be unable to tolerate the chemo & radiation. Good nutrition is very important for a positive outcome. We like the idea that he will be chewing most and hopefully all of his meals. Jules says that it is hard to get steak through a feeding tube. Even though we eat steak only about once a year, this is very important to him! He will have his 1st Radiation treatment and 2nd chemo on April 21.

Roller Derby, other family stars and chemo

Stella Guns the all Star!
This is Star (in front hauling ass) in the regional Roller Derby game in Las Vegas. She has been having a lot of fun and she can go like fire from a gun, thus her name Stella Guns. The Utah team won! Congrats Star!
Diane and Bill came to visit this past week. This picture is Diane's reward for feeding me sand cakes when I was a little tyke!
Mom, Diane, Faye and I, sisters, moms, grandmothers, aunts, daughters some of our many hats, all having fun
Faye and baby bun!
We also enjoyed a surprise visit from Sean a couple weeks ago. His knock on Grandma's door was the first she knew he was in town. We had dinners and he did various things around Mom's house. He made her a roll out trash can in the kitchen, fixed something in the shower and most important fixed her bike! She said, Sean, you don't need to do that. Sean said, Grandma, I have to you used to ride me in the basket to the library! When Sean got older he would ride Faye and then Ryan around in the bike. This bike has a lot of history

Jules is finished with his first round of chemo. He got his pump off the other day. It seems to be helping. He can eat apples and grapes again! He will have another round of chemo in a couple weeks. However, we have to see Dr. McBride Monday who wants to discuss radiation. We are leary at this point. We are thinking that he should do 2 rounds of chemo and see how it is responding to that. We will go and see what Dr. McBride has to say. The chemo wasn't fun, but it was OK. The nausea was well controlled with anti nausea meds. At home we are concentrating on diet, eating foods that are shown to be cancer fighters. We are going to start growing broccoli and red clover sprouts and eating other fruits and veggies, etc that show promise. We are talking a lot and continue trying to figure out the best course of action.