By May 12th, 1997, Judy's CAT-scan take by her new doctor was still showing negative. She was feeling pain but was told everything looked ok.

Judy got a CA125 result about that time, and it was up again, this time to 38. Her new doctor decided she should have exploratory surgery. The CAT-scan showed nothing new at that time, but the blood tests results showed otherwise. Judy had to go back to the doctor in Pittsburgh for the operation. A decision was made that Judy would go on a small vacation to visit each of her daughters before going through the surgery.

On June 3rd, My eldest son had a brain aneurysm and was sent by life-flight to Presbyterian University Hospital in Pittsburgh. This meant I would not be in touch as closely with Judy as we would be traveling between Ohio and Pittsburgh everyday to be with our son. Our son was released on June 11th, only to return to the hospital the next morning, this time with a stroke. Judy was not able to visit as just being near a hospital caused anticipatory nausea. She was also trying to get prepared for another surgery of her own. At this point in Judy's story, I will start referring to her notes because mine are not being kept up as they usually are.

All of early June, Judy was having a lot of pain in her lower abdomen and down her legs. Judy was attending church often during this time and it kept her spirits high. The pain persisted and Judy was again tiring quickly. She was also having pain radiating to her lower back. The pain seemed to be getting worse every day. June 15th Judy's son, his wife and their two children came to visit. This was a wonderful surprise for Judy. It helped take her mind off the pain a bit. I never got to see them. During this time, my son was back in the hospital and we were being kept very busy. Tim decided to go with Judy to visit their daughter in North Carolina after their son left to return to his home. Then Judy was going on a short vacation to Georgia and visit her other daughter.

June 30th Judy returned from her trip south to see the kids. That day Judy received bad news on a CA125 that had been taken before she left. The test showed it was still climbing and was now up to 84. We were with her when she received the call. Judy knew this was very serious news and would definitely involve more than just surgery. It would mean going back on chemotherapy.

July 1st, Judy's sister-in-law and my best friend had emergency open-heart surgery. This was gearing up to be another bad year for our whole family. Our eldest son was just starting his therapy. Our youngest son came home from California and our daughter from Florida. This would be a great help!

Judy's surgery was scheduled for July 7th. She was taken into surgery that morning. The doctors found four large tumors in her abdomen. The one near her spleen was still there as it had been from the very beginning, and it had grown. The cancer was taking over. The doctors did not even remove anything. The doctor stated the cancer looked like ice and it had glazed over everything. They just closed her back up and said they would try more chemotherapy. They would go back to the Taxol+Cisplatin as she had good results with this drug combination in earlier treatment.

August through November were taxing with many trips back and forth to Pittsburgh. These seemed to be the only times Judy and I had together as I was trying to get everything in order for my son. We were fighting Social Security and taking him to therapy every other day. One of the good times we had, was we all got together to celebrate our mother's 75th birthday on August 17th. It turned out to be a very nice evening, considering Judy was starting more cemo and I was put on insulin for my diabetes. We spent as much time as possible together. Judy decided to get another kitten and we went shopping for kitty-stuff one night. She was still amazing me by trying to keep her life going. Judy was not a person to give up. She tried to live as normal a life as her health permitted. God was her strength and in her thoughts constantly. There is no doubt in my mine prayer kept her alive. There is no way she could have kept up this long without it. Judy was already six months beyond the time the doctors were at a point of giving up.

November was here and we had another family gathering at Thanksgiving, again celebrating Judy's birthday early. The way we all worked time together was hard to come by.

December 1st, Judy's birthday was celebrated by her getting another CAT-scan. We were praying the cemo was working again. It was, only one lesion was showing up. God was still working in her life.

January 5th Judy had another Ca125 and we could not believe the test showed it had gone up to 323 in just two weeks. The CAT-scan and the CA125 were not coordinating. Something was happening fast. Judy was terrified, as were we for her. On January 12th just one week later her CA125 had climbed to 1250, that week things looked very grim. The hospital in Pittsburgh put Judy in touch with another new doctor. New things were happening in the protocols for ovarian cancer. Doctors were looking at stem-cell-transplant and Judy was a perfect candidate.

Here is a brief description of what we were seeing in the news. TITLE: Multiple cycles of high-dose chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. SOURCE: Semin Oncol; 25(3):349-55 1998 UI: 98295604 ABSTRACT: Recent advances in hematopoietic support have extended the application of high-dose chemotherapy in the treatment of malignancy. The use of colony stimulating factors and blood progenitor cells significantly have decreased the morbidity and mortality of such treatment compared with traditional autologous bone marrow transplantation. This innovation facilitate the use of multiple cycles of high-dose chemotherapy as consolidation after achieving best response conventional chemotherapy or as initial treatment. Developing data suggest that this approach in both of these settings merit further evaluation for the treatment of epithelial ovarian carcinoma.

Judy was to be one of the first ovarian cancer patients to have the procedure done. Information was in the news everywhere. Tom Brokow had a news story on it. Judy and I watched the program that evening and as fate would have it, one of the two patients interviewed was also named Judy. She happened to be the one that lived. We were both excited and fearful at the same time and we just held each other and cried.

Judy's new doctor was a renowned oncologist from Chicago. His suggestion was to do an operation to debulk or remove all or most of the tumor or lesion, making it much smaller and thereby providing a more manageable target for the chemotherapy. The main problem seemed to be, would the insurance pay. The family decided to try to find ways we could raise the money. Bake sales, etc. were thought of, but the money was more than we could imagine getting together. We prayed for an answer to our dilemma.

February 1st, A friend helped us get a buddy pass and we were able to have Judy's daughter Tonya flown in from Georgia. My husband Ron picked Tonya up at the airport in Pittsburgh the next day. He took her to Judy not many hours too soon. Tonya was coming a little early to help Judy and Tim get things in order before the surgery. That very afternoon a couple of hour's later, Judy's pain became unbearable. The doctor was called and Judy was rushed to the hospital in Pittsburgh. The bowel was obstructed and the surgery was moved up. It would be performed the next morning. Judy was in surgery for seven hours this time. The doctor did a colostomy. Judy had a stoma or an artificial permanent opening in the abdominal wall and would have to wear a colostomy bag. That evening when we went to visit her Judy was not doing well. She was having problems breathing and her vital signs were very low. The doctor was thinking of transferring her to ICU. In a few hours Judy was starting to breathe a bit better and ICU never became necessary. Having a chance to talk with one of her doctors while visiting that night was probably one of the most confusing periods of her illness for me. This doctor thought the idea of a stem cell transplant was not a good idea. He had been following Judy for the past year or so as a resident and needed to explain to me why he felt this way. He felt the harsh high chemotherapy doses she would have to endure were going to be too much for her body to take. He stated, if she had not had to have the extensive surgery beforehand, it would have been different. I went to our mother's on the way home from the hospital and we talked about whether we should tell Tim and, or the children what this doctor said. We decided to pray and not tell Tim as this seemed to him and Judy the only chance she would have left for survival. We did not want to put more on their minds than was already there. An answer to our prayers came the next day. The Insurance would pay for the transplant! We felt we had made the right decision not causing more worry by telling them of the resident's feelings.

February 6th,Judy was very sick and pneumonia was a concern as Judy's temperature could not be brought down to normal. It was terrible having to see her go through so much and being so weak. February 7th, pneumonia was ruled out and they found an abscess that had formed due to some fecal matter getting into the abdomen during her surgery. Judy did not start feeling better for over a week. She had bouts of fever and began talking of nothing but going back to see the ocean, which she dearly loved.

February 13th Judy was released from the hospital to recover some before beginning the stem call transplant. The surgery had her CA125 down to 1050 (still very high) and they were planning to start the transplant on March 3rd, 1998. We were all frightened for her but no one was more frightened than she was.

On March 3rd Judy began the procedure for the autologous stem cell transplant. Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) involves removing hematopoietic stem cells from a cancer patient's bone marrow or peripheral blood, administering high-dose chemotherapy, and then reinfusing the stem cells. After the autologous bone marrow transplant (ABMT) or autologous blood stem cell transplant (ABSCT), the stem cells repopulate the patient's bone marrow, which otherwise would be irreversibly damaged by the intensive chemotherapy. This technique permits raising the dose of chemotherapy 5- to 10-fold to substantially increase tumor cell killing relative to standard therapy. Because of the ease of collection and more rapid patient recovery, many centers now collect the stem cells from blood instead of bone marrow. Although ASCT has become standard therapy for selected patients with lymphoma, acute myelogenous leukemia, and multiple myeloma, its application to breast and ovarian carcinomas is experimental. The drugs used were cyclophosphamid, carboplatin, and mitoxantrone.

By March 6th, Judy returned home but was still horribly sick. While visiting with her on March 12th her temperature started rising. I had her call the hospital in Pittsburgh and they returned her call quickly stating she should get to the hospital immediately. Having called Tim home from work we got a bag together to make the trip. Judy would be going into isolation. Her white cell count had dropped to zero! This was the lowest it had ever been. The times Judy spent in isolation were getting harder for her to endure. Judy's membranes down her throat and in her intestines were extremely inflamed from the high dose cemo. Being alone so much was giving her too much time to think about what was happening to her. I was concerned about her mental stability. However, God love her she was the strong one.

On march 19th, Judy's counts were climbing, and the doctors started harvesting the stem cells from her blood. On March 20th, she was sent home.

March 30th, just ten days later Judy began her second high dose chemotherapy. Within six days, Judy was back in isolation. Again, the ulcers were all through her mouth down her throat and in her intestines. This time it was even worse she was not allowed to have visitor but for a short time span. They found she had herpes and some kind of bug had developed in her bowel. Judy was also having a very hard time with the stoma. The Bag would not fit right and it kept leaking. I feel horrible at this very moment just thinking back on what all she was going through. All she wanted was to go home and have a swimming pool (just a kiddy pool) so she could be near her beloved water. She would go in the shower at the hospital and just sit under the showers comforting water. There must have been some solace there for her.

April20th, Judy was still in the hospital and her Doctor decided to do another CAT scan to see if they were going to go on with the stem cell transplant or to stop it. She was not getting better.

On April 21st, I called Judy's doctor myself and explained to him, all of Judy's children as well as mine lived a great distance from us and would have to travel by air if there was an emergency. I asked him please be truthful with me. We really needed to know what kinds of arrangements needed to be made. Dr. D told me that day he did not expect Judy to live the year out. I asked for his opinion. Did he think this was the appropriate time to alert the kids or should we wait a while. We had children all over the United States. He never gave me an answer. I guess that was not his concern. They were giving up and I knew it! This time I did tell Tim and I called her children and explained to them it was all up to us as to what we should do. Of course, we did not tell Judy. I am sure she knew. Judy was beginning to feel irritated being stuck in isolation for so long. The doctors were not telling her anything or doing any more treatment. She was being kept from what little time she had left with her family. I tried just to be there because she knew she could vent her anger, and I would understand. We had a long talk and pored our hearts out to each other about things from when we were kids to the last time we may have hurt the others feelings.

Judy was sent home on April 28th, still felling very sick but we spent the evening together and enjoyed it. Judy would now be able to see more of her friends and mom could be with her more often.

On May 3rd, Judy was told the herpes was in her eye and could leave her blind. I felt so bad she did fear for her sight not her life. I realized Judy still was expecting her miracle. She had not given up. Judy would sit for hours listening to her favorite music ~Revival at Brownsville~ and watch the Corner Stone television show. Every thing was about God and we were so happy she still kept her faith. These things kept Judy going. She could not get to church as much but one of her best friends would come with her daughter and sing hymns with her. Their singing was so beautiful. I walked in one day and just stood and listened. Judy's favorite song was ~We Will Ride~ from Revival at Brownsville. The words to this song are on Judys Page.

June was spent with Judy failing more every day she stopped putting her wig on and did not want to go anywhere. June 15th, Judy had a doctor's appointment, he explained to her, and Tim nothing more could be done medically, except to keep her comfortable. The next dose of chemotherapy would be too much for her body to take. The cancer was spreading in spite of the transplant, and he suggested it was time to contact Hospice. The nurses would come every other day and help with her medicine and Mom would go be with her every day.

June19th, Judy could no longer be left alone. My son was back in the hospital and I thought we were all going to lose our sanity. Judy's twin daughters came to visit and her spirits were up again. We had an enjoyable time sitting with the girls and telling them stories about when we were young. We were actually laughing and having a good time. Judy was tiring very easily at this time and we had to be careful not to over extend our fun time. Tammy and Tonya were going to be there for a few more, we would start taking turns being with Judy every evening. Mom was there every day. The two nights Tim worked night shift I would be there. I was still working, but started taking a short shift on the weekends. This gave me four days a week with Judy instead of two.

Around The week of June 20th, we found Judy and Tim had a very wonderful couple living next door to them. Mike and Linda were both available to help every day and in any way, they could. Linda would go in to sit with Judy when neither Tim's sister Sandy, Mom, nor I were able to be there.

June 27th, Judy was very ill, things were going progressively down hill. She was starting to have a hard time eating but was still trying to have a positive attitude some of the day. I prayed every day for God to help her cope with these end times. Continued…

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