December 23, 2005

To follow up on my Dec. 9 entry, the oncologist said I am in partial remission and very encouraged by my response to the treatment. We will scan again in March and at that point determine if any additional tmt is indicated.

dac

December 23, 2005

Happy Holidays!!!

I am home for the holidays. I have been in the hospital since December 14th. I was discharged this afternoon. As you can imagine Napper and I had to take a detour on the way home and do a little last minute shopping.

My esophagus is still the focus of my problems. It just will not heal on its own. I was not able to get down enough nutrition to support any kind of healing. The first thing they did when I got to the hospital was put in a PICC line. This is a line that is inserted through a large vein in the upper arm and threads up to the large vein above the heart. With this line they gave me TPN, which is liquid nutrition given through the bloodstream. This helped me regain my strength over the course of the past several days.

The second day in the hospital I had an EGD. This is where they look down into the esophagus and the stomach with a scope. They found a very inflamed, swollen esophagus. One segment was very constricted so they dilated it abit. Today I had my second EGD. They dilated it abit more, but said that it is still not open enough for regular food and I will have to stick to liquids or pureed food until another dilatation in about 3 weeks.

Another thing the doctor ordered in hopes of healing the esophagus is hyperbaric oxygen therapy. This is intended to assist the body in healing with high dose oxygen. It involves going into a pressurized chamber for two hours with 100% oxygen. After my first tmt I did develop some ear pain so they put tubes in both ears. I went to the chamber every day while I was in the hospital and I will continue going M-F on an outpatient basis until I get to 20 tmts.

I am feeling much better and so glad to be home to celebrate Christmas with my family. My dad came back to town once I was admitted to the hospital. Upon my insistence Napper and the kids went up to Minnesota for the annual Curley Christmas party last weekend. They had a fabulous time seeing family & friends. They spent Sunday at the Mall of America (Camp Snoopy) compliments of Grandma Curley. The kids loved running around with all their cousins. Dad kept me company at home and held down the fort at the house. Now we are happy to have him stay through Christmas and see what Santa Claus brings the kids.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I have never gotten so many birthday cards, and wishes in my life. It was very heartwarming!! Even though I had wonderful care in the hospital, there is just no place like home. Thank you all for your continued prayers. I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. Merry Christmas.

Love, Denise

December 9, 2005

Bright and early this morning I went to the hospital for a CT Scans of my neck and chest. I received wonderful news. The tumor in my right lung is essentially gone and my lymph nodes are back to normal size. The Radiologist said this is amazing!. He said it just could'nt be any better. Needless to say, I am thrilled and overwhelmed with emotion and graditude.

Next week I will meet with my Oncologist and my Radiation Oncologist to see what the next step will be. Thank you for all your concern, support, and PRAYERS!!!!!!!!!

All my love,

Denise

November 30th, 2005

Oh I forgot to share on my last entry that my brother Dave, brother-in-law Mike and "pseudo" nephew Sam showed up with their heads shaved in support of my baldness. I got a big kick out of that!!!!!

November 30th, 2005

Well, it has been awhile since I updated this blog. On Monday, November 21st I started getting sick again. The sore esophagus, and vomiting have made consistent eating and drinking very difficult. I have pretty much been bed bound for the past 9 days. Yesterday, I went to the hospital for hydration and I.V. medicines. Today I am feeling much better, and that is very encouraging. I am praying that I am over the hump.

My extended family was here for the holiday. It was great to see everyone even if I could not partake in the eating celebration. Everyone pitched in to prepare the Thanksgiving dinner and all the other meals of the weekend. I could tell they all had a great time getting together and that made me feel good. My sister-in law Tracy gave me a massage, and I got lots of TLC from everyone else. Unfortunately my niece Casey was also limited with her Thanksgiving celebration as she came down with the stomach flu on Wednesday noc.

My mom & dad stayed on after the holiday to help get me back on track. Amazingly, I have managed to keep them both pretty busy. It sure helps having the extra help, especially when you have to be away at the hospital. My scan date has been changed from the 2nd of December, to the 9th of December!!

I cannot believe that tomarrow is the first day of December. I have to start feeling better soon. There are too many fun things to do in December to be sick. Thank you for all your prayers. We remain very optimistic and look forward to the CT scan results!


Lots of love,

Denise

November 30th, 2005

Denise Curley

November 17,2005

One more radiation treatment to go. This has been a challenging several days. It has been tough just getting enough calories down. At my doctor's suggestion I have increased my pain medicine quite a bit, this has helped, but makes me sleepy. My mom also has put me on a pretty rigid eating, sleeping, drinking and pill taking schedule. I must admit this helps too. I have had such wonderful care. I look forward to the coming week.

On Sunday my dad will come. On Wednesday afternoon my sister and her family will come in from Colorado and Wednesday evening my brother and his family will come in from Indiana. We will bring in the season by going to watch Brian and his school choir sing at the Platte City lighting ceremony. It should be great fun!!!

I will keep you posted on my scan results. Thank you for your ongoing support, prayers, postive thoughts, cards, emails, & meals. We have so much to be thankful for this season.

With love,

Denise, Napper, Brian & Bonnie

November 9, 2005

Hello, I am feeling better today. With this round of chemo I experienced some nausea and vomiting... no fun under any circumstances and it makes for one sore esophagus. Anyway, that is better and I am starting to eat solids again.

I learned this week that I will only have 33 radiation tmts, which means I only have 7 more to go. That was quite a boost. If all goes on schedule I will finish my last rad. tmt on Nov. 18th. I also learned that I will have a ct scan of the neck and chest the first week in December. I am counting on good news from those scans.

That leaves Thanksgiving week wide open with no appointments or tmts. How devine!!!

Thank you to all for the meals, gifts, shuttles prayers and support.

Love, The Denise, Napper, Brian & Bonnie

Denise Curley

November 2, 2005

Hello, All is well. I have had a good week. We have been busy with the kids activities surrounding halloween and sports activies. I am planning an outing tomarrow with some friends to Atchinson, Ks. I am looking forward to that.

My dad went back to Indiana on Monday morning. It was great to have him here. We enjoyed his company and he was a great help. My mom will come in on the 11th of November. We are looking forward to her visit.

Friday I will have my second round of Chemotherapy. This will again be an overnight infusion. A few weeks after that we will re-scan to see how I have responded to the treatments. I continue with my radiation tmt. I have 21 completed. I feel strong and have regained some of my stamina.

Thank you for everything.

Sincerely, The Curley Family

October 25, 2005

We had many requests for a picture. Here is one of our family taken a couple weeks ago. All is going well. I started radiation again on Monday. Still eating and drinking. I am hairless now, but I have lots of fun hats to wear. My dad is here helping out. It has been great. Thanks for all the cards, emails, words of encouragement, meals and prayers.

Feeling Blessed,

Denise

Curley Family Fall '05

October 21, 2005

Hello, I am feeling better each day. My esophagus is recovering and I was able to get some dinner down last night. Yea! I hope to stock up this weekend before radiation starts on Monday. Hopefully without the infection I can keep it going for a while. It has been challenging watching all this great food come in and not being able to eat it. Although, the rest of the family has enjoyed the meals very much.

The kids are doing great. They are taking everything in stride. They have enjoyed spending time with Aunt Dee, and Grandpa Case. Brian & Bonnie have found my recent hair loss interesting and they are ready for me just to shave it off. They are making guesses as to what color will grow back. Last night I gave myself a short haircut, so they were surprised this morning with my new look. They were also very excited & happy when I was able to eat dinner.

Napper is doing well too. He keeps very busy and organized getting everything done and still making daily life "fun." He plans to spend the weekend getting ready for his favorite holiday, halloween.

Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!

Sincerely,

The Curley Family

October 19, 2005

I came home from the hospital today. When I went for my radiation tmt on Monday they did lab work and determined that I should be admitted. My White blood cells had dropped more and I was running a fever. I also was having great difficulty getting anything down. They fixed me up though and I am feeling much better. I had I.V. antibiotics, I.V. fluids, I.V. antacids and even I.V. pain meds. The infection seemed to be in the throat and esophagus, probably "yeast" type infection. I still can't get food down but .fluids are good. My radiation tmts are on hold until next Monday and my next Chemotherapy was postponed 1 week until Nov.4th. That should give me enough time to get back on track.

My sister went back to Colorado on Tuesday morning and my dad drove in from Indiana last night. The extra help has been wonderful. The meals have been great. All the prayers and support keep us going. Thanks so much!

Love, Denise, Napper, Brian & Bonnie

Sunday - October 16th 2005

This weekend has been a bit tougher. My esaphagus continues to be my biggest concern. Each day it gets worse. I am having trouble swallowing fluids. Despite the various medicines that have been prescribed. My energy level has dropped significantly in the past couple days. I ran a fever on Saturday afternoon and had to go to the ER. I learned, as expected, that my White Blood Cells had taken a dive. We couldn't find a source for the infection so they put me on a general antibiobic. They gave me lots of hydration and sent me home.

My sister flew in from Denver last night. She has been taking such good care of me. The boys had an overnight boyscout camp on Saturday so I relied on the generous offers of Anna and Kathy to get me to the hospital and take care of Bonnie. Napper joined us later at the hospital and took me home. I don't know what we would do without all the kindness and support we have been getting. It has helped tremendously.

Thank you for everything

Love, Denise

Denise Curley

Wednesday October 12th

Hello, I am tolerating the treatments very well so far. I have had waves of nausea and some acheness, but overall pretty good. My biggest problem is just esophageal pain. The radiation hits a good part of my esophagus and I am starting to feel those effects. I have however figured out how to minimize the pain with eating and have not missed any meals so far. I have always eaten too fast and too big of bites and I am learning to slooooow down.

My chemotherapy is every 21 days. The infusion takes about 24 hours. My next one will be October 28th. Today will be my 13th radiation tmt. I will finish my 35th tmt on Nov. 11th. A few days after that and before my 3rd chemo tmt we will do more scans to see the status of the cancer. If it is in complete remission we will stop tmt, if it is partial remission we will continue tmt., and if there is no response we will stop tmt and do something else.

I have been exercising and I think that helps alot. I have also been practicing yogo and listening to healing meditation tapes. These tapes and the yogo both work on breathing exercises which I think are very beneficial, especially with lung disease.

I have plans to work Friday and Monday and I look forward to that. I am reminding myself to take one day at a time. I am trying to slow down and enjoy the moments. All the wonderful meals have freed us up to spend more time together and we truly value that time.

Thank you for all you do! We are so grateful.

Love,

Denise

October 7th

I start Chemotherapy today. I will have taxol, carboplatin and avastin. I am praying for minimal side effects and zero complications.
Thank you all for your prayers, cards, flowers, gifts, meals and emails.

Warmest regards,

Denise

P.S. Happy Birthday Dave

Denise Curley

September 29th, 2005

I have returned from a very encouraging trip to Vanderbilt University Med Center in Nashville. I met with a doctor who specializes in lung and breast cancer. He has seen an increase of patients like me (non-smoking females with lung cancer) in his practice in past years and it comprises approximately 1/3 of his practice. He felt that the Chemotherapy and combined Radiation would be exactly what he would do at Vanderbilt and he thought they would be effective. He also said that if they were not effective, there were other options and he would help me hook up with those options if need be. He expressed great confidence in this first line of treatment and believed that I could be cured. Incidently, he does think that the lung is my primary site of cancer.

I am very encouraged by this visit and I feel very blessed to have so many wonderful doctors taking care of me. I am ready to get started with this process. I know it is my path. I know that much good will come of it.

I was very thankful to have my two siblings and my father with me. They were great support as is all of our family. We are very blessed to have so many people willing to help us out during this time. It means alot. We just can't express how comforting the prayers and well wishes have been. We definitely feel the love.

Most sincerely,

Denise

Denise Curley

September 25, 2005

Hello, I started my Radiation Tmts this week. I had two tmts and will continue Monday - Friday for 35 tmts. After 35 I will recover for 1 month and start again. My Pet scan showed no new areas of metastasis.

I also had a mammogram this week which was negative. We were just ruling out something other than the lung as the primary site. All seems to still point to the lung as the primary.

Wednesday morning I will leave for Nashville. My sister will fly in from Colorado and go to Nashville. My brother and my dad will meet us there. Napper will stay home to keep the kids in their routine.

Thank you again for your words of encouragement, thoughts and prayer.

Love, Denise

Denise Curley

September 19th

Thanks for all the support. It helps so much. Tomarrow I will meet with the Radiation Oncologist again to begin planning for Radiation. I will get a Petscan which will help her pinpoint the areas that we need to radiate. They will make tatoos (my first) on my skin so they can precisely radiate the affected areas in my chest and neck. It is possible that I will start radiation before my second opinion because we are certain that radiation would be part of any protocol that would be recommended.

I have been back to work a couple days. It feels good to work. My co-workers have been so wonderful to me. I feel very blessed.

Love, Denise

Denise Curley

My bone scan was negative. I am thankful for that.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

Love, Denise

Denise Curley

Wednesday, September 14th

My Vanderbilt appointment is set for Sept. 28th. It will just be a morning flight down there and return the following afternoon. My dad will meet me down there and drive me where I need to go. So that gives me two weeks to organize things and get ready for the Chemotherapy and Radiation therapy which I assume will start Monday October 3rd.

I have not gotten results on my bone scan yet!. I feel great. I plan to go back to work on Friday and I plan to continue to work as much as possible. My Oncologist said there is no restriction on working as long as I feel up to it. I want to thank everyone for all the encouraging e-mails, cards prayers and positive thoughts. It is so comforting. We remain optimistic and are hoping and praying for a long remission.

Thank you so much,


Denise & Napper

ONCOLOGY CONSULT

Sept. 12th : We met with the Oncologist today. The plan will be to start aggressive chemotherapy and radiation therapy as soon as my neck wound heals. Probably in about two weeks. Further surgery is not an option at this point because of the lymph node involvement in the mid chest area. In the mean time she wants me to get a second opinion. She recommended Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tn. She said they have the strongest lung cancer program in the country.

Tomarrow I will get a bone scan and Wednesday I will consult with a Radiation Therapist. This will be a very very tough battle. We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers. We are blessed to have so many wonderful people praying for us and getting us on prayer chains all over the country. We are putting alot of faith in these prayers.

Thank you all for the cards, flowers and meals and get well wishes we have been overwhelmed with the love, generosity and kindness.

A special Thank you to my parents for being here to get us through this first hurtle and my brother Dave. Also thank you to the Hospital staff, the Radiologists, Anesthesia Department, and the Surgeon for the excellent care I received.

We would also like to thank the teachers and councelors at the kid's school for their wonderful support and sensitivity in handling this situation while the kids are in school.

Thank you all!

Love,

Napper, Denise, Brian & Bonnie

A brief history .

Just to give you some history on this process: At the end of July I noticed some reddness and swelling on the right side of my neck. I started to feel around and found a nodule to the right of my thyroid. I immediately did'nt like the way the nodule felt. (hard). I made an appointment with my Doctor. He thought it was an enlarged lymph node probably due to an imflammmatory process. We were going to treat it and if it didn't go down make another trip to the office. In the mean time I ran into an ENT Doctor at the hospital that I knew from working in surgery. I asked him to feel the nodule. He thought we should do an ultrasound on the nodule. The ultrasound was Tuesday August 30th. The ultrasound showed metastatic disease. Meaning it originated from another place in the body. On Thursday of the same week I had a CT scan of the neck and a chest xray. The chest xray showed a mass in the upper right lung lobe. On sunday Sept 4th I had a CT scan of the chest. With this scan the Radiologist suggested that I had lung cancer with metastasis to 2-3 lymph nodes in the chest and neck area.. As you can imagine this was a very long labor day weekend. That brings us up to Thursday of this week. I had one of the lymph nodes removed in my neck. The pathology report was positive for cancer, (adenocarcinoma) with the lung mass being the primary source. We expected this, and now we are ready to move forward with healing and treatment.. I am set up to see an Oncologist on Monday morning. I still feel very good and strong. I have lost quite a bit of weight but I was working very hard on that before this all started. I remain optimistic and hopeful. Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers! Love, Denise

Thank you from Denise

Thank you so much for all the prayers and positive healing energy you are sending my way. The support has been so comforting for me and my family. This has been a life changing week and we are still catching our breath! I believe this "blog" will be a great way to communicate with all those concerned. Thank you, Denise

9-8-05

Denise's most recent catscan indicated no other problem locations. This is good news, although she does have treatable cancer in the lungs and on some lymnodes as suspected. Healing process will begin ASAP. Thanks to all for love and support. Napper and Denise and Family.

News on Denise

Denise's surgery went well. There were no surprises.

Denise will need to rest and recover in the coming weeks. Her family will post regular updates on her condition here.

Please feel free to post your greetings and questions to this blog, or email Dee O'Connell (Denise's sister) at dee52910@aol.com.