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.