July 2, 2006

We just returned from a two week vacation. The first week we were in Dubois, Wy. We rented a cabin in the mountains with my brother Dave and his wife Tracy, and my sister Dee and her husband Mike ..and kids Casey, Allie and Chris. It was a great spot, with beautiful views and smells. We made frequent treks to Yellowstone National Park and The Grand Tetons. It was wonderful week filled with hiking, fishing, horseback riding and sight seeing. I got along great despite the high altitude. The uphill climbs did make me cough a bit more, but was not limiting.

The second week we all went our separate ways. The Curleys traveled on leisurely to Thermopolis, Wy where we spent the day soaking in the hot mineral baths. How relaxing. We made our way across Wy and the breath taking Big Horn Mountain range. A route I would definitely recommend. We spent the remainer of our week in South Dakota. We saw many of the sights there, but one of our favorite spots was the Spearfish canyon in Spearfish, SD. The streams were so clear you could see the markings on the trout that inhabited the waters. We also visited Mt. Rushmore, what an accomplishment! We drove through Bear Country, USA and saw some of the wildlife we missed in Yellowstone, though the setting was not quite as majestic. The Badlands were quite impressive too. Our last night in SD we stayed in Sioux Falls and then we headed home. It is nice to be home. Our neighbors kept things going here, despite the heat. We are grateful for the time together and the many special people in our lives. Happy 4th of July!!!!!

Many blessings,

Denise

May 31, 2006

Hello,

We had a great family weekend. The bike ride was fun and challenging. The temp. was 95 degrees. Unusual for May. We would like to go back in the fall. Napper and I were thinking it might be a good anniversary get away.

I had my PET scan yesterday. Everything was clear. The lungs showed "radiation fibrosis" to the original tumor location. Basically, scar tissue formation in the cavity left from the tumor. I am so grateful and just in awe of how life unfolds. Each day is such a gift.

Thank you for your prayers, support and concern.

Love & blessings
Denise

May 24, 2006

Hello,

Well the school year is winding down. Tomorrow is Brian & Bonnie's last day of school. Where did the year go. All in all they both had a great school year.

Last weekend friends Nancy from Colorado and Sue from St. Louis visited. We loved seeing and talking with them. Next weekend we are going to bike ride part of the Katy Trail. This is a old railroad trail converted to a recreational trail between KC and St. Louis. We will ride part of the trail on Sat. spend the night in Booneville, Mo. Sat. and ride back to our car on Sunday. We have talked about doing it for a long time. The kids are at a great age for it now.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!!! Thankyou for your thoughts and prayers.

Love & blessings,

Denise

May 16, 2006

Hello, It has been awhile since I updated this blog. Overall, I am still feeling great. I did develop a cough, and after watching it for a few weeks I let the doctor know and my CT scan was moved up. There was some concern in reading the CT scan that a recurrent tumor is growing where the original lung tumor had been. The lymph nodes are still negative and the rest of the lungs are clear. Consequently, we will follow up with a PET scan on May 30th. I will keep you posted.

My brother Dave and his wife Tracy visited this past weekend from Indiana. We had a great time. We opened the pool on Saturday. They were a tremendous help. We got done in one day what it would have taken us a couple weekends to do. The kids were a great help too. We all enjoyed being outside.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers.

Much love,
Denise

April, 25th, 2006

Hello,

Everything is going well. We have been busy, like everyone else. Brian is in the middle of his spring soccer season. That keeps us busy on the weekends. Bonnie has her dance recital this weekend.

I have been working part-time. That is going well. I am exercising on a regular basis and feeling very good. My swallowing seems to be progressing and most foods are not a problem. I anticipate that some time in the future I will need to have my esophagus dilated.
For now it is okay.

I have not had any chemo or radiation since November. My next scans are scheduled for the first part of June.

Thank you for your prayers, thoughts, optimism and cards.

Much love,

Denise

April 7th, 2006

Hello,

My how time passes so quickly. All is well here. Napper & I had a great visit in California. We got to see friends we have not seen in a long while. I had Sushi several times and I think I got my fill.

I have enjoyed visiting with my sister this week. She headed back to Colorado early this A.M. It was fun to catch up with her. We are all ao spread out that we very much value the time we have together. I look forward to getting together with my siblings and families for a trip to Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons this summer.

I continue to feel good. I appreciate your prayers and support. Napper, Brian & Bonnie are all doing great, as well as Kelly, (my 16y.o lab) and Amos our cat. We have started working outside on the yard, and we look forward to being out more. I might even throw caution to the wind and get a tan! whoo whoo

Much love,

Denise

March 29, 2006

Hello,

I am doing great. Feeling better all the time. Oh and by the way, I DID eat suschi. It was wonderful.

My sister is coming in Friday to help us out while Napper & I make a quick trip out of town. We look forward to visiting with her when we get back.

I have increased my work hours a little bit this week and that has worked out fine. It has been fun to see people that I have not seen in months. Of course sometimes they don't recognize me right away. That's understandable. My hair is much darker, wavier and shorter and I am still thinner than before tmt.

Thank you everything.

Sincerely,

Denise

March 21, 2006

Hello, Spring is here and it is snowing. Our seasons are mixed up this year. We had a great time in St. Louis. It was a fast trip. Bonnie had a good meet. She didn't quite have the scores she had hoped for but she put up a good fight and we are very proud of her.

I am doing great too. I am continuing to gain weight. I have enough energy to start exercising and I am not near as tired at the end of the day as I was even a week ago. The last couple days have been terrific.

Thanks for your continued prayers. It is good to be out and seeing people again. I am ready for the "real spring"

Feeling grateful,

Denise

March 15, 2006

Hello,

Things are going pretty good. I met with my Oncologist this week and we are still calling it a partial remission. No treatment prescrbed. I will follow up in June with a CT of my chest. All my doctors are thrilled with my response to treatment thus far.

I did return to work last week. Just about 12 hours for the week. I have to ease into this. It was tiring, but this week I felt stronger yet so I am coming along.

My esophagus cooperates most of the time. Once in a while if I forget to eat slow and chew well, I will get food stuck. That is pretty tramatic. Thankfully, so far I can get it to go one way or the other with water. I have gained a few pounds and happy about that. Probably need to gain more, or at least that seems to be the concensus.

We head to St.Louis on Saturday for Bonnie's State Gymnastic Meet. She is pumped. We plan to get together with Uncle Larry and Aunt Judy while there, we are looking forward to that.

Thanks so much for all your prayers. I feel so fortunate and blessed to be writing this letter. I am looking forward to Spring. Our bulbs are emerging and are such a symbol of new life.

God Bless,

Denise

March 6, 2006

Hello,

I had CT scans today of the neck and chest. Everything looked good. There is no lymph node enlargement. I will meet with my Oncologist next week to get the official word.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Love, Denise

March 3, 2006

Hello,

Yes, I am continuing to progress with my eating. No sushi yet but I am getting most of my calories from solid foods. Eating is still somewhat of a chore, though improving. I am able to maintain my weight.

I have CT scans of my neck and chest on Monday. I feel confident that they will look good. Next week I do have some work hours scheduled. I am very much looking forward to that.

Tomorrow we head to Springfield,MO for a gymnastics meet then to St. Louis in a couple weeks for the state meet. That will wrap up the gymnastics' season. I think Bonnie is ready!

I continue to be blessed with the kindness of so many people. I appreciate your cards, calls, visits, emails, meals and prayers.

Love, Denise

February 15, 2006

Hello, I am doing much better. My esophagus is really beginning to heal. I can "chugalug" my water with very little pain. I have been longing to do that. I have not had sushi yet but maybe for Napper's birthday at the end of the month we could do that.

I have finished this round of hyperbarics and will take a few days break before I do another round. We are making such good progress that we thought we should continue.

Hopefully after I finish that I can start to pick up some hours of work. That would be great.

Everyone is doing great. The prayers are working!!!
Thank you so much.

Love, Denise

February 7, 2006

Hello, Hope you all are well! I am doing better. I have been able to get some solid food down recently. My esophagus feels like it is starting to open up. It has been a slow process, but each week seems better.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

Most sincerely,

Denise

January 31, 2006

Hello, Monday, I started going for hyperbaric oxygen therapy again. I will have at least 10 more tmts and if it helps we will do another 10 tmts. I continue on liquids and overall I am doing pretty well.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Love, Denise

January 23, 2006

Hi, I am happy to report the biopsies of the esophagus came back negative for cancer. A big relief. It is just going to take a long time for the esophagus to heal. That's okay, I am getting this "liquid thing" down. Anyway, the plan will be to scan again in March and regularly there after.

Thanks so much for all your prayers and support.

Love, Denise, Napper, Brian & Bonnie

January 17, 2006

Hello, I hope the new year is treating everyone well. I am doing fine. I had my EGD last week. My esophagus is still painful and I am still on fluids. There is one area of the esophagus that is not healing. They had done some biopsies before and they show atypical cells. They did more biopsies this time to check for cancer of the esophagus. I will find out on the 23rd when I visit with my Oncologist if there is cancer there and if so what to do next.

I continue to be optomistic. I am working on a nutrition program to try to get stronger.

The rest of the family is doing great. The kids are back to school and busy with all their activities.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers!

Love, Denise

January 3rd 2006

Hello, Happy New Year!! I continue with my hyperbaric oxygen tmts. I have four tmts left. I will have another scope of the esophagus on January 12th, with dilatation. I am getting stronger and maintaining my weight on pretty much all liquids. I am trying to advance abit this week, and have added some baby food. It is nice to have a little variety, but I am still craving suschi.

Napper & Brian are going on a big ice fishing trip to Minn. this weekend with many other scouts. They are very excited. Bonnie and I will stay home and enjoy a visit from Aunt Mary and Aunt Colleen. They are coming from Minn. tomorrow and will stay for the weekend. Bonnie got some knitting supplies for Christmas and she is hoping Aunt Mary will teach her how to knit. Thanks so much for your continued support, prayers and cards.

Sincerely, Denise

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