Olympics

Some of you may not know that Kay is an Olympic fanatic. For 3 weekends and two weeks every other year she stays up late watching the games, and now with our DVR watches at breakfast, lunch, dinner and every spare moment. I'm a much more casual fan, and catch a little now and then. That said, we are excited about the weekend. We are leaving mid-afternoon today to head for Bellingham, picking Brett up from Seattle University on the way. We'll stay with Ron and Linda Bahr tonight, and get up early to go to Vancouver tomorrow.

We primarily want to check out the Olympic venue and get a feel for being at an Olympic games. We have tickets to a women's curling preliminary event at 2 PM, but mostly plan to put in a big day of experiencing and seeing the Olympic village and venue.

It is really good to see Kay essentially back to her normal energy level. She is doing great. Her port came out a week ago today, and she is now hardware free. No signs of cancer, and lots of signs of Kay. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and beautiful, so pray for safe journey, and think of Kay when you see the games Saturday.

Ed

Lots of friends and relatives

Yesterday Fay Colmar, Kay Mom, had her 80th birthday party. All 5 children, all but one grandchild, and an incredibly interesting and adoring group of friends converged at Fay's home in Fullerton,CA. We had a lovefest worthy of the occation. Fay had the house decorated in high style, with a red, white, and black theme. Guests dressed to match the theme, and we all got a chance to wish Fay a happy 80th, as well as to renew old acquaintances, make new ones, and have a great day.

Kay is really essentially back to normal. She has a cute short hairdo, is really getting fit again, running up to 3 miles and working out 5-6 times a week, and feeling good. She is going to get her port out this week. It is the last piece of foreign material still reminding her daily of Cecil, and she looks forward to having it gone. She is quite thin, and it is noticible and a bit uncomfortable below her right collarbone.

Jean and Marc (boyfriend) were able to come down to the party. Jean has been in the midst of her first "busy season" as an accountant, and is working long hours, learning lots, and doing great.

Brett is thriving as a University of Seattle junior English major, and could not make the party, as he is in mid-terms.

I continue to love my post-medical director status as a family physician. I am enjoying my new blog drpullen.com, and Kay and I continue to have lots of fun.

Enjoy the Super Bowl today, and give prayers of thanks for Kay's continued health.

Continued good news

Kay saw Dr. McCroskey last week for her monthly checkup. All continues great. We got her CA-125 (the tumor marker) results back this week and they remain nice and low at 7. She worries that it is up from 6 the last two times, but 6 & 7 are really the same result in this type of thing, i.e. nice and low.

Kay's blood count keeps creeping back toward normal as her bone marrow slowly recovers from the 8 courses of chemotherapy. In a more visible reminder she is recovering she has a full head of hair, short hair, but looks really cute.

We are headed to So. Cal this week to celebrate Fay Colmar's (Kay's mom)birthday. Most of the family is going to be there. Brett is the exception, he has mid-terms the next week and needs to stay at school and work.

I continue to enjoy my medical blog http://drpullen.com It gives me a creative outlet, and has been a blast.

Keep up the prayers of thanks for Kay's continued health, and enjoy the rest of the winter.

Ed

Low odds, high stakes, we win!

We have been anxiously awaiting the results of the test for the BRCA2 mutation that Kay has that led to her ovarian cancer in our children. We got the results for Jean some time ago, thankfully NO MUTATION in big print on the top of the results sheet. Then yesterday we got the results for Brett. I had been sweating this, because it seemed like the results were taking longer to come back. As a physician I sometimes see that when abnormal results are pending, as often additional time is required to confirm the information. As I opened the envelope my heart was sinking, but i nearly leaped in joy when the same NO MUTATION was on the top of the results page. I took care to confirm that the correct mutation was tested for on both results reports, and then called Brett, Kay and Jean to let them know.

This is really great news, and we feel blessed. As you may recall the odds of each child having the mutation was 50%, so the odds of winning this coin flip twice was only only 25%, not the type of odds you want when facing a concern of this importance. We are happy that in our immediate family this mutation stops here.

On a side note, I am really enjoying my medical blog DrPullen.com. Some of you have been following me there, and I have been having fun.
Prayers of great thanks are in order.
Ed

Hooked on blogging

I have been enjoying my time as a blogger. I am really happy to say that the frequency of posts on this blog has been and I pray will continue to stay low. See Kay's post below as to how helpful it has been to her to have all your love and prayers coming her way.

I have decided to undertake a new adventure. I am starting a new blog, DrPullen.com where I hope to find a venue to keep writing, and to create a reliable and trustworthy medical blog for what I’m calling the “Informed Patient.”

You can follow me there in several ways, as I’ll have facebook and twitter feeds, and plan to have a lot of fun with this site.

I have put a page of what I think are the best on-line resources for trustworthy information on several topics on my Resources page, and will try to keep the posts relevant to many people yet light and fun enough to be readable. Enjoy. Today I made a post about an interesting possible New Year’s Resolution.

Ed

Merry Christmas! It is for us. PET/CT is clear!

On Monday I had my 3-month scan and the black blob from the August scan is gone that was around the place of my stent. So my doctors is thinking the extra chemo treatments were good. My scan came out really good. I have passed the three-month mark without cancer coming back, so that is a big hurdle. Now I will continue to get my monthly checkup with Rob, my oncologist and get the CA 125 checked (which is the cancer marker).

I really want to take this time though, to thank every one of you who have been following the blog for your support. These are friends of my children and their teachers, SFM friends, friends of my friends and their families and even their friends, friends of my brothers (Rick and Joe) and sister and mother and extended families on the Colmar, Pullen, Preece and McWain sides, my entire congregation of my church friends, my running buddies, my NYC friends (including Deb H.), my prayer pal, advertising/design friends, clients, neighbors, Hillman family friends, Mainiacs/Mainer friends, my birding friends, Mexican friends, (shout out to the East Cape folks), BL Book Club friends, Rotary Book Club friends, the Bloody Mary’s, Hawaiian friends. that’s you Krister and Monica, English friends, friends from China, Canadian friends, all the doctors and all their support personnel and many others, I am not mentioning because the web of love and encouragement and prayers really surrounded me and lifted me up and got me through this time. I am shedding tears of gratitude as I write this. I was posted on many prayer lists at many churches besides my own. I really felt all of your love even if I didn’t personally know you. I really can’t thank you enough!! More tears. The amazing meals, cookies, muffins and flowers we received really got us through that first few weeks. The presents from the heart did make me laugh (silly feathered chicken or bird scenery in the shape of a smile), inspirational (pink boxing gloves) and books, shawls, scarf, wigs, and music that entertained me. I received phone calls, visits in the hospital, visits at home and many cards and some I saved opening for my tougher days. I am grateful for the patience of my clients and Scott, Colleen, Shan and Kelly that just stepped in and ran my business while I was sick.

I could go on and on but know that I really do love you, but I will start to sound like bad poetry. Whoever you are, I received your messages however they were sent. People said I made this sickness look easy and really it was you all that made it easier for me to bear. I thank God for bringing you all into my life and feel like I was one of his miracles because of your healing prayers.

I can’t believe this illness seems like a distant memory and look forward to getting stronger and gathering some insight from it all. Most of all I want to thank my husband for writing this blog and loving me so much. Jean and Brett thanks for your unending patience in your care for me, I couldn’t have done this without you.

I pray that you all have a great and Merry Christmas!

K.

Merry Christmas - Great News

This has been a great week for Kay with good news on her PET CT scan which came back completely negative. You may recall that the first PET CT came back with the one questionable area near where she had the stent placed. She had another scan yesterday, and met with Dr. McCroskey today, who gave her the great report that the scan was completely normal. No sign of cancer at all, and this makes for a great gift of health for Christmas.

We are home together as a family for the holidays. Jean got here from Portland today, and we are looking forward to lots of good time together. We always look forward to the Christmas eve outdoor service at Celebration Lutheran, and Jean's boyfriend Marc is coming up on the train Christmas morning to join us for dinner.

Prayers of thanks for Kay's cancer free news, for the joy of the season, and for the time for families to have together.

Ed