April 27th, 2015

This week was not too eventful, and rather relaxing.  We have no major new developments to report.  Marjie's left arm continues to make gradual progress.  We use the neuromuscular electrical stimulator at home about 90 minutes a day on her arm, shoulder, and hand.  This, along with the weekly therapy at Sugarhouse is helping to strengthen the muscles.

Walking with Scott is Marjie's favorite activity.  She is working very hard on returning to a more natural gait, and leg work continues to be a combination of strength training and exercises designed to improve motor skills and balance.  One of Marjie's favorite activities for "cognitive exercise" is beating Scott at backgammon.  This week she and Scott enjoyed playing outside on the beautiful terrace at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital.  The view from there is spectacular (but Scott's view on game strategy was not so great).  He is demanding a rematch.  After therapy one day this week we took advantage of the nice weather to go on a picnic  along Parley's Creek.  There is a nature path along this creek, located right in the heart of the Sugarhouse area.  It was a perfect area for a picnic, and we forgot for a few minutes that we were in the middle of a very big city.

This coming week is the final week of radiation!  Only two treatments to go as I type this blog update.

Friends from Twin Falls have been hard at work on the Miles 4 Marjie Fun Run/ Benefit, scheduled for Tuesday, June 2nd @ 6;00 pm at O'Leary.  We are humbled by the event, we thank all who have been involved in it's planning, and we are looking forward to the the fun!

We continue to be so thankful for the love, good thoughts, support, and prayers that are being sent our way.

This past weekend was wet and cool in the Salt Lake City area.  Our family spent some time in the kitchen making various comforting treats.  We end this week's blog update with a picture of head chef Caleb making biscuits.  They were delicious!

April 21, 2015

We are a little late this week getting an update to the blog posted, but have quite a bit of news to report.  As of this date, Marjie has finished 27 radiation treatments, so 6 to go!  She still has minimal side effects from the chemo and radiation except for hair loss.  She has continued to have good energy for physical therapy.

PT for the leg is focusing on shifting more weight to the left leg, bending more at the knee, and developing a more normal gait.  The electromuscular stimulation machine (EMS) that we use at home, plus the great therapy sessions we are receiving at U of U Sugarhouse Therapy continue to result in gradual, but steady progress on Marjie's left arm.  Her left shoulder and back area are strengthening as well.  Joanne, our Occupational Therapist, has been very pleased with recent progress of the left arm and shoulder area, and we are thrilled that she stays late with us after sessions and gives us good ideas on what to practice at home.  Marjie still has virtually no feeling along the left side of her body, except for some tingling.  We hope and pray that as additional time passes, and after the radiation treatments are over (so the affected area of her brain is given a rest) that feeling and sensation on the left side of her body is restored. 

Last Saturday was a beautiful spring day,and we joined the Swanks on a picnic to the park.  Marjie spent a lot of time practicing her walking around the outdoor basketball court (with Scott's assistance).  It was great to be outside!

MacKay, Anika, and Karl, fellow runners from Twin Falls, came to see us on Saturday as well.  We had Ice Cream Sundaes and had a great visit!

We send out a HUGE THANK YOU to Sarah and Ashlyn Aardema for setting up a GoFundMe site for Marjie.  We have exhausted our medical insurance allowance for out-patient therapy, and this fund will be a tremendous help in continuing Marjie's therapy.  While we are very thankful that we have insurance, we were rather shocked to learn that the provision for outpatient therapy is so limited.  We were committed to continuing therapy by dipping into retirement savings.  The generosity of Marjie's many friends coming to our aide in covering this cost is humbling, and appreciated from the bottom of our hearts.  We have shed many tears of appreciation while checking the GoFundMe "Marjie's Miles" site.

We also want to thank my brother, Steve, for getting our sprinkler system up and running at our home in Twin Falls.  We look forward returning to Twin Falls about the end of May.  

And we want to thank the Marcellus family for mowing and taking care of our spring crop of dandelions.   Thanks so much!

 We end this week's blog entry with a couple of pictures from last week- Crazy Spring Weather!

April 12, 2015

As of the end of last week, Marjie has completed 20 radiation treatments, and has 13 to go.  It is great to be on the downhill side of this.  She continues to feel pretty good overall, but isn't too pleased with the hair loss.  However, Scott thinks she looks cute in her bandannas and scarfs.

Therapy continues at U of U Sugarhouse outpatient therapy.  We are very pleased that the left arm made additional progress this week, and Marjie can now lift her arm up about a foot, and roll the left hand over from left to right, and back again.  We now have a Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulator (NMES) to use at home.  This unit provides electrical stimulation designed to strengthen and encourage muscles in Marjie's left arm, hand, and shoulder.  An alternate use may be to get Scott out of bed in the morning-yet to be tested for effectiveness.  In addition to the NMES, Marjie is having a massage this week at the Huntsman Hospital in hopes that this will stimulate some sensations on Marjie's left side.  We may try acupuncture too.  While Scott has been a life-time skeptic of this type of thing, it can't hurt, right?

On Saturday morning, the weather was beautiful in Murray.  Marjie, Scott, Matthew, Becky and Caleb strolled along the Jordan river.  This was great walking practice plus we saw lots of ducks and Caleb had a great time at a river-side playground.  In the afternoon, Caleb went kite flying.  We all had a tremendous time, and Becky may have enjoyed flying a kite even more than her little boy.

On Sunday, Twin Falls friends Carrie, Delores, and Griselda came to visit.  We went out to lunch and had a wonderful time-lots of good stories and laughs.  They also left us with a delicious lasagna dinner for Sunday evening.  Lastly, they surprised us with the news that a fun run/ benefit for Marjie is in the planning stages.  We feel so loved and are so incredibly humbled by all of the good thoughts, support, and prayers we continue to receive.

We close this week's entry with two pictures from this Saturday.

 

April 7, 2015

We have had a busy week, filed with steady progress, love from friends and family, and some milestones.  Marjie, Becky, and Scott are enjoying speech therapy- which is not as much "speech" therapy as cognitive work, or "brain exercise".  This includes reading out loud and work on comprehension, plus logic puzzles and sudoku puzzles.  Scott and Becky may be enjoying the math and logic puzzles more than Marjie (she prefers history), but the mental calisthenics have been good for all of us.    During Occupational Therapy, Marjie continues to work very hard to regain use of her left arm and hand.  She is gaining strength each week and has been working on moving the arm out, and turning her hand over.  During dinner blessing, Marjie was able to grab a hold and squeeze Scott's hand (causing some joyful tears from both).  Physical Therapy sessions continue to work on fine-tuning use of her left leg and bending at the knee.

In addition to scheduled therapy sessions, Marjie has joined the Sugarhouse Therapy "wellness gym", She and Scott are able to practice what we have learned from our therapists.  She has been concentrating on strengthening, walking, and shifting weight to the left side of her body during these extra practice sessions.

We are half way through chemo and radiation.  Unfortunately, Marjie has been losing hair due to radiation, and she is now starting to wear the nice scarfs and hats that have been thoughtfully sent to her. 

We had wonderful visits this week from one of Marjie's students/cross-country runners, Hannah, and her step-mother, Whitney, and from our sister-in-law, Alethia, and niece, Camille.   

Easter Sunday was extra special for our family.  Not only did we celebrate Easter, but it was also Becky's 30th birthday!  Our son, Dave, and granddaughter, Claire made a surprise visit from north Idaho to help Becky celebrate her birthday.  Becky has a fondness for Holstein Cows (she thinks they are cute, and she loves milk), and we had a "cow" theme for the celebration.  Matthew cooked a delicious turkey, and made Becky's favorite dessert (Boston Cream Pie).

We once again want to thank everyone for their continued love, prayers, good wishes, and support.  Becky and Matthew's mail man has never worked so hard.  We end this week's entry with a picture of our family that gathered for Becky's birthday celebration.