Evelyn !!! Please stop by....

Next Tuesday (Christmas Eve) is Great Grandma Evelyn's birthday.

Let's hope she stops by so we can all wish her the best birthday ever!

Here I am having survived 6 double chemo rounds and am now on monthly single chemo maintenance. I was last here in July when I was with my nurse niece in Texas where I completed the first 4 chemo rounds and returned to NY on 9/11/13. Jimmy (Retired Italian at the old forum) told me you were thinking about me and that added on more life to my battery!   Yes, I will be 72 on Christmas Eve...only on paper....as my mind, spirit, and even my reaction time on the brake are as good as when I was 21.  If the Long Island Expressway is going 80 mph in the off hours, I keep right up!   I spend most of my computer time doing research for when the maintenance chemo no longer works. My cancer is terminal but I have been beating the odds. Only 10% at Stage 4 live 12 months. My brother lived 10 1/2. On the 27th of Dec. I will have lasted 26 months! Statistics show that less than 1% survive 5 years. That's 1/2 a person!!!!! I told the oncologist that if I am that lucky 1/2 person, I hope it is my upper half where my mind (for continued research) and my heart (for caring for others and spreading smiles and hope) survives. I have so many people praying for me that I don't dare die or they will think prayer doesn't work! A good attitude is very important. I have set up my personal supplement list and the oncologist and I think that has made me younger than the 71 years my body has been here.
    I wish you all the Blessings of the season and I sincerely want to thank you all for being in my life....Evelyn (Eve for Christmas Eve) Carol (my father picked that for Christmas carol) Read   

Well, HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!

I know it's still a few days early but every day is a good day when we can hear from you!

With an attitude like yours I just know you're going to be here with us to tell us all about your 75th birthday celebration and plans for your 100th. Bless you and prayers for continued success with your therapies for years and years!

  

bethk wrote:Well, HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!

I know it's still a few days early but every day is a good day when we can hear from you!

With an attitude like yours I just know you're going to be here with us to tell us all about your 75th birthday celebration and plans for your 100th.  Bless you and prayers for continued success with your therapies for years and years!

  

Thank you, Beth! Attitude makes such a difference. I was told I was Stage 4 and terminal Oct. 27th 2011 by my doctor at Memorial Sloan Kettering's branch on Long Island. I saw him July18th of 2012 to get the results of my PET/Ct and told him (as I was feeling so well) that my Mom found a book of births, deaths and marriages from her father's side dating back to the 1700's and she calculated that she was the longest living in that line. She died at 93. I was 70 at the time. I told the doctor that I hoped to beat my mother's record. He looked me straight in the face and said seriously: "I'm afraid that will never happen!" Then he failed to have someone call me to set up the next scans and failed to send for my lung slides that I had given permission to obtain from NY Presbyterian. He gave up on me!!! He could have said "I hope you get your wish!" or "That would be wonderful!" So I swithched to a hematologist/oncologist I had met in our local hospital who once said he wanted me as a patient but couldn't take me away from the doctor I was seeing. So I switched! The last thing this wonderful doctor said to me the other day (after calling me "his little miracle" because I had done so well with the chemos and my blood work bounces up faster than with most patients) was "I am going to do EVERYTHING I can to help you!" Wow! I walked out of there feeling so good that I made it all the way up to Cloud #12 that night....and you thought Cloud #9 was the ultimate! LOL! I wish you, your family and the entire forum a wonderful and Blessed holiday and a Happy, Healthy and Safe New Year! Thank you for being in my life!

YOU are a blessing to us all, Evelyn.

(Did I ever share with you my mother's name was Evelyn?.....small world, huh?)

bethk wrote:YOU are a blessing to us all, Evelyn.

(Did I ever share with you my mother's name was Evelyn?.....small world, huh?)

And MY Mom's name was EVELYN!!! The home health care nurse from The Dominican Sisters that took care of me in 2005 after my operation came in the first day and said: "You have a special name" so I asked "Read?" and she said: "NO,..... EVELYN!" Her grandmother was Evelyn and her 8 year old, now 17 was Evelyn! We became such good friends that I refer to her as my "niece" and I am her "aunt". She eventually moved to Texas and was the one who cared for me in Texas for 4 months and is such a great nurse that I have more confidence in her opinions etc. than some doctors I have seen! In 2009, the local hospital, treating me for abdominal mesh problems MISSED that I had lung cancer..Stage 3. Suz was so unhappy with the mistakes they were making that she transferred me to NY Presbyterian where the cancer was found. The local hospital would have sent me home and I would have died of cancer long ago. One more thing...I am not Catholic but a nun stopped by my hospital room and asked if I wanted her to say a prayer. I told her that I wasn't Catholic but she said it didn't matter so I said: "Sure, come on in!" I asked her her name...Helen. I told her the story of how Suzanne had saved my life because of the name Evelyn. Well, when the nun was leaving, she said: "By the way, my real name is Evelyn! I never knew that and was always called Helen". She didn't know her name until she turned in a birth certificate when she entered the Convent. It still gives me goose bumps when I tell this story. It was like an angel was sent to pray for me. She even came during my 6+hour abdominal surgery! I am truly blessed!