This one gets me every time...

Lucky Dog....

Anyone who has pets will really like this. You'll like it even if you don't and you may even decide you need one!

Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named 'Lucky.' Lucky was a real character. Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit they would warn their friends to not leave their luggage open because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, someone would forget and something would come up missing.

Mary or Jim would go to Lucky's toy box in the basement and there the treasure would be, amid all of Lucky's other favorite ! toys. Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box.

It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease....in fact , she was just sure it was fatal.

She scheduled the double mastectomy, fear riding her shoulders. The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky. A thought struck her...what would happen to Lucky? Although the three-year-old dog liked Jim, he was Mary's dog through and through. If I die, Lucky will be abandoned, Mary thought. He won't understand that I didn't want to leave him! The t hought made her sadder than thinking of her own death.

The double mastectomy was harder on Mary than her doctors had anticipated and Mary was hospitalized for over two weeks. Jim took Lucky for his evening walk faithfully, but the little dog just drooped, whining and miserable.

Finally the day came for Mary to leave the hospital. When she arrived home, Mary was so exhausted she couldn't even make it up the steps to her bedroom. Jim made his wife comfortable on the couch and left her to nap. Lucky stood watching Mary but he didn't come to her when she called. It made Mary sad but sleep soon overcame her and she dozed.

When Mary woke for a second she couldn't understand what! was wrong. She couldn't move her head and her body f elt heavy and hot. But panic soon gave way to laughter when Mary realized the problem. She was covered, literally blanketed, with every treasure Lucky owned! While she had slept, the sorrowing dog had made trip after trip to the basement bringing his beloved mistress all his favorite things in life. He had covered her with his love.

Mary forgot about dying. Instead she and Lucky began living again, walking further and further together every day. It's been 12 years now and Mary is still cancer-free. Lucky? He still steals treasures and stashes them in his toy box but Mary remains his greatest treasure.

Remember....live every day to the fullest. Each minute is a blessing from God. And never forget....the people who make a differe nce in our lives are not the ones with the most! credentials, the most money, or the most awards .They are the ones that care for us.

If you see someone without a smile today give them one of yours! Live simply. Love seriously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God


A small request: All you are asked to do is keep this circulating.

Dear God, I pray for the cure of cancer. Amen

All you are asked to do is keep this circulating Even if it's to one more person.
In memory of anyone you know that has been struck down by cancer or is still fighting their battle.

10-29-08

I am receiving Chemo again. I had a treatment last Thursday and it really wiped me out this past weekend. I still have quite a bit of pain in my arm pit where they removed the nodes. The hardest part is sleeping. I also have no appetite at this time. I go back and forth with the appetite unfortunately when I do not have an appetite I am not losing any weight. Everyone said its good I have a cushion when I don't want to eat, I have a cushion, I have two cushions, actually at this point I'm working on a blanket. On the 30th I will see my surgeon for a check up and on Thursday I have Chemo. I'll keep you posted. After the last Drs visit I am pretty positive I will beat this, I'm just getting tired of the word Cancer and being tired. Can you believe its been only 6 months.

GREAT NEWS!!!

The results of the MRI's were better than we ever could have hoped for!

The lesion on Cathy's spine has been reduced by more than half of it's original size. The lesions in Cathy's cerebellum have shrunk to the point where if a doctor was looking at the current MRI's, they wouldn't even detect a problem. The only way to know there were cancerous lesions in the first place is due to the early MRI's!

All around fantastic news. Cathy and the whole family are in great spirits! She'll start up chemo again next week.

Thank you all for the prayers, kind words, concerns, etc...they are most definitely working!

Surgery

I received the pathology report from the breast and 11 lymp nodes they removed. The breast was full of the disease as was the 11 lymp nodes. I feel pretty good other then where they removed the nodes under my left arm. I am pretty sore and have trouble getting comfortable but I manage. Tomorrow I will get the results of the MRI's I had on my spine and brain Fri. and Sun. They will restart the Chemo in 7 days. I will keep you posted. (sorry my computer was on the brink for about 2 weeks but were back)

Surgery=SUCCESS

Cathy is already out of surgery, and everything went very well. They removed a few lymph nodes and sent them to pathology to see how the chemo is working. Everything else looked just fine.

Thanks all for your thoughts and prayers! Hopefully the pathology tests and MRIs will bring good news in the days to come!

Cathy just went into surgery

I just called my dad and Cathy just went into surgery about 15 minutes ago. Nothing wrong on her end. The surgeon assigned to her surgery had to perform another one before Cathy's.

As soon as I hear from my dad after the surgery, I'll be sure to post. Just wanted to update those of you wondering how it's going today.

Surgery Tomorrow (Monday, October 6th)

Cathy is going in for her masectomy tomorrow (Monday, October 6th) around 11am. The surgery will start around noon and should last a few hours. She'll be in the hospital for recovery from 1-3 days, depending on how the surgery goes and how her body is reacting. She will not be having any reconstruction at this time, but she told the doctors, "If you don't like something you see in there, TAKE IT OUT!" She's stronger than ever, a real inspiration to me and all of us.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayer even more so tomorrow. And thank you as always for your concern.