Well it's the end of another school year and big changes are in store for the Gaffey's in the fall. Shannon moves to Herndon Middle School to start 7th grade and Ashley will be back at Clearview heading into 4th.
With the end of school, the pool is now open full time and Ashley is swimming on the community swim team again this year (Shannon opted out.) So we had our first couple meets this past week. Marnie is doing her thing scoring again and I've become the unofficial team photographer and well as the loud parent cheering on his daughter! LOL
Had a wonderful Father's day with family and friends all around. Marnie, the girls and I rode out to pizza with 13 other motorcycles and had a great day. The weather threatened rain, but was just a blustery wind and overcast. It was a nice 80 miles of riding, pizza and ice cream for everyone. And a very relaxing afternoon before heading off to play softball. It has been good getting back on the field myself and helping out my friends team. Hopefully get picked up full time in the Fall or next Spring!
Had the PET scan yesterday, that wasn't bad at all, just was like a meat locker in the scanning room..brrrrr. I was cold for a good hour afterwards and even Marnie commented that's unusual for me! So now we are waiting to go see Dr. Heyer next Thursday July 2 and see were we go from here.
Thanks to all for the continuing, thoughts, prayers, support, encouragement and all that you do!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Relay for Life
So this past weekend was our local Relay for Life, which I participated in for the first time. I joined the Clearview Elementary team (Ashley & Shannon's school) at their request, and only afterwards did I find out that BOTH of Shannon's 5th grade teachers were also Cancer Survivors!
We had a great day on Saturday with the entire Clearview team walk/running to raise money for fight against Cancer. Not only was it Marnie & myself out there, but both Shannon and Ashley got into the swing of things themselves! They each walked/ran over 8 miles .. and had a good time doing it! There were so many other kids out there, friends from school supporting other teams, people from softball, around the community it was truly awesome seeing the whole Herndon community come together for this event.
Saturday night was a bit wet and we didn't make it through the night, went home got a few hours of sleep and came back early with donuts & coffee for those from our team who kept the baton going through the night! The girls wanted to spend the night, but this being our first year and me still not up to snuff, we weren't ready. Next year however, we are there for the haul, and look forward to seeing ya'll out there with us, one way or another!
At this point, thanks to the many generous contributions we crushed my goal raising $3,285, the Clearview Team has almost double their goal raising $6,898 and the entire Herndon Relay for Life had 787 participants, raising $183,945. It was truly an awe inspiring event just as a person, let alone as a cancer survivor!
Special thanks to those who did come and walk with me during the event, your presence lifted my spirits and lightened my load. I am truly blessed to have people like you in my life and words alone can't express the Thanks and emotions that I feel. Hope to see you all out there again next year!
We had a great day on Saturday with the entire Clearview team walk/running to raise money for fight against Cancer. Not only was it Marnie & myself out there, but both Shannon and Ashley got into the swing of things themselves! They each walked/ran over 8 miles .. and had a good time doing it! There were so many other kids out there, friends from school supporting other teams, people from softball, around the community it was truly awesome seeing the whole Herndon community come together for this event.
Saturday night was a bit wet and we didn't make it through the night, went home got a few hours of sleep and came back early with donuts & coffee for those from our team who kept the baton going through the night! The girls wanted to spend the night, but this being our first year and me still not up to snuff, we weren't ready. Next year however, we are there for the haul, and look forward to seeing ya'll out there with us, one way or another!
At this point, thanks to the many generous contributions we crushed my goal raising $3,285, the Clearview Team has almost double their goal raising $6,898 and the entire Herndon Relay for Life had 787 participants, raising $183,945. It was truly an awe inspiring event just as a person, let alone as a cancer survivor!
Special thanks to those who did come and walk with me during the event, your presence lifted my spirits and lightened my load. I am truly blessed to have people like you in my life and words alone can't express the Thanks and emotions that I feel. Hope to see you all out there again next year!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Playing the waiting game.
Well things are getting back to normal around here.
My blood chemistry is almost all back in the normal range, so that is a great start! I'm back in the office full days again. And back active all around, slowly getting back that strength and stamina though, some days I'm just knackered.
Started playing Men's softball again as a sub for a friends team and that is going well, a little rusty but was great to get back out on the field again! In an ironic twist of fate, the team I'm now playing for was the team I last played against 3 years ago before my shoulder surgery!
Things at home are busier than all get out, end of the girls softball season, start of swim season (for Ashley), end of school year, Shannon graduating from elementary school, Marn doing a little more traveling now that I'm getting healthy again, and of course we are out riding the motorcycles now that the weather is getting nice!
Everything with regards to the big "C" is on hold right now.. waiting for the PET scan which is scheduled for Jan 24th. This will tell us if the remaining mass is metabolically active. The hope is that what's left on the CT scans after the Chemotherapy is just fibrous tissue or "scar tissue", if that's the case, then into watching mode for the next few years. However if the remaining mass shows as metabolically active in the PET scan, then I will be having surgery to remove the remaining tumor and then we go into the watching mode. Very hopeful that another surgery is NOT required, as that will take a couple weeks to recover from, given the location of the metastatic tumor in me.
Follow with the Oncologist is scheduled for July 2, so just weekly blood work between now and then, keeping an eye on things, had my medi-port flushed out last week and am so ready to have that removed!! But alas until we are sure things are done, it remains buried in me, just in case.
My blood chemistry is almost all back in the normal range, so that is a great start! I'm back in the office full days again. And back active all around, slowly getting back that strength and stamina though, some days I'm just knackered.
Started playing Men's softball again as a sub for a friends team and that is going well, a little rusty but was great to get back out on the field again! In an ironic twist of fate, the team I'm now playing for was the team I last played against 3 years ago before my shoulder surgery!
Things at home are busier than all get out, end of the girls softball season, start of swim season (for Ashley), end of school year, Shannon graduating from elementary school, Marn doing a little more traveling now that I'm getting healthy again, and of course we are out riding the motorcycles now that the weather is getting nice!
Everything with regards to the big "C" is on hold right now.. waiting for the PET scan which is scheduled for Jan 24th. This will tell us if the remaining mass is metabolically active. The hope is that what's left on the CT scans after the Chemotherapy is just fibrous tissue or "scar tissue", if that's the case, then into watching mode for the next few years. However if the remaining mass shows as metabolically active in the PET scan, then I will be having surgery to remove the remaining tumor and then we go into the watching mode. Very hopeful that another surgery is NOT required, as that will take a couple weeks to recover from, given the location of the metastatic tumor in me.
Follow with the Oncologist is scheduled for July 2, so just weekly blood work between now and then, keeping an eye on things, had my medi-port flushed out last week and am so ready to have that removed!! But alas until we are sure things are done, it remains buried in me, just in case.
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