Joyful Joyful

 Joyful Joyful from Sister Act 2 I do not own the rights to this music nor do I own the rights to the picture below

I picked this song because I experienced sheer unbridle joy this week. The song is catchy, upbeat, and a joy to listen to! Check it out!

The picture on the left depicts my general overall demeanor. Lord knows I've had some struggles with this cancer but I am not done yet, not even close, peeling feet and all.

What brought on this "sheer unbridled joy"? Well, there are two things:

Tumor markers are down.

I "heard" from my friend, Mark Rubio, when I needed it most.

Details?

I will start with the tumor markers.

If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you know my tumor markers behave like a roller coaster, up one month then down the next. However, we have had far more ups than downs..... until now. My tumor markers have decreased by 50% or more in the last month! That's remarkable! Everyone is excited, my doctors especially. So much so that they called me Monday morning. They NEVER call me about tumor markers unless I've left them a message.

Here is how that went down. My brother, sister-in-law, and sister all came in from out of town to watch me give an interview for Breast Cancer Awareness month for my other sister's company, Convergint, scheduled for Monday AM. About 30 minutes before the live interview, I get a call from my doctor about my tumor markers. I lost it! I could barely speak without crying; we all cried. Then I tried to reach my sister at Convergint to tell her the news as well, as she also has a role in the interview. I didn't want her to hear it during the call, but before the call, so she could recover if her reaction mirrored ours. It did. This seems like a trivial thing, but let me put it into perspective. For months, my tumor markers have been on the rise at an alarming rate. Here is a table showing the all time high from 9/10 to present:

They are still high, especially the CA27-29. We have seen tumor markers decrease before, but never this much in such a short period of time. This tells us that my current treatment is working, and maybe, just maybe, I can look farther than 6 months ahead. Honestly, I felt this treatment HAD to work or I may not see Christmas. Now I know I will see Christmas and hopefully several more! I have a PET on Monday that will give us a better picture. I have high hopes for this PET, but I am prepared that it may still be less than stellar. Prayer warriors unite!!

My second joyful event in one week was "hearing" from my friend Mark. My computer keyboard had been acting up for a couple of weeks. Our technical guys decided it would be best to just replace it because it will only get worse over time. So I go in Friday morning to test and pick up the new laptop. While I was there, I decided to go ahead and clean out my desk and bring home all my personal stuff. I brought home a ton several months ago, so I was amazed at how much I still had. I filled up an entire box! Sorry for the detour. Anyway, while I was cleaning out my cube, I noticed a small gift bag next to my phone. I looked at it and it said "From: Rubio".  Inside was a pair of earrings in the shape of the breast cancer ribbon. This took me to the floor!

Some background. Mark and I worked together. He sat in the cube behind me. He was one of the kindest, most upbeat humans I know. We became fast friends. When I was diagnosed with MBC, Mark was my biggest work supporter. He was a ranked cornhole player and had cornhole bean bags made in pink with the breast cancer ribbon in my honor. He was working on something else breast cancer related until the unthinkable happened ... he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He texted me late at night the day he found out. We were all devastated. We already had a strong bond but cancer made it stronger. He told me "I knew God put you in my life for a reason". We could talk about things that we couldn't talk to anyone else about, including end of life strategies (when you are stage 4, you'd be stupid not to talk about this). I even experienced my first in-your-face miracle with Mark after our anointment of the sick ceremony. Mark told me then "I told you God is everywhere!".

The gift was put on my desk by his wife at his request just weeks before he passed away on October 29, 2020. I needed to "hear" from him and I did this week. You are correct, Mark. God is everywhere. 

This is why my heart is filled with Joy right now. I hope everyone has Joy in their heart!