Had chemo on Friday and met with Dr. Hong. All is well. Talked to my nurse Katie and think I might have had a little bug last week as she was sick the previous week with a head cold and extremely tired. That actually made me feel better.

Ray and I went to the Marco Friday night for a few hours, after taking a nap. A guy from the town was retiring so there was a bunch of guys down there wishing him well. We just missed Jason. Most of them went down right after work. Ray and I went at 6 and we were home by 9.

The St. Pat’s Day parade was postponed to this coming Saturday. The Prospect had corned beef and a band so we went there on Saturday from 2 to 7. Met Aunt Wilma there. Jay and Heather and a lot of their friends were there. Saw a lot of East Hartford people. We had a good time and the corned beef was really good! Needless to say I was pretty tired by the time we got home, but it was worth it.

Had a nap filled day yesterday. Plan to do some writing today and send an email to Mass General so we can get an appointment set up to meet with Dr. Zhu. I may start putting shelf liner in my new cabinets today. Ray hooked up the water line and ice maker for the fridge yesterday. Stone/Tile for the backsplash should be in today.

Party for Hank, Bill and Teka at the Marco Thursday to celebrate Hank and Bill’s retirement and Teka’s 50th birthday. It’ll just be us Agnew kids and any of our family members that can make it – probably about 20 of us.

Thanks to everyone for their messages of love and support!!! You are my strength!

Did a lot of sleeping last week. Thank goodness I started feeling energized by Sunday and better every day since then. Had a busy day yesterday – went to Walgreens, made a banana bread and went to Home Depot with Ray last night to buy a few more items for the kitchen.

Making the banana bread was more of a challenge than I thought. Since my kitchen is spread between the dining room and Jay’s old bedroom I had to search for spices and baking pan. Then I needed measuring cups and realized they were in the new dishwasher-that was running! I grabbed them out of there. The effort was worth it as the banana bread came out awesome!

Yes, dishwasher is up and running. The molding is finished except one piece that we had to order and picked up last night at Home Depot. The fridge and stove may be up and running by the end of the week. So we’re getting close. I hope to begin moving things into the cabinets and drawers soon. Waiting on the tile to arrive. That’ll take another week and then the installation will take a little time.

Looking forward to St. Pat’s Day Parade Day on Saturday. Won’t go to the parade, but hope to meet up with family for lunch and some socializing. Also looking forward to dinner with my work friends Thursday night. These are the things I like to save my energy for.

Today is supposed to be a high of 55 – yes, Spring is finally knocking at the door!

Love to all – thanks for your prayers and support. You are my strength.

Day after chemo #28 and feeling a bit tired. Will take it easy today and tomorrow.

Ray is connecting the plumbing for the kitchen sink so we should have a functional sink by the end of the day today! Yeah!
The counter was installed earlier this week and looks awesome. And we went to a tile store and picked out backsplash tile. We’ll be ordering that soon.

Diane and I had a good time yesterday trying to take selfies that didn’t look awful. We decided we weren’t too photogenic!

Hoping to make an appointment with Dr. Zhu at Mass General soon. Will keep you updated on that when it happens.

Had lunch with Gary and Jimmy this week. And dinner with Nancy and Joe too.

Thank you to everyone for their continued support and prayers. Really appreciate it. You are my strength.

PLEASE GO TO THE PHOTO GALLERY TO SEE THE LETTER FROM THE CHOLANGIOCARCINOMA FOUNDATION.

This is the letter I received after submitting the donation of $1,200 from the sale of the Bea Strong t-shirts and donations made to the Bea Strong cause.
Due to the generosity of some Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation supporters, the amount of our donation was doubled to $2,400.

BEA STRONG – BEALIEVE

To everyone that purchased a BeaStrong/Bealieve T-shirt and those that made a monetary donation, we finally submitted the donation at the end of December. The total was $1,200 and was donated to Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation. Fortunately at the time the donation was made, they had sponsors that were matching donations, so our donation amounted to $2,400. Cholangiocarcinoma is the official name of bile duct cancer–easier to say bile duct, right?!

This foundation uses over 75% of funds for research and was the best use of the money. I recently received a letter from the Foundation thanking all for the donation and what they expect to do with donations during 2015. I’m currently figuring out a way to share this letter with everyone and hope to get a copy to everyone soon.

Thanks to everyone for their support in this loving endeavor spearheaded by my wonderful family.

Wow! It’s been over 7 months since I’ve updated this site. I guess I’ve been busy!

I have been on chemo treatments since May 23, 2014. I had my 24th chemo last Friday, January 16th. My first two chemos were at Mass General. Dr. Zhu referred us to Dr. Hong at the Helen & Harry Gray Cancer Center at Hartford Hospital and I have been going there since June, 2014. We have the best team possible to fight this cancer. I’ve seen Dr. Zhu a couple of times since May. I’ve had a couple of CT scans since then. The good news is that each time I’ve had shrinkage of the tumors. I continue to tolerate the treatments very well. I continue to not show any signs of the cancer, i.e., no pain, no blockage of the bile ducts, no jaundice.

I did experience very minor hearing loss that is referred to as high frequency hearing loss. What happens is that I have a buzzing in my left ear that is fairly constant, but hardly noticeable. My ears get blocked at times. It is most noticeable when I’m in a crowded room with several people. Dr. Hong opted to reduce the amount of cisplatin I get in my treatment to 57%. The reduction began in late October, 2014. Since then I have had no other issues. I’m able to unblock my ears most of the time and very rarely can’t hear what someone is saying.

I’ve uploaded pictures of a variety of people wearing the BeaStrong T-shirts to the site. I’ll add more pictures as time goes along.

Had port placed today. Two incisions not too big. The port is completely under my skin. I don’t think there will even be a bump there. They say it’ll be sore for a few days, but if I take Advil it should be okay. So that is what I will do. Now the battle with the chemo will be easier, yet it’ll be getting tougher. Next is chemo on Friday.

Port placement is scheduled for Tuesday. They will call Monday with time. Feeling good today.

Feeling good today. Going to Jefferson Radiology for a consultation about the port that will be put in next week.