Update

Hi everyone. Hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year's, and are looking forward to 2009, especially SPRING! I know I am!!

I have good news to report. Rhonda has one more treatment left! Last Tuesday, Dec. 30th, she had her second to last treatment. She had lost another couple pounds, and if you've seen her, you know that she cannot afford to lose any more weight! When Dr. Kaminova (her cancer doctor) saw that, and heard about the severe side effects she had been experiencing after treatments, she took Rhonda off the second chemo that she had been receiving, so she only received the one kind of chemo (through her port/pump) this last week. And that made the difference - this past week has been MUCH better for her! She still tires easily though and has digestive issues to deal with, so by no means is she back to herself yet, but I see definite improvement!

Rhonda's last treatment will be Tuesday, January 13th, when she will have her pump put on, and then back in on Thursday, the 15th, to remove the pump. Dr. Kaminova is scheduling a cat scan as a follow-up to the treatments, and I'll let you know the results of that.

Thank you all for keeping Rhonda in your prayers. Please continue to pray for her and her family, keeping them all strong as Rhonda finishes out her treatments.

And special thanks to Barb Mead, Teresa Johnson, Chris Thompson, Sandy Becker and Roxanne Heimann for providing meals for the Shaws over the holidays. Your willingness to do this at an extremely busy time of the year is especially appreciated!

In closing, I want to share with you all something that I recently read in a book of mine - I sometimes struggle with what to do or say to a person (like Rhonda) who is suffering. I always tell her that if she cries, I'm going to cry too, which I never thought was very helpful to her, but God says differently:

GOD NEVER INTENDED FOR PEOPLE TO CRY ALONE. HE IS ALWAYS CLOSE TO THOSE WHOSE HEARTS ARE BROKEN. HE WEEPS WITH THOSE WHO WEEP. WHEN YOU DO THE SAME, YOU ARE FOLLOWING HIS EXAMPLE. SO DON'T WORRY ABOUT WHAT TO SAY OR DO. PUT YOURSELF IN THE SHOES OF THE SORROWFUL. LISTEN TO THOSE WHO ARE BROKENHEARTED. SHARE AN EMBRACE. BE ATTENTIVE TO ANY PHYSICAL NEEDS YOU CAN HELP FILL. AND PRAY, WITH BOTH WORDS AND TEARS. ONE DAY, HEAVEN WILL DRY THEM ALL.

I'll be back in touch soon with my last e-mail!

Denise