Saturday in St. Louis

The weatherman spent 10 or 15 minutes talking about weather patterns and pressure zones and then he said something about cold air out of Siberia coming through Canada to the midwest states. All I know is the temperature is in the single digits and it's FREEZING! So what do you do when you get a Siberian wind knocking at your door on an otherwise perfectly good Saturday afternoon? You make something hot to drink, watch old movies (preferably ones set in some very warm place in some season other than winter. We chose The Bad News Bears) and take pictures of yourself with your computer cam. Yes, this was our Saturday.

Pathology Report

Patty, and I met with the surgeon today for surgery follow-up and to go over the pathology report. Patty is healing from the surgery nicely and needs pain pills less and less.

The pathology report, however, was not as bright as we had hoped. The tumor was 4 cm. It was not detected earlier because was more like a soft mass than a hard nodule. Without the MRI biopsy, a new technology, we would still be blissfully unaware of its existence. As this cancer is slow-growing, we have no idea how long it had been there. Had Patty been able to receive an MRI on her left breast eight years ago when we dealt with this on her right side, would we be dealing with this now? At this point we don’t know.

We had hoped that metastatic disease found in the sentinel lymph node would be contained within the lymph nodes. While we don’t know the answer to this question, it now seems highly unlikely. The pathology report showed that nine out of the ten nodes removed have been affected.

If the cancer has spread, it will most likely be found in the spine, a CT scan and a bone scan will determine this. We will find out more at Patty’s first visit with the oncologist on January 21st.

In order to more closely chronicle Patty's treatment and to provide a forum to champion early breast cancer detection via the use of MRIs, we have created a personal blog. The blog is located here: http://patandpattydrew.blogspot.com/. Please share this blog site with anyone who you feel can benefit from it.

Patty and I believe that God has a plan in all of this. Whether it is to strengthen our faith or to help save lives by lobbying for the use of MRI scans in early detection, we don’t know. But there is a plan. We just want to be part of it.

Thank you for your prayers during this challenging time.

We love you all,

Pat and Patty

2007 Kudos

Now is the time to remember that bragging is a perfectly acceptable activity on this blog. 2007 was a time for Larry and I to get our home ready to sell. We did that with painting the entire exterior of our home, landscaping with gravel and bark and removing every little weed and piece of ivy, installing new windows, having our old underground oil tank filled, painting the livingroom ceiling, painting the entire utility room and all the doors and moulding white and front door a beautiful red. We also gave away, threw away and sold the remainder of "too much stuff". We then decided we really like this nice new house and we're staying for a while.

I just bragged about Larry and I. Some people won't always brag about themselves. Now is the time to brag about yourselves AND about those who forget that we love to hear what each of us has accomplished.

Bowling 101. A perfect game is 300 points. A series is a set of three games. 200 point games aren't an everyday experience for most.

How many of you know that RICK BOWLED A 649 SERIES in his bowling league? Congratulations!!!! I'd include a bowling photo, but I don't own one.

S/he's a she!

Joanne had her 20-week ultrasound yesterday and the baby received an A+ from the doctor. He asked if we wanted to know if Fred was going to have a little brother or sister and we decided to take him up on the offer. Here is a picture of Fred's little sister with her mouth wide open. We think she's laughing:

Merry (belated) Christmas!

Daniel & I had a white Christmas at his parents' house... It was wonderful!

new year update

How is everyone, i haven't checked out the blog for awhile, just got caught up. Already a new year. Can anyone believe it's almost 2008? How did that happen? Christmas was wonderful. Mom surprised Lydia with a sewing machine! The silly picture of lydia was her entertaining my son Billie. I had to put it up to embarrass her. (hee hee). What will the new year bring? Our family will be opening another garage door company! Big plans, lots of work, but we're ready for the challenge. I can't believe my son is 3 yrs old already. Well, onto a new year. many blessings. Love, the ramers (devonne)

p.s. i had to put all the funny pics cause we all know how teenagers can be . . . and how big sisters will never change . . . .

Everyone needs friends!

9 month old Darin&Maddy.

14 month old Alexis,

Maddy, & 2 month old baby Noah.

She's so popular. Haha.