Beautiful Breast Cancer Awareness Quilt

Look at this Beautiful Breast Cancer Awareness Quilt that my sister-in-law Stephanie Thomson made just for me. She gave it to me tonight (6/13/09). She is amazing and I love her. I was brought to tears by all the time and love she put into this quilt, specifically for me. Thanks Stephanie. I love it.

Relay for Life - our team Our Breast Cancer Adventure

Hi everyone. As you know cancer has greatly affected our lives this last year. The kids want to participate in the locate American Cancer Society Relay for Life event June 19 - 20, at the Blackfoot High School.

They along with their friends have created a team. The Team's Name is "Our Breast Cancer Adventure". They needed an adult to be the Team Captain, and I was appointed. So I am trying to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can. We have a team of 21. There is a small $10 per person registration fee (which basically covers the cost of the team's t-shirts. Most of the kids on the team do not have jobs, so our fundraising efforts will be including our registration fees as well as our fundraising goal of $200, so we are actually hoping to raise $410. It is my understanding that beyond the registration fee, all other funds go directly to the American Cancer Society, especially since all the workers are volunteers.

Our fundraising efforts are:
We will be participating in the Rely for Life Yard Sale on May 30th at the First American Location across from Walmart. We are looking for donated items to sale at the yard sale. Please call me at 680-3282 if you have some things you are willing to donate.
We are also in the process of organizing a car wash tentatively on June 13th.
We will have a "booth" at the Relay on June 19-20 selling various items.
We are also looking for pledges for each lap around the track the team makes. (The event is from Friday, June 19 at 6 pm to Saturday, June 20 at 7:00 am)
We are excited that these kids have the desire to help the American Cancer Society and we know they are hoping to have a good time while doing it. We are hoping that you can help us in our quest to raise these funds for the American Cancer Society here in the Blackfoot area. That's a lot of Hope. :)

Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated. Below is the professional letter from the Relay for Life website. Please see this letter for a link to donate on-line, or you can contact me directly at 208-680-3282. All donations are tax-deductible. We thank you in advance for your support of this great cause.

With Love, Sheryl



Relay For Life
Dear Family and Friends,
I’ve decided to take a stand and fight back against cancer by participating in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life® event right here in my community.
Please support me in this important cause by making a secure, tax-deductible donation online using the link below.To donate online now, click here (or cut and paste the link) to visit my personal page.http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09National?px=11359070&pg=personal&fr_id=14686
Relay For Life® is a life-changing event that brings together more than 3.5 million people worldwide to:
CELEBRATE the lives of those who have battled cancer. The strength of survivors inspires others to continue to fight.
REMEMBER loved ones lost to the disease. At Relay, people who have walked alongside people battling cancer can grieve and find healing.
FIGHT BACK. We Relay because we have been touched by cancer and desperately want to put an end to the disease.
Whatever you can give will help - it all adds up! I greatly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress.
Sincerely, Sheryl Thomson

100% Remission

To my loved ones.....

May 27, 2008 was a day that changed the rest of my life and greatly impacted all of my loved ones. That was the day that we found the hard mass in my right breast and I instantly knew that I had breast cancer.

May 4, 2009, just under a year later, is another day that marks great change for my life and greatly impacts all of my loved ones. Today, with my dear sweet sister, Shelly, by my side, We were told that I was in 100% Remission from my cancer. I can't express in words my gratitude, my relief, my over powering joy. I feel so incredible humble. The fight is not over, as I will have to continue my treatments in order to stay in remission, but this is incredible news. But I am so incredibly grateful to my Heavenly Father for this "second chance" at life. You have no idea the things we take for granted until we have a life altering event take over. Thank you to all of you for your constant love, prayers and support. I can never thank you all enough. I am so over whelmed with this news that I only made a few phone calls and then spent the entire evening with my loving husband, my supportive children, and sweet sister, and of course little adorable baby Violet, surrounded around me. We celebrated with Shelly making dinner, cake for dessert and Shelby treating us to sparkling grape juice, then of course a movie (dvd). A mother can not express more than I how grateful I am for such a wonderful family and for such great kids. I love you all.

The doctors and I continue to work toward repairing my back and the complications from the surgery. Today I had an epideral with steroids that so far seem to have removed the back pain. I may have to repeat this treatment 3-4 more times, to correct the problem entirely, but the outlook is good. I, of course, will never be able to participate in activity that cause a lot of bouncing, such as snowmobiling, skiing, horse back riding, motorcycles, bad suspension in certain vehicles....etc.. But since I don't participate in those things very often anyway, I think I can manage removing them from my activities. I also need to continue treatment for the blood clotting factor and the carpal tunnel issues.

I plea with each of you to please take time to thank your Heavenly Father for your health and for your family. Two very dear aspects of our lives that can't be replaced and that most of us take for granted. God bless you and your family.

All My Love, Mom, Sheri, Sheryl

Wayne & Sheryl Family Update 4/29/09

Wayne & Sheryl Family Update 4/29/09

I enjoyed attending a Women's Retreat in Island Park during the weekend. It was fun to get away from the stresses of every day life and just spend some time laughing, playing and resting. They developed a team for Relay for Life, calling themselves "The Sisterhood of the Groveland Ya Yas" They are excited to help with the American Cancer Society event and to raise funds for the ACS. I am also extremely excited to have my sister, Shelly and her 6 month old baby girl Violet come to see us this weekend. She will arrive just in time to help with Prom Dinner. Riley even e-mailed her and asked her to help. :)

Wayne has been busy as ever with work and seems to be "cured" of his sleep apnea. He's so quiet now, that I have to "poke" him once in a while just to make sure he's breathing. Kind of like we do with our newborn babies.

Shelby is looking for a job change and has applied for jobs in Shelley and Idaho Falls. He is anxious to get out on his own. We encourage him as he makes good decisions, but worry about him just the same. The changes in his attitude and maturity level have increased so much over the last year, that it's hard to believe he's the same young man who graduated a year ago.

Savannah is in finals week at USU. She comes home Friday for about a week to take care of some administrative things before she returns to Logan in hopes of working and living there during the summer and earn her Utah residency which will help with tuition costs. We are looking forward to seeing her again soon and hope that her finals go well. She too has made some adjustments in her life that we are impressed with.

Riley. What do I say about Riley. He wanted his driver's license and he worked his tail end off to study and earn the money for the licence and his insurance. Oh and he got a cell phone recently too. This week is prom and he was nominated for Prom Royalty. He is excited about that and about the pretty girl he's taking. He and his date and another couple are having Prom Dinner at our house, so I get to play host. :) Riley has been extremely busy with school, track, and his "pan-handling" jobs. Every time I turn around he's got another "gig" to earn money. He's helped Grandpa with the Canal, Glenn & Shannon w/ deilveries, mowing lawns and working for a gentleman in our ward on an as-needed basis. It is good to see him work so hard to make the things happen that are important to him.

Cammie also keeps busy with school and spending time with her friends. She, as well as her brothers, have been big assets to me around the house as we prepare for spring. Cammie to has a knack for finding ways to earn some money when she has a want or need for something that costs a little extra. Cammie is also extremely excited to see her Aunt Shelly and new cousin Violet.

Well, that's all for now. Or at least as much as I can think of. I hope that it makes sense. With this med's, sometimes my brain doesn't think as well as I'm use to.

Our love to you all. Wayne, Sheryl & the kids.

My Cancer is very near remission

Today we met with Dr Dickson to discuss the results of my latest petscan.
Good News / Bad News.....which do you want first?......

Good News: My cancer is very near remission. This is excellent news and not at all what I expected. Since I am responding so well, I will continue the cancer treatments as is. I did get the Zoledex implant today. We are very excited about this, although it is hard to express it when I'm either hurting or too doped up to express much of anything.

Bad News: What's causing all the pain.

Back: We are starting over from scratch on my back. We think there was probably some kind of undetected complication with the bone cement. I have a new MRI tomorrow and will meet with Dr. Dickson again on Monday.

Numbness and stinging in fingers, hands, wrists, arms and feet: We believe this may be caused because I have had all anti inflammatory medication removed from my system. I have had mild carpal tunnel and mild tendinitis (sp?) in my wrists and fingers for years but have been able to treat it with ibuprofen. We're going to try some Celebrex and see if that will help. The Celebrex won't interact with my other meds like regular ibuprofen will.

Forgive the old quote, but I really am sick and tired of being sick and tired. We hope to be able to identify, pin-point, treat and get rid of the issues that are causing the pain instead of just "band-aiding" the issues with pain meds.

God Bless you all with the best of health, peace and happiness
-Sheryl

Is Chemotherapy on the horizon.?.?.?

Today I am contemplating the realization that I might have to start Chemo in the very near future depending on the results of my PETSCAN scheduled for Apr 23rd - Results known on Apr 29th. :o

With all the various issues that have occurred in the last month or so I met with my oncologist yesterday. He and I agree that for the most part the cause(s) of these these issues has not been identified and in an effort to control the pain, we have only "band-aided" them. He has been in contact with my other doctors and has results of all the labs, tests, and scans. Our next step is to determine if all of this is directly related to the cancer or if it is all side effects from the cancer treatment(s). So, PETSCAN scheduled for Apr 23. Results and appointment with Dr on Apr 29th. If the scan results are similar to the December results, then it is all side effects and we identify and treat. If the scan is drastically different then it's the cancer and we start Chemotherapy.

Of course, I can't predict the future, but I feel strongly that Chemotherapy will be next.

I continue to keep in contact with my Heavenly Father and count my blessings as I continue to work through this cancer and related health issues as well as asking for his will be done and to continue to provide me with comfort and peace and the promptings necessary to know what steps to take next.

May He always bless you according to your faith and worthiness. Love, Sheryl

Surgery Recovery for Two

Good Afternoon. Thought I would send out a quick update on our successes and struggles with our recoveries from surgery.

Wayne is doing well. He had a few days that I thought he was struggling, but he had a second follow-up today and the doctor told him he was doing well and should have his strength back soon. We are both grateful for that.

I on the other hand have had an extremely difficult time recovering. I can't seem to get the pain under control. After several medication adjustments over the past week and a trip to the ER last night, I think we finally have it under control (knock on wood).... Yesterday evening around 7:30 I was taken off all other pain meds and put on morphine. Four hours later the morphine still had not "kicked in". Wayne was finally sleeping and getting some rest, and I didn't want to wake him, so I called Trina Holm, and she took me to the ER and stayed with me - Continually distracting me from the pain. We called my doctor as soon as we arrived at the hospital, so he knew I was there and so he could let the ER doctor know what my "history" had been. After a short review of my medical issues for the last couple of weeks and a quick exam, I was given a shot of morphine (higher dose and instantly in the blood stream). It only took about 30 - 45 minutes to work and I was soon a happy girl. Trina was laughing at me as I was "poking the spots I was seeing". So yes, definitely a happy girl. Trina took me home soon after that, it was around 1:30. Thank you Trina. Wayne was glad to have me back home and we "synchronized" our wake-up times to take our next dose of meds. I have been on bed rest all day and am glad to report that I am doing much better. At least the pain levels are now tolerable.

I am thankful for caring friends and family and compassionate, well educated doctors and while I wish I didn't need it and I am of course grateful for the morphine. :)

Love to all. -Wayne & Sheryl