Shana Bearden

12-31-08
Well, we recieved a phone call from Dr. Alexanders office today and we are scheduled for Shana’s 3rd major surgery sometime in Mid March of 09. They reviewed the CT’s I sent them and the Doctors seem to think there is now a possibility of removing most of the tumor from the lower part of her abdomin so we are going to give it one more try. I anticipate we will be in Baltimore much of the month of March and maybe some of April. This time we have some advance notice so hopefully we will be able to get some good airfare and less expensive hotel accomodations. April will be having her baby at about that time so it will be primarily Shana and I up there and maybe the kids on the weekends. I have to confess that while I am hopeful, I am not crazy about endless days and nights in that hospital room. But…..if they can get most of the tumor out, that could extend my lady’s life for years. When we started this trek, the average published survival rate for this type of cancer was just at one year. If this surgery goes extremely well, it could extend her life expectency by up to 96 months or 7 years! Then all of the current published articles have about a 54% survival when they lose touch with the patient or the patient often dies of old age. I can live with that. There are many changes going on in this field and I hope we can ride the wave to good health for Shana. I do think we are on the cutting edge of this treatment and the odds actually look pretty good right now but we really won’t know until the surgeons begin the operation. Last time, they concluded fairly quickly that she was beyond the help of surgery. Now that the tumor has shrunk, maybe the outcome will be much different. I pray so.
All of our kids were in for the Christmas Holidays and it was great. Bella is so sweet and cuddly and Lily is full of vim and vigor. We all had a good holiday and I hope yours was as blessed as ours was. I got several good notices on our friends who have been ill. Several are doing much better now and two of our friends have been recently diagnosed as cancer free after severe and scary diagnoses. God is good.
I will begin to try to keep you more updated on what is going on with Shana. She has another chemo on Jan 6, 2009 and then has to lay off in preperation for the surgery. We will go up to Baltimore probably on March 9 for presurgery and then stay for surgery on the 13th and recovery for about 2-3 weeks thereafter. The dates are still kind of fluid so we will let you know. Please kick up that prayer machine again, we need it this time to get a really good outcome.
Jim

12-11-08
Since my last post we were able to drive to Houston for Thanksgiving with Chrissy and Doug and Doug’s family. Chrissy was excited that we were there and we brought Brad and Shana’s Brother Rocky, wife Barbara and my neice, Jamie with us so with Doug’s family we had a total of 14 at Chrissy’s house for Thanksgiving.
Chrissy had already made many of the dishes by the time we arrived on Wednesday night and the next day, Chrissy and Shana then cooked turkeys, made dressing, cooked side dishes and most importantly Chrissy cooked her grandmother’s chocolate pies (which are to die for!). We had a really good visit over Thanksgiving and it is such a joy to see that Chrissy has married a man who values her so much and to watch her be a happy homemaker. Chrissy and Doug are so cute together!
The day after Christmas we went to Galveston to visit Vicki Hensley, Shana’s cousin who lives on Galveston Island on the west beach area. If you have heard that Galveston was destroyed, that’s not quite true. The downtown area was flooded and there are a lot of boats still just laying in parking lots and in medians but the building damage on the seawall wasn’t too bad. Interestingly, the damage on the bay side was massive and it appears that the newer structures survived while the older ones were destroyed. Much of the bay side was damaged badly but the sea wall area wasn’t hurt too bad. However, the area to the West of Galveston not protected by the seawall looked like a war zone in many places. They are still having bodies wash up and the damage is severe. Shana’s cousin, Vicki, lives near the beach and she refuses to go into the water any more because of all of the buried trash and the possiblity that bodies are still offshore. We were kind of amazed at how much trash and building materials were still stacked up in the subdivisions. Lots of varmits and foul odors still around. But Vicki’s subdivision is all back home and up and running. We were accosted by millions of mosquitos due to the standing water but maybe cold weather will kill them off soon.
Shana’s Aunt, Aunt Lil, (Vicki’s mom) was at home visiting Vicki and we had a really good visit with her and Vicki’s son who was visiting as well. Afterwards, we went to Kemah and ate dinner and then went home because Shana was getting very tired by this time. The drive home on Saturday night was especially long because Shana was tired and feeling bad but all in all we had a great Thanksgiving.
On Monday we found that Shana’s most recent CT showed that her tumor has shrunk some more, not quite as much as before but still a good sign. Shana is having some troubles with her stints between her bladder and her kidneys so on 12-10-08 we went to day surgery and they replaced her stints so she is layed up just a bit and still has pain because of infection. Hopefully she will begin to feel better soon. Tonight she is attending a party of her Bunko group and she insisted on going.
We expect all of our kids and grandkids to be here for Christmas for the first time in many years. We are really excited that we will have the whole gang here and Shana and I are really looking forward to playing with the Grandkids. Lily, my grandaughter has decided she and I are going to camp out in my backyard while she is here. We will see about that. It can get awfully cold this time of year and I am not wanting to hunt up all of my winter gear. Apparently, Lily want to go camping because her Dad went camping and would not take her. She thinks she has to do everything the big guys do so she leans on Poppy (Me). I may need a diversion if she gets real serious about this camping thing.
Bella, my 6 month old granddaughter is just all smiles and cooing. She is beginning to interact with her parents and Shana and I but we have to keep her a distance from Shana because Bella has had a series of colds she is getting from other kids at her daycare. She is a doll though. She laughs and giggles a lot and never cries.
Shana is now over one year diagnosed with cancer and she gets tired quickly and has a lot of pain in her bladder due to the stints,but other than that she is doing pretty good. We are encouraged about the shrinking tumor and we hope we can get it down to a size that will allow us to operate to remove the bulk of the tumor. That would buy us a lot more time. Shana’s thoughts are positive and she is going all out for Christmas. It looks like we have stopped construction now for a while but I am leery and skeptical since I know that there are at least two more rooms in the house that could be redone. I usually find out about new projects thru Shana’s friends who try to lay the groundwork with me but so far, I haven’t heard of any new decorating concepts from any of them.
We are slowing down at work-”Peace on Earth Good Will to Men” is not particularly good for either the legal or Detective businesses. If things get too slow, we send out operatives to the local bars and restaurants and just start taking pictures of the older gentlemen and their young “neices” who are out celebrating–that usually fires up business pretty well. Just kidding!
We have tickets to the Cotton Bowl game between Texas Tech and Mississippi. Brad and Shana are Texas Tech Fanatics. I hope it is not too cold that day!
We have used our down time this holiday season to think of all of our friends and acquantences that have helped us so much. Shana would not be here today if her friends from the neighborhood, church, Bunko and our extended family of friends hadn’t kicked in to help us so much this year. Please let me know if you ever need any help of any sort. I am proud to know each of you and to count you as our friends. You have been a lifesaver and a real blessing in our lives. Please believe it with all of your heart when we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Bearden Family. We love you all.
Shana,Brad, Chrissy, Doug, April, TJ, Lily, Wes, Antoinette, Bella and Jim