Shana Bearden

7-30-09–
First the bad news. I just learned that my friend and one of the finest people I have ever met, Bee Rippy, passed away yesterday morning just hours after being admitted to Hospice in Wichita Falls. Please pray that Bee be granted access to Heaven and give thanks that she is no longer in pain. She died of Ovarian Cancer that was diagnosed shortly after Shana received her diagnosis. She had a very difficult time up to the end and she was a brave and powerful woman who faced adversity with grace.
Shana had a better week this week. Although her blood counts were really too low, she was given her new chemo treatment last Thursday and she did not have any incidents this time. She will now be getting chemo every two weeks and we are hopeful that it will have some effect on the tumor. She had virtually no side effects from the current treatment except that she was very tired all week. She talks and babbles almost constantly when she is asleep because she is now on a portable pain pump that constantly gives her pain medication. She can hit a button for a “bump” in pain meds and we have worked for a week or so to try to calibrate the pain meds correctly. They seem to be working pretty well now. It is the pain meds that make her babble when she is asleep and she does it quite loudly which has made it almost impossible for me to sleep for the last two weeks. The one night I gave up and tried to sleep in another room, she fell and hurt herself when she got up in the middle of the night. So, I try to grab a couple of hours sleep a night but I am wearing down a lot.
We have hired a lady to stay with Shana during the day and that is working out really well. She takes care of Shana and runs her around if needed. She cleans and cooks as well so things are looking up some. She is a really nice retired lady and we appreciate her help a lot.
The kids have been gone for a couple of weeks but they are coming back in tonight and we will take turns sleeping with Shana. That will make our lives a bit easier to get some sleep occassionally. Also, the grandkids are coming so Shana will be really excited to see them again and spend some play time with them. Yesterday, Shana got an emergency call from the doctors office about her blood levels. They had taken her blood tests the week before but only yesterday did someone notice that her hemoglobin levels were critical. They ordered her to go directly to the hospital and get a blood transfusion because at the levels she had, a simple cut could have caused her to bleed out and die. They were kind of shaken over having missed it the week before. We went today and got her checked out and her levels are much better and hopefully we will get chemo again next Thursday.
I have not told Shana about Bee Rippy yet. I hope it doesn’t upset her too much. They had a lot in common with their diseases. I think it will depress her. Last week when Shana was feeling so bad, tired and sick she told me for the first time that she was worried that her time had finally come. Now that she is feeling better she is in a better frame of mind but it is clear that she sometimes has questions about her future. Please pray for her and come see her if you can.
Jim

Shana had another tough week because she has been feeling very sick and tired every day this week. We were able to get chemo done yesterday and we have to see how this concoction works for her. Her tumor has been obviously growing and the recent CT scan shows that the tumor is beginning to metastize or spread and there are now lesions that appear to have spread to the surface of the liver. We are hopeful that this new chemo will reverse this trend but we will just have to wait and see.
Shana is becoming more depressed and scared. She knows the tumor is no longer under control and for probably the first time, she is feeling really scared about the near term and not just some possibility in the long term. She is sleeping badly and it is difficult to remain in the same room with her when she is asleep because she makes a lot of noise while sleeping. She is taking huge doses of pain killers and they make her feel drunk and out of it and she really doesn’t like that. The good news is that the kids have helped out tremendously this last week and particularly Chrissy has been our hero. April went back home on Tuesday but will return next week with the kids for about 3 weeks. We are hiring a helper for during the day to help Shana and make her comfortable. She is named OLLA and she is a wonderful person that we received amazing recommendations on her work. We are hopeful that if this chemo turns the tumor around we could have another shot at a surgery that might help but we are in a wait and see mode. We have had to cancel the trip to see the specialist in New York because she is just too sick to travel right now. We will reschedule when she feels better.
Please pray for Shana, Bee Rippy and Larry Williams, Jeff McKim (who is doing much better now and is attending outpatient therapy for his stroke) and all those who are sick.
Jim Bearden