Good Morning,

I'm having a tough time trying to decide what to say here. The past
couple of months have been very difficult for me. My chemo treatments
stopped working, just as I was about to sign up for a clinical trial of
a new drug a CT scan showed that I had a large pleural effusion (google
knows lots about this) that had collapsed my left lung and required
draining. Four attempts at draining over two days only dealt with about
20% of the effusion but it was two days until Christmas and they let me
go home. I was fine for a few days but was then readmitted to the
hospital to try surgery on this. That was about six days in Critical
Care.

We did try a new chemo drug in the past few weeks. It robbed me of all
of my white blood cells and so I have spent the last 8 days in the
hospital where nobody was allowed to breath anywhere near me. I am back
home again and feeling better but will be signed up with Hospice later
today. I do have the option of trying the chemo again but am currently
not in favor of that.

My cancer is getting worse, I am declining treatment and so am eligible
for Hospice services. Of course nobody can predict how much longer I
have but the word "months" has been used a few times and I am hopeful
that I have a couple.

All of this because I wanted to tell you all how much I have enjoyed
RCTQ over the years and have loved having this community of friends to
turn to when I needed a lift or just wanted to peek into somebody else's
life for a while :-) And then there is that awesome HUGG that you made
for me. Thank you all for being there for me. I will continue to "use
you" if that is O.K.

Rita

P.S. If anybody is in touch with Pat in VA, could you share this with
her? We had a couple of very nice meet ups in the past when my husband
and I were in VA. and I want to let her know how much I enjoyed that.
--
Rita L. in MA One Eyed Mutant Ninja Quilter :-)