Jen Eagan
05-12-2006, 03:02 PM
As some of you know I am the captain of a Relay for Life (http://www.acsevents.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=133489&lis=1&kntae133489=5699480544CD461687AEB13E5E04541A&team=1197719)team in honor of my 16 year old little cousin who was diagnosed last month with stage IV kidney cancer. We are currently in 5th place (fundraising) out of 30 teams but there's a tight race between 3rd-6th place and we keep getting bumped back. (The top 5 teams get some sort of recognition at the relay). My sister-in-law sold cookies at work and earned $285- which is awesome- but I don't have a "work" to sell cookies! I was thinking maybe a garage sale- but- the relay is June 3 and most of my weekends are full before then. Any other ideas? Maybe ebay?
Just to update on Sam- for those who have known about her from before- she is doing fairly well- she finally lost her hair the other day. I have not seen it yet but my mom who is staying with them for a couple weeks- says she looks super cute bald. She told me she's not doing any bald pictures so just forget any ideas I might have. :) She went to school yesterday and today and said she was pretty embarrassed cause the kids all were constantly staring at her head. I feel soo bad for her. The day she found out she probably had cancer- when she was in the hospital and it was just me and her in the room, she had been super strong until everyone left and it was just us and then she started to cry and just about the first thing out of her mouth was "I'm gonna lose all my hair!" Yes it's a small price to pay for your life- but- she's a 16 year old girl, her hair was of HUGE importance in her life and now it's gone. Poor kid. It's just so not fair. Anyway-
She had a repeat CT scan on Monday- 6 weeks since she started chemo- the main tumor on her kidney shrunk 1cm (down from 15.5cm to 14.5cm) and part of it looks dead. The one (or maybe ones?) on her liver looks like it's actually dead but they won't know until they do another biopsy in a few weeks. The small spots on her lungs are gone. The only not good news from that day was a medium sized tumor on her lung attached to her diaphragm has not changed yet. But it hasn't grown either, so it wasn't BAD news- just not good. They are doing surgery the 1st or 2nd week of June to remove the kidney and big tumor and before long they will start radiation to get rid of the dead tumors. I guess.
Anyway- keep praying for her- and let me know if anyone has ideas how to raise money for the relay!
OH also forgot to mention- we had a big party last weekend and like 200 people came and we raised over $7300 for Sam to help pay her medical bills. It was a lot of fun.
Just to update on Sam- for those who have known about her from before- she is doing fairly well- she finally lost her hair the other day. I have not seen it yet but my mom who is staying with them for a couple weeks- says she looks super cute bald. She told me she's not doing any bald pictures so just forget any ideas I might have. :) She went to school yesterday and today and said she was pretty embarrassed cause the kids all were constantly staring at her head. I feel soo bad for her. The day she found out she probably had cancer- when she was in the hospital and it was just me and her in the room, she had been super strong until everyone left and it was just us and then she started to cry and just about the first thing out of her mouth was "I'm gonna lose all my hair!" Yes it's a small price to pay for your life- but- she's a 16 year old girl, her hair was of HUGE importance in her life and now it's gone. Poor kid. It's just so not fair. Anyway-
She had a repeat CT scan on Monday- 6 weeks since she started chemo- the main tumor on her kidney shrunk 1cm (down from 15.5cm to 14.5cm) and part of it looks dead. The one (or maybe ones?) on her liver looks like it's actually dead but they won't know until they do another biopsy in a few weeks. The small spots on her lungs are gone. The only not good news from that day was a medium sized tumor on her lung attached to her diaphragm has not changed yet. But it hasn't grown either, so it wasn't BAD news- just not good. They are doing surgery the 1st or 2nd week of June to remove the kidney and big tumor and before long they will start radiation to get rid of the dead tumors. I guess.
Anyway- keep praying for her- and let me know if anyone has ideas how to raise money for the relay!
OH also forgot to mention- we had a big party last weekend and like 200 people came and we raised over $7300 for Sam to help pay her medical bills. It was a lot of fun.