T.G.I.F.

Well now I really know what it means to enjoy a Friday. This has been an incredibly stressful and taxing week to say the least. Thank you to everyone for looking out for us. We received beautiful flowers from COMSTAR and today a wonderful arrangement from our next door neighbors. All so thoughtful.

Chris is up and about. She continues to take her pain meds and the other 4 but has been tolerating everything pretty well. She is eating at the table and not having to sit in bed all day. She does rest a lot which is really good for her.

The boys are outside cleaning up old mulch. They want to go to the MS dance tonight so I put them to work first. It's the last dance of the year so it should be pretty well attended. Those DeWitt boys cruising for chicks like their old man!!!

Tomorrow they each have a lacrosse game at home in Frederick. So I will be at those all afternoon. Chris will continue to enjoy some more rest and relaxation. She did get up yesterday and today and was able to take some calls for work and did get a chance to go through all of her emails. She really is dedicated but I think it is more therapeutic for her to keep up with her work.

Well have a great weekend everyone and I'll post more later!

P.S. Alex's team won Wednesday night and are now 9-0!!!!! They are ranked in both the D3 coaches poll as well as the usual lacrosse polls too. Way to go Allie!

Thursday update...

Hi Everyone!
Chris is doing better. Not great. But much better. The nausea is finally under control with the medication that she has been taken. This medicine is more powerful than the stuff she was taking during her regular chemo treatments. The pain where her gall bladder is has been kept in check by taking her pain meds regularly. She sometimes tends to toughen it out and I finally convinced her to start taking the maximum dosage for a few days so the that pain goes away and is not just tolerable. It's really helped.

She got up this morning and took a shower and came downstairs to have breakfast. She was up for a couple of hours and even sat down and got through some of her emails from work. COMSTAR provides her with a computer and connection to their system for just this reason. The cleaning company came by today to clean the house and once again did a wonderful job. That has just been a godsend for us and especially today.

Chris is resting a lot which is great. I think she gets better faster at home. It is much quieter than the hospital and very relaxing. Especially during the day.

The boys are well and playing lacrosse. Practice is 2 days a week for Michael and 2 for Tyler. Of course they are on opposite days!!! We carpool which makes it tolerable.

Yesterday, Chris's mom left a dish for us that all I had to do was pop in the over. Great timing. They've been wonderful in everything they've done for us. They make sure the boys get to where they need to be and just having them here for them takes any and all worries away.

On a lighter note, someone has started a vicious rumor about me and our dog Chloe. Seems that people think that I let Chloe sleep in our bed on Monday night when Chris was in the hospital. That could not be further from the truth. Truth is that Ramsey let the dog stay in the bed, not me. I was out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow and the cat was left in charge. Stupid cat!

Resting at home

After a long afternoon of waiting Chris is finally back home and resting in her own bed. I got to the hospital around 12 and Chris was still getting sick. They had given her another new anti-nausea drug. The pain was gone so at least that was okay. She was still very tired so we had the lights off and the blinds drawn and she tried to get some sleep.

Around 4 they came in with the discharge papers and Chris got ill again! Very weird because she had just told her mother on the phone that she felt much better! More drugs, and another hour later she finally felt good enough to come home.

She slept most of the way home. When we got home there was a large arrangement of flowers on the kitchen island from COMSTAR. They were beautiful and really made her glad to be home. and dad were here again as well. She went upstairs and I went out to get her prescriptions filled. She is still asleep now as I write this. I am exhausted and going to bed soon. We're home and that's what matters most right now!!!

Good night!

Coming home...

I am gettig ready to go back to the hospital today. I was able to get a lot done this morning. Chris called and had her CT scan this morning. Her pain was caused by the chemo that got into the gall bladder. That pain is now gone and she feels much better!!! She is still throwing up though from the chemo. They've given her a couple of drugs which have not worked too well yet.

The Dr. did say that she could come home early this afternoon!!! That's great news. Thanks to all of you for the emails and calls yesterday! It made the long day better.

Chris's chemoembolization...

Today was the day for Chris's treatment. She went in for a chemoembolization. A procedure where they go in through the femoral artery and inject non-diluted chemotherapy directly into her liver. We left the house around 6am so she could be at John's Hopkins around 7am. She was scheduled for an MRI first and then the procedure at 10am.

I dropped her off and then parked the car. By the time I got up to where we needed to go she was already in for the MRI. I got to be with her around 8:30. She was worried about the MRI but said that it went well. The tube was open on each end and part of her head was sticking out enough to remove any anxieties. We stayed together until about 9:30 when they took her for the procedure. I went for a walk and came back around 11. She was done but still in the operating room. I finally got to go to the recovery room at 12:30. She was very uncomfortable as she was laying flat on her back.

The Dr. said that the procedure went well, but that there was a small complication. It seems some of the chemo made it into her gall bladder. It's not uncommon but needs to be monitored. She is in quite a bit of pain from the high-dose chemo and the pain is in the liver/gall bladder. She is on a pain pump with morphine, but that is not helping a whole lot. She finally has fallen asleep around 5pm and I just sat and re-read the paper.

I went in and checked on Chris around 6 and she got up to use the bathroom. She then ended up getting sick. The nurse gave her some more antinausea medicine at that time. Chris fell asleep around 6:45 and I passed out about 7:00.... Very quiet and peacful. UNTIL a nurse came in and woke us up to check vitals. Chris's not mine!

Chrissy told me to leave as it was getting late. I didn't want to but she insisted. I called Alex on the way home and made sure she knew what was up.

Chris's parents were at the house with the Boys, and our neighbor Randy took Michael to lacrosse practice. When I got home around 8:30 mom and Ty had dinner ready to go and Michael was just getting home. I was glad to be home. I really don't have to worry about anything except Chris.

Thanks for the emials and prayers today. I cannot begin to tell you how much of a toll being in the hospital all day takes on you. I'm exhausted and all I did was sit around and wait with Chris. I'll keep you all posted as best I can.

No word yet on tomorrow. Hopefully she'll come home but we'll see then.

Thank you........

AVON Walk Support!!!!

Dearest Friends and Family,

This year's Avon Breast Cancer Walk is being held May 5 and 6 in Washington, DC. We have attended this event for the last 2 years since Chris was diagnosed with breast cancer. I cannot begin to tell you how it makes our family feel knowing that there are people out there doing this walk to raise money to help those in need. We have several friends again this year who are walking to honor Chris. We plan on going down to the finish line again on Saturday to cheer them on!! Our neighbor and good friend Cheryl is walking, as are Lisa, Marianne, Kristina, and Sally, from COMSTAR where Chris works.

Each of the past 2 years I've sent out an email like this asking you to please help out with the fund raising effort and each year the people that you've supported have blown out the $1,800 requirement!! This year I am asking once again for you help. I really don't like asking people to donate money to a charity that they may not be familiar with. I am VERY familiar with this charity and trust me the money goes to good use. This charity helps many women and families across the country and I can tell you first hand that when someone helps you with something while you're battling this disease it makes a huge difference in your life. If you would like to see where last year's money went then look at this link http://www.avoncompany.com/women/avonfoundation/2006_walk_grants.pdf

You'll notice in there that $2 million was given to support vital breast cancer research at 13 institutions nationwide through a unique Breast Cancer Clinical Trials' Consortium through the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at John's Hopkins in Baltimore. This is the SAME center where Chris is currently undergoing treatment and trying very hard to get into one of their clinical trials!!!

If you can offer any donation at all to the event you can be sure that the money will be put to good use. Every amount helps. If you would like to donate directly you may go to either Cheryl McTamany''s website:

http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?px=1596349&pg=personal&fr_id=1270

If you would prefer to send a donation then just make a check out to "Avon Walk for Breast Cancer" and send it to me at:

Charlie DeWitt

9512 Bridgewater Ct East

Frederick, MD 21701

I'll make sure that it gets to the teams right away.

If you know of someone else who may be in a position to donate to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer then I urge you to please forward this email to them, and have them forward to someone else. Every donation helps someone out there that is battling this disease and moves us 1 step closer to a possible cure!

Once again, to all of our friends, family, and co-workers The DeWitt Family would like to say "THANK YOU" from the bottom of our hearts for all you've done for us in the last 2 1/2 years!!! There is no way we could have made it to where we are today without your love and caring support.

Thank you so very much!

Charlie

Frederick, MD

301-662-5453

http://chris-dewitt-updates.blogspot.com/

PLEASE NOTE: I have a new email address at Comcast since they've taken over Adelphia. The new address is: charliedewitt@comcast.net

Boys start lacrosse

Well even with the rain Tyler and Michael both played lacrosse on Saturday. Michael's game was first and he did very well. He got hammered within the first 2 minutes of the game by some large boy from the other team. He got right up and within 2 minutes scored the teams first goal. Everything went well and they won the rain soaked game.

After that game we drove to PA for Tyler to play in his first game of outdoor ever. He did great for not playing before. They ended up wining 4-2 against a good squad. A friend of ours was out of town and asked if we could take their son to the game as well as they are on the same team. We had a nice afternoon even with the rain. We went out to dinner afterwards and got home around 8:30!

I went upstairs and fell asleep around 9:30 . Big mistake. I woke up around 1am and could not fall back to sleep. Went in the basement and watched TV and typed up my Avon Walk email. I finally fell asleep around 5AM and got up early to take Michael to Sunday School. Chris was up early so she and I went out for coffee too.

Sunday night Ray and Cheryl asked us over for dinner. It has been awhile since we've seen them so we immediately said yes.

Well we're now ready for Tomorrow! Chris's procedure at Hopkin's starts at 7AM. So it's off to bed early. I'll post tomorrow if I can to fill you in on the results....

G'night.

Dinner on Friday

Well Friday night was nice. Dinner was provided by our good friends in Rochester, NY!!! Rich and Jill got us a La Paz gift card and we went to dinner tonight thanks to them. We normally don't go out on Friday but we went out anyway. We took the boys and had a nice dinner.

Ty's Tech Fair

Last night Tyler attended the Frederick County Tech Expo. His task was selected to compete against other schools in Hovercraft competition. One of many competitions for the night. He had to design and build a hovercraft out of Styrofoam, wires, motors and hot glue. He had 1 hour to do it. He competed against 10 other entrants. They had a course set up where they put power to them and measured how far they went in 30 seconds. Tyler came in 5'th place. Very good considering he was doing it by himself. Other teams had 2 members.

Chris came home early today from work. John's Hopkin's called with information about Monday's procedure. It seems that NOW she has to be there at 7AM. They want to do an MRI before the procedure to use as a starting point. They'll do subsequent MRI's afterwards to see the progress of her treatment. She's a little worried about the MRI as she is a little claustrophobic. They can give her something to knock her out I'm sure.

Lacrosse for the boys tomorrow. No snow in the forecast. Just rain!

Lycoming in the top 20!

We just got an email and the recent coach's poll for Women's DII lacrosse put Alex's team at number 18 in the country out of 167 teams!!! They are on a roll for sure. In fact they won again last night in their 1st away game of the season. They beat Widener 18-5 moving them to 7-0. At this rate she'll win more games this season than all 4 years of her high school career.

http://www.insidelacrosse.com/page.cfm?pagerid=2&news=fdetail&storyid=154569

Chris went to the lab today to get bloodwork done in preparation for her procedure on Monday. Many of you have wished us well. Thank you very much. I know that everyone is thinking of us.

As I right this I am listening to a press conference about John Edwards and his Wife. His wife was diagnosed with breast cancer just 2 months after Chris was diagnosed. Today they announced that it had spread to her bones. It was a very informative press conference and their situation is very, very similar to ours. It made me sit and think about how lucky we are to have friends like you!

Lycoming wins agan...

Alex called to tell us that her lacrosse team won again last night. They beat King's 15-12 putting their record at 6-0. She continues to get playing time and she is really enjoying the experience. Her team plays today (wed) at Widener in Philadelphia. I was planning on attending but I have to attend a Spires Board meeting.

Dinner on Monday

One of our neighbors, Theresa, came up around 4 o'clock and brought us dinner. It was just perfect timing as well. I popped it in the oven and it was ready to go when Chris came home from work.

Chris continues to go to work and do her job as well as she ever has. Some days she gets pretty tired though so the boys and I make sure that we keep things in order around the house as best we can.

Thanks Theresa!

NEW Email Address

Ugh. Comcast has bought up Adelphia and the time has finally come to change over my email addresses that we've had for 6 years!!!!

Our @adelphia.net addresses will be forwarded to the new accounts but only for a short while. My new email is

charliedewitt@comcast.net

Tyler and Mike's are tcdewitt@comcast.net and mmdewitt@comcast.net



Today was a nice day outside. Sunny but brisk. The snow is still here but melting making it really messy in the yard. We went to brunch this afternoon with the entire family and met up with Chris's family to celebrate her mother's birthday! Everyone in the family was there except Alex. She is at school right now. It was nice.

Snow!

Snow! Oh man we got about 4 or 5" of the stuff. The boys were supposed to have their 1st lacrosse games tomorrow. Canceled. We were going to go to Alex's game at Widener U. in Philly. Canceled too. So now what are we going to do? RELAX.

Thursday night Chris's friend June who retired from COMSTAR awhile back came by and brought the boys and us dinner. Homemade chicken enchiladas! MMMMMMMMMMM.... they were great. And brownies WITH WALNUTS!!! My favorite. Good bye diet...

I fell asleep on the couch around 12. Brownie induced coma I think. Anyway, I woke up around 2 and went upstairs. Look out the bedroom window and saw 2 guys walking in the back yard!!! We just had a neighbor next door have their shed broken into and a week whacker stolen. I called 911 immediately. They came, look around, and the guys were gone. I'm not too concerned. Our neighbors have some guys living with them that on occasion are outside late. Never a big deal, but a call to 911 doesn't hurt! We're safe inside, our shed doesn't have much in it, and it's just stuff. Something I've realized over the last few years. Stuff does not matter. Stuff can be replaced.

Thanks to everyone for the emails the last couple of days. We appreciate all of you keeping in touch!!!

If you're out there and have the time could you please include a friend of mine in your prayers and prayer groups. His name is Jeff and he has a cancerous brain tumor and has been battling it for a couple years now. He's not doing to well right now and just came out of the ICU at the hospital. Thanks, I know you all understand.

Lyco BEATS #13 Messiah

Yesterday Alex's Lycoming lacrosse team won for the first time against Messiah College. The final score was 16-11. They led the entire game and played perfect defense.

This picture is of Alex playing pressure defense. Ooooh looks like the girl she was covering tripped or something! Good job Alex! The next picture is of the same girl getting a free position shot.

Alex has moved into a starting position on the defense. She started and played about 3/4 of the entire game yesterday.

Messiah was ranked 13th in the country for DIII Women's lacrosse! They won't be next week. Lyco is now 5-0 and has a great chance to be ranked in the top 20 teams in the country!

Latest E-mail about Chris

Hello Friends and Family,

Well it has been a little over 6 months since Chris started her latest round of chemotherapy treatments and about 3 months since my last update to you so I thought I would send out an email to update those of you who may not have had a chance to look at the website (http://chris-dewitt-updates.blogspot.com/).

Chris had her last treatment around February 8'th and I must say that she has tolerated her treatments very well! Yes, she lost her hair (it will grow back), and had a few days of being tired but she continues to feel well and goes to work on a regular basis! The Dr. has done a great job in giving her the medications she needs to go along with the chemo to make her life easier. It seems like there is a drug for just about everything! And I think she's had most of them.

She has really been an inspiration to me and everyone around her. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am to have her as my wife. She continues to be the Mom and Wife that holds our family together. Having Alex go to college was a huge change in our lives and I'm still trying to adjust to that, but Chris has made that transition a lot easier.

March 7'th Chris had several tests, bone scan, CT scan and bloodwork. After a long day of tests at the hospital we spoke with the Dr. and found out that the bone scan showed a small area that had shown up previously on some other CT scans. The CT scan was pretty much middle of the road. Although the tumors that are in her liver have continued to reduce in size there are now more of them. As the Dr. explained it sometimes when a large tumor shrinks from chemo it may break up into several pieces. So although it is shrinking it is multiplying. It's not a bad thing though. Her blood work has shown that her liver functions are in fact normal, and that her CA 27/29 (cancer markers in the blood) are much lower than they have been before. These 2 things show that the chemo is doing what it is supposed to.

As you know Chris wants to become part of her oncologist's clinical study. It was recently highlighted on the local Washington,DC channel. Here's a link http://news.wjla.com/news/stories/0107/390502.html

Click on the video. We are very excited about her Dr. and all that she is doing and are very thankful to our previous oncologist for recommending her to us!

Now that Chris is off chemo and because her cancer is ER/PR positive (hormone positive) she is being placed on Tamoxifin. This drug prevents the naturally occurring hormones that are in her body from helping the cancer to grow. Here's a link for a better description http://www.breastcancer.org/tre_sys_tamox_idx.html

Dr. Emens explained to us how her clinical trial works and that Chris is currently eligible, but before moving forward she wanted us to see a doctor that specializes in administering chemotherapy directly to the liver and not throughout the body. The doctor's name is Dr. Georgiades and the procedure is called liver chemoembolization. It sounds really complicated but we think that it is good option for her right now. We had a meeting with Dr. Georgiades on Wednesday 3/14. Here is information on the doctor and at bottom of his page you can go to a link on the procedure.

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/vascular/staff/physicians/georgiades.html

The idea here is that they can direct undiluted doses of chemo directly into the liver and prevent it from going to other parts of the body. This attacks the tumors much better and faster than normal IV chemo. We set up an appointment for March 26 to have the procedure done. It will first be done in the right liver lobe as that is where the most lesions are. She'll be in the hospital for 2 days and then about a week recovery. After 3 weeks she goes in for scans to see the results. If they are good then she will have another procedure to do the left lobe sometime after that, otherwise they can redo the right lobe if need be. The Dr. seemed very confident that based on Chris's current reaction to chemo that this procedure will certainly be beneficial to her.

I have created a new website to replace the old one. It is now located at http://chris-dewitt-updates.blogspot.com/ It is much easier for me to maintain this website. You can also leave your comments on each of the posts as well. It's a real BLOG! Please check out the links and the Pictures Page as I post pictures there quite a bit.

Well, I'm sorry for the long message but I know you want to be kept up to date. I'll post to the blog more frequently as we move ahead. Thank you to all of you for looking after our family and keeping us in your prayers. Don't hesitate to drop us a line at any time. I'm usually awake!!!

Charlie

Frederick, MD

301-662-5453

cedewitt@adelphia.net

http://chris-dewitt-updates.blogspot.com/

Alex gets the nod...

We received an excited phone call last night from Alex. She had just finished with practice and the coach let them know that the team that finished the game on Sunday vs. Rochester would be starting this Wednesday vs. Messiah. Alex was part of that grouping! She is really excited. So, of course now we need to go back to Lycoming for a game on Wednesday at 4pm. Chris has her Dr. appt at 11am so hopefully we'll be able to get up there in time.

The weather is starting to finally break and we are able to go outside and walk around. Being stuck inside the last couple of months has really been a bummer. I don't think I would make it in Alaska that's for sure. I think they have the highest number of suicides per capita too.

I'm sending an email out sometime soon about what is happening with Chris so keep you eyes open. Dr. tomorrow....

Lyco vs. U. of Rochester

Sunday we decided to drive up to see Alex play lacrosse again. We are really glad we did. Her team played the University of Rochester and won! Alex went in the game about half way into the first half and then played the entire 2nd half! Pictures are here.

It was a long drive up and back but we were really glad to see her play and do so well. Her team has a really tough game this week against a very tough squad.

Dinner at LaPaz

Today our good friends from the Annapolis area came to visit us. We went out to dinner to LaPaz in Frederick again. We celebrated my birthday and my friend Danny's birthday. He's much older than I by a couple years.

It really makes a difference when we get a chance to visit with friends. Chris had a great time talking with the girls and I was having a great time drinking with the guys!

Got a call from Dr. Emens around 7:30 this morning. CT Scan showed smaller tumors, but more of them. ?? Both good and bad, so somewhat neutral. Yeah I know we felt the same way....She said that since the blood work showed good progress that sometimes when a large tumors shrinks it may break into multiple pieces and that may be what they are seeing. They are going to analyze the scans to confirm. Chris is going to contact the specialist today and set up a consult for next week

After going round and round we finally decided to go up to Lycomig to watch Alex's 1'st home lacrosse game. It was exciting to see her playing. They played York college and won fairly easily.

They are now 3-0 and have another game at home on Sunday vs. the University of Rochester. We're going back up to see that one too. We're taking in as many games as we can as the boys start playing lacrosse games in another week. Pictures are posted on the picture page.

Dr. Emens called this morning and Chris was at work. She called there but didn't leave a message. We did not end up speaking with her today... Another Dr. , the liver specialist, called and left a message for a consult. So that may be the direction.

Tests and Dr. Appt

Another looooooooooooooooooooong day. First of all no school today. Snow flurries coming down! Left at 7:30 home at 4pm. Chris had a bone scan, ct scan and bloodwork done today. After all that we met with her oncologist. The procedures took all morning and up to 1:30. We were all over the hospital as the bloodwork is done at a different location from the nuclear medicine stuff. We finall saw the Dr. and unfortunately we did not get the ct scan results.

Blood work results were good. Showed normal liver functions and her ca 27/29 markers were lower. The bone scan showed a small area that had show up on other tests so really nothing new there.

We talked with the Dr. and she explained everything about the clinical trial and believe me there is a lot to know. Here is a MUST see link that is from a Washington, DC television station showing her Dr. and the study http://news.wjla.com/news/stories/0107/390502.html

She also wanted to consult with a specialist Dr. that does a procedure where chemo is sent directly to the liver mets. We'll know more on the scans when the report comes in.

Dinner was provided by our neighbors The Libonate's. It came at a perfect day and time. Thank you so much guys.

Chris and I went to parent/teacher conferences tonight for both of the boys. All is going very well for them in middle school. After that we went out to dinner in downtown Frederick to a nice place called Isabella's. Check it out if you're local. If not come to Frederick and we'll take you there!

Tomorrow is a long day for Chris. We have to be at Hopkins around 8:30 for all the beginnings of her tests. CT, Bone scan and bloodwork. Then we meet with the Dr. I'll be updating you all soon...Fingers crossed please...

Alex goes back to school...

Took Alex up to meet her friend Meg who will be taking her back to school. We're disappointed that we did not get to see very much of her during her break but she is doing wonderful at school in bother her academics and her lacrosse team. She certainly adjusted well! She has 2 games this week, Thursday vs. York College and Sunday vs. U. of Rochester. We are going to try and see both games is possible.

This wednesday Chris goes to Hopkins for a bone scan, CT scan, bloodwork and then to visit with Dr. Emens. She has finished her 6 month cycle and it's time to see what happened. I'll be dropping everyone an email later this week to fill you in on the details. Please keep us in your prayers this week as we prepare!!!

We got a very nice listing on the Guestbook from the nurse that took care of us in the Frederick Oncology Center when we were attending there. She made us feel very comfortable from day 1. We really miss her and the others there as well. Check out the guestbook and drop us a note if you would like. We love hearing from everyone.

Chris and I woke up early today so we snuck out of the house and went to Beans and Bagels for breakfast! The owner there is a great guy and really enjoys seeing her when she comes out. We went to the airport to pick up Alex today around 8pm. She's home for just a few hours as tomorrow she goes back to school.

Ski Club

Well today was the next to last ski club. Tyler had lacrosse practice so he was not able to go. Michael did go and guess WHAT!? HE FORGOT HIS BOOTS!!!!! Next time he is just going to where his boots to school in the morning.