Keys Game

Sunday was a beautiful day. Chris really enjoys going to the Frederick Keys baseball games. She advertises her credit union with them and has a great relationship with the VP there. She said that today would be a good day to go and we made it happen. 2pm game on a beautiful sunny day. We had great seats, and the boys had fun too. It was the 1st game this season. We'll be going a lot more once school and lacrosse are over. For those who don't know the Keys are the single-A farm team for the Baltimore Orioles.

Alex game

Friday, I drove up to watch Alex's game. Her team squeezed in another quick game before the end of the season against a pretty tough opponent. Although they played hard and were winning at halftime 9-6 they ended up losing 14-12 in overtime!!! Another heartbreaker. It didn't matter too much though as it was non-conference.

Saturday their team finished the season up at Wilkes college and won 18-6. Alex played a lot and did really well. They now have their conference tournament that begins on Tuesday. Chris and I are hoping to go up and see them play that day. If they win they keep playing. Lose and their season is done.

Since I went alone Chris and the boys spent the evening together. They had nice evening and went shopping for some clothes! They're all good at that.

Alex is completely done with school. I brought home some things on Friday night that she won't need. She moves to another dorm on Monday where the entire team will stay together during the last week of games.

Great Weekend!

Well the sun finally shined down on our family last Thursday and continued to do so through the weekend! The weather was just perfect.

Saturday was lacrosse day for the boys. Both won their games. Alex's team went to Drew University in NJ for another tough conference matchup. They lost in overtime by a 14-13 score! The same score their other loss was. They have 2 losses all season by 1 goal each! She got some good playing time and the loss was really tough to swallow. She has final exams this week. One each day Monday through Thursday. She has Friday off and everyone leaves Lycoming on Saturday. Everyone but her team. Her team has an away game on Saturday. The final game of the season. It is against Wilkes (of Wilkes/Barre in PA) After the game they have to move out of their rooms to another dorm and their MAC conference tournament starts on Tuesday. If they keep winning then they play Tuesday, Thursday and Championship on Saturday. Lose and they are done. Win the championship and they stay another week or so for the NCAA Division III tournament! Very exciting for her! Notice something funny in the pictures? Yeah that's right RED hair! College life!

Chris is great. Thanks to everyone who sent wishes of congratulations to us. We can't tell you what they mean to us. She will be going to see her oncologist in a few weeks and discuss where and what to do next. For now she's enjoying the wonderful weather and relaxing!

Last Night's Email

For those who have not read their email or are not on the list, this went out last night...

Dear Friends,

As you know Chris underwent a chemoembolization about 3 weeks ago. It was a very tough procedure and took her a couple of weeks to get back on her feet. Today she went back to Johns Hopkins for a follow-up MRI of her liver to see how things went. The images show almost a very large reduction of tumor size in the lobe that they did the procedure! The Doctor was very, very pleased with the results. The liver has holes left in it that are filled with fluid at this point. Her left liver lobe only shows 2 small spots of activity and the Dr. said that they pose no immediate harm!

This is finally some news that we've been waiting to hear. Our lives have been a roller coaster for the past 2 1/2 years and right now we're back on top! So what does this all mean? It means for the time being, Chris can enjoy everything that she deserves to enjoy! She will return in another month for another MRI and who knows what we may find out then. We live our lives in tight little moments and right now we're enjoying this moment to the fullest!

I could not attend this appointment. The first Dr. appointment I've missed in almost 3 years. I was flying back from Portland and called her from my 1 hour layover. As soon as she told me the tears started flowing and they were tears of joy. A little embarrassing in an airport full of people but I didn't care. Thank you to everyone for all the prayers, dinners, cards, flowers, and all the little things too like rides for the boys. I really cannot tell you how grateful we are to each and every one of you.

Charlie

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

Busy Week while I'm gone...

Well it is Thursday morning and I am sitting at the Portland, Oregon airport. They happen to have free wireless in the airport so with 2 hours to spend I thought I would catch up on some blog!

I flew out here on Tuesday for a meeting on Wednesday. It's a long way to go but sometimes you just have to meet clients face to face. I got in really late on Tuesday. Wednesday I drove around a little bit and tried to see Mount Hood. Huge mountain. The weather wasn't too cooperative as it was rainy and overcast. Typical for this area. I did see Multnomah Falls. Just breathtaking! I took the picture at the left while I was standing there and even went across the little bridge which was built in 1914 out of concrete!!!

Wednesday, Alex had another home game at Lycoming. Chrissy really wanted to see her play so she and Michael packed up the car and drove up there! She was really glad she did and so was Alex. They won again and Alex got some good playing time. Chris was really tired and didn't get home until after 10pm but made it home safely.

Today, Chrissy has an MRI appointment followed by a meeting with the Dr. that performed the chemoembolization 3 weeks ago. It really pains me that I cannot be there for the appointment. I believe that it is the first Dr. appointment I've missed with her in 3 years... Her Mom and Dad took her to Johns Hopkins and is going to be with her all day so I know that she's not by herself. She said she could do it on her own but I insisted that someone be with her. We are really praying that the Dr. sheds some promising news on our life at todays appointment. We don't know what the next steps are and that is always the hardest part of this ordeal. I'll post tomorrow and bring you up to date.

This weekend is supposed to be sunny and near 70. We are looking forward to just getting outside! The cold weather is really starting to wear on us all.

Rainy Sunday

Well today is Sunday and it is a very rainy one at that. Plans for the day are ______. Nothing! Sit around and do nothing. Haven't had one of those days in awhile.

Yesterday was lacrosse day. Tyler played in Frederick, Michael in Hagerstown, and Alex played at home. Of course Tyler forgot his cleats, Michael forgot his jersey and Alex.... well she did well on her own! Let's just say from now on every piece of equipment/clothing will be laid out on the garage floor and inventoried by ME before we go!!!

Tyler and Michael both won their games. They play with the spireslacrosse club here in Frederick. I'm on the Board and involved with the club as well. It is an excellent club and provides lacrosse for over 150 kids this year.

Alex's team rolled over a lesser opponent on Saturday. She did great and play more than 3/4 of the entire game. Results are here. She has only 1 week of classes left, then 1 week of finals. It is hard to believe that her freshman year is almost over... oh wait a minute I just looked at the savings account balance, it's over!!!!!

Friday, some very good friends of ours that live in Rochester, NY stopped in Frederick on their way home from NC. We went out to dinner with them for a few hours. It was really great seeing them again. We stay in touch via e-mails but nothings better than a friendly hug once in awhile. They have been through quite a lot in recent years as their 11-year old son, Ryan, recently passed away from leukemia. We talk a lot about things and it is nice to have someone that knows exactly what is going on in our family. Information on Ryan is here. Thanks for stopping in Rich, Jill and Shannon. You are in our thoughts every day!


This is a busy week for us, I have to fly to Oregon on Tuesday and home on Thursday. Chris has an MRI and Dr. appointment on Thursday. She wants to go to Alex's next lacrosse game on Wednesday so she may be driving up there on that day. She knows how to get there but I think we'll try and find someone to go with her.

Have a great week!

1st Loss

Yesterday Alex's lacrosse team played Elizabethtown and unfortunately was defeated. They had just moved up 1 more notch in the coach's poll to number 16 in the country when they found themselves up against a very aggressive team. They lost by one goal, 14-13. The winning goal happened with only 22 seconds left in the game! You can read E-town's review here or Lycoming's review here.

Chris and I were able to go up an watch the game. She was feeling pretty well but still fighting off the fever. She slept most of the way up and back but that was okay. It was really good to get out and see Alex's team again.

We did speak with the Doctor on Monday about Chris's fever. As long as it stays in the 100-101 range that is okay and not cause for concern. In fact, it could be considered a good thing as it is probably her body trying to rid itself of the cancer cells that were killed during the procedure 2 weeks ago. There's a bunch of them and they gotta go somewhere! She will see the Dr. next week.

After Easter

Well Easter was nice. Alex and John (boyfriend) were here. They could use a course in navigation though on Friday. Seems as if finding downtown Baltimore wasn't as easy as they thought. They even had my GPS with them and could not find it.... They eventually did though.

Friday the boys and I went to the Hood College Men's Lacrosse game in Frederick. They got to be ball boys and enjoyed that. Chrissy went to work for the afternoon and did pretty well. She continues to fight off this darn low-grade fever. She takes ibuprofen and it goes away but it is starting to be a pain for her.

Saturday was a lacrosse tournament in Frederick for all the city boys teams. We went and watched some of those. It was really cold and blustery outside though. Chris stayed home to keep warm! While home Chris got a bunch of Easter eggs together and had an Easter egg hunt for the kids (yeah all of them) Saturday evening. They had a good time and so did Chris!

Sunday was an early morning as we all went to 9am mass to celebrate Easter. Around 1pm most of the family came over and we had lunch with everyone. Chris really enjoyed having everyone over even if some couldn't make it. At 2:30 though I had to pack up the car and drive Alex and John back up to Lycoming. She had lacrosse practice at 6pm so she needed to get back. They have a really tough game coming up on Tuesday vs. Elizabethtown. We are going to try and watch that if Chris is feeling up to it. I got home around 9:30 and was exhausted.

Happy Easter to everyone. And a special thanks to Andrew from COMSTAR for making dinner for us last week. A wonderful pasta with chicken. You would never think that an IT guy could cook too, but he can!!! :)

Good Friday

Well Chris continues to battle a low-grade fever. It spikes up to about 101 and then back down with some ibuprofen. She did well at work on Wed but yesterday stayed at home because of her fever. She is feeling okay except for this. Today she plans on going into the office for a little while while I take the boys to the Hood College Men's Lacrosse Game. They are going to be ball boys for the team during the game.

Yesterday I went up to Lycoming to pick up Alex for the weekend. In addition to her dirty laundry she also brought her boyfriend with her! :) His name is John. We had a nice dinner at home after we got back and sat around and spent time together after that. Good evening!

Today Alex and John are going to visit Baltimore's Inner Harbor. So I had to get them directions in hopes that they don't get lost and call me! I gave them my portable Garmin GPS to so hopefully they'll be back later!

Back to work day...

Well Chris just left to go back to work a few minutes ago. Yesterday she was feeling much better and even went out shopping for a little bit to get things for Easter. She has stopped taking her pain meds as that has finally subsided.

Lisa from COMSTAR stopped in last night and dropped some things off for Chris. Chris was glad to get see her for the time she was here. She's been cooped up for 10 days now and is itching to get back to the real world.

Hopkin's called yesterday to discuss her follow up MRI and when she will see the Dr. That date is April 19. Bad date. I made reservations to fly to Portland, OR for a meeting on the 17 - 19. Chris said it was okay and that she would be fine. I will find someone to take her and stay with her for the short trip to the hospital that day. Any volunteers?

They did tell Chris that the blood work done on Monday was showing all very good numbers for just about everything. That was good news. They can tell so much from a blood test now. The only thing that was a little low were her Red Blood Cells. But not low enough for concern.

Alex's team continues to do well. After last week's win they are now ranked 17th in the country in the DIII Coach's Poll. Find it here. Just incredible!

She and her boyfriend are coming home Thursday. Of course I have to go up and get them. She originally had a game but that has been canceled. I guess the other team was scared of them or something. She'll only be home until Sunday when I take them back up in the afternoon.

Oh yeah and the boys are now off school until next TUESDAY!!!! And it's raining outside today... Oh happy day. I'm sure they'll make it through the day!

Good Weekend

Well Chris made it through the weekend. She stayed home all weekend recovering slowly. Her appetite is back and the pain has started to subside which is great. She is up and about now and starting to get back to normal. I'm taking her to get some bloodwork done later this morning and then I'm running her down to her office to get some things so she can work from home. She's not quite ready to get back to normal.

Our good friend Cheryl came over yesterday and visited with Chris for awhile. I was outside planting some flowers for Chris that we had bought. Late Cheryl brought over some crab bisque! It was tremendous.

Thank you to everyone who has made a donation to the Avon Walk! I cannot tell you how much it helps. I have forwarded checks that I received over to Cheryl and she will send them in. She is well on her way to reaching her goal.

Alex's team won AGAIN yesterday! They beat the 18'th ranked team in the country. Lycoming is ranked 20th. Depending on which poll you read. Read about it here.

There are 167 Division III teams in the country, 40 DII and only 81 DI schools in the country. Many of the top ranked DIII schools compete with most of the DI and DII schools without a problem. In fact Lycoming scrimmages with some teams regularly.

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!