Ariel's View - Vol. 2, No.9 (July 19th, 2007)

Some Good News to Mitigate the Bad ...

First of all, welcome to the newcomers to this newsletter.

We've finally had an opportunity to add new names from our June road trip.

And, not to bore those of you who read the last newsletter,
or who have visited my CarePage,
or those who I've talked to recently,
with old news, I'd like to bring the newcomers up to speed.

At the beginning of this month I was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer.
It is a rare but aggressive Stage IIIB cancer.

Now for the update.

I was able to find a magnificent team at Baylis Cancer Clinic in Springfield, IL.
It's a 3 1/2 hour drive each way, but it has been worth it.
I've had a variety of tests, which confirm the cancer,

BUT

The good news is ...
(this is also posted on my CarePage)

The CT scan showed no significant abnormalities in my chest, abdomen or pelvis:
my liver, spleen, pancreas, adrenals, and kidneys are OK.
The bone scan was clear except for osteoarthritis in my lower back and shoulder.

In addition, there are no abnormalities in my heart, and the chambers all appear to be the right size.
As a matter of fact, I'm in remarkably good shape!

So, the cancer is contained in the breast at the moment, along with the sentinel node.
That is such a relief, and I feel 1000% (or maybe 10,000%) more confident that we can overcome this.
I'm visualizing the cancer cells as Blue Meanies, and calling in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to sweep them all away!

Honora said the report was the best birthday present she got!
We celebrated the news and her birthday by going to see Harry Potter at IMAX (with a marvelous 3D conclusion!),
followed by a "Black and Blue" salad at O'Charlies.

I see the oncologist again next Thursday, and will find out what my treatment schedule is.

We're still planning to be at Killer Nashville in August (we've even been given our panel assignments) and GMMC!

*****

If you'd like to join my "healing"  team,
I invite you to visit my CarePage.

Go to http://www.carepages.com
You will need to register to access my page.
My page name on CarePage is SusanIsSmiling - you need to enter this on the "Visit a CarePage" page.

Keep me in your prayers, please visit my page often, and email me when you can.

*****

And, life still goes on.

In the Kitchen

Bernice has gone on a cleansing diet in sympathy with the authors.

Try this Rice Pudding recipe.

In the Garden

It's STILL a jungle - actually, more so.

I am too allergic to some of the things in the garden (especially the poison ivy, which thrives everywhere out there!)
to risk getting anything,

So I suspect we will hire a gardener to do hedge trimming, weed pulling, etc.
The fellow who does our mowing isn't into that side of it all.

Writing Projects

We continue writing
book 3 of the Ariel Quigley series -
The Reporter Who Died Probing,
slated for June, 2008.

The cookbook for that one will be fun, since there will be 4 celebrations:
Winter Solstice, Hanukah, Christmas, and Twelfth Night.

New Postings

We WILL get around to describing our 4500 mile Odyssey in May/June
and Honora will do a new Tarot card for the next newsletter,
so watch for it!

Susan Smily (Web Maven)
Honora Finkelstein