Celebration of Life for Andrea

Hello Friends,

I assume most have heard, but just in case there is someone here who has not yet been informed, Andrea passed away of leukemia (AML), Wednesday May 11th, surrounded by her family. There are no words to express how deeply we love and miss her.

The schedule for Andrea's funeral services are as follows. 

Visitation (closed casket), Wednesday, May 18, 5-7pm,

Funeral service, same day, Wednesday, May 18, 7pm

Services will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 11565 Temple Drive, Carmel IN 46032 (next to the new temple in Carmel, IN.)

Graveside service will be held the following day, Thursday, May 19, 10am at Cicero Cemetery, approximately 7850 E 236th Street, Cicero, IN 46034

We send our love and gratitude to you for following her blog and being concerned for her welfare. She treasured you, her friends and family.

A great big hug,

~Kim

Big Thank You From Andrea!

          Brian and I have been given permission by Andrea to post on her blog. Andrea’s had a rough few weeks with medication reactions followed by infection with fevers and severely low white blood counts. During the worst of it she asked us to stop treatments. Things had gotten beyond complicated, and it was time. She’s currently sleeping comfortably and enjoying a private acoustic guitar concert given by a talented young man, a music therapist. She loves acoustic guitar music, and feels calmed and relaxed by it. He played beautiful quiet music, and then asked what Andrea’s favorite songs were. Pretty soon we were all singing to, "Three Little Birds", “Don’t Worry be Happy”, and even “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

          Andrea, Brian, and I had a goal to bring her closer to home, but because of her long list of medications she has had adverse reactions to, we have chosen to keep her here at Cincinnati Children’s. They have a pain med Andrea likes and does well with, should she need it, and it can only be administered here -- even hospice cannot administer it.

          Andrea was able to have a lovely visit with her children Sunday. They went outside, Andrea in the wheelchair, and the kids played in one of the lovely fountains.

If you would like to visit Andrea, you may contact Brian or I (Kim), and we’ll give you details and let you know if it’s a good time.

          I’m sure Andrea would like to say thank you to all those who have helped her throughout her life. She will always love and appreciate you for being there for her.

Just Call Me Murphy

Murphy’s Law—if it can go wrong, it will. It’s been one thing after another in rapid fire this March! Starting in February I contracted RSV and am still fighting off the remains of it. The RSV turned into pneumonia in my left lung. Then I found out I have an E.coli UTI (tmi?) which is common for post transplant patients. And here’s the cake—after going in to Cincinnati (March 9^th) to find all of this out, they took my blood for a CBC and cultures. They found leukemic cells. I’d relapsed. They admitted me for IV antibiotics for all that was wrong with me. When I got released a few days later, I started to have severe shoulder pain to where I couldn’t sleep and was in tears. Brian took me in to the local ER. I had a superficial blood clot in my arm from my IV. Awesome. So the docs prescribed some pain killers. My body seems to hate pain killers, but I was determined to celebrate Little Man’s 4^th BIRTHDAY!!! Yay!!! So I took the medicine and it was working decently and I made it through the day! That evening when I was about to take more meds, I started itching terribly. I stopped the meds immediately and sat around with frozen veggies under my arms and on my tummy until the itching was tolerable enough to get up. And of course the natural thing to do at that point is clean out your fridge… So I’m cleaning out and rearranging, and a big glass storage container came jumping out, landing solidly on my pinky toe, breaking it. Just call me Murphy.

So I kinda dropped the bomb that I’ve relapsed. It’s been a shock for all of us. Living with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, I’ve always known that I’d keep getting cancers, but I was really hoping to have a bigger break than less than a year. We’ve been keeping it pretty private this time around and are asking all your respect in this as well. Time is precious, and we just want to spend as much as possible as a family. I will still try and keep you updated on this blog, but I make no promises. Robert D. Hales says, “When you can’t do what you’ve always done, then you only do what matters most.”

Know that we love you all very much.