January 1, 2014

This is Doralyn Sasser, Ferrell's widow now. Unfortunately, his battle with Glioblastoma Multiforme brain cancer ended on July 3rd at about 11:50 which means he was officially declared on July 4th. He stayed in his right mind and able to move around until he took his last breath with me and Miranda in the room with him. He was in the middle of eating a cheeseburger when he asked me to hold it for him and then he breathed hard for about 30 seconds and was gone. It happened very quickly. He had a very rough day on July 3rd with a couple of falls and being very tired which all makes sense looking back now but was rough on us that day. I will go back in and fill in the gaps from January 2011 until his death on July 4th, 2011 as I can Happy New Year to everyone!

January 3rd, 2011

Once again we are headed to Birmingham for a check up and to see if the new treatment is working on the new tumor. We got up Monday and went for the MRI and then to Dr. Nabors. Good news! The tumor was shrinking and had very little blood supply to it any more although it was bigger over all. We were very excited and thought we were on the right track. So continue Temodar 21 out of every 28 days and Avastin every other week. We will see how things are in two months. In the midst of all of this, we had bought a house(11/14/11), repainted the entire interior and made it our own, closed in the formal diningroom to make a room for Austin on the opposite end of the house from all the other bedrooms so it gives him privacy. During painting over the Thanksgiving holidays, I stumbled backwards over 3 paint cans and broke my elbow right in the joint. I was furious with myself but managed to keep it in a sling for a few days before I started just holding it close to my body. They didn't cast it because it could cause my elbow to freeze up. I learned to listen to my elbow on what I could and couldn't do which was just a blast since we were painting and then moving. Oh well at least our family finally had its own space after 4 1/2 years living with and caring for my Mom. We chose to buy instead of renting when we discovered buying is cheaper and then you actually have something to show for it. We actually moved into our house the 2nd week of December. It felt like home instantly. We also had a liter of 10 boxer puppies that were born 11/29/10. The puppies were great therapy for all of us. We sold all but 1 which we intended to keep from the get go.

November 1, 2010

Ferrell, Miranda, and I headed to Birmingham for Ferrell's doctor's appt and to tour Samford University with Miranda. We got up Monday morning and went for Ferrell's MRI and then on to Dr. Nabors. When we got to Dr. Nabors office we were blown away. Ferrell's brain where he had the first tumor(on right side) was just about completely healed but he now had a new tumor on the left side. We had no idea this was coming even though we knew it was inevitable at some point. I promised myself I would never let me guard down again after this. I didn't even realize I had let it down but boy had I ever. This new tumor meant going on Temodar(oral chemo) 21 days out of every 28 and taking IV chemo called Avastin every other week. We continued on to tour Samford and were very impressed with the university. Miranda however decieded it wasn't worth taking out the loans she would need to go there. It is extremely expensive. Maybe she will go to law school there. Who knows!

1st week of Sept.

We have settled into our normal routine at home and I am back to work teaching second graders. This week we met Dr. Nabors at UAB for the first time. We really like him. He reminds me a lot of Jeff Foxworthy. He is very southern.
Everything is looking good with Ferrell's MRI. He will continue Temodar(oral chemo) at this point. We will return on November 1st.

July 30th

I am going back 9 months and updating all the big moments. Here goes: Well we finished up treatment yesterday and are being flown home by Southern Company again. We actually had the same two pilots. It was a great trip and we are so glad to be back in Florida. Yes, we had some experiences(good and bad) in NY, NY that we would never have had otherwise but if I never go back it will be too soon. The kids and our in-laws were waiting for us when we got home.

Dr. Issacson's Answer to Reoccurence Posibilities

Well I had to ask Dr. Issacson on one of our weekly visits what the possibility of reoccurence is and what treatments are available for that. He told us that there is a 100% chance of reoccurence at some point and time whether it be 6 months or 6 years or longer. He also told us about 6 different chemotherapy medicines that work very well for reoccurences. The first line of defense for a reoccurence is surgery and then chemo. No more radiation because it isn't good for the body and the chemos work very well. We are in contact with a lady who is in her 12th year of survivorship with no reoccurence which is what we are praying for with Ferrell. I was very relieved to know that there are options though if it were to ever reoccur. I knew going into this after diagnosis that a glioblastoma multiforme is incurable but I also know that it is treatable. So Ferrell and I celebrated our 25th anniversary on June 21st and plan to celebrate our 50th in 25 more years. We went back to see Dr. Lei on July 14th and she released Ferrell back to full duty at work because he has been successfully treated. I am typed out for now so I will be back sometime in the near future.

Radiation Run Through

Ferrell, the girls and I all went with him for what was to be a radiation run through but we had been told to come prepared for a real treatment. This was on June 17th and he had started the Temodar on the 16th just as we were told to. Turns out it was a real treatment and I took pictures which are on my Facebook page(against rules but we are paying for it so who cares). This was the first of 30 treatments. Ferrell had some nausea after the second radiation treatment that we are unsure if it was from radiation or chemo. He has had very few side effects since then. Some days he is more tired than others but that is easy to fix. We put him to bed. While the girls were here we spent most evenings down at the indoor swimming pool here. That was fun and I got to read. The girls worked out each evening even upper body. They devised some exercises on the side of the pool and ladders that used their body weight to work out upper body and did running through pool for lower body and swimming laps of course. It really made a big difference in both of them. We went to see several movies with them like Toy Story 3 and Eclipse. We also went to see the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, and 5th Avenue among other things. They went home on July 11th for summer camps starting with the cheer camp for 1st-6th graders that they run with Mrs. Brown. Austin flew out on July 15th and got to go with Ferrell to his treatment and actually watch everything up until the actual radiation waves were started. They let him in the room with Ferrell. I haven't even gotten to see that other than on a screen. :-P Ferrell didn't end up going with us on Saturday and Sunday because of the heat and he was tired. Austin and I went to Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Central Park and Times Square Toys R Us on Saturday. On Sunday, we went to the Museum of Natural History and back to Rockefeller Center to the Lego store there. We had a good but tiring time at all the places we went. I took tons of pics which I will upload when I get home to a faster Internet connection. Austin headed back home on July 19th due to college classes on T,W,TH. We greatly enjoyed the time that all three of our children were with us. It made the time fly by which is good.