Cancer in the Family and Doing What We Can

Cancer... it sucks.

Plain and simple.

Steve's family just had another member with the sad "C" news... a cousin now has breast cancer.  Please offer prayers or good intentions if you wish.    This is the sixth person in his family now to have cancer.  Sadly, three have passed on, and three are survivors.

On the upswing, Steve's brother Mark has just been declared cancer-free!   He had a rough situation of bladder cancer and underwent some magnificent surgery and recovery.  We are so thankful that he has been able to overcome this.  Sadly, during his recovery, his darling wife (our sisinlaw) Shirley contracted breast cancer.  She didn't make it with her brave battle against this awful "C".  Leaving behind a loving family of a recovering husband, three wonderful daughters and two darling grandsons.

Steve's entire family has been suffering terribly with this horrible disease.

Please pray for a cure.


My own personal battle with Barrett's Disease is that it can develop into cancer at any time is scary. I get scoped and checked regularly. I have had my stomach and esophagus cut apart and put together a couple times in efforts to halt it's progress. Makes for some difficult digestion issues, for sure.  My body is also good at growing tumors (very fast) and I am sick of having surgeries to remove them.  I am scarred from stem to stern with multiple wounds from my hospital stays.

We do what we can, and deal with what we are able.  And we trust in our doctors and hope for the best.

We as individuals are helpless to do any research or make major strides in the development of drugs or cures.  We are not doctors or scientists or big politicians directing funds to pay to find a cure.

But in my own little corner of the world,

 I can sew.  

Yes, I can sew! 

The local Extension Agency has a program called "Stitches of Love" ... and we sew up lightweight cotton bandanna scarf type caps for summer wear for chemo patients.  These are made from crisp cotton. They are not itchy and hot like winter caps.  I went last month to a "Stitches Of  Love" gathering at the local courthouse to help cut up hundreds of bandanna scarfs and get started on sewing them up.

 It's amazing how many we could get cut up in one day! 

I took home a pile of cut up bandanna scarves and set to work on sewing them....

In the last few days, I managed to sew up forty four of them!  While I sewed, I thought of each person we have lost, of each person who has struggled, and how Cancer affects all of us.


Wheeee  It was such a lovely day that I sat sewing sewing sewing.. the humidity was down, the windows were wide open, and the breezes were coming in.  Usually Finnegan is laying by my side as I sew, and Binney is usually laying in the foyer just a few feet ahead of me, on the cool hardwood floor.  But this time, while I was sewing (and not paying attention to them) they both were GONE....   Where did I find them?  I looked out into the diningroom and saw them perched on the chairs!

I snuck the camera phone out

 and snapped a pic before they jumped down....

I think they are having a Tea Party??

I went back to my sewing, and I finished the bandanna scarves up.  I got them all pressed and tagged and brought over to the UW Extension Office in Oshkosh... As each person brings in their caps, the gals at the office take care of getting them to the oncology units at the local hospitals.

They are pretty easy to make, and we think of comfort as we construct them.  A softly padded brim, and inside stitched all tucked away so nothing rough or itchy would rub on tender skin.

Here is a You Tube link 

of a video on how to sew them:

I set this blog aside while we took a walk around the block before dark,

 with two sassy doggies on their leashes.  

It was nice to stop and chat with a few neighbors around the route we took,

 and before we knew it, it was dark and the skeeters were biting. 

Home again, Home again, 

Jiggidy Jig.