LATEST CA125 TEST
We got the latest CA125 test result from last Wednesday's blood letting. Good news. It has dropped to 89 from 279 three weeks ago. I had hoped it would be 11 but maybe next time.
Lou has been feeling pretty good from this last round of chemo. She walked yesterday and today got all the way down the hiway before I got back from my 2 miles. She was totally out of energy when she got back, but felt better for having made the journey. She napped some this morning. Her back has been a lot better, unless she tries to do too much work around the house. Yesterday her face was flushed some, but better today. She still has a good attitude, but said she was tired of reading Westerns. Two more came today and the entries can be submitted until the end of December.

ALAMO HEIGHTS HS
Check page 116 of the new December issue of Texas Monthly. This is their annual survey of schools and number 1 in high schools is Alamo Heights in San Antonio. That is where our daughter Kathy is a counselor, so naturally it has to be the best!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM ALASKA

This was the email sent by Louann Bates now teaching in Alaska.

Happy Thanksgiving to Everybody that I Miss SoMuch!!!!!!

I hope all of you had a very warm and happyThanksgiving holiday. I've been putting together photo albums which has enhanced my thoughts of home, family and friends. It was very quiet in Twin Hills this holiday...rainyand overcast most of the time. I had a lateThanksgiving dinner with the other teacher and his wife, Rod and Barbara. It was delicious and very traditional. I am so fortunate to have had them to share Thanksgiving dinner with.

I actually don't have much to report in the way of news. I am attaching some pictures of winter scenes and of my students having popcorn and candy corn in my apartment the day before Thanksgiving while watching a movie.

One day last week while we were discussing the pilgrims, one of the children ask me if my daddy was a cowboy. I replied by saying," Well, let's see.....he had a horse, and he had had cows......" Then Carlton interjected this question, "Does he have a pistol?" Of course, I said, "Yes...but" Carlton then said with much conviction, "He is a cowboy!" So I agreed with him that my daddy surely must have been a cowboy. Later the conversation also revealed that my dad wore a cowboy hat and boots, so they were thoroughlyconvinced. I actually never thought of Daddy as being a "cowboy", but he definitely possessed many of the "cowboy" traits as explained by the all-knowing little fellows in my classroom. I think Daddy would have been pleased to hear that they consider him a"Texas Cowboy".

I can't tell you how much I miss home.....I only have 27 sleeps left.

I will be very busy during the next four weeks getting a Christmas program together. I think we have just decided on having a sing-a-long with the parents and community members. That makes for much less stress. However, there are still things to be done to make it all come about successfully.

Continue to pray for good flying weather with no fog.

I love you all very much and think about you all the time.

Happy Thanksgiving from the bottom of my heart!

I love you and miss you all!

Louann

CHEMO AGAIN
This morning we got up early to drive to Texas Oncology for an 8:45 appoinment with Dr. Hancock and another round of chemo. The blood tests that they run show that Lou's white and red blood cells are normal as is her blood pressure which is good news. We will call in Friday to see what the CA125 number is. Dr. Hancock couldn't give us any prediction on how many more chemos will be required until he sees the CA125 results.

Lou had a great nurse, Jane Aves, and didn't even feel the needle insertion and had no pain or bleeding with the infusion of carboplatin and taxol (the new stuff). We had Ashley and Ross come by with lunch at noon and enjoyed visiting with them. Ashley has her Christmas tree up and decorated with the stars that they bought at the Lord's Acre. She is driving to Denton for class tonight. Lou was through with chemo at 1:30 and we were home by 3:45 with no phone calls on the machine. Mark called from Japan to check on Lou. They are skipping Hawaii due to the hassle of a two day visit. He has a doctor's appointment Monday in FW.

SNOW EVENT
It is mighty quiet after having all the family around until Saturday afternoon. We had a big snow event predicted after midnight today, but during the night all we got was rain. I haven't been up close to my rain guage but from here it looks like it was over 1 1/2 inches. For the first time that I can remember I didn't go to teach SS and church. I stayed home with Lou. I pray that the good Lord will forgive me. This afternoon at 2:15 I was sleeping but Lou said there was a little sleet, then large snow flakes and since then it has snowed right down. She woke me at 3 so I wouldn't miss it. It is now 5:15 and has quit. I have looked at a radar loop and it looks like it will stop for an hour or so and then there is more coming in behind it. So we are getting our predicted snow storm a few hours late. On TV they are cancelling a lot of events and delaying some tomorrow.

I couldn't get on the net when I started this. After I brushed about 2" of snow off of the satellite dish, it worked fine. We heard from Mark in Nagoya. He called at 9 last night using an internet connection and gave us a number in the metroplex that we can call him. Our daughter had called saying they all got home in San Antonio. Ness had called Saturday about 1 saying she got to Lubbock safely. For lunch I got to eat another of Ness' bonbons.

This has been a book reading day. Lou continues to work her way through the Spur novels that she is judging. She expects to get a bunch more before the time limit expires at the end of December. I finished one that she recommended and think it should be a winner. I can't give the title until the judging is done and the awards made. Next I will get back to Glenn Beck's book so that I can pass it along to Jon-Marc.

GREAT THANKSGIVING WEEKEND
You can't beat a weekend when it snows on Thanksgiving day, the Aggies beat tu in football and the Aggies basketball team wins the NIT tournament in Madison Square Garden in NYC. I walked this morning with Kathy and enjoyed the nice weather with the snow making all our cedar trees look like Christmas trees. The only down side is the Mavericks losing at Indiana.

Today is Mark's birthday and they are celebrating by flying back to Nagoya to visit their friends there and come home by Hawaii. Mark called from DFW about 7:30 a.m. to say they had gone to the airport at 5. When Lou told him to have a good birthday he said it would be the shortest birthday of his life because he will be crossing the international dateline into tomorrow in a few hours. They were flying to Minneapolis, Toyko and Nagoya which is a long trip for a short birthday.

Yesterday our daughter, her two daughters, her son, Jon-Marc and her husband made a great Thanksgiving dinner with every gastronomic taste for every palate. Keith and Jon-Marc (over Lou's dead body) deep fat fried three turkeys while Kathy baked one in our oven. The deep fried have become a tradition for the Wilcoxs. They cook one for each grandkid. Our oldest grandson had to cancel their trip because their two sons were under the weather and Lou has a low resistance due to her chemo. We had a full house for dinner with Ike & Sue, her daughters Amanda and Diana, with her husband, Kent Livesay, sons Whitt, Taylor and Logan. As well as Amanda's dog.

For dessert, Kathy made home-made ice cream, Vanessa made home-made chocolate bon-bons, Susan Hunter's pecan pie from the Lord's Acre auction, Kathy made a pumpkin pie, an apple pie, and Kent brought high dollar banana pudding from Stephenville. Plus a cherry-cream cheese-brownie, and I don't know what else. It was pure heaven eating for me. After watching the Dallas Cowboys beat the Jets, it started snowing huge flakes and Diana insisted that Kent get photos of her sons in the snow storm for her Christmas Cards. They got a lot of good photos.

In the literary world, UPS delivered Glenn Beck's AN INCONVIENT BOOK and we found that Jon-Marc is a fan of his. Both he and Valerie have read some chapters. I finished Bill Neal's book and read one chapter in Beck's book.

SHORT HAIRCUT
Yesterday and this morning Lou was feeling depressed. I think it was because she was going through the trauma of again losing her hair. It was beginning to fall out so she called her hair dresser and had it shorn this morning. She came out feeling somewhat better and after her favorite meal of chicken fried steak at the Staghorn she was in a better mood. She liked the fact that Connie Kirkham at Connie's Cuts and Curls had talked her into leaving it about 3/4" long so that it looks like a close haircut rather than being bald. It may still fall out but she will be able to handle it better. She has walked 1/2 mile each morning for the last three. The first day was a real effort, but a little easier each day. She still is short on energy and has back pains that move around. Our son, Mark, suggested a few walnuts every night to help her sleep better and she has been trying that. She has never slept well but some nights are better than others.

She is working on reading her Spur novels, working on a reader's report on a manuscript and keeps talking about writing more on her memoirs.

We are looking forward to some family coming in for Thanksgiving. Lou went with me to the store after we ate lunch to choose a Butterball turkey. We also picked up another carton of frozen yougurt from Bluebell that she likes. She eats a dish of ice cream every day sometimes twice.

Our space cadet teacher granddaughter Val will come in first next Monday and we are looking forward to at good week. The first freeze is predicted for Thanksgiving morning. I hope to keep my tomato plants in production by protecting them, although I have not had good luck doing that in the past.

LORD'S ACRE WEEKEND
Our Cross Plains Methodist Church revived our traditional Lord's Acre celebration after a year's hiatus. Last year we cooked the traditional dinner but gave it to those in need in the area and at the nursing home. This year we returned to the all day affair with the Little Store open at 9 in the morning, the Turkey dinner at 5 and our great auction at 7. Mary Kathryn donated jars of jelly she had made and they sold out immediately in the little store. She donated a handmade ladies jacket of many fall colors that had drew spirited bidding. The preacher really wanted it but when she saw that I was bidding on it she stopped because she thought I was buying it for Lou. She was overjoyed when I gave it to her. MK had promised she was making a special one for Lou. Ashley and Ross also came and they enjoyed the event. We had a lot of new people and the first count on our income was over $12,000 which is pretty good for not having it at the church and having lost some members from the last time we celebrated.

Lou is having some reaction to the last round of chemo. It always is worse the fourth and fifth day after. She has some pain in the edges of her hands this time that she hasn't had in the past. She has a good attitude but elected to stay home because she doesn't want to risk being in a public crowd with her lowered resistance. She has marked the calender to have her hair removed on Nov. 21.

Today I had to go to the Library board meeting, bought groceries and fixed some great leftovers from having MK here cooking this weekend. She made chicken in a sauce that was fantastic. We also ate some of the sweet potatoes and cabbage plus I ate the spinach and apple salad she left. We did the laundry and I only goofed on a couple of procedures. I also did the ironing that Lou has been doing in the past. Lou got a call from Sylvia Grider just as she was in the process of emailing her. That pleased her to get to talk to Sylvia.

CA125 UPDATE
They take Lou's blood on Wednesday but have to send off for the CA125 test. So we get it on Friday. Today they reported it was down to 275 which is lower than the last 420. We expect it to be a lot lower after the carboplatin/doctaxel chemo. It dropped dramatically the first time she took this regime.

Keep her in your prayers.

TWU & NEW CHEMO UPDATE
Tuesday was the annual Joyce Thompson Lecture that Lou has only missed one or two times since it was started. Lou got to sit next to Libba Bray at a small luncheon in the TWU Library and discuss women writers. I sat next to Libba's mother who is a retired Denton school teacher. Libba grew up in Denton, went to UT Austin to major in Theater, migrated to NYC to work as a playwright, met a husband in the book publishing business, switched to writing Young Adult novels and has been very successful. She has two books in a trilogy that sold out after her presentation. A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY and REBEL ANGELS will be followed by the third book this December. Lou was recognized by her good friend Phyllis Bridges, who was Joyce Thompson's great friend and who has organized the lecture series, who pointed out that Lou is only the fourth person to be recognized as a Texas Folklore Society Fellow. Libba gave a great talk and was swarmed by many of her Denton classmates and teachers. The room was a large auditorium and mostly filled. Many surrounding high schools bused in students for the lecture. Lou got to visit with Ann Barton and Dawn Letson who are planning a visit from the Library to look at Lou's papers that will go to the Library.

This morning was another oncology visit. She was scheduled for her third Doxil chemo, but Dr. Hancock said he was not pleased with the increase in CA125 marker and changed the chemo protocol back to carboplatin and taxol but changed the taxol to Docetaxel that is newer and has fewer side effects than taxol. The bad news is that the return to this protocol will mean hair loss in a couple of weeks, but Lou told Hancock that she still has her Do Rags and her Maverick ball cap now that the BB season is back. I asked him if Lou could increase her ginger intake to 6 gms a day, 2 at each meal, and he had no problem with that suggestion. It will help my feelings even if it hasn't reached the medical approval level as a treatment. Also the recent article I listed that told about cranberry juice making platins six times more effective means I will give Lou a cranberry juice glass every day. Her next chemo will be November 28. We will get her latest CA125 Friday.

We are so fortunate to have our daughter-in-law, Mary Kathryn, to stay with and to help us at the oncology clinic. We got to take her and Ashley to eat at Mi Cocina that let us catch up on Ashley's graduate work and marriage. Ross was working late and couldn't eat with us. Mark is in Bethesda getting groomed by Lockheed with executive classes and was there all week. MK drove us to the clinic and then brought us ChikFLa sandwich's for lunch, plus a brownie for me. She also asked Dr. Hancock questions such as why he didn't use surgery this time. He said that before the cancer was scattered all over the abdominal wall and that surgery can't find all of the cancer points which is why they use the chemo treatment. He will order CAT Scans later to look for indications of the cancer growths. He said that they have a lot of other protocols if this doesn't work.

I forgot to bring a book to read so MK gave me her mother's copy of Jenna Bush's ANA that I read. It is a fascinating story of a South American girl who is born with HIV and grows up watching her father and mother die of AIDS and experiences abuse from her 40 year old grandmother's boyfriend, is sent to a reform school, then an AIDS hostel, meets a boy and becomes a mother at age 16, but whose daughter is HIV free. The book ends with her at age 17 looking for a better life. The back of the book has numerous opportunities for volunteer service including a recommendation for school students to become active in Key clubs like the one we sponsor by the Kiwanis here in Cross Plains.

Coming home Lou did not have any of the predicted nausea problems. The pharmacist told her she was very fortunate not to have nausea with this chemo. Lou told me that she needed to get back to writing and not be so involved in other projects. Of course she is still judging Spur novels and I started one that she brought with her to the chemo session. It is a great read about the Lakota fighting the white man's invasion of their territory. I didn't get to finish it. Lou has a good frame of mind and is optimistic about this chemo session and is glad that she isn't having any more surgery. Having been through the hair loss she knows she can handle another session.

Also my Shingles is almost completely gone and I am feeling better. I still need and get a lot of sleep, although I have missed my afternoon nap the last two days. Lou will probably have to miss the Lord's Acre events because her immune system will again be depressed by this chemo for the next several days. MK sent a beautiful jacket she made for the auction and several jars of jelly she made for either the little store or the auction. She and Mark, Ashley and Ross all plan to come out Saturday for the Lord's Acre and I hope they can make it.

Keep Lou in your prayers. They are the most effective medicine.

GREAT WEEKEND AND ALASKA NEWS

It has been another great weekend. This time our daughter-in-law was cooking for us and our son was working on a computer solution for Lou to print downstairs. After spending hours trying to get a wireless printer server working, Mark gave up on that and moved the printer downstairs physically and Lou can plug into it when she needs to print. We went to Abilene to buy the machine and Mary Kathryn visited the famous Vletas chocolate factory to buy pralines to take on their trip to Japan as gifts for her friends. Highest priced chocolates in the world, but good. Dotty enjoyed being out here but got tired of the stickers in our yard and this morning when the deer hunters were shooting all around she stayed real close to the house and would have prefered to be inside.


I just got the following email from Louann in Alaska to share with everyone. Kinda nostalgic reminding us of Ma's mathematical quilts. She had several of them.



Hello, Everybody,I know that it has been a while since I have last written. I'm still here! If I repeat anything that I have previously written, please forgive me. ( I couldn't find record of my last email to everybody.) Anyway......we have had our first snow. It snowed a couple of days a couple of weeks ago. The snow stayed on the ground for about a week. I enjoyed going walking and finding the different animal tracks in the snow. I know that I saw ptarmigan track, and I thought I saw caribou. But after talking to one of the elders, I don't think what I saw was big enough for a caribou. Regardless, my walking adventures are always fun, especially when I go to new places.


I went to Dillingham last weekend for a workshop on how to teach math using the Yupik culture. It was very interesting. The entire time I thought of my grandmother. For those of you who don't know, she was a math teacher and a quilter. The workshop was about how to teach patterning to the children through the patterns the natives use to make parkas (the parkas made from animal skin and fur). The natives not only use meaningful patterns on the parkas, but they also incorporate symbols that denote the different families...kind of like a family crest. One of the native ladies teaching the in-service, showed us how her mother would make straight lines and shapes having straight lines from food can labels that she would peel off and save. We made stars, squares, and all kinds of polygons without the use of rulers. I told one of the presenters about Ma, my grandmother, and how she made a quilt based on the Pythagorean Theorem. The presenter was very interested and said that one of the native ladies teaching the workshop had come up with the same pattern, but didn't realize that it had a name. I could just imagine my grandmother sitting there sharing her craft with these ladies as they shared theirs with her. I could see her hands working and hear her voice explaining. My only regret is that I wish I had paid more attention when I had her words to guide me in learning how to quilt. It seems like we don't truly appreciate the important things (the legacies) at the most important time of learning all about them. Anyway, the workshop was a sweet time for me just taking the time to remember Ma and the things that made her so special.


While in Dillingham, I bought a pumpkin. Several of my students had never carved a pumpkin. So we spent the next day making a Jack-o-Lantern and eating roasted pumpkin seeds. Then on Halloween we had a party in the gym for the whole community. It seems the adults enjoyed the fun as much as the children did. I would like to see the adults get together more often just to have fun. Jessica and Aggie, two of the ladies who work at the school, and I are talking about seeing if there is an interest in learning how to line dance or something. We have videos......we can all learn together. Anyway, we'll see.


I am seeing progress in the children's learning. My first graders are beginning to really pick up with their reading readiness.....actually several of them are reading. My kindergarten boys are staying right there with the first graders. I'm very proud of all of them. I have received some positive comments from a couple of the parents.....that's always encouraging. Aggie, one of the paras, told me that she could hear my Texas accent coming from my students as they read their sight words to her. Can you imagine that? (smile)


There is so much more to tell you. I promise to write more often so I don't leave anything out. I will sent pictures, but they will come in a separate email. They seem to transmit better that way. I know there are things that I am leaving out, but I will include them next time.


I miss you all very much! ....... just 49 sleeps before I fly home for the holidays. I can't wait! I love you all,

Louann
P.S. I don't have time to send pics before 8:00am, so they will be sent tonight......Yahoo is banned within the school's network from 8-4 each day.