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Nancy's Family Updates
"The best way to keep children home is to make the home atmosphere
pleasant -- and let the air out of the tires." -- Dorothy Parker
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| To the world you may be one person,
"but to one person" you may be THE WORLD ...Author Unknown |
May 2008May 11th Willow is now waving bye bye and saying bye bye !!! She has been pulling up for weeks and taking steps while holding on to something. She is sooooo close to taking her first little step ! :) She will be 11 months old in 6 more days.I have been working at Scripps for 10 1/2 years - wow - time flies !!! I work with a great group of people. :) Sunny is working in Medical Transcription now, she got a job with the lady that she did her internship with - she gets to work from home and be with Willow. Charles is working constantly. Clint, also is working all the time and Brittany works and goes to school to become a Veterinarian. May 3rd Sunny and Charles made it official - their Wedding Day !!! |
November 24th, 2007Willow got her very first tooth. (Thanksgiving Day) |
June 18th, 2007Sunny and Charles' daughter (MY GRANDDAUGHTER !) - Willow Mandie-Carol Miller was born !!!!weight - 8 pounds 10 ounces length - 21 inches long full head of dark, dark hair - just like her daddy has her Mother's little dimples. |
August 6th, 2005Clint and Brittany got married !!!! |
May 7th, 2005Brittany graduated from Middle Tennessee State University |
May 15th, 2004Clint graduated from Middle Tennessee State University |
December 7th, 2002Bill passed away December 7th, 2002; 6:17 pm at Fort Sanders Regional Hospital in Knoxville after a 14 month battle with Glioblastoma Multiforme IV (brain cancer).
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July 2002
July 10th: We had follow up visits with both Dr. Jaeckle and Dr. Wharen. July 9th: Bill was released from the hospital. July 3rd: Bill had surgery "Left temporal Craniotomy" and resection of the left temporal glioblastoma. 80 % of the tumor was removed. Doctor Wharen (his Mayo surgeon) said: NO more surgeries will be done. |
May 2002Clint moved home for the summer - from MTSU - this is the first time he has lived at home in years. Bill and I have been traveling down to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville every 8 weeks. He began the clinical trials drug "zd1839" in January. This drug later became known as "Iressa". He did wonderful on this drug for several months. When we went down for our July visit he had MRIs and labs on July 1st, physician visits on July 2nd. We found out that the tumor had returned and was even larger than it was when he was diagnosed in October. There had been NO visible tumor 8 weeks prior. |
January 2002Bill began taking the drug "zd1839" which later came to be known as "Iressa". The drug worked wonderfully for a time, |
December 2001Wednesday Dec 26th: Clint took 18 hours at MTSU this past semester (6 classes) he made all A's... a 4.0 GPA !!!! Sunny is now engaged to be married, the date has been set for March 20th of this year (Bill and my 25th Wedding Anniversary). Friday Dec 21st: Bill has medication that he takes daily to combat the nausea. He cannot hear out of his left ear which has been effected by the radiation treatments. The hearing should return a few weeks after completion of the treatments - it is due to a fluid build up. Sunday Dec 2nd: Bill's hair began to fall out today. We were told that it will fall out in the areas where the radiation is concentrated, primarily the left side and the back of his head. Bill has been getting nauseated this past week but not terribly bad. He finds that drinking Coca Cola (which he rarely, if ever normally drinks) helps fight off the nausea. Radiation to the brain sometimes causes nausea but we are hopeful this will pass soon. |
November 2001
Thursday Nov 29th: Here are some wonderful links
November 22nd: (Thanksgiving evening) Uncle Ted took a fall while hanging Christmas lights and the accident resulted in his death on Monday November 26th, 2001. His funeral was Wednesday November 28, 2001. November 12th: We had an appointment at Mayo clinic in Jacksonville, Florida and saw Dr. Kurt Jaeckle who has done a lot of work with these type brain tumors. He instructed us to immediately begin radiation treatment (35 treatments), wait (2) weeks then come back to Mayo clinic, have an MRI done. Assuming there is no new growth and the tumor is stable, Bill will then begin a drug (sponsored by the NCI) called ZD 1839 . This is a clinical trials drug that has been very successful in treating Prostate and Lung cancers. It targests Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) a cell-surface receptor, which are in the highest concentration in Glioma tumors than in all other cancers, this according to my rather cryptic notes from Dr. Jaeckle (and my miniscule understanding). This drug has fewer side effects than most forms of drugs used to treat this condition. That combined with the good results that are expected, using this treatment gives us a great deal of hope for recovery. We will go down to Mayo every 8 weeks to get the drug treatment which consists of medication that is taken orally (1 pill per day) and can be taken for up to 2 years. |
October 2001
October 23rd: Surgery was performed - Bill has a Glioblastoma Multiforme grade IV (brain cancer). October 19th: An MRI of the brain revealed a mass - Bill was immediately hospitalized - we were told that it appeared to be a "Glioma" brain tumor. |
June 2001
June 4th: Bill had a seizure while we were in Chicago for my surgery. He was hospitalized for 2 days and had an MRI, CT scan, EEG, blood work - all looked fine. Upon returning home, we immediately followed up with his Neurologist and several other doctors. |
May 2001
May 21st: I had surgery for Cervical Spinal Stenosis followed by a 6 week recovery period. |
August 2000Bill came home one Saturday around 4:00 in the afternoon with a very large cut which left a gaping hole that went to his scalp and just laid back open.....Clint and Sunny were in New Orleans on vacation.Clint and Sunny went back to school. |
June, 2000I spent the week of June 11 - June 16 in Austin, Texas (business trip). ...The flight home !!! We left Austin at 2:30 (Friday June 16th) and flew to Cincinnati. The flight was great. Upon arrival in Cincinnati, we discovered that our 7:20 flight to Knoxville had been cancelled and we were placed on stand-bye for the 9:40 and the 11:20 flight. Both these flights also got cancelled. We had been contemplating getting a rental car and driving home during this time, BUT - we discovered that all rental cars were gone !! A later flight (by this time somewhere around midnight)- did leave and one of the men with me got on that flight. So the 2 of us who were left - continued to wait - stand in lines - getting on stand-bye list..... At 2:30 am Saturday morning - there was no more hope - the airport had already rented out all the rooms nearby and placed as many "stuck" travelers as they could. A group of us (7) travelers trying to get to Knoxville - stood outside attempting to get a cab/van/shuttle - anything - to a hotel about 20 - 30 minutes away - where the airport had reserved some rooms for us. We finally arrived at the hotel. My room had a "heart shaped" hot tub !!! It was a "theme" hotel - very strange place. I slept NONE - by this time I had a horrible migraine - I had taken all my migraine oral medication - I started to give myself a shot and discovered that the Pharmacy had given me the wrong prescription - I had no way to inject the medicine !!! Plus, my carry on bag was full of souvenirs that I did not want to risk losing if my luggage got lost - so I had no clothes - and no medicine left - nothing !!!! I bought 2 canned drinks - I drank one and laid my head on the other. The hours in my room with the heart shaped tub.. drug on....... At 9:30 Saturday morning - we all met in the hotel lobby and went back to the Airport. The other man that I was with, got a rental car that had come back in the morning - by this time - I was so sick that I was afraid that if I traveled by car I would begin throwing up - so I chose to sit still with ice on my head and wait for a flight. I spent the day at the airport with a bag of ice on my head and my eyes covered to block out the light. - I got a flight home at 2:30. I love flying and travelling and taking classes or going to conferences or the outer offices - BUT - this trip nearly killed me. I missed a day and a half work recovering from that experience...and at least for now - I have no desire to leave Tennessee. |
May, 2000Friday May12, 2000 ...
CLINT got his Associates Degree today in Civil Engineering !!!!!
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March, 2000Monday March 27, 2000 ... Life is normal again -
I can't find my hair bands, can't find my makeup, don't have any gas in my car or money
in my purse. I do 20 loads of laundry a week and run the dishwasher constantly, the phone
rings off the wall, the house is full of young adults, half my clothes are missing, there
is constant laughter and giggling in the living room, Bill and I have retreated back to our bedroom - I could NOT be happier !!!!
Even all our sweet creatures seem happier - the birds sing more and the cats are more playful. :)
Friday March 17, 2000 ... Sunny is home. 
She came home March 17th (St. Patrick's Day) YEA..... Life is good !!!! We had balloons and ticki torches and gifts and
her new kitty waiting for her. The Air Force days have come and gone... |
February, 2000Wednesday, February 16, 2000 ... Sunny took a medical discharged today - due to her ears. Thus.................................turn the page.Saturday, February 5, 2000 ... Talked to Sunny last night, her eardrums have ruptured several times now, while in the decompression chamber. |
January, 2000Sunday January 30, 2000 .... It's Super Bowl Sunday !!!Well, Bill and I made preparations for The End Of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI), had some Y2K supplies, extra food, water, candles, matches, extra dog, cat, bird, ferret and fish food. We "holed up in our bunker" (December 31, 1999) -- here in small town Tennessee, all prepared for the end of the world - that never happened hehehehehehe. But, the good news, we don't have to buy groceries for the next 3 months LOL !!! Christmas was fantastic :-) as always. Sunny came home December 23rd (at midnight) and had to leave December 28th which was a quick trip, (not as long as we had expected) but, at least she was home !!! Clint talks about moving away at times, and I am prepared to chain him by the ankles so he can't leave town !!! Clint and I have lunch once a week when he stops by the office to pick me up - it is wonderful having that time together !!! Sunny emails and calls her Dad and I - and we stay in constant contact now that she is out of boot camp - so I am certainly more comfortable now that I can pick up the phone and call her :-) Sunny and Clint & Granny Faye are also staying in touch by email so it seems we may all survive the changes that are taking place in our family. Friday January 28, 2000 ....Clint stopped by the office and took me to lunch :-) |
December, 1999Sunday, December 19, 1999....Almost finished shopping !!! Sunny comes home December 23rd
and leaves January 1, 2000.
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November, 1999Here it is, November 1999 and both our children have left home (Clint is in school and has his own apartment, Sunny has gone to the Air Force). Bill and I have found ourselves alone for the first time in over 20 years and this "empty nest" truly has been an adjustment. We have lost not only "our" 2 children, but also, all of their friends !!! This house we live in has always been full of fun and laughter and it has been well "lived in" LOL. The animals are also adjusting to the changes, Sunny's cat "Puff" walked around crying for 3 days after Sunny left home. As for me and Bill, we stay busy, very, very busy and write lots of letters. |
