I got this email from Ellen this morning:

"They checked the tumor again before I started chemotherapy and it looks like it shrunk again. They increased the amount of chemotherapy medicine last visit. I seem to tolerate the medicine very well so they felt good doing it. I will have five more sessions of chemotherapy. I have one more dose of the current medicine and then they will switch the medicines so that the cancer does not get use to chemotherapy. I seem to have my worst day on Sunday and then it begins to get better. I get better and stronger everyday and not just by a little bit. Tuesday I did full day at work (10 hours). It helped to have Mom there helping me so I could rest when I needed it (plus she is a great cook). I feel like I should be back to normal by the end of the week."

Pictures from the Head-Shaving Party (and slightly afterwards)

Head Shaving Party & Second Treatment

Ellen had her head shaved last week. It was a lot of fun since her co-workers threw her a head-shaving party.

It was really cool. They had 2 chairs and clippers set up. Lou and Chris went and sat down right away, and they had their heads shaved. (Jack was going to get his done too, but he figured since it would be just a slight trim, it wasn't worth it.) Oddly enough, Lynsey ended up being the 'the professional' and was requested to help shave quite a few heads. She joked, "Well, look at who I'm married to!" and after that, it was settled that she was pro.

Ellen and her boss were next, and her boss was decidedly reluctant to get his head shaved. Ellen was telling me how he said to her off-handedly, "I've always wanted to shave my head," and Ellen took him quite literally, and when word spread around that he was going to shave his head with Ellen, the whole office (and his wife) backed her up on it. They sold raffle tickets to see who would be able to shave his head, and they raised quite a bit for Ellen. During the actual shaving when they were drawing names, it became apparent that people bought raffle tickets for other people in the office, many of whom cried out, "What? I didn't put my name down!" It was a great joke that everyone got on board with. They also took their sweet time shaving his head too, drawing out his 'agony', especially by starting out with a big old stripe down the center of his head (reverse mohawk) and they let that sit for a bit while they drew names for the next shavers to come and take over. There were 2 others from Ellen's work that shaved their head also, one being the official State Auditor of Utah--an elected official! (Apologies to Ellen & coworkers for not knowing anybody's name, I've always been terrible with names.)

Ellen also received 2 gifts from her co-workers. One was a lovely handmade quilt, and another was a navy sweatshirt that said "Save the Ta-Ta's!" and a pink ribbon on it. It was great, you could tell that Ellen was really well liked around the office and that people genuinely cared about her.

She had her second chemo treatment last Thursday (August 27th) and that seemed to go well, at least the first day. She had a rough night on Friday night, but was able to bounce back enough to attend her cousin Fred's wedding, and she looked lovely and happy! She has a really cute wig she wore that night. She also has stocked up on hats and some dangley earrings to wear with it.

I'm very proud of Ellen. She's always smiling and happy and dealing so well with everything. She's been saying, "It's actually nice to have trials that are not a result of stupidity on my part." We love you, Ellen, stay strong!