Vickie's Support Page

Happy Valentine’s Day

Good morning family and friends. Sorry it’s been too long since I’ve updated Vickie’s site. To be honest there hasn’t been a lot to report. But that’s good, isn’t it. Just to remind folks of what’s going on. Vickie is going to radiation every day in Cleveland, Tn. She has been getting rides over from our friends at St. Catherine’s of Laboure. Thank you so much. You don’t know how much this helps. Plus I think she’d rather have conversation with you ladies than have to listen to one of my books on tape. After consultation with her Chattanooga team and Dr. Virostek (radiation) and Dr. Means-Powell (Vanderbilt) it was decided to add some more chemo to enhance the radiation treatment. So we are going to Maryellen Locher Breast Cancer Center for her chemo treatments again and they usually take about 4 hours. The drug has to be given slowly but if it helps I don’t care if it takes all day. Thank you God.
Speaking of God, I can’t thank you enough or have gratitude enough for all the blessings we have received during this ordeal. We have had so many blessed things happen to help us along the way that I can’t begin to mention them all.
I won’t have much more to report on as far as Vickie’s status with the fight until the radiation and chemo are done in about another month. I am happy to report that she is full of energy and more active around the house. She is slowly but surely growing a new crop of hair that is supposed to be blonde and free of grey. She hasn’t had any infections of late and is not getting sick from the chemo this time. Thank you Lord. Things are going well considering the disease she has. I just keep praying for this thing to be completely gone. Thanks again everyone. God bless.
Jack and Vickie Schlachter

…’til we get it. And fight we are, gosh you have to love and respect Vickie, she is fighting for her life and believe me you guys you wouldn’t know it.
Alright, as most of you know the biopsy of her tumor/chest area was negative. On Friday last week she had a pet scan that showed some areas of cancer cells. The doctors, that’s right doctors, she has three wonderful doctors working hard on her case, Dr. Daniels, oncologist; forgive me for not knowing the other’s names but she also has a fine radiologist and the other oncologist from Vanderbilt, all pulling their combined knowledge to beat this thing with Vickie. They found it best to start her on chemo again using a drug that has been found effective to use along with radiation. There is also a chance of her getting into a study of a new drug that has been found highly effective on Stage 3-C triple negative cancer but our wonderful government hasn’t approved of it yet due to complications in some people, a very small amount of people get side effects. So we’ll have to see how that part of it shakes out.
Thanks to you nice gals that have been helping us out with rides to radiation and other appointments. I think it really is good for her to have someone to talk to on the long drives over there. And, again, thanks for all your prayers because I believe without them we would have lost the battle long ago. Something miraculous seems to be happening. Vickie has been in good spirits running around the house doing things that she couldn’t before due to the heavy chemo she was on. I just with she would get her sweet “blonde” hair back. I can tell she’s getting better because she is getting bossy again.
You all take care, love you,
Jack and Vickie

…we had a biopsy last week on Vickie’s cancer site, where her surgery was, that wasn’t feeling/looking quite right, and it came back negative. So that’s great news for us. We still have some anxiety (when will it ever end) because today Vickie got a pet scan and we’re waiting on the results of that now. A pet scan, for those who don’t know, tells you if the cancer is spreading through the body. So you can see why we are a little anxious. It’s hard leaving things up to our higher-power(God) not that we can do anything about it anyhow. It takes a lot of faith. One thing that does help is knowing all our family, friends and many others are praying for Vickie. The doctor at Vanderbilt called this evening and was happy about the biopsy and said she wants to try some of the study programs. They have a team meeting on Wen. and she’ll call Thurs. and let us know. The radiation is going good. Thanks everyone for helping with the rides. You don’t know how much I appreciate this. I will try and let everyone know Fri. what Vanderbilt says. God bless.

Monday was a big day. Vickie went to Vanderbilt with M.J. and met with a doctor that was recommended to her by her oncologist. She was very nice and friendly and concerned for Vickie. She spent a couple of hours with her talking about some other things they can do for her. She has to get a new pet scan to see what’s going on in there and give her an update on the progress. We have some paperwork to fill out and Vickie will be going back sometime next month. We have an appointment tomorrow with our oncologist and as ongoing now we will be going to radiation the rest of this week.
So things are looking up. Vickie is feeling a lot better since the chemo that made her really sick. But she’s been getting more and more energy everyday, growing her hair back and puttin’ around the house doing things again.
Keep all those cards and letters coming in and we’ll try and keep you all informed as to what’s going on.
Bless you all.

Today we drive to Nashville, Tn. with M.J. that is. Vickie and M.J. will start out heading to Cleveland first for a radiation treatment and maybe from there to Chattanooga to see Dr. Rawlings. From there they are off to Music City to see a specialist in breast cancer and for us to get a second opinion.
The situation is now this: After 4 and half months of chemo and extensive surgery there is still some little cancer cells hanging around refusing to go away. The plan is to do some intense radiation at the site. Hopefully after 6 and half weeks of this the site will become sterilized of cancer cells. Along with this we are hoping for some additional help from Vanderbilt University Medical to see if there might be some study out there that will be able to give us some additional help in this fight against Vickie’s breast cancer.
On the bright side Vickie has started to grow her hair back, grey hair. I teased her that it was all the hair color she used all those years to hide her grey that caused the cancer. The truth is we will probably never know what caused this. At this point what does it matter. The important thing is that you lovely ladies out there need to get a mammogram often, at least once a year. Early detection is the best/only fight we have in beating this thing. So please ladies; I hate to see any one of you having to go through this.
Vickie is getting her energy back from the bout with the chemo. She had a pretty good week. No nausea but she does have a little pain under her arm, but this will hopefully go away with some more physical therapy.
On a sadder note though Vickie’s daughter Carrie has been in the hospital over the weekend after having a bad week with stomach pain. They did their usual testing and think it might be an ulcer. They’re going to do some kind of internal scope test today and see if they can’t nail it down; what’s really going on. She needs our prayers too to get though and over this. After the testing is done she should be released to come home.
Well folks that’s about it this weekend from Lake Woebegone, heading into the week with lots of hope and ready for some more fight. Thanks again for all your prayers and well wishes. I really believe that the energies put forth on Vickie’s behalf help her in her fight.
Bless you all.