Barbara Gardner:
CLASS OF 1981
Wapakoneta High SchoolClass of 1981
Wapakoneta, OH
Lima Technical CollegeClass of 1990
Lima, OH
Barbara's Story
Life
Following my husband's (Dave Gardner) 20 year retirement from the United States Navy, we (Dave, myself, our daughter Maggie and our two sons, Ben and Nick) moved back to Wapakoneta in July of 2001.
Dave was attending college at the OSU Branch Campus, Lima where he was majoring in both Business and Secondary Education. His short term goal is to Coach High School Football. (For those of you who remember Dave from High School, you're probably extremely surprised that he turned out to be a jock, no?) During Fall Quarter, he used to serve as a referee for various and sundry football games in the area. It kept him busy and happy at the same time.
I'm kind of a "jack-of-all-trades". I am self employed and work from my home office. I love having the flexibility of working from and out of our home. This frees me up to do my favorite and most important job (raising three decent human beings!)
Our daughter, Maggie is 21 and a Senior at OSU/Lima. She's done so well and we are so proud of her.
Our son, Ben, is attending Wapak Senior where he plays Redskin Football, is in Symphonic Choir and Men's Chorale, and has been a proud member of Wapak Singsation (Showchoir). He is currently holding a principle role in the Musical Cats (Old Dueteronomy.) He's a great kid and very bright.
Nick, our youngest son, is 14 and also attends Wapak Senior and is doing well. He's outgoing and has a lot of fun. He's also a great kid and very bright.
As for our pets, we're quite ecclectic. We have a dog, 3 cats, a rabbit and an aquarium full of fish.
Side Note:
It occurred to me that some folks out there finding me, might not be aware of the journey that Dave, the kids and I have been traveling for the past two years. On April 6, 2007, due to elevated blood pressures of 180/120, we found a 17 cm by 7 inch mass on Dave's right adrenal gland. The tumor was resected at OSU Medical Center on May 9, 2007. Not to mention the fact that the tumor had butted up against his liver, and when they peeled it off, he bled out. They had a terrible time trying to stop the bleeding. They gave him 8 units of whole blood and 6 units of plasma. He already had the chief of surgery working on him, and he had to call in the number 2 guy. He was in surgical ICU for 26 hours following the surgery.
On May 15th, the pathology report came back positive for Adrenal Cortical Carcinoma. It is a very rare cancer and at this time, there is no cure. Dave was referred to an Endocrinology Oncologyst and was placed on Mitotane for treatment. In October 2007, he landed in the hospital with pulmonery emboli as a result of the surgery and was placed on blood thinners. In January, the routine CT scans showed tumor recurrance and growth with multiple locations (both lungs, right side lymph node, left side adjacent to adrenal gland and multiple locations in the rear abdominal area.) He was classified as stage 4 - terminal and the prognosis was 1 to 2 years. As you can imagine, we were devastated, and the kids were beside themselves with grief.
The only good news was that a clinical trial had just completed and a chemo therapy option had become available for David to try to shrink and arrest the tumors. It was called the "Italian Blend." He began treatments on the 2nd week of January. His treatments consisted of 4 day regemins. On Monday, he would go in for about 2 hours, on Tuesday, his stay at the Hope Cancer Center would be for 4 hours, and on Wednesday and Thursday it would be for 8 hours. This chemo therapy is extremely harsh and only people who are otherwise very strong and healthy can undergo this treatment. David landed in the hospital at the conclusion of that round of chemo due to extreme vommitting. He was hospitalized...Expand for more
for 6 days at that time.
In February, we started the same process all over again, with multiple anti-nausea treatments to try to "head it off at the pass." He managed to stay out of the hospital that time, and we went back to Columbus for scans to see if the treatments were helping at all. The GREAT news was that the tumors had stopped spreading and some had even shown signs of significant shrinkage!!!! Praise God!!! So, we scheduled 2 more rounds of the Italian Mix Chemotherapy.
In March, (the week of Ben's birthday) we started round 3. Unfortunately, he did not tolerate that as well, and was having reactions to many of the anti-nausea meds. It was quite a battle finding the types and forms of drugs that would work for him. For instance one medication when taken IV-push, he had success with, but when they sent him home with a pill version of the same medication, he had severe tremors and adema (swelling of his hands and feet.) So, at the end of that round of chemo, he landed in the hospital yet again with vommitting, nausea, and in dire need of some blood products.
In April, we began round 4, and as you can imagine, the whole process was taking it's toll on David. He had pretty much "held down the couch" for the past 3 months. I had to wake him up and tell him to eat in February and March, and by April, I was bringing his food to him while he barely had the strength to sit up and eat. That round of chemo almost killed him. The following week, his platelettes dropped down to under 7000 (should be between 144K and 250K) and he was sent to the hospital for more blood products. He received 2 units of whole blood and 2 units of platelettes that day (Wed) and then another 2 units of platelettes on Thursday, but it wasn't until the following Monday that his numbers climbed up to 30,000. His doctor released him from the hospital on Tuesday, reluctantly, because we were due to go to Columbus for more scans on Friday.
Sadly, those scans showed no more progress. So, for all intensive purposes, he had 2 rounds of chemo which almost killed him, with no results. The doctors decided to give him a break from chemo until he can build his strength again. It is November, and we are still on that break. The last two sets of scans (Aug. and Oct) did show growth and spreading of the tumors, but not enough for them to put him through chemo yet. There are also a couple of clinical trials coming up soon, and the docs are hoping to get him into at least one of them as an alternative to the chemo we know he does not tolerate well.
He has his good days and bad days, and has been on so much pain medication that he pretty much has been sleeping most of the time. A little over a month ago, his local doctor (Hope Cancer Center) FINALLY convinced him to try Marinol (derrivative of Marajuna - THC) to help with the nausea and pain. He had been trying to get him to try it for 6 months. He has now been able to back down on his pain meds and anti-nausea meds and is starting to have some "life" back. We still have a long way to go before he's up and running again, but we'll take each victory as we get them.
His only complaint with the Marinol is that he has to get used to being stoned all the time (again - pretty much spent the 70's that way.) ;0)
We have placed him in the hands of God and are confident that He will bring us through all of this. Needless to say, our lives have been turned upside-down. He has only 5 classes left to complete his degree, but he is unable to handle that right now. I am still working from home and taking care of him, the kids and the house.
We have been blessed with a lot of Love, Support and Prayers from friends and family.
That about brings you up to speed on me and mine.
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