Amy Weaver GrandmaAmy

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.


In late March Amy noticed some chest tightness that went into her back. She was admitted to a hospital in Florida, and did NOT have a heart attack. They found a leaky aortic valve. She did NOT have a clot in her lungs but they did find a suspicious mass in her pancreas on the bottom of the chest scan. After some quick brainstorming sessions it was decided to further investigate this mass up north where there is more family and a world renown Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo. Now after countless exams, bloodwork, poking and prodding we were given the gut-punch diagnosis of Stage 3 pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The most common form of pancreatic cancer. This page is to keep all of Amys friends and distant family up to date on her journey, and allow YOU to leave a message of hope and love.


May 14th--Mother's Day Posted May 14, 2017 5:29pmAmy joined 3 of her children, two of their spouses, 6 grand-children, one of their spouses, a great-grandson and Don for a family brunch this morning at Deans home. She seemed to enjoy all of the hustle and bustle and lasted for over two hours before becoming tired. Betsy and her whole gang came up from Pittsburgh for the weekend, Deans whole crew of course were here and Allie surprised everyone by popping up from Florida for the weekend. Nancy will be coming in tomorrow from Columbus to spend a "fun day" and then do the driving for chemo #2 on Tuesday, and spending the week helping during the down days. Amy is comfortable, mobile and now that Don is in charge of the medication pain-free. Appetite is a bit off, but we are working on that. She is a model patient, does what anyone asks with a smile as you might imagine.

We had the opportunity to take some lovely photos and this week one of my "to do" items is to upload them to this site.

Thank you for your kind words, love and support. The whole family is buoyed by your texts, letters, cards, phone calls and prayers.




May 17, Cycle 1, Week 2 + 1 dayPosted May 17, 2017 10:23pm

I have the pleasure of helping to care for mom this week! She is a model patient - doesn't complain and is taking care of herself quite well as much as she can. Her second chemotherapy treatment was yesterday. The day started later than her first treatment last week so the waiting room was much busier and the process took longer than we had hoped, but #2 is done and she is doing as well as can be expected. Lots of fatigue, a little nausea and lack of appetite are her side effects so far. We are working to get settled into a routine around medications, eating and drinking that can work for her. She is a trooper, letting me "push" the water and food - responding with "I know you are just trying to help".

Everyday she gets to open beautiful cards with heartfelt sentiments from the many, many friends she has and I am blessed to get to hear the stories of how she knows each friend. We are all truly overwhelmed by all the love and support we feel through the cards and CarePage messages. Please know your calls, emails, messages and cards are so appreciative and forgive us for not always commenting back or returning messages promptly. Everyone of you is being thought of as well and it is comforting to know there is an army of fighters on this journey with mom.

If any of you are wondering how our father is doing - he is hanging in there. He is in charge of meds and making "Boost" shakes before bed. He also mows the lawn and other weekly chores. He is graciously eating what is made for him even though I'm sure it is not as good as mom's cooking! The warmer, sunnier weather is really helping to keep the spirits up along with giving him the opportunity to take a ride in the woods daily. He is enjoying the supportive notes too!
Please keep them all coming - you are a much needed "lifeline"!
All the best,
Love
Nancy


May 27 Posted May 27, 2017 1:54pm

Words cannot express what a joy it is to care for mom and dad through this time!!  I had the pleasure of being with them this week and while we’d obviously rather not be in this situation, they are absolutely two of the most pleasant and joyful people to be around.  Mom has anti-anxiety medicine that she doesn’t even take – in fact the other day I heard her singing in the shower! There is truly a sense of calm, positivity and gratitude for all the support you all provide.
 
We shopped for flowers on Monday (see pic!), before chemo, and got most of them planted throughout the week. While Deb took mom to Chemo on Tuesday, Dean took Dad out on the boat to take advantage of the almost summer-like weather and he said it was like “heaven” - a real boost to his spirits.  Drew and Jaime come to visit with 2 year old Oliver every weekend which is also a fantastic boost to their spirits – Olie is a bright ray of sunshine, laughter and love.
 
Her third infusion of chemo this past Tuesday, and the last in this first cycle, left mom pretty tired, but otherwise she handled it like a champ.  More frequent snacks and a 2nd anti-nausea medicine seem to be keeping the yucky stuff at bay.  She is learning to listen to her body, take several naps a day, and not over-do it when she does feel well.  A blessing of the rainy days is that it’s great sleeping weather!  She did start losing a little hair yesterday, so more reality is starting to settle in, but overall she really feels pretty good.  Your prayers are working so keep them up!
 
Next week she has a break from the chemo (yay!) and they are very much looking forward to a visit with her sister Helena and husband Bill.  Hopefully the weather will begin to cooperate and they can enjoy the outdoors a bit as mom should be feeling pretty well next week.
 
Then there are 3 more rounds of chemo in June, followed by a scan to check the progress.  She is currently quite determined to press on for Doug and Kristi’s wedding in September. All of the family will be around for the 4th of July and we are all looking forward to that time together.
 
Mom asked me to thank you all for the outpouring of love and support.  She loves hearing from each of you.  Every day their trip to the mailbox brings back more well wishes – dad commented that she’s now got more cards than he gets on his birthday, which is apparently hard to beat! Please know that your cards, notes, emails, text messages and most importantly prayers, have helped to lift them up every day.  In fact, we all appreciate hearing from you, so thank you so much!
 
With sincere gratitude,
Betsy – (daughter #3) 


So Grateful for all of you!Posted Jul 11, 2017 12:34pm

Dear Ones! (mom's favorite greeting),

First of all I would like to apologize for being absent with our updates here. June ended up being a very busy month for all with our various vacations, work conferences, out of town weddings, visits from extended family and friends, etc. AND, last week included a lodge full of family to celebrate the holiday (14 in residence + Dean's growing family for a total of 23) on Sunday the July 2nd for our annual get together at the Sportmans Club. Most of us also participated in our 2nd annual Weaver Family putt putt tournament at Midway! I have posted a few photo's here for you to enjoy. Needless to say we have been enjoying our precious family time. With 6 grandchildren with summer jobs and heading off to college this coming school year it is challenging to find time when we can all be together.

Mom has been doing very well despite the craziness of a full house! Thank God we had such nice weather last week! In June, mom completed her 2nd cycle of Chemotherapy. She also had a port installed to make the delivery process of the chemo much easier as her veins were just not working. She also endured a pretty bad sunburn. The chemo drugs certainly played a part in this so we had to learn the hard way that she must stay out of the sun or be completely covered if she is in the sun (hence her new outfit in the putt-putt pics :)). With these issues in June her treatments were rescheduled a bit so her "off week" ended up being over the 4th when we were all in town - which worked out very well!

We ask for special prayers today as Mom is at Roswell in Buffalo for her regular treatment appointment. She will also have a scan of her abdomen which will hopefully tell us how the chemotherapy has been working. One of us will be back to update you here on how all of that went in the next few days.

You all need to know that mom and dad are so very grateful for the outpouring of love, hope and prayers they have received through your CarePages messages and the beautiful cards with your sentiments and news of what is going on in your lives! Please do keep them coming as they truly look forward to getting the mail everyday to see who has been thinking of them! I'm sure Hallmark is also grateful you are helping to keep them in business! We will try to do a better job of returning phone calls. It has not been easy for mom to get on her computer much to answer emails or follow Facebook posts.

More anon....(as mom also says)
Love,
Nancy