Joyce Olofson Update

The hospice nurse comes at noon very Friday and today she had good newsfor me, I am on an anti-cancer drug that wipes out all the estrogen inmy body and we were hoping to slow down the growth of the tumers andactually when they measured me today I was the smallest that I have beensince coming down here so it must have kicked in and I am not having badside effects so that is lucky. I have no pain and that is wonderful, wego dancing, took the two grandchildren with us last Fri night and theyhad fun, took pics with the band, Bob just graduated from NDSU onFriday beforehe came and Jeni is a Sr at Concordia, they have alwaysbeen like a sister and brother and had a very good time during vac.Tims were too plus all the rest and Cindy is still here so we arecleaning! Both of the extra houses we used are now back in shape! Normanand Brigitte (Leonards cousin who lives down here in the winter) went toa later church service than the rest of us on Christmas Eve so she hadthe dishes done when we got back home--what a gal!

Joyce Olofson - medical report

It was so much fun to have Morey and Sandy , as well as all of the restof the family out here, we loved every minute, have to do a littleediting tho, I have never been on estrogen, they are giving me ananti-cancer drug that blocks any estrogen you get from foods you eat,and also any that my body would produce,they feel that cancers feed onestrogen so want to limit it as much as they can, that is why there aresome side effects from this med, I have to take it twice a day, the onlyside effect that has bothered me is the heartburn and they think thatthey can give me somthing to help that--another pill, I am alreadytaking so many that I have to have a list to make sure I am taking themon the right time of day, Guess I didn't talk about my funeral becauseit is old stuff to me, Jim and I planned our funerals when he had hisfirst heart attack, it was so nice to just hand the list to the ministerand say, "take care of this." we will have a small funeral here in ourlocal churche's small room at the main church in Mesa if it happens whenwe are down here and then have a memorial service in Trinity in Moorheadwhere we have our main membership, for our families and friends up therelater in the spring when Leonard goes north. Tim has located the musicfor me and will put it on a disk because everyone down here travels somuch that it is hard to ask anyone to sing, although I do have a coupleof favorite singers who are friends and after the holidays I might seewhat they think about doing it. I feel so good right now that it seemsimposible that I will not last the winter but I have to be realistic andsay that I have not gotten very good time limits from my Dr.s. We feelso lucky to get so much support from our families that I just cant getover the love from everyone.