The Schullo’s Personal Blog

I spent Friday and Saturday with the wonderful ladies from TeamSurvivor Madison. We traveled by bus to Lake Superior to participate in the Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival. There were 87 teams that participated in the races. The day was a bit breezy and started out a little on the chilly side, but that did not stop these strong and adventurous women. I forgot my camera, so I will have to wait until others send me pictures to post any. We had lots of fun and even though we did not win (we did not come in last either!), we had a really good time. I will post more later when I can add pictures.

All is well here with both Scott and I. Andrew (my brother) is also doing better. He is still in the hospital and undergoing treatment, but he looks to be responding well. Keep him in your thoughts. Well, got to get back to work, but thanks for all the wonderful support you have all been sending our way! - Take care! - S&S

This summer has seemed to fly by. Today is the first day of classes at USF. Am I ready? Well, yes, but summer could have been longer. I have a rather large class this semester with 40 students. This is probably the largest class I have had. I am sure that this is due to the many cuts that were made over the Summer and Spring semesters. I am up for the challenge!

I am thinking I may have to do some quick changes in format and divide the students into groups for discussion purposes so that they will not be overwhelmed. Discussion with the whole class of 40 might just me a little daunting. So, I have my thinking cap on and as the students get started, I will have to be flexible.

I am looking forward to a great semester!! - S

It seems life is not done throwing us curve balls. A few months ago I started coughing and went to the doctor thinking I had bronchitis or something. They thought it was probably Radiation Pneumonitis, which can be a side effect of having radiation to the chest.

So, they put me on steroids to try to take care of the cough. After about 3 weeks I was not improving much and decided to go see my Radiologist. He did a bunch of scans and test and finally determined that there were some abnormal lymph nodes near my lungs that he was concerned about along with the small amount of Pneumonitis.

So, we found a surgeon and did a biopsy of the lymph nodes near my lungs. The results show that my cancer is back. They were a bit worried that it was lung cancer, but have determine that it is indeed Breast Cancer. What does this mean?

Yesterday the doctor explained it all and we made a plan. Here is what he said.

I have metastatic breast cancer, meaning it has spread from the breast to other parts of the body. At this time it is confined to my chest area, my lymph nodes around the lungs and about 3-4 small cancerous nodules within my lungs. The plan of attack is chemo therapy with a different set of drugs (CMF).

I will have chemo once every three weeks which is much less than I had it before. He does not think that the chemo he is giving me will make me really sick and I may actually keep my hair! The process will probably last around 6 months. I also need to go back in to have my infusion port put back into my chest which will be a small out patient surgery.

Metastatic breast cancer is not curable. Best case scenario, they can put me into remission and I will need to be monitored for my whole life. When it comes back, I will go through the whole thing again. Worst case scenario, the chemo does not work and the cancer continues to grow and spread. Then they have to try different things to see if they can stop it. Let’s hope for the best case scenario.

Anyway, I start chemo again tomorrow. Once it starts and I have a regular chemo day I should be able to adjust life and work accordingly. We will have to wait and see how it effects me and the best plan for me to work. I think it might end up that I work when I can and get as much done when I feel good which is possible with the job that I currently have. I can also work at home a good deal, so I can take it just a bit easier and save my strength for the days when I need to be out and about.

Well, that is about it for now. Things are not all gloomy, but they could be better. Scott and I are doing well even under the circumstances. We do not plan to let this little set back stop us! So, keep us in your prayers. We are thinking about all of you. Visitors are very welcome, come see us sometime soon. - S&S

Madison has so much to offer in the way of things to do that Scott and I often find it hard to choose. A few weeks ago though we decided to try the Hot Summer Nights Terrace Blues Fest on the Memorial Union Terrace at the University.

The Terrace is a large outdoor deck area off the student union and right on Lake Mendota.

We chose a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The sun was warm and there was a nice breeze. After a while we moved out of the sun so we could stay and enjoy the music longer.

Beer on the Terrace is fairly inexpensive and you must have a UW ID or buy a Union membership to purchase. We enjoyed the music for about 3 and half hours before we were ready to leave.

This is just one of the inexpensive and very enjoyable things we are finding to keep us busy on the weekend. This weekend we plan to attend the Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival and eat all the corn we want! - S&S

I thought I would do a quick recap on some of the things we have been doing this summer to stay busy. You know that Scott and I can not stand to stay still for too long!

I had an opportunity to go to a good conference on Distance Learning Administration this summer in Jekyll Island Georgia. It was a good place for a conference of this size as it was small and there was a lot of time for networking. My colleague and friend Amy also attended, so it was a really good time. Learned lots, got some sun and even had a bit of time to relax. The shrimp on the pier there was awesome. I will upload some really nice photos from the area so you can see how pretty the place was. We also went on a Dolphin sight seeing tour and I was able to capture a few. Take a look…

The day I returned from this conference, Scott and I headed out to Oklahoma to see my parents and my brother. If you read the earlier post about life being cruel you have heard most of what happened then. However, Scott and I still had fun traveling. We drove my Jeep Liberty and enjoyed just getting away. We left Oklahoma on the 4th and drove to St. Louis where we took in a ball game, watch fireworks over the arch (said to be one of the top 10 places to see fireworks on the 4th) and also did some touristy sight seeing. It was a good rest from all the stress of the previous week and helped us to prepare for the weeks to come. I have some pretty good pictures of the fireworks and we saw Albert Pujols hit is 300th home run. I think Baseball can be good for the soul sometimes. Check out the Gallery for new pics. S&S