Glenn and Monika's Home Page

19MAR10: A quick update on Monika since I never did that after her surgery; things went really, no ovaries removed just 2 cysts (which came up benign). She's healing well and is now able to chase Evan from writing on the walls! We'll be heading to Chicago next weekend to celebrate her brother Greg's 30th birthday!!!

08MAR10: At Methodist Hospital with Monika right now (9:38am), just waiting on her to be called in for pre-op. She's hungry and can't wait for the operation to be done and over with. Her surgery is scheduled for 11am and should only be around 80min; so she should be out of post-op around 3pm or so. I'll be camping out here in the waiting room trying to keep myself busy. Thanks for everyone's support!!!

03DEC09: Updates will coming soon; either tonight or tomorrow. It's been hectic which I'll go into later. Healthwise, we're all good!

26OCT09: Well it's been an interesting few months that's for sure. On 10AUG09, our Mary passed away; her smile, dancing and laughter will be missed but forever in our hearts.

05AUG09: Our thoughts and prayers go out to our cousin Mary who's fighting for her life in an ICU after an unplanned and serious open heart surgery. Monika has flown out to Chicago to help out Mary, her sister Iwonka and her Mom. Mary's a fighter and little Evan, Maia and all of us are rooting in her corner!!!

24JUN09: QUICK UPDATE!!! Monika's last radiation treatment is today!!! Her 34th and FINAL one!!! We're picking up doughnuts to pass along to her cancer team to celebrate!!! She's doing well. The fatigue is pretty bad as so are the radiation burns (there's quite a bit); but Monika is still her ever smiling and laughing and positive self!!! Go Monika - For the win!!!! Thanks to everyone for the support you've given, and are still giving; the trip hasn't ended yet, it's just taking a different road from this point on. The important thing is that we're know we have all of you as as passengers/co-pilot!!!

04JUN09: So Monika has completed 21 of 34 radiation treatments. It's started getting pretty rough for her: severe fatigue, naseau, and blistering in the radiation areas. She feels pretty beat up and exhausted but overall her spirits are pretty good. Her condition will only worsen since the effects of radiation get worse over time. So, we've been trying to keep it simple around the house: basic housework, yardwork and entertaining the kids. Also, we started our very first vegetable garden this year - potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, eggplant, corn, acorn squash, pumkins, swiss chard and beans, plus the back will be lined with sunflowers. Should be exciting!!!

29MAY09: How time flies when you're having fun 'eh? So, it's been a busy month and a half since Evan's birthday; here's a bullet point summary:

1) We had to put down our cat Thebes right before Monika's 1st radiation treatment (we had put our other cat Indigo before Monika's surgery) - so just the 'Mebster (Amoeba) left. I'm going to have to do a seperate bit to honor Thebes and Indigo; we like to think that they gave their strength to Monika before a major treatment stage. They will be missed...

2) Monika's first 2 treatments of radiation went very bad - infection, fatigue, chest lymphadema, and a high fever; all this led to a halt of treatment for almost 4 weeks. It's believed that since Monika wasn't fully healed yet from surgery, this led to the complications.

03APR09: Wow, it's been a busy month - first off - HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY EVAN!!! Yup, our little man is one year old today. We had family up last weekend to help celebrate his birthday. Greg, Katie, Chris, Mary, Renee, Robert and Ana come up from Chicago; it was a full house but still lots of fun. It was great seeing them all. Here are some pictures from that weekend.

So today, we had some cupcakes to celebrate Evan's birthday...he...'er...really liked his:

Now onto to Monika (did I mention that we're getting more snow this weekend?) - she doing really well. Three of the four drains have been removed; hopefully the last one will be removed in a couple of weeks. We met with the radiation specialist on Thursday and it's been decided that Monika will undergo 33 sessions of radiation treatment. Monika is getting a bit bored of being sick and tired but by receiving radiation, her chances of survivability over 10 years increases by 15%. So with the chemo, surgery, radiation and hormone treatment; her survivability should be around 85%. With diet and lifestyle change, hopefully we can push those numbers even higher. I'll have to do a separate update on some of the things were doing (ie: juicing, smoothies, eating organic and exercise).

It's getting late and I have to go prep bottle for tonight. Thanks to everyone again for the words of support and to all of you reading our website!!!

04MAR09: So how's everyone doing, 'eh? First, a thank you to everyone for their words of support, thoughts and prayers during Monika's surgery - for those who haven't heard, her surgeon came back to see Monika on Wednesday morning and personally gave her the pathology report of the tissues (he had initially said that our Oncologist would tell us the results). He was pretty excited and here's why: NO cancer found in the removed lymph nodes - they had initially found two 1-2inch tumors; the tumor in her left breast had shrunk to about 2mm - it was intially tagged as about 10cm large. Can you say W-I-C-K-E-D!!! Monika had less than 30% chance to get these kinds of results - unbelievable. She obviously responded very well to the chemotherapy but we also believe that our change in diet and everyone's thoughts and prayers played a part in this.

Monika's healing up pretty well; she had her bandages taken off Tuesday, she's taking everything really well. We did find out that she's allergic to Vicadin from the rash that broke out on her chest and belly - like I said before, it's always an adventure with Monika :) They had to put in 4 drainage tubes in her chest, these collect fluids that build up under her skin which then drain out via tubes and into these bulbs (I call then hand grenades, since that's what they look like). The bulbs are either pinned to her shirt or are kept in pockets of a special shirt she has; we have to drain them about 3-4 times a day.

So, it looks like in about 4-6 weeks; Monika will start radiation therapy, like the Chinese proverb says:

On a lighter note here are some pictures from our President's day weekend at the Wisconsin Dells where we met up with Monika's mom and Greg and Chris, Laura, Brian and their 2 kids, my Mom and Dad, and then later Monika's sister Renee with Spiro and boy Robert and baby Ana.

23FEB09 (Updated): So we began the day by waking up at 4:30am and start getting ready to leave for Methodist Hospital.

1345 - Well they began closing Monika up around 1145 and was sent to the Recovery Room around 1215. It would take around 1-2 hours until I could go see her. According to our surgeon, everything went text book with no complications. He did have to add additional drainage tubes; so there are 2 drainage tubes per side for a total of four (this we expected).

Over the past few weeks, Monika had contemplated not performing reconstructive surgery; there are pros and cons with this. Monika also wanted to be prepared to how things would be immediately after surgery. She found a website that provided some answers and information. The site is www.breastfree.org. It's mainly around why to not opt for reconstructive surgery but Monika was mainly interested on the physical effects right after surgery. If you're interested on what happens, please go to this site and select "Photographs" and go to the title "A breast surgery journey (graphic bare chest photos included)" Warning: the photos are very graphic!!!

0735 - Back in the waiting room, I look in her bag where she said my gifts were. She gave me a bag of goodies and and card. She got for me some movies: Hellboy II, Jumper, and Legend of the Black Scorpion, several magazines, a bag of mini-Twix, some fruit juice and a Coke. She had also gotten me a Star Wars Lego set (an AT-AP walker from the Clone Wars). Since I brought the notebook computer to work on the website; looks like I'll also be watching some movies with snacks to boot - have I told you Monika ROCKS!!! So it's now a waiting game; the estimate is that the surgery will take 4-6 hours and then about 1hr before I can see her. So it looks to be around 12/1pm when I can go up and see her, and back down to the waiting room I go.

0720 - Well, we've met the team of folks that will be working with Monika and I give her a kiss and tell I'll see her when she wakes up. She then gets sent off to the surgical room.

0645 - I get paged and go up to see Monika in Pre-op. She's pretty cheerful but also mellow. We give Dr. Heaton (her surgeon) an early gift - a bottle of Dr. Pepper and of Mountain Dew (we found out he doesn't drink coffee). Monika also tells me that she's gotten me some gifts to help me pass the time in the waiting room - She ROCKS!!! She's always a surprise

0530 - Monika checks in and heads to pre-op; whist I wait. I get to see her before she goes into surgery.

20FEB09: Well, Happy Friday everyone!!! I'm pretty sure that we're all glad the work week is over, I know I am. We spent President's Day weekend down in Wisconsin Dells to meet up with Monika's Mom, Greg, and Chris. The boys and I went skiing/boarding at Devil's Head - this was now becoming a tradition. Our friends Brian and Laura with girls Olivia and Sarah came up also; plus Monika's sister Renee with Spiro and Robert and Ana. So it was tons o'fun seeing everyone. I'll get pictures up later this weekend.

So, Monika's surgery is the coming Monday. Yes, we're both scared; but Monika tells me she's at peace with what needs to be done and is waiting for this next stage to be completed in this journey. I really do admire her - her bravery and her humor. She easily keeps her smile and laugh, which Maia and Evan love as do I. I'm told that they have WiFi set up in the waiting room, so I may be able to provide updates on Monday, so please stayed tuned.

Again, many thanks to everyone for their support during this period - your cards, gifts, laughter, listening ear and shoulder to cry on. All of you have a special place in our heart.

11FEB09: Well, Monika's surgery has been rescheduled to 23FEB09. She's going fine but Methodist Hospital had to bump her due to an emergency pancreatic cancer operation. It gives us more time to clean up and straighten the house but Monika kinda wants this step over and done with already.

So what's new in our little corner of the world? Evan finally had his first tooth come out last week and his second one is close to breaking through - unfortunately, he also has an ear infection and is fighting a bad cold. It's been making the nights rough, but not too bad. If anything, the crudy part was that it didn't give Monika any time to prep for her surgery on 18FEB09.

I have to admit one reason why the long delay in previously updating the site, on December 28, 2008 a fellow "fighter/survivor" whose blog we had been following; lost her fight with breast cancer. This was tough for both of us since Amy's situation was very similar to Monika's; and it was a strong reminder that the challenge wasn't over yet (it had put me into a dark mood). Our thoughts our with her family.

Overall, Monika is recovering very well after chemotherapy. She still has some joint pain and unfortunately the hot flashes are all to frequent. It may still be a few weeks until the side effects go away while we hope they will. Her hair has started to grow back in earnest; they're a little shorter than a centimeter right now. What color you ask, well, it's suprisingly hard to tell - it's either gray, silver, or a very light blonde. This will probably change though as the first batch of post-chemo hair is typically different with the more "permanent" hair she'll have later on.

Seasons 3 of 24 (Jack Bauer's my hero, who would have thought that the "Lost Boy" would come this far)

Of course, multiple repeats of Little Einstein episodes, Cars, Mulan, and Finding Nemo

Ace Combat 6 (Xbox 360), Resident Evil 5 Demo (Xbox 360) - Monika and I both love the Resident Evil series since the first one came out for the Playstation

Maia's been doing really well also. She's really into trains and LOVES watching Cars and Mulan. A few weekends ago while I was skiing at Afton Alps, the girls had some fun time painting their nails...okay Monika had fun painting hers and Maia's nails. Maia LOVED it...

Here Evan got just a little excited about mashed potatos - he really digs 'em, I think it's the 1/2 Polish in him :)

25JAN09: Ok, ok do it's been forever and day since I've updated and my apologies. It was just super hectic with holidays and then we all got took turns getting sick. Also, I confess that it does take a bit for me to actually write stuff up for the website. I guess I try too much to be creative as oppossed to just updating folks with what's going on. I'll do my best to give more frequent updates but still also toss in some fun stuff too.

Monika is doing pretty well and yes all of her chemotherapy treatments are finally DONE!!! Monika did end up sticking with Taxol instead of the alternative even with the possibility of an adverse reaction. With Taxol, there's only a 50% chance of it even working; the alternate drug has an even lower chance of working. So, with additional steroids and an overall lower dosage; Monika decided to take her risks and remain using Taxol.

So yes, all chemo is done and now the next step is surgery - a bilateral mastecomy (both breasts are removed). This is scheduled for February 18th, 2009. Monika will check in at 7am and the surgery is estimated to go from 4 to 6 hours; this is about double the time of a "normal" bilteral mastecomy mainly due to the size of them puppies. Monika is in good spirits, she was actually joking with the surgeon about perhaps starting a betting pool to see how much weight is taken off Monika. So the Monika of surgery, we'll be reminding Dr. Heaton about weighing the removed tissue and Monika will be giving him some Dr. Pepper and some Mountain Dew (a small token of our appreciation plus he doesn't drink coffee).

Monika is concerned but highly motivated to get this completed and move onto the next stage which will be 7 weeks of radiation therapy. Well, I need to go; every's asleep right now, except for Evan that just woke up. I'll try to update later tonight.

12DEC08: So, some folks may know already; well, Monika's run into a bit of a snag with her chemo treatment. Her 5th treatment with the new drug Taxol, not only was her fatigue the worst ever and with sharp bone pain over her ENTIRE body (where she needed to take Vicodin to dull the pain); it turns out she's allergic to the dang thing. She broke out into a full body rash several days ago which required her to go back to the clinic and have steriods and Benadryl administered via IV to clear it up. She needs to be cleared of the allergic reaction before any more chemo can start.

So, where does she go from here - she starts a different chemo drug called Taxotere. The sucky part - instead of having 3 sessions left; Monika now has to go once a week for 6 weeks. Yup SIX more treatments; it did put a damper on both our spirits. At least she's responded extremely well to the treatments, the tumors have shrunk greatly and it's almost hard to tell the lymph nodes are affected - so huzzah for small victories!!!

So how about some fun stuff, here are some pictures from Thanksgiving where Monika's mom and brothers Greg and Chris drove up to visit (my Mom went home to Chicago for a couple of weeks. Nothing like home cooking and good company. On Black Friday, what do we do, Greg and I go engagement ring shopping - can you believe it, Gregor proposed to girl Katie last week in Vegas and she said YES!!! On Saturday, the boys and I went skiing (yup, gotta love Minnesota winters!!!) at Afton Alps about 50 minutes away.

05DEC08: So, hope everyone had a good Turkey Day with lots of tryptophan!!! Monika's finished her 5th of 8 total chemotherapy sessions; she's more that half way through!!! Go MONIKA!!!, Go MISHA!!! This round of chemo has been the hardest on Monika to date, even with the switch to Taxol which typically has lesser side effects.

21NOV08: So how's everyone doing tonight?!? Yup, I'm working on this Friday night around 9:30pm whilst sipping some GlenDronach 12 year old Scotch (yes, I fixed this on the 26th of November). Whisky (thanks to Greg and Katie my birthday gift 2 yrs back)!!! Monika had her 4th chemo session on Monday, so this week has been one of fatigue and some naseau. Those with Monika taking leave of work; she gets to sleep and rest more. This seems to have a positive effect since she has more energy to play with Maia and Evan in the evening after I pick them up from daycare.

The good news is that Monika can actually tell that the tumor and affected lymph nodes have actually shrunk as they should; the bad news is that she still needs to take the last 4 chemo sessions regardless. This was the last treatment using Adriamycin; her last 4 sessions will be with Taxol and still also with Cytoxan. In theory, with the change in chemo drugs, the overall naseau should lessen and there's even a chance that Monika's hair will grow back (fyi: she still has her most of her eyebrows/eyelashes which she's really thankful for). Surgery still looks to be some time in February 2009.

My Mom went home this week back to Chicago for two weeks. She's really been a big help and has really bonded with Evan; we know Evan misses her - the crying when not being attended to kinda gives it away ;-) She'll back early December. So, this time Monika's Mom will be here for two weeks. Her and Chris will be arriving some time early Saturday morning (ie: 2~3AM). Chris will be only staying until Sunday so thanks to him for coming up and for bringing up Mom Kuc!!!

So pictures right? Everyone wants to see pictures. Here are pictures of our "Inspiration Wall"; it's our kitchen wall with cards, pictures, fun stuff from friends, family and coworkers. It's meant to make you smile and laugh; and it does that very well. A thanks to everyone for the well wishes and positive support!!! (5 points to those who notice a lock of Monika's hair before chemo started).

07NOV08: So Halloween has come and gone, we have a new President-Elect, we got a good dusting of snow today and Monika's had her third chemo session. Well to start with, here are pictures from Halloween (sorry they suck, I used the video camera to take some pictures):

Maia loved that Mom was wearing a wig, so she HAD to wear one!!! She did look very cute in her butterfly outfit with the pink wig. Evan was supposed to wear a kitty kat hat but his noggin was too big for it; so he wore a "jester" type hat. We all had fun, Maia actually figured out to say "trick or treat" to get goodies (and "thank you") and we actually visited our whole block (about 10 houses).

Monika had her 3rd chemo session on Monday and woah did the side-effects kick in quick. She finished around 2pm and by 4pm, she was fatigued, dizzy and quesy. Yes, it does suck that the effects get worse as you go through the treatments. We're doing our best to make sure she can rest as much as she can. She'll be going on short-term leave sometime next week; so hopefully even more rest will be available. All of us are doing pretty good considering the circumstances.

Also, we found out Wednesday that my brother Mark and his wife Claudia with toddler Gabe will having a baby GIRL!!! Yup, Claudia is around 20 weeks pregnant. It's going to be pretty cool since now we can swap Maia's clothes (they've already given us some of Gabe's clothes for Evan - so fair is fair!!). Just can't wait to get all of the Mendoza and Kuc rugrats together to some ultimate fun and laughter!!!

Nothing planned for the weekend, I'm fighting some cold/cough that Evan passed around last week. Whatever Maia has, she got from daycare since a few kids are out also. Man, talk about being little disease vectors...Hopefully no one else will get sick; since Monika's at her weakest immunity-wise this weekend.

30OCT08 (CSD#44): Well, Monika's been feeling pretty cruddy this whole week. Pretty hit or miss with fatigue, dizziness and eye strain - all due to chemo. The 2nd week after chemo was her "good" period before, heck we went to Chicago last time around. Not so lucky after the 2nd session I guess. She's trying to find the strenght to just play with Maia and Evan after she gets home from work, when she has gone to work. So, she thinking about going on short-term disability sooner than she thought. She wants to focus what energy she has into healing and being with her kids (I think I fit in there somewhere also). It's upsetting to her that her energy level is this low still after her chemo, but we knew that it may happen.

We're looking into meals and a diet that will benefit her recovery during this period so we're seeing a nutritionist Friday. Plus, Monika's picked up some books about using more "raw" vegetables in your diet (to maintain as much beneficial aspects of the veggies as possible). So her diet, will be my diet...which really isn't a bad thing for me.

Friday we have a busy day scheduled seeing the nutritionist, oncologist, blood tests, an accupuncture session and a bone density scan. The chemo drugs may push her into early menopause with bone density lose being the main side-effect. So we're going to get a baseline now and then after chemo to see what percent bone density she may have lost. It's going to be along day for her.

Again, we're amazed and want to thank everyone who's given their support and encouragement to Monika and our family during this chapter in our lives. It's just amazing the support we've gotten.

Pictures from this past Sunday where we spent time putting up Halloween decorations, sipping hot chocolate (since this was our first snowfall of the year!!!) and Maia and Monika try on wigs!!! Thanks to Auntie Wendy for supplying our "japanimation" wigs!!!

As a side note, we had visited a R/C flying field back in late August; I've added pictures HERE (click the Fun Stuff tab and go into R/C Flying) of a "large scale" model fly-in. Maia had a lot of fun watching these planes fly...and crash.

29OCT08: Well, better late than never I guess; here are pictures from our visit Chicago for Evan's Baptism and Mom Kuc's 60th birthday. If anyone's wondering why a picture of the One Man Accordian Band guy, he was actually really good! My aunt Tessie (in the red outfit posing with brother in law Chris) was dancing all night to this guy. He played songs from Jimmy Buffett to Johnny Cash to Tom Jones to Dean Martin; he even sang the Unicorn Song with even the animal poses!!! (This one's for you Jen!)

22OCT08 (CSD #36): So what's new everyone!!! We were in Chicago over the weekend to have Evan baptized and to also celebrate Monika's mom's 60th BIRTHDAY!!! Happy Birthday Mom!!! It was a really great weekend of seeing family and friends. After the baptism, dinner was at the same place where we had our wedding reception - La Villa Restaurant. As usual the food was awesome and Chris the owner was great. If you're ever in the area, stop in for some great Italian food. The party for Monika's Mom (Harriet) was loads of fun also; it was sort of a mini-family reunion. All of Harriet's sisters were there except for Melanie; she's in Arizona and was unable to make it. Monika and I worked on a video slideshow of her Mom throughout the six decades and it was a great hit. We had pictures from 1910 of her parents, and a bunch from her life growing up in Poland and in America; all up to now being a mom and grandmother.

We returned back home around 2:30am on Monday 10/20 with just enough time to grab a few hours of sleep before Monika's second chemo treatment. Already, the process was feeling "routine". I had gotten Monika a present a few weeks ago to help her pass the time during her chemo sessions - what can a person do during 2 hours of getting drugs pumped into their body to kill cancer - Video Gaming!!! Yes, I bought Monika a Nintendo DS Lite and Super Mario Brothers. This was a special edition offered at Amazon.com where $5 for each one sold went to the Susan G. Komen Foundation - pretty sweet.

Monika's feeling pretty good today 10/22. She's not to queasy, though this morning her came out in clumps as she was showering. It was definitely freaky to see huge wads of her hair come off. Even though she knew it would happen soon, actually experiencing it was well - sad. She's a trooper though and still went to work where she did get her hair all shaved off. Now she gets to wear her "chemo caps" given to her by friends and some which she picked up herself.

Also, she's noticed that the size of the tumor/lymph nodes have actually shrunk a bit. They had actually swollen a bit a few days after the first chemo, but this noticed over the weekend that they did shrink in size. We see how the next 2 chemo sessions go as she's going to have a re-evaluation after the first 4 chemos to see the effect on the tumor size. This won't change the outcome of a bilateral mastectomy and radiation treatment, though less cancerous tissue to work with is better.

So all is well so far and we're expecting our first snowfall this weekend - woohoo, snow before Halloween!!! So here a few pics of Monika playing with her DS and also wearing a shirt I got for her to wear during chemo week. We took more video than pictures of our weekend in Chicago, but I'll post more pictures over the weekend.

10OCT08 (Cancer Survivor day 24): Well Monika had her first chemo session this past Tuesday, the "point of no return" as Monika called it. It made what felt surreal - into something very real. First thing was to get some blood work done to get a baseline on her white blood cell count (this will be done before every chemo session, if the counts are too low, then chemo will be delayed). Next, was some anti-nausea meds and then the start of adding the chemo drugs. The first drug is a weird Kool-aid red and is manually injected to ensure safety since if it spills on the skin; it's causes permanent cell death to the skin. This took about 15 minutes for the nurse to administer. The next drug was given via an IV and took about 50 minutes to receive.

Monika is experiencing fatigue, as is expected, but she's a tough cookie and has managed to go to work a couple of days this week. It really helps that my Mom is hear helping around the house and watching Maia and Evan. Also, our family, friends and coworkers have been awesome in given support and helping out. Coworkers of Monika and myself have offered us several meals from "Let's Dish" ; that was so great since it's meal that just need to be popped in the over or stove and we're good to go.

We leave for Chicago middle of next week to have Evan baptized and to celebrate Monika's mom's 60th birthday. We'll also get to see some friends and we're hoping that some of Monika's energy will return prior to the trip. Once we get back, it's time for Chemo #2 on 20OCT08.

Again, a thank you to all our friends, coworkers and family for the support they're giving Monika and myself during this chapter in our lives!!!

Cancer Survivor Day 1 - On September 17, 2008 with Fate not lacking a sense of dark humor, Monika was diagnosed with breast cancer on her birthday. About 2 weeks prior, Monika had gone in to check on some lumps that had not gone away after breast feeding (she had first noticed one lump in January 2008, this was attributed to pregnancy). On a whim, her doctor and Monika decided on an ultrasound. A few day later, she was noticed that dark masses were present in three areas and a biopsy was scheduled for September 15th. The results were given on the 17th.

The diagnosis: Level 3 breast cancer (infiltrating ductal carcinoma) with Grade 3 cell growth (most aggressive), there are at least 2 cancerous lymph nodes and additionally either one 10cm tumor or two 4cm tumors (there were conflicting results from the MRI, CT scan, mammography and ultrasound), additional scans indicated that it has not spread elsewhere thankfully
(this was a grueling 5 day wait; otherwise this would have been considered a Level 4 which is terminal if it was found elsewhere).

So, for the next two weeks, it was a barrage of tests and meetings with doctors/specialists who now make up her "Cancer Team". We then also found out that given the scenario around Monika's condition (ie: under 40, pregnant during know cancerous growth - this cancer type feeds off of estrogen/progesterone which are increased during pregnancy, the
aggressiveness of cell growth and the level of the cancer itself); the hospital cancer center designated her as a "case study". There are about 40 doctors/specialists/nurses that are following and discussing Monika's progress and treatment. Yeah, kinda cool, kinda weird.

Monika had a "IV port" surgically inserted in her right side near her collar bone. This item acts as a one-stop access point for IV, blood draws and administering chemotherapy drugs. This way they don't have to keep poking her arms until they fall off.

On October 7, 2008, Monika will start her first of 8 chemotherapy sessions. Our spirits are high and the support from our family and friends has been great. If you know Monika, you know that she'll beat this thing and do it with a grin (and a few choice Polish words).

We just want to thank all of you who are cheering in her corner. I'll updating this page when I can to keep all of you informed on her progress of being a breast cancer survivor!!!

Please feel free to contact us or provide encouragement via our GUESTBOOK!!!