I agree with Anettemartinrn, whether the original story of Kathy West is true or not is trivial. Ovarian cancer is true and the fact that it is almost a totally silent cancer is just as true. How do I know? I have it. And I had no signs in the beginning. Most of you will not recognize my name - I used to post here years ago and only recently began lurking again. Last fall, I started to have serious pain when having a bowel movement. Thinking I had Irritable bowel syndrome, I let it go for a few weeks before finally making an appt. with a gastroenterologist. It was only then discovered after a series of tests that I have advanced cancer. By the time I found out I had it, it had already spread throughout my peritoneal cavity. I immediately went to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer. The doctor told me most women 'present' as Stage 3 or even 4 because it's very hard to detect in the early stages. I had an extremely painful operation on January 2. They literally opened me from my groin to my rib cage, took every single organ out, and removed all the visible tumors. They were everywhere, my abdominal lining, my bladder, my colon (they had to resection a part of it), my diaghragm, and a tissue inside my abdomen called the 'omentum' which was also removed. I'm still not recovered from the operation, yet had to start my first round of chemo on February 5. I will have to go through 6 rounds of chemo. The first round has sucked; I cannot imagine what it's going to be like to go through the next 5. Once this cancer is in Stage 3, the return rate is really high and the 5-year survival statistics are not good. I can't even begin to express how depressed and angry I've become, how in fear for my life I am every single day, not knowing what's going to happen with me. I've never been sick in my life, always healthy. I ate right and exercised. I'm only 43 years old. I too was discouraged by my gynocologist from taking the CA125, because of the false positives. If I had the chance do it again, I'd take that CA125 anyway, false positive or not, even if I had to pay for it out of my own pocket. I would have insisted. I wish it would become a mandatory test.

you may need to go to Houston to find quilt shops - I'll get a link and post it in a bit to my favorite quilt shop - just think you can go in person to the Quilt show this Fall. I would suggest trying to rent a house in League City rather than in Galveston. Texas City is closer but it has a huge refinery (think the BP explosion a few years ago). Our weather is either cool (now) wonderful (April-May and Oct-Nov) or hot as Hades June, July, Aug and humid also. Get a map or go on line and look for area about 10-15 miles North of Galveston .... Keep in mind there are only 3 ways on and off the island - Freeport, I-45 and the Ferry from the Bolivar Peninsula. There are bound to be some quilt guilds (I live 60 miles North and about 16 miles West) but I am not familiar with any in that part of the area. Galveston lies in Galveston county and Houston is in Harris County - the dividing line is in the general vicinity of the Space Center (about halfway between the 2 cities). We Texans are a friendly, welcoming bunch even if we do have 'big-hair'. Carolyn

Sharon You are so right. Our quilt auction was last night and I am happy to report that your quilt went for $225 and we raised over $9400 this year. I plan to have pictures posted by the end of the weekend. Things have been so hectic here, that I can't put a time crunch of today on posting. My intent is to scan our quilt book today into a pdf file so that I can hopefully just upload that. If that won't work, then I will have to transfer everything to photobucket and post each individual picture, which I am sure non of you will be disappointed in. I will post as quickly as I can. Lynn

I was so impressed by all the work going into this cause, and very proud of you Geezerfolks! They were all beautiful and how wonderful that they've found homes with people who will really appreciate them and benefit from their generosity.