Jan Curran Events

Knee deep in boxes and good news!

Raise your glasses, we're going to do a toast....

I am cancer free! After nearly four years of therapy, the words yesterday on all my scans was " No cancer."

Whew!

It's been a long haul and fight and felt like 14 years rather than four -- but now it is history and I am going to do just as the doctor said...

" go out now and live!"

I want to thank you all for your support and love and care and concern for me these years... we were all in this fight together and so you are just as much a winner as am I.

The fan club continues. We all have loved ones or friends or just acquaintances with cancer and they need the same kind of support you gave to me, so keep saving your magazines and delivering them to hospitals.  Member Mike Barer sends them in boxes to Seattle area hospitals and says they are from the Jan Curran Fan Club and I bet a lot of heads turn in bewilderment wondering who the heck is Jan Curran! The same must happen when David Zarkin delivers magazines in the St. Paul area.

How do I feel? Still very tired from the radiation and still coughing - also a side effect  - but that will be gone in a few months and I can tolerate it. Anything is tolerable after any recall of the hell that was radiation.

What is next for me with the cancer? The doctor said not to even think the word , just be fine.. and in six months go have another PET and CAT scan.... so here I am coughing and tired and packing boxes to move. .. and a bit stunned.

I've been having scans every 3 or 6 months since 1996 and I always go in very positive and then the news is not so positive and I have a bit of a heart break knowing I have 6 months ahead of chemotherapy and all that means.

This time, with son Tod along, I had no feelings one way or the other... was rather feeling that I would learn when to start chemo again.  When the doctor said the news was fantastic, I just sat there, stunned. I told him I know how to react to bad news, but good news - been so long coming I didn't react, I just sat there and let son Tod do the talking and asking the questions.

We celebrated, in 115 degrees, by having a bagel and creme cheese at a favorite stop on the way home.  Yeah, we called all my other kids from the car to share the good news, and then I called my brother Stan and a few other family and friends.... yet I still feel like maybe it isn't real, did he really say no cancer??

Back to my chores here, but wanted to let you know my good news.

How are things with you?

xxoo Jan

Where's Jan?

I know, I've been MIA for a long while now.. . all my excuses are good ,boring, but good.

First, I was in Seattle.. and the proof is in the photos...

Click for larger view and you will think , " It looks as if she might be on a boat..." Your think is right. The Thea Foss out of Seattle, a 94th birthday cruise for my mother.  Beautiful day, wonderful time.

Well, that's not the picture I wanted - but it shows you the fan club met and did our routine gift exchange. That's my friend Diane from Walla Walla standing. She came down to give me a hand here and we planned a luncheon around her visit. She's coming back on the 19th and the group will gather again to say hello to her and good-bye to me as I head off to the coast and a new place to live in Ventura, CA.

Yeah, that move comes as a shock to me, too!

Diane and I made a rushed tour of Palm Springs... it was 120 out and she had never been here before so , natch, I had to take her to Melvyn's Ingleside Inn for lunch.. and here is the proof we were there.

Aside from that eating, and visiting, I had some rough days, which was the real reason Diane came here and the real reason I've not been on here much.

Now my reason is I am packing for the move the weekend of the 21st.  Let's see if I can transfer over the letter I sent the fan club so you get the same news they did, just a few days later.

Jan Curran, 48149 Calle Seranas, La

Quinta

,

CA

.92253

Phone: Home 760-777-1890

Cell: 760-413-8900

June 28, 2006

La Quinta: The lead of the story should be;

“Jan’s moving again, this time to

Ventura

, cool ocean breezes…”

When? July 22

How? Which ever mover gives me the lowest bid.

Why? Aha…. Now comes the stuff of which rumor runs wild and the reason I’m sending you this notice of me running rampart amongst boxes here. Thought it best I do that before someone makes up a really juicy false story on why I am getting out of town..

Ever since my cancer came back in Dec. of 2003, my LA area kids – Lee in Calabasas, Karen in

Westlake

Village

and Linda in

Valencia

have been saying words like:

“Mom, if you lived closer we could help take care of you…. Mom, if you lived closer we could go to a movie together, art shows, plays…… Mom, if you lived closer you could spend more time with the grand kids…” and, of course, it is the latter plea that would get me interested in the idea of a move. Yet, the cancer treatments had me pretty much grounded here so a move just seemed very far fetched.

Son Tod, who lives around the corner from me in La Quinta, and who is the designated driver, shlepper of me to and from doctors, one who checks on me daily, waits hours in waiting rooms, confers with doctors, drags me to ER rooms, gets me groceries, hauls my trash to the street, brings me my mail, consoles me when a love life goes sour, fixes my computer, tells me when and if I can drive a car…. the list is endless… Well, he thought it might be a good idea if someone gave him a break in the huge responsibility he has as Mom’s right hand guy slash caregiver.

“ Marry someone, “ he kept saying, but no one came forward with bended knee so I continued to do my health care here and live here and love the desert.

I actually, a few years ago, in- between chemotherapies, spent a few days pricing apartments in the

San Fernando Valley

.

After looking at what was offered in all price ranges, I hurried back to La Quinta, happy to return to our serene valley where a person can have an entire house for what a crummy studio apartment costs in the LA area.

Long story short or shorter….. As you know, my cancer came back again last August and, adding on the time already spent in therapy, I ended up spending more than another year in either chemotherapy or radiation or recovery. It was ongoing from Dec. of 2003 right up to this May.

As tough as therapy was, it was even tougher to be here and not in

Hawaii

or

Seattle

or

Virginia

or on some wonderful trip during the triple digit days of summer.  After nearly 20 years of getting out of town when it hit 110, I was stuck here driving back and forth to the cancer center and feeling twice as sick in the heat.

On May 20, following a flight from

Seattle

back to the desert, I had a severe – mega severe - -reaction to steroid drugs.. Landed me in three hospitals and flat on my back. My recovery instructions were: no driving, no doing much of anything and “No being alone in the house. Gain back the 20lbs you lost in radiation…..”

Ever go price live-in help that also drives the car, cooks, cleans and isn’t a pain in the backside?

Yeah, costs a fortune.

I made one call to my hometown pals in

Walla Walla

for help.

Life long friend, fellow cheer leader, Diane Warner Lee, was here on the next flight to be my caregiver/driver/best buddy.

At the same time, my Calabasas son, Lee. began an extensive search and inspection of over 30 independent living facilities in the San Fernando Valley, ( means they feed you and have drivers to take you places) and, then, knowing I would strongly dislike the traffic and the pollen and the noise that is LA, he headed towards Ventura and Santa Barbara and landed on a great place for what is termed “active seniors” in Ventura, five minutes from the beach, 15 minutes from my daughters, 30 minutes from Lee.

“Mom”, he said, “this is the closest to living in a hotel or on a cruise ship – it is beautiful. Come on down, let me show you.”

I didn’t want to go, or even consider that kind of living, but with Diane at the wheel, we headed out and - yeah, the bottom line is the place Lee found is wonderful and we signed an agreement right then and there – month to month in case I change my mind down the line – and with a move in date of July 22.

Talk about downsizing! Zowie. I am going from a house to a one bedroom apartment!   Lee has a four car garage and has done a neat thing. Has dumpsters at his house as I type and is cleaning out one garage which will forever more be known as “The Jan Curran Storage Center.”

What I don’t take or sell goes in his garage.

Yeah, I feel very sad about leaving the desert, my friends, my doctors, my views of the mountains. I’ve lived here more than 25 years and was coming here for a good 10 before that…. but my doctors agree, too, this is the best thing to do until I am completely well. Get me out of this heat, make sure I have three good meals a day, do some physical therapy, be near plenty of people who can take care of me.

With the thought I might have to repeat chemotherapy again, I want to get in and be settled before that would even begin. Keep your fingers crossed the doctors decide I don’t have to endure that for the 5^th time.

Friend Diane is flying back down on the 19^th to drive me to

Ventura

and help me with the move.

Jan Curran Fan Club members, I have an idea. Her flight is due to land at 11:30 in

Palm Springs

that day. How about if we meet for lunch at 12:30 on that day? Diane and I have to eat anyway, so might as well make it a fan club day and that way you can see her again, too.

All of you who are not members are surely welcome to join us. Men and women all greeted with hugs and applause and new attendees always get a “winner” ribbon from me, because you are all winners in this fight against cancer.

Just RSVP to Roxann Ploss ---- 760-323-2400—she always reserves the room at the Olive Garden in Rancho Mirage.

There are no dues, no rules, just be nice to everyone, save your magazines to take to cancer treatment centers, come to lunch and have fun.  We all always bring a “white elephant” gift and the gift exchange is the highlight of our fun times.

Yes, I am planning on coming back often, or as often as I can, and for sure in September when the Fan Club hosts a baby shower for member Kristen Avon (she’s due on Oct. 10 so I figure our shower will be in September.)

Member Lori McCaffery has already told me her

Palm

Desert

guest room and bath is mine to call my own so that would work out great.

Fan Club or not, Diane and I will stop for lunch somewhere between here and the airport as she will have departed

Spokane

at 6:30 a.m. and will no doubt be starving.

Oh, I almost forgot to give you my new address.

1220 Cypress Point Lane #225

Ventura

, CA. 93003

Phone? Cell remains the same at 760-413-8900

Apartment phone will be 805-650-9237.

Hugs,Jan

Now, if you will excuse me, I've gotta get back to packing up this house so I can move in to a little apartment... GROAN.

Hope this finds you well and happy.

What's your news? Come on, share it!

jan

PS! tHANKS TO MARIA IN THE UK! YOUR TEA TOWEL ARRIVED JUST IN TIME FOR ME TO PACK IT FOR MY NEW APARTMENT. THANK YOU, YOU'RE A LOVE FOR SURE!

I PROMISE TO BE BETTER ABOUT WRITING BUT I KNOW YOU UNDERSTAND.

XXOO jBC