AMAZING GRACE

CAMPBELL UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL 1971

2011-12-22T19:03:00.000-05:00

CAMPBELL UNIVERSITY YEARBOOKS

2011-12-22T18:41:00.002-05:00

http://library.digitalnc.org/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=digita&CISOBOX1=North+Carolina+College+and+University+Yearbooks&CISOOP2=exact&CISOFIELD2=contri&CISOROOT=%2Fyearbooks&CISOBOX2=Campbell%20University

1968 CAMPBELL UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL

BRUCE CHAMBERS - 1ST ROW SECOND FROM LEFT

Listen to Christmas Display of Amazing Grace on youtube

2011-12-20T11:19:00.000-05:00

Click on Link below.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2011

http://www.flixxy.com/best-christmas-lights-display.htm

OCTOBER 27 2011 BRUCE WENT TO ST FRANCIS ER WITH HIGH TEMPERATURE - URINARY INFECTION

2011-10-31T18:17:00.008-04:00

On Thursday night October 27 2011 at 11:00pm, my temperature went to 102 degrees within one hour. It frightened all of us because the same thing had happened to me in June 2011 when I was hospitalized for a week with a serious E-coli infection which had gotten in my blood stream caused by a prostate biopsy.

In addition Dr. Glen Daves had just performed an Endoscopy and Colonoscopy 2 days ago on Tuesday Oct 25th and we thought the high temperature may have been caused by either the E-coli or Colonoscopy/Endoscopy.

Dianne called my Gastroenterologist around 10:00pm and the Doctor told me to go to St Francis Downtown where they had my records when I had E-coli.

When I arrived at ER, they gave me IV fluids, took my temperature, blood samples, urine sample, and completed a chest X-Ray. All were normal except the urine test came back positive for urinary tract infection. My Doctor gave me a prescription for Cipro to be taken for the next 10 days. I went home around 4:00am.

Bruce

DIANNE STREP THROAT AND ERYSIPELAS HOSPITALIZATION OCTOBER 9-13 2011

2011-10-17T15:23:00.000-04:00

On Friday Oct 7 2011 Dianne went to Dr. Hanna and he diagnosed her with strep throat and prescribed antibiotic Zithromax 500mg for 3 days. On Saturday Oct 7th 8:00pm called Dr. Hanna due to small redness on her right cheek next to ear. Dr. Hanna said it was probably allergic reaction to antibiotic or ibuprofen and to take take tylenol instead of ibuprofen and benadryl. On Sunday Oct 9th at 7:00pm Dianne had fever of 102 degrees and redness on cheek had spread, swollen, and I took her to St. Francis Eastside Emergency Room. Dr. Corbett/ER diagnosed Erysipelas http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001643/ and began intravenous Vancomycin antibiotic, tylenol to reduce fever, fluids. At 6:00am Monday Oct 10th Dr. Daramola/Hospitalist Internal Medicine admitted Dianne to Hospital and also added intravenous Zosyn and Fluocanozole. Dr. Daramola diagnosed Cellulitis and this sounded different to me than Erysipelas diagnosed by Dr. Corbett but the treatment was same for both. Dr. Daramola also requested Infectious Disease Specialists to examine Dianne and confirm his treatment plan. On Monday afternoon Dr. John Shrank/Infectious Disease examined Dianne and confirmed Erysipelas which is a Strepoccal Bacteria Skin Infection. On Monday as the day went on, the facial redness, swelling, and tenderness was spreading and at 3:00pm I was getting scared and anxious when her temperature soared to 102.6 degrees and she had a severe headache and nauseau. I had called Dianne's sister Donna Harrill and she returned call from the mountains in afternoon. Donna and her husband Larry drove to Greenville and she stayed with us from Monday until Sunday and helped so very much. Dr.Shrank had taken Dianne off Zosyn and added antibiotic Cleosin. After stopping Zoysn the infection quickly began to spread and we called Dr. Lovelace/Internal Medicine and she added back Zosyn and also increased the strength. I stayed with Dianne every day and night and even ate meals with her. Morrison's was the food vendor and we were allowed to order whatever we wanted from the menu. The guest meals were only $5.00 and were very good. On Tuesday Oct 11th Dr.Tran/Internal Medicine examined Dianne, and the spreading of the infection had beens been halted but her eyes were almost closed shut due to the swelling. On Wednesday Dr. McPhearson/Internal Medicine examined Dianne and stopped the IV Vancomycin antibiotic and continued the Zosyn and Cleosin. Dr. Kelly/Infectious Disease examined Dianne, and she asked Dr. Kelly how long it would take for her to heal and when would she possibly go home, and he thought probably after the weekend. Around 3:00pm Dianne got a headache and she said on a scale of 1-10, it was a 10. They gave her Norco [contains hydrocodone and acetimenophen] for pain and phenergan for nauseau. Right after Dianne took the pain med, Art Ringger, our Southside Church Executive Pastor, came to visit Dianne. Dianne was getting drowsy from the medicine and Art said, let's pray together. We held hands and Art prayed for Dianne, and he left shortly thereafter. Dianne slept until 4:30pm and we ordered dinner after she woke up. I noticed that the redness and swelling was getting better and it kept improving as the evening went on. It was just amazing how much she was improving now and how quickly. On Thursday morning Dr. McPhearson examined Dianne and she was astonished how much better Dianne was today from yesterday. She asked Dianne if she wanted to go home, and Dianne was elated. Many, many prayers have been going up for Dianne and God's grace has been poured upon her as these prayers have been answered. Very soon after Art Ringger prayed for Dianne, she began to get better. His prayer and the culmination of all the prayers have been answered, and what Amazing Grace that God has given to Dianne for her healing. We arrived at our home on Thursday Oct 13th around 4:00pm. I received a phone call from another Pastor at Southside, Mark Moody. Mark said they had been told Dianne had been released from hospital, and wanted to call me and confirm that she had been released from hospital because when Art saw her yesterday she was not doing very well. I told Mark that it was a miracle that God answered Art's prayer and the many other prayers that have been given for Dianne. On Monday Oct 17th Dianne went to Dr. Hanna for followup visit and she is doing so good and we pray that she will be completely healed by the time she completes her 7-day round of antibiotics scheduled to end Oct 20th.

2 Corinthians 12:9

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

We give our sincere thanks for God's grace to Dianne during this time of sickness and uncertainty.

God bless,

Bruce

Greenville News Letter 9.22.2011: Obama's plan would hurt Social Security

2011-09-22T11:10:00.005-04:00

Greenville News

09/22/2011

Letter: Obama's Plan would hurt Social Security

In his new jobs proposal to Congress, President Barack Obama is asking
Congress to cut payroll tax contributions to Social Security by $240 billion in year 2012. His proposal suggests that the $240 billion lost in Social Security payroll tax contributions would be replenished by money from the federal budget. Does he think the American people are not capable of figuring out what he is proposing?

His proposal will force our government to borrow even more money from China to pay retirees’ Social Security and will further increase our federal debt. Social Security has always been a self-funded insurance program since the first payroll taxes were collected from workers payroll in 1937 that were designated for retirees, disabled and their survivors.

President Obama is proposing, for the first time since 1937, that Social Security will be paid for with general funds from the U.S. Treasury. This will not only undermine the revered status of Social Security as having been a program that is self-funded, but it also undermines the program by putting Social Security in competition for federal dollars at a time that we already have a $14.7 trillion national debt and growing exponentially everyday.

In essence, President Obama is proposing that for the first time we sidestep the self- funding of Social Security. If his proposal is approved by Congress, it will undermine the whole Social Security System for retirees in the future, and will set the precedent for future presidents and Congress to trim Social Security benefits for retirees.

Last year Social Security paid out $49 billion more than we collected in payroll taxes, and it was the first time that there was a deficit since 1983.

We all know that we have to make changes to fully fund Social Security for future retirees, such as was done to offset the deficit in 1983 when the retirement age was gradually increased and payroll taxes were adjusted. However, this proposal by President Obama will undermine the future of Social Security and should not be passed.

Bruce Chambers

Simpsonville, SC

DIANNE'S BONE MARROW BIOPSY RESULTS AUGUST 29 2011

2011-08-30T11:30:00.002-04:00

In Dianne's regular 6-month check up with her Oncologist, she had a routine blood test, and the test showed her white blood cell count had dropped significantly. Therefore on August 16 2011 her Oncologist performed a bone marrow biopsy and sent to Caris Laboratories for biopsy. The biopsy was no fun to say the least.

We are rejoicing in the Lord that we received good test results yesterday, August 29th, from Dianne's Oncologist Dr. Edenfield in reference to her bone marrow tests that were taken on August 16th. It has been a very agonizing 2 weeks waiting to get these results, and we have been praying for peace and good test outcome as we waited for the results.

Dr. Edenfield said these tests show there is no metastatic cancer, no leukemia, no lymphoma, no myelodysplasia [disease of the bone marrow where there are not enough healthy blood cells being produced, which can be as a result of her previous chemotherapy], etc.

He said the tests show that Dianne's bone marrow is building and producing healthy white blood cells, but for some unknown reason the spleen is stopping and collecting many of the white blood cells which are subsequently being digested through the spleen.

As you can imagine, these bone marrow tests were much more extensive and complicated than I can explain.

Dianne will go back to her Oncologist for routine blood tests in 6 months in February 2012. However, in the meantime, Dr. Edenfield requested Dianne to be sure and call him if she has any recurrent colds, fever, etc.

Thank the Lord that Dianne has not been sick since her last treatments in 2009, and she has been feeling terrific and her energy level is great. It is hard for me to keep up with her.

We are so thankful for God's grace for Dianne in this situation, because a bad outcome could have resulted in one of many serious situations.

Sending our love,

Bruce and Dianne

AMAZING GRACE: Met Governor Rick Perry Downtown Greenville, SC August 19, 2011

2011-08-20T17:21:00.000-04:00

AMAZING GRACE: Met Governor Rick Perry Downtown Greenville, SC August 19, 2011

Met Governor Rick Perry Downtown Greenville, SC August 19, 2011

2011-08-20T13:18:00.007-04:00

Texas Governor Rick Perry was in Greenville, SC on Friday August 19th, 2011 campaigning for the Presidency travelling in his bus labelled "Get America Back to Work".

My sweetie Dianne [Mimi], and I [Poppy] took our granddaughter, Bella, downtown to see Governor Rick Perry because we thought it would be a good experience for Bella and we would also get to see him.

We were following Governor Perry down Main Street Greenville walking with many others including media, and I was trying to get up close so we could Gov. Perry to take a picture with Bella. The 1st picture we got with Governor Perry was with Bella and me. As Gov. Perry walked into the Barkery shop, he stopped and talked with Dianne and Bella. Gov. Perry asked Bella what was her name, that she was a beautiful girl, and spent some time talking to them.

It started thundering, lightning, and raining so we had to leave before Governor Perry got on his bus with his whole entourage.

Bruce

June 10 2011 E COLI BLOOD INFECTION UPDATE

2011-06-10T10:19:00.006-04:00

Finished my 2 weeks of antibiotics Macrobid and Vantin yesterday.

Am still praying that the E. coli bacteria has now been killed in my body's blood stream.

E. coli is a less serious problem in the urinary tract, but if it spreads to the bloodstream it causes bacteremia, which can lead to a dangerous drop in blood pressure called septic shock. Bacteremia is associated with a death rate of about 10 percent. The bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli), which grows naturally in the human digestive tract, is a leading cause of urinary tract infections. Medical researchers have long known that E. coli is also a cause of blood stream infection.

Escherichia coli (E. coli) are gram-negative bacteria that can survive in an environment with or without air (facultative anaerobes) and, depending on the environment, may or may not produce thin hair-like structures (flagella or pili) that allow the bacteria to move and to attach to human cells. These bacteria commonly live in the intestines of people and animals worldwide. There are many strains (over 700 serotypes) of E. coli.

Most of the E. coli are normal inhabitants of the small intestine and colon and do not cause disease in the intestines (non-pathogenic). Nevertheless, these non-pathogenic E. coli can cause disease if they spread outside of the intestines, for example, into the urinary tract (where they cause bladder or kidney infections, or into the blood stream (sepsis). Other E. coli strains (enterovirulent E. coli strains or EEC) cause "poisoning" or diarrhea even though they usually remain within the intestine by producing toxins or intestinal inflammation.

“We’re all beginning to see more and more sepsis as a result of resistant bacteria after prostate biopsies,” said Peter T. Scardino, chief of surgery at the Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center in New York, which does about 2,000 of the tests annually. “This is an extremely worrisome problem.”

Doing a tissue biopsy of the prostate to detect cancer typically entails sending an ultrasound-guided needle about a dozen times through the rectum to collect specimens from the walnut-sized gland that sits under the bladder. The test carries an infection risk because the needle can take bacteria from the bowel into the prostate, bladder and bloodstream. The 15-minute procedure, usually performed in a doctor’s office, can be dangerous if the bacteria are resistant to antibiotics given at the time of the biopsy.

The American Cancer Society changed its guidelines in 2010 to reflect a growing body of research suggesting screening tests may do more harm than good in some men. The cancer group said patients should be warned of the risk of misleading tests results and treatment side effects, which might in some cases cause more damage than the slow-growing disease.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-05/prostate-exam-deaths-tied-to-superbug-ills-spur-cancer-test-inquiries.html

Macrobid is used to treat urinary tract infections. It works by interfering with various chemical processes in the bacteria, which results in the death of the bacteria. Macrobid (nitrofurantoin) is an antibiotic that fights bacteria in the body. Nitrofurantoin is an antibiotic which is often used against E. coli.

Vantin [Cefpodoxime] is an oral third generation cephalosporin antibiotic. It is marketed as the prodrug cefpodoxime proxetil by Pharmacia & Upjohn under the trade name Vantin and under the name Orelox by [[Sanofi-Aventis]; PECEF in Dr Reddy's (Farhaad)]. It is active against most Gram positive and Gram negative organisms. It also finds use as oral continuation therapy when intravenous cephalosporins (such as ceftriaxone) are no longer necessary for continued treatment.

While I was in the hospital I was on IV Vancomycin and IV Gentamicin.

Vancomycin is a glycopeptide antibiotic used in the prophylaxis and treatment of infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria. It has traditionally been reserved as a "drug of last resort", used only after treatment with other antibiotics had failed, although the emergence of vancomycin-resistant organisms means that it is increasingly being displaced from this role by linezolid (Zyvox) available PO and IV and daptomycin (Cubicin) IV and quinupristin/dalfopristin (Synercid) IV.

Gentamicin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic, used to treat many types of bacterial infections, particularly those caused by Gram-negative organisms. However, gentamicin is not used for Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Neisseria meningitidis or Legionella pneumophila. Gentamicin is also ototoxic and nephrotoxic, with this toxicity remaining a major problem in clinical use.

It is synthesized by Micromonospora, a genus of Gram-positive bacteria widely present in the environment (water and soil). To highlight their specific biological origins, gentamicin and other related antibiotics produced by this genus (verdamicin, mutamicin, sisomicin, netilmicin, retymicin) generally have their spellings ending in ~micin and not in ~mycin. Gentamicin is a bacterial antibiotic that works by binding the 30S subunit of the bacterial ribosome, interrupting protein synthesis.

Like all aminoglycosides, when gentamicin is given orally, it is not systemically active. This is because it is not absorbed to any appreciable extent from the small intestine. It is administered intravenously, intramuscularly or topically to treat infections. It appears to be completely eliminated unchanged in the urine. Urine must be collected for many days to recover all of a given dose because the drug binds avidly to certain tissues.

E.coli has shown some resistance to gentamicin, despite being Gram-negative. Reluctance to use gentamicin for empirical therapy has led to increased use of alternative broad-spectrum antibiotics, which some experts suggest has led to the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections by Golden Staph and other so-called "superbugs".

Thanks to God for his grace and to all my family and friends for their faithful prayers and support during this time of uncertainty.

Bruce Chambers

2011-06-02T22:21:00.003-04:00

BRUCE CHAMBERS JOURNEY

E. COLI BACTERIAL INFECTION AND HOSPITIALIZATION

MAY 20TH – MAY 27TH 2011

In April 2011 I had my regular physical exam and my PSA was elevated to 4.7 from .9 prior annual physical. My Family Doctor, Dr. Hanna, put me on antibiotic Cipro for 4 weeks ending May 3^rd to determine if the elevated PSA was caused by an infection. On May 3^rd Dr Hanna rechecked my PSA and it was 4.4 so he sent me to a Urologist at Palmetto Greenville Urology. I selected Urologist Dr. Andrew Bullock in the PG Urology Group.

On Thursday May 19^th 2011:

At 11:00am went to Dr. Andrew Bullock/Palmetto Greenville Urology for a prostate biopsy, at which time he took 12 tissue samples. Except for the needle to numb the prostate, it was uneventful. Dr Bullock said to call him immediately if I got a temperature of 100.5 or greater or if blood in my unrine increased.

On Friday morning May 20^th:

I was feeling good and even told Dianne that I wanted to cut my grass, and she readily said, you are not going to do that, Chad will cut the grass for you.

Around 5:00pm we took our granddaughter Bella to Barnes and Noble for story time, and then met our son Chad to listen to live music outside. Chad and Dianne got Bella some ice cream and asked me if I wanted some, and I said no, which was probably the first time ever I did not want ice cream. I was beginning to feel weak and somewhat nauseous.

About 6:00pm I told Dianne that I needed to go home since I was feeling worse and worse.

By 6:30pm my temperature soared past 100.5 and Dianne called Palmetto Greenville Urology after hours answering service and asked them to contact the Urologist on call for the weekend to call us. The answering service said the Doctor would call within 20-30 minutes. My temperature had now escalated quickly to over 102.0, I was urinating bright red blood, had bad headache, and awful chills.

Dianne called Palmetto Greenville Urology 4 more times and did not receive a return phone call from the Urologist on duty.

I was now having severe chills, all my muscles were quivering uncontrollably, my head was throbbing, the blood in my urine was getting greater, extremely nauseous, and my temperature was up to 102.8. I really felt like my body was being taken over by some infection and I had to have help immediately. My son Chad told Dianne that we have to quickly take Dad to the closest Emergency Room which was St. Francis Eastside.

At 7:30pm Dianne took me to St. Francis Eastside Emergency Room and they took me back fairly quickly after she told them how bad I was getting over the last several hours. The ER took my vitals, put me on IV fluids, gave me more Tylenol, took urine sample and blood sample. Dianne asked the Nurse as well as Dr Hale/ER Doctor to again call Palmetto Urology.

St Francis ER called Palmetto Greenville Urology multiple times and never received a return phone call while I was in the ER from 7:30 pm Friday night until 6:30am the next morning when I was released.

Around 9:00pm Dr Hale came in and said I had urinary tract infection and put me on an IV of Cipro, which is commonly used to treat urinary tract infections and prostatitis. [However, the blood culture received the following Thursday revealed that the bacterial microorganism in my blood was a strain of E. Coli which was resistent to Cipro - which means Cipro was having no effect on treating the E Coli in my blood stream]

Saturday morning May 21^st:

By 6:00am early morning I was somewhat stabilized and Dr Hale said I could go home. He gave me prescription for Cipro, Hydrocodone with 500mg Tylenol, and Phenergan for nauseau.

Saturday afternoon May 21^st:

After Dianne took me home Saturday morning at 6:30 am, Dr. Monroe/Palmetto Greenville Urology finally called Saturday at 12:30pm from St Francis Hospital phone. He stated that he had not received any of our phone messages when we had had called him Friday night, nor did he receive any messages that St Francis had called him while I was in St Francis Eastside ER. My wife Dianne told Dr Monoe what had transpired since Friday afternoon starting around 5:00pm, as well as the prescriptions that Dr Hale had given me. Dr Monroe gave Dianne his cell phone number in case we needed him over the weekend.

Saturday night at 7:00pm Dianne called Dr Monroe's cell phone because my fever continued to spike, and now was up to 102.0 again and I was having severe chills, muscle spasms, vomiting, still urinating a red stream of blood, pain when urinating, could not empty my bladder, nausea, and a bad headache. Dr Monoe and he told her to give me the 1000mg of tylenol every 3 ½ hours versus 4, which seemed to minimize the severe spikes in my fever that night, but my fever stayed still over 100.0. Dr Monroe said I needed to call the office Monday morning and come in and see one of the Urologists [info: my Urologist Dr Bullock was on vacation for the week].

Sunday May 22nd:

My fever stayed over 100.0, urinating blood, continuous nauseousness, could not empty my bladder, pain when urinating, hard to urinate and could not produce a steady stream, trying to urinate every 10-15 minutes, continuous headache, and getting weaker.

Monday May 23rd:

At 8:00am I called Palmetto Greenville Urology and told the receptionist what had happened over the weekend and that Dr. Monroe had told me to call 1^st thing Monday morning and see one of the Doctors. The receptionist stated that all the Doctors were booked for the day. I told her I had to see a Doctor today and that Dr. Monroe had told me to call and schedule an appointment Monday morning. She said, I do not know why we are so booked today. She said, hold on, and then put someone else on the phone and I told her that the same story, and she said she could get me in to see the Nurse Practioner. I told her I need to see a Doctor and not a Nurse Practioner, and she said hold on. then someone else came on the phone and said to come in at 1:45pm to see Dr Sterrett.

Dianne took me to my 1:45pm appointment with Dr Sterrett he talked to us about what was going on. He then took urine and blood sample and came back in and said we need to get you in the hospital immediately. In 5 minutes he had my papers and Dianne took me straight to St Francis downtown and my Room 617 was ready.

At 2:30pm I was in Room 617 at St Francis.

The Nurse started an IV with fluids, took my vitals, and blood and urine samples.

I was told that I had gram negative rods bacterial infection; which is a class that could be one of a thousand bacterial infections. However, the Vancomycin and Gentamcin were the strongest antibiotics for gram negative organisms and should work effectively until the culture results come back from the lab with the specific bacteria identified. In addition to the gram negative rod infection in the blood, there was a urinary tract infection as well as prostatitis of the prostate.

Then I was given intravenous antibiotics Vancomycin and Gentamicin which are used to treat the most serious blood infections, one oral tablet of Flomax daily which was used to treat my enlarged prostate and make it so I could urinate, as well as 650mg tylenol every 4-6 hours for my fever.

I was having such a hard time urinating, could not empty my bladder, blood in urine, and the pain in my bladder was horrendous.

I really wondered if I was going to make it. My body was getting weaker. I was having urges to urinate every 5-10 minutes and had to get up and down constantly. Dianne had to help me every time I got up because I was so weak, and being hooked up to an IV it was so hard to go back and forth to the bathroom. I could not sleep and had not really slept since last Thursday night before I got sick on Friday.

Dianne spent 24 hours a day every day with me in the hospital and we were up all night. Dr Sterrett gave me ambien to try to get some sleep, but since I was up and down so much with urinating, I could not sleep even with the ambien. I felt so sorry for Dianne because she had no rest since last Thursday night before I went into the hospital emergency room on Friday evening.

Tuesday May 24^th:

This was the worst day of my life and I really prayed that God would help me pull through it even though I felt like I was going down hill fast. It was very scarey because it felt as if my body was shutting down. They told me I had to eat and I was so weak that I tried to open my cereal box for breakfast that morning and did not have enough strength to open the box, and Dianne had to open it for me. The IV fluids were administered 24 hours/day at 3 times the normal rate in order to hydrate my body which also made me have to urinate more and that was so so painful.

Dr Sterrett came to see me at 7:00am and said the blood culture results should be ready in hopefully 2-3 days and they could then tell what was the specific bacteria organism in my blood. However, he did know the blood infection was in the bacterial class of infections called gram negative rods, and in the meantime he had me on the strongest antibiotics to treat the gram negative rods as well as the prostatitis and urinary infections.

Dr. Sterrett said it would be several days and I would see improvement.

Even though I was having such a hard time urinating, he did not want to give me a cathecter because he said he did not want to do anything to irritate the prostate any more than it was already.

The pain to urinate was horrible as I could only drip urine for 5 seconds and stop. Every 5-10 minutes I was having severe pain and urges to urinate. I had gotten diarrhea and when I would strain to urinate I would have diarrhea. The nurse brought me diapers so that I would not do it in my underwear or on the floor every time I got up. My rump got so irritated that Dianne brought me sensitive wipes and cortisone with 1% hydrocortisone to use to help with the irritation.

I was so weak that Dianne had to help me out of the bed every time to be able to get to the bathroom every 5-10 minutes.

We stayed up all day and all night and Dianne was my little Angel who was by my side every minute and was my constant prayer warrior. What a real blessing my Sweetie has been in my life for 38 years. God blessed me with an earthly Angel who has always been my Sweetheart and Soulmate. I was fighting for her as well as myself. I was asking God to give me strength to fight to live because I know he has more plans for me on this earth.

Wednesday May 25^th:

Dr Sterrett came by at 7:00am and said they still do not have the culture results, and hopefully by tomorrow. Dr Sterrett said I have to get up and walk some because of potential blood clots by not moving my legs.

Today I was now beginning to urinate a slight stream instead of dribbling but could in no way come close to emptying my bladder, and therefore I was urinating every 20-30 minutes. The pain was not quite as bad as yesterday and I constantly prayed that I would keep improving.

Thursday May 26^th:

Dr Sterrett came by at 7:00am in scrubs to see how I was doing. He stated the culture may be available today.

Dr Sterrett came by at 11:00am and said that the culture results were in and that I had E. Coli bacterial infection in my blood stream. He was going to put me on 2 oral antibiotics for 2 weeks that specifically targeted E. Coli and they would kill the bacterial infection.

Dr Sterrett said I could stay for rest of the day and take my Gentamicin at 6:00pm or I could go leave the hospital now and start my oral antibiotics - it was my choice.

Dianne and I talked about it and decided that since my day did not end until 12:00 midnight, we would stay and I would take my last IV of Gentamicin antibiotic at 6:00pm.

Dr Sterrett was God sent, and I could not have asked for a better Urologist that made the very best decisions to pull me through this horrible ordeal. Once he saw me Monday he knew from looking at me that I was very very sick. He said you need to go to the hospital immediately without any hesitation. He said you are also extremely dehydrated and need hydration quickly.

Dr Sterrett made the correct decisions in everything that was done and I attribute my life to his decisions and most of all my Lord God above who gave him the wisdom to do so.

My sweetheart Dianne was by my side 24 hours a day from Friday May 20^th until she took me home on Thursday night May 26^th. She did not sleep hardly any, even though she had a pull out bed right beside my hospital bed. God bless you baby, I love you so much Sweetheart!

Friday May 27^th:

Called Dr Sterrett about thrush mouth and he called me in a prescription.

Thursday June 2nd:

Met with Urologist Dr. Bullock today and he confirmed “no” prostate cancer in the 12 biopsies. I broke down and cried when he told me the great news. Thanks to my Lord and Saviour for his abundant grace!

I am continuing treatment of the E Coli infection with antibiotics Macrobid and Vantin for another week. Dr Bullock wants me to continue the Flomax indefinitely.

Dr. Bullock has scheduled my appointment in 6 months to check my PSA. He stated my PSA baseline at that time will be 4.7 since I do not have cancer with my PSA at 4.7. He stated that he has some patients with PSA at 15 and 22 who do not have prostate cancer.

You know, only God knows why these things happen and it again opens my eyes to the fact that God is in "total" control and in the blink of an eye your life or mine can change drastically.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9 the Lord says "My grace is sufficient for thee". In this life the Lord does not always remove suffering and struggles in our lives, but he says he will give us the grace to bear the suffering. God has given me the divine strength to bear this pain and suffering, and we can be assured that when we feel our weakness God will, by his grace, strengthen us.

I could not begin to thank my friends and family and many that do not even know me for all the prayers, phone calls, emails that we have received during this period of difficulty. I felt the power of prayer and out pouring of love in my healing.

God bless.

BRUCE CHAMBERS

Greenville City Council settles Woodruff Road zoning fight

2011-02-02T15:40:00.000-05:00

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20110202/NEWS/302020037/1003/rss04/Council-settles-Woodruff-Road-zoning-fight

February 2, 2011

Greenville City Council settles Woodruff Road zoning fight

By Rudolph Bell
Staff Writer

The Greenville County Council voted to allow less development on her property than she had originally requested, but Linda M. Leslie didn’t seem discouraged following the decision.

Instead, Leslie said the council’s decision had opened a “wonderful opportunity for development” on the 1.4-acre parcel she owns with Anthony K. Cousins at the intersection of Woodruff and Godfrey roads.

The vote means something besides housing can now be developed on the site, Leslie said.

“I think it’s a good thing it’s opening up for development,” she said.

The latest zoning fight along congested Woodruff Road began when Leslie and Cousins requested a rezoning that would allow up to 18,000 square feet of office space on the site where a single house is the only development now.

Weeks of controversy came to a head Tuesday night, when County Council gave final approval to the rezoning but with the condition that any office development be limited to 3,500 square feet.

That’s in line with the East Woodruff Road Area Plan, a guide for land use drawn up with citizen input in 2008. A group of Eastside homeowners, including state Rep. Phyllis Henderson, had asked that the council abide by the plan.

The council voted 10-0 with two members absent to approve the rezoning with conditions. There was no debate.

On a separate issue, two citizens told council members that they didn’t like a proposed ordinance that would prohibit pet owners from chaining their animals outdoors for more than two hours a day.

The county’s Public Works, Planning and Development Committee signed off on the plan Monday.

Robert G. “Butch” Taylor criticized the proposal as an improper intrusion into the affairs of private property owners.

David Knapp, another resident who spoke during a public comment period, said the county didn’t need a “dog management law.”

Greenville News Letter to Editor - Follow plan for Woodruff Road Rezoning Jan 14 2011

2011-01-11T15:52:00.000-05:00

January 14, 2011

Letter: Follow plan for Woodruff zoning

Greenville County Planning and County Council requested area citizens to develop a land-use plan for the East Woodruff Road area that would prevent the chaotic unplanned development on Woodruff Road east of Highway 14 that had occurred west of Highway 14. This plan is called the East Woodruff Road Area Plan and its intrinsic value will be tested by a County Council vote on Jan. 18 due to one homeowner at Woodruff Road requesting property be rezoned from residential to a large office building that does not comply with the plan. There has been outrage over this request by citizens in 14 subdivisions within two miles of this property who have children that attend the 10 private schools and seven public schools in the area.

The Planning Commission and Public Works Committee have already recommended the plan be implemented. This plan cost thousands of taxpayer dollars. These types rezoning requests do not comply with these citizen-driven plans and it has to stop.

It is a simple decision going for County Council: Implement the EWRAP for this request and all other requests in the future. If the East Woodruff Road Area Plan is not implemented on this property, how can we ever again use the EWRAP as the standard for other requests? Not implementing this plan will establish a precedent and there is going to be a domino effect going forward.

What is the justification for modifying the EWRAP for one homeowner’s request? How can County Council approve this homeowner’s request with hundreds of citizens in opposition? If it does, it will override the will of property owners who pay millions in property taxes, and the professional planning staff’s recommendation.

Bruce W. Chambers

Simpsonville

Louie Giglio - Laminin

2010-12-15T13:04:00.003-05:00

Click on the link above and experience God's Amazing Grace at the Cross.

Follow the plan on Woodruff Road

2010-11-02T22:55:00.000-04:00

GREENVILLE NEWS

NOVEMBER 2 2010

Letter to The Editor: Follow the plan on Woodruff Road

All of us at the recent County Council meeting want to thank council for its unanimous vote to delay the rezoning of the property at Woodruff and Godfrey roads, and Chairman Butch Kirven who arranged a County Council meeting with area citizens to hear our opposition to this rezoning request.

One of the many reasons that we are opposed is Godfrey Road is already a much-too-busy and dangerous thoroughfare for children going to and from Oakview Elementary School. The Greenville County planning staff and Planning Commission have already rejected this property owner’s rezoning request, and then sent their recommendation to a County Council committee. County Planning’s recommendation required that the rezoning from residential to planned office use has to comply with the East Woodruff Road Area Plan which is one building not to exceed 3,500 square feet that will have residential architectural design.

This EWRA Plan took 17 months and thousands of tax dollars and was completed in October 2008. The Plan was stated by Greenville County to be a five- to seven-year East Woodruff Road Area Plan for land use and was jointly agreed upon by County Council, county planning and the neighborhood citizens. The citizens developed this plan with Greenville County government and we should have full faith and trust that County Council will implement the East Woodruff Area Plan specifically as was agreed upon by County Council, county planning and the citizens.

Bruce W. Chambers
Simpsonville

WYFF4 TV - Five Forks Residents Fight Big Office Complexes

2010-10-26T23:04:00.001-04:00

WYFF4.com

Five Forks Residents Fight Big Office Complexes

They Tell County Council: Honor Land Use Agreement

POSTED: 4:52 pm EDT October 26, 2010

UPDATED: 6:52 pm EDT October 26, 2010

GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. -- You’ll find the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the west side of Woodruff Road along with the big box stores, restaurants and office complexes.

“It’s got to stop,” said Bruce Chambers.

He’s one of the hundreds of Five Forks residents staunchly opposed to a rezoning application.

A single family home sits on the corner of Woodruff Road and Godfrey Road, but the county has been asked to approve up to 15,000 square feet of office space for that parcel of land.

“The area citizens are completely stunned,” said Chambers.

Chambers points to a land use agreement the county developed in 2007 with the help of neighbors.

“We want this honored. It took 17 months and tax payer money,” said Chambers.

The East Woodruff Road Area Plan was adopted by the council in 2008.

Under the residential office reuse application of the plan, a new building cannot exceed 3,500 square feet.

The idea was to keep the east side of Woodruff Road, which is heavily residential, from becoming as congested as the west side.

“We cannot have a precedent set outside the East Woodruff Road Area Plan, because it’s going to be a domino effect,” said Chambers.

Hundreds of residents are expected to attend a meeting Tuesday evening at the Woodruff Road Presbyterian Church.

County Council has been invited to hear the concerns.

“It’s a real test for the plan,” said Butch Kirven, council chairman.

Questions will be raised but no vote will be taken.

The council has referred the rezoning issue back to committee.

No timetable for a vote has been set.

Woodruff Road Re-zoning Controversy Oct 26 2010

2010-10-26T15:45:00.000-04:00

http://www.wyff4.com/video/25528661/detail.html

Woodruff Road Rezoning WSPA 7 TV Oct 19 2010

2010-10-19T15:47:00.000-04:00

http://www2.wspa.com/news/2010/oct/19/woodruff-road-rezoning-67072-vi-55191/

Woodruff Road Re-Zoning Has Some Residents Outraged | WSPA

2010-10-19T15:37:00.000-04:00

Woodruff Road Re-Zoning Has Some Residents Outraged | WSPA

Americans should stop blaming Obama

2010-08-01T22:26:00.001-04:00

August 1, 2010

Letter: Americans should stop blaming Obama

Every time you pick up a newspaper, hear the television news, listen to talk radio, or just talking to some friends, you hear someone talking about another bad decision or non-decision that President Barack Obama has made. Since President Obama took office the national debt has risen by $2.4 trillion to $13 trillion in about 500 days since he took office, or an average of $4.9 billion a day, three times the daily average of $1.7 billion under the previous administration, and is on track to double the national debt in four years.

Even with all the spending and increased debt, the U.S. Department of Labor states there are 14.6 million unemployed persons, an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent, and 45.5 percent of those or 6.8 million have been jobless for 27 weeks.

The NBC/Wall Street Journal public opinion poll recently released shows that President Obama has reached his lowest approval rating since taking office in January of 2009 and 48 percent of people disapprove of the job he is doing as president while only 45 percent approve. Even 62 percent of respondents in the poll say the country is headed in the wrong direction while only 33 percent believe that the country is improving under Obama’s leadership. Even the 2008 independent voters who boosted him into office are now dissatisfied with the job he’s doing.

The boards of directors of corporations in the United States do not select and hire presidents to run their companies who have no previous executive experience. So then, how can we elect someone, who has no executive experience to be president of a country which has the largest nominal Gross Domestic Product in the world, and expect any different results than we are getting from him today.

Don’t blame Barack Obama, blame the 66,882,230 Americans that voted for Mr. Obama as well as the millions who would not even take a few minutes of their precious time to go to the polls to vote for any presidential candidate.

Bruce Chambers

Simpsonville

Reading: http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010308010051

My Letter to Greenville News Editor

2010-07-26T13:14:00.003-04:00

June 29, 2010

Blame government for textile losses

A recent article “New tools sought to fight textile fraud” is another example of how our elected leaders want Americans to pay taxpayer money to bail out their mistakes.

Our government has passed many free trade laws, including NAFTA in 1993 and CAFTA in 2005, that eliminated most textile manufacturing in the United States, sent millions of textile and textile suppliers’ jobs overseas, created a loss of tax revenue due to lost jobs, and now they expect the American citizens to pay hard-earned taxes to monitor the foreign countries where the textile products are being made and shipped back to us. This is an outrage and outright fraud against the American taxpayers.

Rep. John Spratt stated in a recent article that trade in illegal textiles and apparel has grown worse and is devastating the U.S. textile industry. Where has he been since he was first elected to Congress in 1982?

Due to passing of NAFTA and CAFTA, over 1.1 million textile jobs have been lost, and millions more jobs that worked as suppliers to the American textile companies. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects textile and apparel manufacturing jobs will drop another 48 percent to 259,000 from 2008 to 2018.

With all due respect to Spratt and his fellow congressmen, Americans have paid enough bailout money for their mistakes.

Bruce Chambers
Simpsonville

WILD DUNES BEACH TRIP JULY 2010

2010-07-10T11:44:00.007-04:00

We combined a day of business with some additional days of pleasure at the beach, and stayed at Wild Dunes at Isle of Palms. It was such an enjoyable trip, the weather was wonderful, the hotel was beautiful, and the service was excellent. The first day at the beach Bella only wanted to play in the waves at the beach, and needless to say, she wanted to ride my back in doing so. As we got to the beach around 11:00am, we took some chairs, towel, water and lemon drinks, and no food. I kept asking Bella if she wanted to eat, and every time she would answer, "no, Poppy". She also wanted to ride the waves, no less, on my back. This lasted from 11 - 4pm and to say the least, I was somewhat tired, but we had a lot of fun as it was a great day to ride the waves. Dianne brought some crackers to the beach since she and Bella love to feed the seagulls, and sometimes the birds will take the crackers right our of their hands. We left the beach around 5:30pm and decided to go into Mt. Pleasant and get some seafood at Shem Creek. When we got there, every restaurant had lines that were hours of waiting. Bella could not wait that long and so we found a Mexican restaurant called Los Arcos and the food was really good. Afterwards we drove into Isle of Palms and Bella and Dianne got us some ice cream at Ben and Jerry's.

The next day we bought an inner tube for Bella to ride the waves, but she did not use it very much. We spent most of the day on the beach and again the weather was wonderful. Dianne found some sand dollars but we threw them back into the ocean. Even using 50spf sunscreen Bella got a little red under her eyes, but was not hurting. We came back to the pool later in the day and Dianne was teaching Bella how to swim, float, go under water, and she did great.

Wild Dunes is a very nice resort and the complimentary valet services and other services made our stay so much more pleasant. The room was an upgrade with kitchen, jacuzzi tub, outside porch, and had everything we needed for our stay.

Dianne and I plan to go back sometimes, just the two of us.

God bless.

Bruce

SCOTTISH GAMES GREENVILLE SC MAY 2010

2010-06-09T23:10:00.003-04:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend.

Dianne personally met and spoke with Prince Edward [Queen Elizabeth's youngest son] while Bella was playing games in the "Wee Games" area.

A really enjoyable weekend for us.

Hugs from The Chambers

The Upstate of South Carolina has, arguably, one of the highest concentrations of Scots-Irish descendants in the country. Our ancestors persevered under incredible hardships to get to the Carolinas, coming north from Charleston and south from Philadelphia and Virginia. When they reached our beautiful Blue Ridge mountains and foothills, they heaved a collective sigh and knew they were home.

We created the Games in 2006 as a tribute to and a celebration of our Celtic forebears. The colors, tastes, sights and sounds you will experience are all evocative of clan life in the wild Highlands ofScotland. The Championship Heavy Athletic competition is drawn from the warrior traditions at ancient clan gatherings, as is the Highland Dancing competition, albeit considerably more evolved from the original warlike expressions of victory over defeated enemies. TheSouthern Piping Championship will remind you vividly of how the Great Highland War Pipes were an integral part of every Scottish clan marching into battle. The crafts – from the weaving of tartans to the Axe Throwers – would have been all around you at a Gathering of the Clans from long ago.

Children visiting our Games will have their own miniature Scottish village, called Wee Scotland. There is not another like it, as far as we know, at any other Scottish Games in the country. They will have their own crafts, athletic events, “mountains” to climb, and much more, all the while absorbing a bit of the culture that settled our region.

For the runners, we are conducting the Swamp MacRabbit Trail 5K Run/Walk. For those of you not from Greenville, some 150 years ago a wee little passenger train, the Swamp Rabbit, ran from Greenville up into the foothills north of our city. That narrow-gauge railroad track has been converted into a state-of-the-art running trail, which brushes the Furman campus. We’ve laid out a race course that loops through the scenic woods of the Trail, with different surfaces to entertain your feet. The Run/Walk will be held this year Thursday May 27, Please visit the web page to register.

The second Great Scot! British Car Show, with returning sponsor, Land Rover Greenville, will be held on the gorgeous wide mall leading up to the entrance of the Games on the Furman campus. We’ll have a bevy of cars ranging from the our featured marque, Rolls Royce to Mini Cooper, all with their hoods opened invitingly for your inspection.

We are very excited to announce the Second Annual Bonnie Lad and Lassie Pageant, held in partnership with the Official Miss South Carolina Pageant. The Pageant is open to contestants from ages 3 – 15. The contestants will be invited to participate in our Great Scot! Parade, and we are tickled to death to think of all those wee folk in their Scottish outfits proudly marching or riding on floats. Our Games will be graced by the presence of the reigning Miss America, Miss South Carolina, and Miss South Carolina Teen, plus 90+ other beauty title holders who will be judging the Pageant and volunteering throughout the Games.

AND THE FIRST-EVER VISIT TO GREENVILLE BY A BRITISH ROYAL, HRH THE PRINCE EDWARD! What more can we say?

UPDATE ON DIANNE JUNE 1 2010

2010-06-01T11:09:00.002-04:00

On June 1 2010, Dianne had a 6-month checkup with her surgeon Dr. Gayle Blouin, and she was pleased with the healing and checkup. Next visit will be in 6 months. It is hard to believe that her diagnosis was in October 2008, but we give all thanks to our Lord for his grace and mercy in healing her body and giving us such wonderful Doctors.

We were pleased with Dianne's visit to see Dr. Edenfield, her Medical Oncologist. Her blood test results were good. However, Dr. Edenfield will continue to keep check on her white blood cell count. It is stable, but has not gotten back to the level before chemotherapy. He stated that chemotherapy sometimes will reset the "normal" white cell count because chemo hits the immune system hard by killing good cells as well as bad cells. It is not a concern to him, but Dianne will have it checked every 90 days.

In the USA, 1 out of 8 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. The earlier the breast cancer is found, the more likely a woman will live a normal life.

There are so many advances to detect breast cancer being made by using clinical trials. One of the trials is a new imaging technology which will compare breast tomosynthesis with conventional digital mammography. Many women have dense breast tissue. On a conventional mammogram, it can look similar to cancer, but "breast tomosynthesis" allows the Doctor to see multiple slices of the breast which improves the ability to see a malignancy that may be hidden by overlapping tissue.

Breast tomosynthesis is a 3-dimensional [3-D] imaging technology that involves a number of low doses of a breast in a short 5-second scan. A very powerful computer is then used to reconstruct the images into a series of thin high-resolution slices. Reconstructed tomosyntheseis slices reduce or eliminate the problems caused by tissue overlap and structure noise in conventional 2-dimensional mammography. Breast tomosynthesis also offers a number of opportunities including improved diagnostic and screening accuracy, fewer recalls, greater radiologist confidence, and 3-D lesion localization.

It is predicted that fewer false positive results will occur with breast tomosynthesis because the images are clearer. Also, it is believed that radiologists will be able to see smaller lesions than what can be seen on conventional mammograms. Isolated areas of the breast can be looked at in more detail than with conventional mammography.

Breast tomosynthesis is available commercially in Europe and Canada, but not yet approved in the United States but through clinical trials hospitals are gathering data for FDA approval.

Please support breast cancer research and pray that breast cancer will be eliminated.

God's grace.

SCOTTISH GAMES GREENVILLE SC MAY 2010

2010-06-01T10:26:00.004-04:00

Land Rover's new Lotus in Scottish Games Parade

Miss America 2010

Prince Edward - 2010 Royal Blue Rolls Royce Phantom

My 2 babies - Dianne and Bella

Prince Edward walking through "Wee Games" area - Dianne had just talked to him

Our son Chad and sweet Bella at Land Rover's Show area

It has been reported that the Upstate of South Carolina has one of the highest

concentrations of Scots-Irish descendants in the country, and their ancestors, with

incredible hardships, came to the Carolinas north from Charleston and south from

Philadelphia and Virginia.

The Scottish Games were created in 2006 as a tribute to celebrate our Celtic forebears,

and the experiences of the colors, tastes, sights and sounds are all replicas of clan life in

the Highlands of Scotland. Prince Edward's interest is to promote physical fitness and

community service.

On Friday evening we went to the Great Scot! Parade, and there were

"Wee folk" in their Scottish outfits marching or riding on floats. In the

Parade were Prince Edward riding in a 2010 Royal Blue Rolls Royce

Phantom, the reigning 2010 Miss America, 2010 Miss South Carolina,

2010 Miss South Carolina Teen, and many more that were fully

dressed in Celtic attire. Bella was collecting items that were given to

her by those in the parade.

On Saturday at the Games, there was a miniature Scottish Village

called Wee Scotland, and there is no other like it at any other Scottish

Games in the country. There were crafts, athletic events, “mountains”

to climb, face painting, and Bella had her face painted like a

butterfly.The runners ran the Swamp Macrabbit Trail 5K, which you

can also walk or ride your bike on the Trail. This trail now runs from Cleveland Park to downtown Greenville all the way to Travelers Rest. The trail was named after a wee little passenger train 150 years ago named the Swamp Rabbit which ran from Greenville up into the foothills north of our city. The narrow railroad track has now been converted into a state-of-the-art running trail, which also goes by the Furman campus and follows close by the Reedy River. There is a race course that loops through the scenic woods of the Trail, with different surfaces to be easy on the feet. Dianne and myself are now looking for 2 new bikes to ride on the trail, because it would probably cost more to fix up our old 10 speeds that are 30 years old and sitting under our house.

It was neat because we also got to spend some time with Chad since
he was working at the show. His employer, Land Rover, sponsored the
second Great Scot! British Car Show. The display and show of cars
were held on the gorgeous wide mall leading up to the entrance of the
Games on the Furman campus. There were some beautiful cars ranging
from Rolls Royce to Mini Cooper, all with their hoods opened for our
viewing. Dr. Frashier, who owns Land Rover and for whom Chad works,
displayed a 1972 yellow MG which is in its original condition.

Prince Edward's visit to Greenville is believed to the first time a senior

member of the Royal Family has visited the Games outside of Scotland.

It was however the first time British Royalty had visited Greenville.

Prince Edward was making a walk through the Wee games area and

cheering on the participants. Dianne was also in the Wee Games area

with Bella, and Prince Edward walks up to her. Dianne talked to Prince

Edward, welcomed him to Greenville, and it was a once in a lifetime

treat for her. Needless to say, I was in another area and was unable to

take a picture of them together. Prince Edward was just walking

around the Games and talking to people, and Dianne said he is such a

nice friendly person. Prince Edward is the Earl of Wessex, the youngest

son of Queen Elizabeth, and seventh in line of succession to the British

Throne.

It was our first time to visit the Games since it has been in Greenville

for 4 years, and we really enjoyed it.

God Bless!

Bruce

DIANNE AND BRUCE PLAYING AROUND IN THE LOTUS MARCH 2010

2010-03-30T10:29:00.001-04:00

CHAD AND BELLA PLAYING IN SNOW FEBRUARY 2010

2010-03-30T10:24:00.002-04:00

MY HIGH SCHOOL COACH

2010-03-18T15:28:00.003-04:00

I was saddened to hear that my coach in High School passed away. He was a really good coach and influenced me to go to Campbell University, where he had also gone to College and played basketball. The years have gone by quickly and it seems like yesterday that we were in High School. It is my hope that he found Christ along the way and now he is at peace in Heaven.....Bruce

Perry Carlton Holland

SUNSET BEACH, N.C. -- Perry Carlton Holland, 71, of Sunset Beach, formerly of Durham, died Monday, March 15, 2010 in the Brunswick Community Hospital.

He was born on November 10, 1938 in Sanford, a son of the late James 'Jim' Carlisle and Nell Gaines Holland. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his sister, Suzanne Simonson Comstock.

Mr. Holland graduated from Campbell University where he played basketball and tennis. Upon graduation, he coached freshman basketball at Davidson College. He then taught social studies and coached at Northern Durham High School. He was an avid tennis player and enjoyed teaching others the sport.

He was a member of the National Guard and was an agent for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and Collier Cobb. He was later an independent insurance agent.

Surviving are his son, James 'Jay' Holland, of Raleigh; daughter, Lesley Holland Downey, and husband, Bill, of Charlotte; brother, William 'Bill' Simonson, of Sanford; two sisters, Shirley Holland Wicker, of Maxton, and Kim Simsonson Butts, and husband, Tim, of Sanford; three grandchildren, Nell, Clare, and Nate Downey.

No services will be announced at this time.

Private online condolences may be sent to the family at www.brunswickfuneralservice.com.

Brunswick Funeral Service & Crematory, Shallotte.

DEAR FAMILY AND FRIENDS JANUARY 21, 2010

2010-01-21T15:57:00.006-05:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS :

Dianne went to her Oncologist, Dr. Edenfield yesterday for her scheduled checkup and blood tests. Dr. Edenfield was pleased with her blood test results and continued progress. He asked Dianne how she was feeling, and she said "great".

Dianne's white blood count is a little low based upon her baseline, but it was about the same as 3 months ago. She was at 2.3 and her count before treatment was 3.4. This does not cause concern since her neutrafils, which are another white blood cell that fights infections, has improved and is normal. Hemoglobin is back to normal. As a normal routine, she will continue to see her Oncologist every 90 days this year for blood tests and routine exam. She feels really good, energy level back to normal, still some aches and pains from surgery, radiation, chemo, but overall Dianne is so so much better. Over the long haul, she lost 20+ pounds but has regained about 9 pounds. By the way, we have even been to the gym a few times to workout together.

Today, we just got back from her 3-month detailed mammogram test. Test was normal and she will not have to get another mammogram for 1 year.

We are so thankful for God's bountiful grace, and our loving, caring family and friends who have faithfully prayed for her since October 2008. It has been a long journey, but we both have gained strength through his grace, continuous prayers, and the many expressions of love to us.

If you have a few minutes, please watch the heart warming video of a young blind man who is so inspirational, and he is a real life story of someone who makes the most out of life's struggles. We are so thankful for our health.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=9xwCG0Ey2Mg

Sending our love to each one of you in this New Year 2010. . . . . . . Bruce

CHRISTMAS 2009 WITH OUR SON CHAD AND GRANDAUGHTER BELLA

2010-01-07T15:03:00.000-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009

2009-12-21T10:59:00.004-05:00

Dianne and I pray that all of our family and friends will have a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones, and that God will truly bless each one of you with a healthy and happy New Year in 2010.

Over the past year we were in the midst of a struggle with Dianne battling her cancer. However, God's purpose was fulfilled as this battle brought us even closer to our Lord as we experienced God's abundant grace, healing power, and overabundance of love and prayers from our family and friends.

God has blessed me with the most wonderful wife and partner in life, and I cannot thank him enough for his grace to her. Last October, Dianne's Oncologist, released her from any restrictions and she has now regained her strength and energy and does anything she desires. She will be checked every 90 days over the next year and will have a full checkup in January. Continue to keep her in your prayers.

This Christmas, Dianne and I are not only celebrating Jesus birth, but we will take this time to thank him for bringing light into this dark world, and by his death and resurrection we can have eternal light, and as a result one day we will be with him and completely free of any of these diseases that cause so much pain and suffering.

God bless you with a Merry “Christ”mas.

Bruce and Dianne

2009-12-19T11:34:00.000-05:00

DIANNE'S ONCOLOGIST
DR. WILLIAM JEFFREY EDENFIELD

Medical Oncology/Hematology

Dr. Edenfield earned his medical degree from the University of Miami in Florida. He completed his internship, residency and fellowship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. Dr. Edenfield also completed a research fellowship in Hematologic Malignancy at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. He recently completed his active duty service obligation as Chief of Oncology at Womack Army Medical Center in North Carolina. Dr. Edenfield is board certified in Medical Oncology, Hematology and Internal Medicine.

Dr. Edenfield received his certification in Hospice and Palliative Medicine in February 2006. Hospice and palliative medicine is the medical discipline of care devoted to achieving the best possible quality of life for patients and their families throughout the course of life-threatening illnesses through the relief of suffering and the control of symptoms.

2009-10-19T17:07:00.000-04:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS:

October 19, 2009

Dianne had another set of lab tests today and then had a checkup with her Oncologist Dr. Edenfield. All the blood lab results shows improvement since her last lab tests in August 2009. Her hemoglobin was up from 11.4 to 12.0 and is now normal again, her white blood count was up from 1.8 to 2.4 and continues to improve, but wbc normal range is 4.5 to 11.0. Dr. Edenfield is pleased with her progress and he is not placing any restrictions on her.

Dr Edenfield scheduled Dianne a followup visit with her surgeon Dr. Blouin for November 10 2009. In addition she has lab tests and another followup visit with Dr. Edenfield on January 20 2010, the day before her 1st mammogram since completion of all treatments.

Dianne and I have all been the beneficiary of God's amazing grace over the last year since Dianne was diagnosed on October 23, 2008 with breast cancer. It is ironical that it was the day of her birthday. In the beginning it was so hard for me to even say the word “cancer” when I was thinking or talking about Dianne's illness. I wanted to do more but felt helpless when it came to doing anything to make Dianne's condition better. I remember when Dr. Hanna told Dianne on the phone that the biopsy results shows that she has cancer We were together in our office and we held each other and cried and just could not believe that in a blink of an eye, our lives were immediately changed at that point and forever. When a spouse hears that their partner has cancer, you just want to fix it for them, but have no idea where to go or what to do. So, I held Dianne and I prayed and God knew exactly where we were, he knew what was happening to us, and he also knew what the future was holding for us. We had to depend “totally” on his guidance as to each step of the way on this journey. After discussions with cancer survivors, Doctors, family, reading cancer literature from the top cancer medical centers, meeting with Oncology team at GHS, genetic counseling center, and intense prayer, we decided that we would take the established protocol treatment for her type and stage breast cancer. It has been a mental and physical marathon for 12 months, but this challenge has brought us even closer to God and we have felt his presence during this process. I am again reminded what Pastor Charlie Boyd said some months ago and that “the only constant in our lives is God”. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God bless each of you and thanks for your continued prayers for Dianne. We also ask that you pray for all of those that are suffering with cancer, especially our friend and sister in Christ, Joy Divona.

Bruce

DIANNE'S MEETING WITH HER ONCOLOGIST DR. EDENFIELD OCTOBER 19 2009

2009-10-19T16:23:00.002-04:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS:

October 19, 2009

Dianne had another set of lab tests today and then had a checkup with her Oncologist Dr. Edenfield. All the blood lab results shows improvement since her last lab tests in August 2009. Her hemoglobin was up from 11.4 to 12.0 and is now normal again, her white blood count was up from 1.8 to 2.4 and continues to improve, but wbc normal range is 4.5 to 11.0. Dr. Edenfield is pleased with her progress and he is not placing any restrictions on her.

Dr Edenfield scheduled Dianne a followup visit with her surgeon Dr. Blouin for November 10 2009. In addition she has lab tests and another followup visit with Dr. Edenfield on January 20 2010, the day before her 1^st mammogram since completion of all treatments.

Dianne and I have all been the beneficiary of God's amazing grace over the last year since Dianne was diagnosed on October 23, 2008 with breast cancer. It is ironical that it was the day of her birthday. In the beginning it was so hard for me to even say the word “cancer” when I was thinking or talking about Dianne's illness. I wanted to do more but felt helpless when it came to doing anything to make Dianne's condition better. I remember when Dr. Hanna told Dianne on the phone that the biopsy results shows that she has cancer We were together in our office and we held each other and cried and just could not believe that in a blink of an eye, our lives were immediately changed at that point and forever. When a spouse hears that their partner has cancer, you just want to fix it for them, but have no idea where to go or what to do. So, I held Dianne and I prayed and God knew exactly where we were, he knew what was happening to us, and he also knew what the future was holding for us. We had to depend “totally” on his guidance as to each step of the way on this journey. After discussions with cancer survivors, Doctors, family, reading cancer literature from the top cancer medical centers, meeting with Oncology team at GHS, genetic counseling center, and intense prayer, we decided that we would take the established protocol treatment for her type and stage breast cancer. It has been a mental and physical marathon for 12 months, but this challenge has brought us even closer to God and we have felt his presence during this process. I am again reminded what Pastor Charlie Boyd said some months ago and that “the only constant in our lives is God”. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God bless each of you and thanks for your continued prayers for Dianne. We also ask that you pray for all of those that are suffering with cancer, especially our friend and sister in Christ, Joy Divona.

Bruce

Antivirus Software Pioneer John McAfee Loses Fortune - ABC News

2009-09-02T22:11:00.001-04:00

Antivirus Software Pioneer John McAfee Loses Fortune - ABC News

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UPDATE ON DIANNE AUGUST 24 2009

2009-08-24T16:17:00.008-04:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS:

We met with Dianne's chemo Oncologist Dr.Edenfield on Friday August 21st and also had labs to check her blood counts. Thanks to the Lord her lab results shows that she is officially out of the danger zone. However, several key blood counts are not yet back up to normal but thankfully are trending upward -[1] white blood count is currently 1.8 and normal range is 4.5-11.0 [2] red blood count is 3.51 and normal range is 4.20-5.40 [3] hemoglobin is 11.4 and normal range is 12.0-16.0 4) and HCT was 34.4% and normal range is 36.0-48.0%. Dr.Edenfield has scheduled her to come back in 30 days on October 19th to take labs again, but he feels that with time she will be back within normal ranges.

On Monday August 24th, Dianne met with Dr. Zurenko her radiation oncologist and he examained her. As a result thank the Lord she will not have to see him again until February 8 2010, which is after her mammogram test on January 21 2010.

As I was listening to Charlie Boyd's message on Sunday, I was reminded in Mark 13:33 where it says for us to "Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come." Life will throw many curve balls our way, and we need to be sure that we are prepared no matter what happens in our life or at what time it may happen. It is so satisfying to know that we have accepted the Lord into our hearts and that we know where our home will be regardless of when the Lord does come.

In addition, we are continuing to pray for our friend Joy Divona who is suffering from cancer and we know that God is with her and pray his will be done in her life. Joy has left for several weeks to be with her husband Emilio in California, and we received an email from her that she had fallen and our prayers continue to be lifted up for her.

Also, our friends Abe and Theresa Varaghese and Mark and Sarah Lynch are on a missions trip to Bogota, Columbia from August 22-29 and we are praying each day that they will be protected, many lives will be led to Christ, and that God will receive all the glory for all that is accomplished on their trip.

From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank all our friends and family for the many prayers for Dianne and our family since a year ago October 2008 when Dianne was first diagnosed with breast cancer and incurred subsequent surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation. This past year has been such a tough year for our family. I know that the greater the love, the greater the hurt. It would have been easier on me mentally if I had to go through it rather than Dianne. But, his ways are not our ways, and we have to rely on his promises and his grace. I have gone over and over the past year his message to us that God grace is sufficient for all our needs. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, My grace is sufficient for you and my power is made perfect in weakness.

Dianne and I both know that we have been saved only by his grace, and that our time here on this earth is temporary, but our "eternal" home with him will be permanant. I pray that we will share this same message with others every time the opportunity arises which should be every day.

God bless each and every one of you.....Bruce and Dianne

BEACH TRIP AUGUST 2009

2009-08-20T21:38:00.007-04:00

We had some dear friends present an opportunity for us to take Dianne to the beach for some relaxation and fun after a year of fighting breast cancer. We stayed from Tuesday through Sunday and had a marvelous time together.

Our 4 year old grandaughter Bella had never been to the beach, and we knew that it would be an eye opener when she walked out on the beach for the first time. It took about 4 1/2 hours to get to N Myrtle Beach and Bella talked the whole way on our drive to the beach. If you asked me what did she talk about, I would say everything that you could imagine that a 4 year old could think about.

We arrived at the condo around 4:00pm on Tuesday and decided to take her immediately to the beach. Dianne held her hand as they walked over the mound of sand and the expression on her face was priceless. Wow! She ran out on the beach and loved the sand, the water, and everything about the beach. Each day we would take her out on the beach around 11:00am and also would take drinks and lunch snacks with us because Bella would stay and play on the beach until 6-7:00pm. Everyday we would go back to the condo and I would play with Bella in the pool for an hour while Dianne showered, and then we would go in and shower and all go get something to eat.

Bella was so excited when her Dad Chad came down later in the week, and everyday they would run on the beach, throw sand on each other, play in the water and it was so obvious that she adores and dearly loves her Dad.

Dianne and I enjoyed our time together at the beach so much and it was such a pleasure to see her enjoy herself for a change. God has been faithful and we thank him so much for the healing that he has performed in Dianne's life, and the Doctors that he allowed to be a part of our lives during these difficult times. We cannot be thankful enough to our friends and family that have supported us in prayer over the past year. We want everyone to continue to pray that God will restore Dianne's body back to her fullness in strength and that she will enjoy the rest of her life cancer free.

God's grace and blessings to each one of you! Bruce

DIANNE'S MOM ELIZABETH'S 85th BIRTHDAY AUGUST 1 2009

2009-08-01T18:54:00.003-04:00

On August 1 2009 we met Dianne's sister Donna, her husband Larry, and her Mom at Lake Lure NC to celebrate her 85th birthday. Lake Lure is about 2 hours from their home in Charlotte, NC and 1 hour from our house in Simpsonville, SC.

When we all arrived we went to lunch at a really good restaurant, La Strada, which overlooks Lake Lure and the beautiful Inn and Spa. After lunch we went to a picnic area in a cove of the lake and had the best granny apple cake which Dianne made for her Mom, and it was delicious. Needless to say, I was the only one that stepped in some dog poop while there, but was able to remove with some scrubbing in the grass.

After the cake, we went to Chimney Rock which is only several miles from Lake Lure and you can actually see Chimney Rock from the lake. It was so hot that Dianne, Donna, her Mom Elizabeth and our sweet Bella went for a dip in the river. Larry and I went back to a cool area and waited for them. The humidity was so bad. Elizabeth needed her coffee, even in such hot and humid weather, so we went to a diner on the river and listened to some live music while she had her coffee. Well, I had a coffee too.

Lake Lure has been named one of the top 10 most beautiful man-made lakes in the world by National Geographic which is located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. It has 21 miles of shoreline and is as deep as 115 feet at some points. It is about 27 miles from Asheville and sit sits in the Hickory Nut Gorge. You can look up and see Chimney Rock from Lake Lure.

Lake Lure was the filming location for scenes from the movies Thunder Road, Dirty Dancing, A Breed Apart, Forrest Gump, The Last of the Mohicans, The Passion of the Christ and Firestarter. The lake is owned by the town of Lake Lure, with private homes surrounding most of the lake. You can rent a pontoon or electric boat, canoe or kayak at the marina, and guided tours of the lake are available.

The greater Chimney Rock State Park currently encompasses roughly 3,500 acres on both north and south sides of the gorge and expansion efforts continue to bring more of the gorge’s rich natural resources into conservation. Ultimately, a master plan for the entire park will be devised to fully protect the natural heritage and offer outdoor recreation options. Hickory Nut Gorge is a ntural gorge that was formed by the Rocky Broad River and was named for the boulders that line its winding path down the mountain to Lake Lure.

"The concept for Lake Lure started when Dr. Lucius B. Morse purchased 400 acres around Chimney Rock in 1902 to create Chimney Rock Park. He eventually acquired 8,000 acres over the next several years. Dr. Morse conceived the idea of building a dam on the Rocky Broad River to create a lake and a year-round resort. The dam was completed in September 1926, forming the lake which was named Lake Lure by Dr. Morse’s wife, Elizabeth Parkenson. The Town of Lake Lure was incorporated in 1927.

The lake was named Lake Lure by Dr. Morse’s wife, Elizabeth Parkenson. He also used the financial backing of his brothers Hiram and Asahel and Dr. Morse purchased Chimney Rock (400 acres) from Jerome Freeman in 1902 for $5,000 in the name of Chimney Rock Mountains, Inc. Subsequently the company acquired enough acreage in what is now the Lake Lure area to bring the total to 8,000 acres or 12.5 square miles, including the valley in which Lake Lure lies and the hills and mountains above.

The dam was completed in September 1926 and the beginning of Lake Lure started, and Lake Lure was completed in 1927. At ordinary water levels, Lake Lure covers approximately 720 acres and has a shoreline of approximately 27 miles.

The power plant began operations in 1928 with the sale of electricity under a 10-year contract to Blue Ridge Power Co., the predecessor of Duke Power Co. The town continues even today to contract with Duke Power for the sale of electricity.

The Town of Lake Lure was incorporated in 1927,and the boundaries of the town included the entirety of Lake Lure.

The plans for a resort development stopped in 1929 with the failure of the economy. On October 24, 1929 banks foreclosed their mortgages, and Company established the Lureland Realty Company to dispose of the property that had been secured by the property owned by Chimney Rock Mountains, Inc. One of the first acts of the Lureland Realty Company was an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the bed of Lake Lure. By January of 1942, the Lureland Realty Company had disposed of all of the property that had been owned by Chimney Rock Mountains, Inc.

Stroud & Company continued to operate the Carolina Mountain Power Company. On August 12 1931, the assets of the Carolina Mountain Power Company were transferred to the Carolina Mountain Corporation. William C. Rommell, President of Stroud & Company, operated the Carolina Mountain Corporation from 1931 until Lake Lure was acquired by the Town of Lake Lure in 1965.

The Town of Lake Lure had been operating the recreational facilities located at the lake for almost thirty years before Lake Lure was acquired by the town from the Carolina Mountain Corporation. There operations were based on a year-to-year lease arrangement between the Town of Lake Lure and the Carolina Mountain Corporations Powers. The acquisition by the town was facilitated by legislation enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1963 that authorized the Town of Lake Lure to issue revenue bonds for the purpose of acquiring Lake Lure. The acquisition was completed on July 26, 1965.

Property that once belonged to the Carolina Mountain Corporation was now the property of the Town of Lake Lure. This included all of the property which has been, or at any time hereafter may be, submerged by the dam erected across the Broad River at the site known as Tumbling Shoals, Chimney Rock Township, Rutherford County, North Carolina, lying below 995 feet above sea level, as based upon the official bench marks of the United States Geological Survey. This property, which comprises the bed of Lake Lure, lies within the limits of the Town of Lake Lure."

God bless............Bruce

OUR FRIEND JOY JULY 26 2009

2009-07-26T22:03:00.000-04:00

SUNDAY JULY 26 2009
SOUTHSIDE FELLOWSHIP

It is amazing how God allows people to come into your life, sometimes it will be under unusual circumstances, but it has a purpose.

Some months ago, Dianne met a wonderful lady whose name is Joy Divona. The relationship with Joy began when Dianne had gone to the Cancer Center to a seminar that was being offered to patients. As she got out of her car, she saw a lady by herself that was having a very hard time getting out of her car and was on crutches. Dianne went over to her, helped Joy out of her car, and then got her a wheelchair. She introduced herself to Joy and came to find out that Joy was going to the same seminar which they attended together.

Afterwards Dianne and Joy became friends and she found out that Joy was a Christian and her husband Imelio had come to know Christ last December. Joy has been to our house several times and had lunch together. Joy has 3 children, Jeff, Randy, and Joyce. Imelio works in Los Angeles and is gone a lot of the time. Imelio also has inoperable prostate cancer and is under ongoing treatment. I have met Imelio and we all had lunch together at Mimi's in the Greenridge shops area and became to know each other better.

Joy has been going to Southside Fellowship with us since early part of this year and she is also attending the Discovering Southside series with us. Joy and Dianne had talked about laying on hands for Joy by the Elders of the church and we have been praying about it.

In James 5:14, the Bible says to pray for the sick, "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord".

The term Elder is used two ways in the Bible. There are those who are Elders simply because of age, Elders also describe special men who meet certain qualifications and are appointed to the work of overseeing the congregation where they serve. Since Elders have to meet specific qualifications, their lives are godly and therefore the sin in their lives is minimal and is confessed regularly; therefore, they are used to pray for the sick. One of the necessities in prayer is praying for the Lord’s will to be done, and they are expected to do this. The requirements of an Elder are listed in I Timothy 3: 1-7 and Titus 1: 6-9.

The physical laying on of hands was not always required for healing. Jesus laid His hands on many of those he healed, but he also healed without laying His hands on people. There were times when he was not even near the vicinity of those He healed. In Matthew 8:8 it describes Jesus healing the servant of the centurion without going near the centurion’s house.

So, Joy asked Raydell Tedder at Southside Fellowship if she could arrange to meet with the Southside Elders and be anointed and pray for her. Joy asked that Dianne and I also go with her, and we did so after attending our Discovering Southside class. We met in Charlie Boyd's conference office and Tim Johnson led the anointing and Walt Hanford, David Swain, Bill Albert, Todd Devaney, and Mark Moody attended and also prayed for Joy. Joy told them what she wanted them to pray for specifically. She also requested prayer for her son Jeff and for her Dad who is 90 years old and needs her help which she is unable to help now. Walt Hanford asked a question which I will never forget; he asked Joy if she would blame God if he elected not to heal her, and also asked if any of her family would blame God if he did not heal her, and Joy said she would not blame God.

Joy told the Elders that her Doctor had told her she would not live until March 2009 but she was still with us. Now, last week, her Doctor told her that she only had 90 days to live. All the Elders gathered around Joy, anointed her with oil, laid hands on her, and began praying. I felt the Lord's presence in that room and it is our prayer that God will be glorified in everything that happens in Joy's life.

God's blessings to Joy, Imelio, Jeff, Randy, Joyce, her Dad, and their families.

Bruce

VISIT TO HISTORIC HAGOOD GRIST MILL JULY 18 2009

2009-07-18T22:31:00.001-04:00

On this Saturday, we decided to visit a historic site in Pickens South Carolina. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing the old grist mill which was running and making flour, the local musicians that were "picking and grinning" and playing bluegrass music, the local weavers that were spinning yarn and making fabrics, and especially meeting and talking to the old gentleman Robert Perry, who moonshined in Pickens County many years ago.

It is noted that this Hagood Mill site may have been originally owned by William Jennings around 1773, and then Benjamin Hagood purchased the grist mill in 1823. The mill as it stands today was built by his son, James Hagood, about 1845. It was willed to John Hagood in 1865 and, on his death in 1879, it was willed to Ester Benson Hagood. Upon her death, it was willed to James Hagood in 1891. Following a line of heirs it was eventually conveyed to J. Bruce Hagood in 1958, and continued to run commercially until 1966. The grist mill and surrounding property was donated to the Pickens County Museum Commission in 1973.

The wooden water wheel is 20 feet in diameter by 4 feet wide, and produces 22 horsepower. The wheel and mechanical components were rebuilt in the mid-1970's using as many original parts as possible. Restoration work continued in the mid-1980's, and again in the mid-1990's. The ring gear is 18 feet in diameter, and the two granite millstones weigh about 1600 pounds each.

During most of it's life, the Hagood Mill was producing 2500 bushels of meal (140 000 pounds), and 200 bushels of flour (11 200 pounds) in the year 1870. 120 000 pounds of meal, and 20 000 pounds of feed were produced in 1880.Hagood Mill was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1972, and is one of the oldest surviving grist mills still producing grain products in South Carolina.

DIANNE AND BRUCE, CHAD AND BELLA

UPDATE ON DIANNE LAST RADIATION TREATMENT JULY 16 2009

2009-07-16T23:30:00.001-04:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS:

Today July 16 2009 Dianne had her last radiation treatment, and she has now completed all her treatments.

It has been a long and difficult journey since Dianne was diagnosed with breast cancer on that Friday morning October 24, 2008. For those of you who have never heard those words "you have cancer", it is probably impossible for you to understand how frightening those words can be to hear, and we hope and pray that you will never hear them.

On that day we will never forget that phone call when Dr. Hanna called Dianne at 10:30am on Friday October 23 2008, and he asked her if she had talked to the Radiologist who conducted her biopsy the prior day, October 23 - which by the way the biopsy was done on Dianne's birthday. Dr Hanna said to her, the results were positive, you have breast cancer, and you need to select a surgeon. That was so shocking to hear because Dianne had been told by the radiologist that most biopsies are negative and it was most probably fibrous tissue.

Dr. Hanna then recommended 2 surgeons, and one was Dr. Gayle Blouin. Dianne hung up the phone, looked at me with fear, and then told me the news. We walked together into the bedroom, and for an hour or so we held each other closely, cried, and then began to pray. Afterwards we immediately got to work by calling friends, breast cancer survivors, and doctors. After all our phone calls, research, and prayer, we selected Dr. Blouin as Dianne's surgeon to perform her surgery. Dr. Blouin is not only a great breast surgeon but a very compassionate and loving doctor.

We continued our intense praying and quickly became to fully understand Phillipians 4:7 which states that the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Dianne and I began to feel a calmness and direction for her treatment that was being given to us only through God's wisdom and grace. It is hard to explain the peace and calmness that we received from God, because it actually does pass all understanding; but Dianne and I gratefully receive it with humbleness and thankfulness.

In Jeremiah 33:3 he says to call unto me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Prayer has been a key to building our faith because we had to have faith. Our faith has come from his word that tells us time after time of his promises, and Dianne and I went to God pleading for his healing hands to be placed on Dianne's body and to heal her completely of cancer. So, prayer has been foremost in our daily lives, and we give him “all” the thanks for his mighty healing given to her.

We believe his word when to tells us that he was with us, would show us the way, and guide us in every direction to take with selection of doctors, deciding on treatments, and being able to sustain and undergo the treatments that made Dianne feel so horrible. When we met with Dr. Edenfield, Dianne's Oncologist, about the chemotherapy treatment which lasted from January to May 2009, he told Dianne that she was eligible to participate in a clinical trial because of her age, her stage 2 cancer, and her good markers. The clinical trial would randomly select whether she would receive TAC [taxotere, adriamycin, cytoxin] or TC without the adriamycin. Dianne was frustrated because she said, oh no, another major decision to make. She said, I wanted Dr. Edenfield to just tell me the appropriate treatment regimen. We did our homework through research, we fervently sought God's wisdom and guidance in prayer, and as he stated in Jeremiah 33:3, he showed us what to do, and we finally selected the TAC regimen and did not participate in the clinical trial.

Dr. Edenfield told Dianne that the TAC chemo regimen with adriamycin was the hardest treatment he gives for breast cancer but we knew with God’s help that Dianne could do it and he would be with her the whole way through this valley. Adriamycin has been used for 30 years but it is very toxic and her oncology nurse had to administer intravenously the drug to her manually which took about an hour each time she had treatment. Dianne’s chemo treatments with the 3 drugs would take from 8:30am – 2:00pm each time she had a chemo treatment. Most days during the chemo it was hard for Dianne to eat, drink, or just to even get up. But after 2 surgeries, 6 months of chemotherapy, 6 ½ weeks of radiation, and losing 18 pounds which she did not need to lose, she made it through the valley and is on the other side.

In Matthew 21:22, he says "ALL" things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. Jesus did not just heal in the Bible because the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is not limited to some timeframe in the Bible in answering our prayers, but God continues to do mighty things today and will do so until he returns, and has done so with Dianne.

Dianne is scheduled to have a complete and thorough examination about 30 days from now on August 19th. We thank God for removing the cancer from her body and ask all of you to pray that God will continue to restore her to full strength again, and that she will have an excellent report from her examination on August 19th.

Dianne and I want to thank each one for your prayers, show of love, words of encouragement, the wonderful food, visits, and especially those hugs during the last 10 months. God is so good and please know that we are always here for each of you when encouragement is needed in your loves.

We send our love and pray for God's love and grace to embrace each and every one of you in a special way.

Bruce and Dianne

VISIT BY WAYNE AND JUDY EANES WITH GRANDAUGHTER RACHEL JULY 2009

2009-07-12T10:57:00.003-04:00

We thoroughly enjoyed a visit from our friends Wayne and Judy Eanes from North Carolina. Wayne and Judy grew up in Martinsville, Virginia which is also Dianne's home town. Rachel is their grandaughter who is 11 years old, and she and Bella had a fun time together. She and Bella played dress ups, played in the pool together, watched movies, and ran around in the fountains when we went to downtown West End at the Reedy River.

DIANNE'S BREAST CANCER - SUMMARY OF DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT 2008 - 2009

2009-06-29T11:43:00.002-04:00

EVENTS OF DIANNE'S BREAST CANCER

Inability to work since Oct 23, 2008 due to breast cancer diagnosis:

Stage II invasive lobular breast cancer diagnosed with biopsy 10.23.2008
MRI of both breasts at Anmed Health
Genetic tests completed at Greenwood SC Genetic Center
Lumpectomy surgery to remove tumor and nodes with 1 sentinel node positive out of 3 tested
Axillary node dissection surgery to test regional nodes and all 10 were negative.
Physical Therapy weekly required for reduced arm mobility due to axillary node dissection surgery
Chemotherapy with TAC - Taxotere/Adriamycin/Cytoxin with 6 treatments every 21 days caused significant side effects
Radiation will begin in early June 2009 to radiate 5 days per week for 6 ½ weeks
Hormonal Therapy with Arimidex to begin in June 2009
Physical therapy and nutrition therapy

Blue Ridge Barbecue & Music Festival in Tryon North Carolina June 13 2009

2009-06-13T09:41:00.001-04:00

June 13 2009 Saturday

Dianne was feeling good and we decided to drive to Tryon, NC to the Blue Ridge Barbecue & Music Festival. It is considered one of the most popular sanctioned barbecue competitions in the United States. All proceeds benefit the Chamber’s operating budget and help fund the Polk Chamber Foundation.

The barbeque festival is where cooking teams set up their rigs to compete for prestige, cash prizes and awards in the North Carolina State Barbecue Championship. The top ranking team from North Carolina also wins the coveted Governor’s Trophy. Teams must compete in all four sanctioned categories; Chicken, Pork Ribs, Pork and Beef Brisket to be considered for Grand Champion. Judging is by Kansas City Barbecue Society certified judges. We ate pork barbeque sandwiches at the Grand Champion Cool Smoke, from Richmond, Va.

We also enjoyed the blues mucic by Beaucoup Blue who is a Philadelphia based duo of David and Adrian Mowry. They are father and son who have been performing their roots based music nationally and internationally and they pay a range of instruments like six and twelve string guitars, slide guitar, round neck resonator guitar. David is 62 and Adrian is 38.

Bella enjoyed riding the rides and playing in the Pacolet river in her swim suit no less. She would try to push the limits and walk in the deeper water, and be like the bigger children. Playing in the water lasted about 1 hour and then it was later in the day and we had to head back to Greenville.

It was a very enjoyable day and Dianne got tired but we all did because it was 90 degrees. We are so thankful that Dianne is beginning to feel better and able to enjoy things with more energy. We are so thankful......Love to all.... Bruce

MY NIECE CARRIE CHAMBERS WEDDING JUNE 6 2009

2009-06-06T21:14:00.002-04:00

June 6-8 2009

Dianne wanted to go to my niece Carrie's wedding in Durham NC, and so we did and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. Sweet Bella Rose went with us and met all my family for the 1st time and she just ate all the loving up that she could get. Carrie is the daughter of my oldest brother Bobby and his wife Joan, and they have one other son Tommy. It was really hard for them to see their little girl leave their home, because she is such a sweetheart.
We stayed with my Mom, Mema, who is 84 years old and she just cried when she saw us, because she has not seen Dianne and me since last year. Mom saw Bella for the 1st time and she was so delighted. Mom is Bella's Great Grandma.

We went to eat dinner with my other brother Wallace, his wife Sue, and beautiful daughter Jessica. Jessica graduated from Appalachian State University 4 years ago and she is now 25 years, and it is hard to believe that little Jessica is a grown woman now. She works in the Interior Design business, which was her major, and enjoys it very much.
Carrie and her husband Jared went to Outer banks for their honeymoon, and Jared seems to be a fine christian young man.
Dianne is in her second week of radiation and she said it is a piece of cake compared to the chemotherapy, which was really tough on her. She has some tenderness due to the radiation, but as time goes on we will know more.

She has begun the second week taking Arimidex which is a hormone suppressor and also it is probably too early to tell if there will be any side effects.
We will continue to pray that God will completely cure her of this disease and that she will be back up and running as usual again free of cancer. We are so blessed to have so many friends and family that continue to lift her name up in prayer.

God bless......Bruce

UPDATE ON DIANNE MAY 25 2009

2009-05-26T21:28:00.002-04:00

May 25th -

10:00 am - Dianne met with her chemo Oncologist and he reviewed options for 5-year hormonal treatment to reduce estrogen. Thanks the Lord that her blood count had improved from 8.9 to 9.7. Due to the improvement he cancelled her scheduled aranesp shot. He said she will not have to meet with him again until July 2009.

She will begin taking Arimidex once per day for five years. Arimidex is the standard hormonal treatment for Dianne because she was postmenopausal with hormone receptor-positive early stage breast cancer. However, the most common side effects of Arimidex include hot flashes, joint pain and weakness, reduction in bone density causing osteoporosis which could fractures.

It was so funny, Dianne asked him if Arimidex would cause her to become hairy because it suppresses estrogen. He smiled and said no, you will not turn into a hairy Schwarzenegger and then be able to whip up on him - and he pointed to me. I remember another funny incident when Dianne met initially with Dr. Blouin, her surgeon. She asked Dr. Blouin if her cancer could have been caused by peanut M&M's. Dr. Blouin looked at her, and said, honey, it was nothing you did to cause it, it is just not fair.

We also asked Dr. Edenfield about Dr Zurenko's decision that Dianne did not need to radiate the regional node area since Dianne only had 1 positive sentinel node. He was in agreement with Dr. Zurenko that the regional or any axillary nodes did not need radiation treatment because only 1 node was involved and that was a gateway sentinel node and all her regional nodes tested negative for cancer cells.

Dianne asked him if she needed a MRI to determine if all the cancer cells were gone. He told her that she will continue to meet frequently with him to assure that the cancer that was removed does not return.

Dr. Edenfield asked her what did she have planned to celebrate her completion of chemo treatments. We are definitely planning to have a nice vacation after the radiation is completed in 6 1/2 weeks.

2:00pm - Dianne went to the Cancer of Carolinas to meet with her Radiation Oncologist, who is also the Radiation Oncology Medical Director for St. Francis Hospital System. He took a local scan in order to correctly mark the area that will be radiated. The area was marked by Dr. Zurenko and she will begin her daily radiation treatments Thursday May 27 2009 which will last for 6 1/2 weeks.

We will continue to pray that God allow her to complete the radiation and Arimidex with no side effects, and he will cure her body of this disease and she will be back to her old self soon.

God bless. Bruce

MEMORIAL DAY MONDAY MAY 24 2009

2009-05-25T22:38:00.003-04:00

MAY 24TH -

We went downtown Greenville to the Reedy River for the afternoon. Bella had so much fun swinging, rolling down the hill, petting the dogs, playing on the stage and singing, and walking on the rocks.

You know it is amazing what joys children get out of just the simple things in life. Bella walked up and down the rocks on the Reedy River 4 times, and did not want to stop. And I enjoyed every step she took.

You do not have to take children every weekend to expensive places for them to have enjoyment. Children just need undivided attention and love. Well, I suppose that is what has kept Dianne and my marriage together for going on 37 years; we just love to spend all of our time together, and we love each other dearly.

Bruce

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND MAY 2009

2009-05-24T22:22:00.001-04:00

May 22 Saturday

We took Bella to Freedom Weekend Aloft/Balloon Festival in Simpsonville at Heritage Park and spent about 4 hours there. She enjoyed everything from the bus ride to/from the car, chasing Becky Broccoli, learning how to hula hoop, riding all the rides, getting her face painted, watching the hot air balloons, sitting right in front of the band playing 60's and 70's music, and then ending up at McDonalds and getting her favorite chicken nuggets.

It was a fun day and it is such a joy to share these experiences with her. Children grow up so fast and it is our desire that we help Chad as much as possible to make sure that Bella grows up in a healthy and wholesome environment where God is at the center of it all.

BELLA AND BECKY BROCCOLI

DIANNE'S THANK YOU LETTER TO HER CHILDHOOD CHURCH MEMBERS - WESLEY MEMORIAL METHODIST CHURCH IN MARTINSVILLE VA.

2009-05-21T11:39:00.001-04:00

To my Brothers and Sisters in Christ

at Wesley Memorial Methodist

I want to thank all of you for your expression of love to me with your cards and prayers during my battle with cancer.

It was such a shock when I got the message from my Doctor on Oct 23 2008 that I had breast cancer. My husband and I were in our office together, and we just hugged and cried, and then we prayed together that God would give us the wisdom and guidance to select the right doctors and that he would heal my body of this disease. We have seen God’s work in our lives as he has given us wisdom in selecting the Doctors and treatments.

Your prayers and cards lift my spirits during the times that I just feel yucky. Wesley Memorial Methodist will always have a loving place in my heart. Every time I go to Martinsville to visit my sweet sweet sweet Aunt Martha and Uncle Bill Harris, I go by the church and it gives me a warm feeling in my heart. I thank God for all the Sunday school teachers, the preachers, choir directors, and all the special church members who were the inspiration for me to give my life to Christ and accepting him as my Lord and Saviour. I am so grateful for all of you helping me to begin my life on Christian biblical principles which has continued with me throughout my adult life. I know that God can and will heal my body; for Christ says whatsoever you ask in my name, and I know that Christ is my only answer and hope in this life.

I know that the big “C” in Christ is much bigger than the little “c” in cancer. God has a purpose for allowing struggles to come into our lives. It is my prayer that his purpose will be fulfilled in my life, and that I will be drawn closer and closer to him.

Please continue to pray for me that God will completely heal my body of this cancer and that I will be back to full strength soon. I begin radiation treatments in June which will last for 7 weeks.

May God bless each of you and blanket Wesley with his love and goodness.

Love and Prayers,

Dianne Doyle Chambers

304 Woodbridge Way

Simpsonville, SC 29681

Email: sdchambers@charter.net

Phone: 864-288-6093

Our Son Chad 30 years old - May 11 2009

2009-05-11T15:28:00.002-04:00

UPDATE ON DIANNE MAY 6 2009

2009-05-06T16:27:00.003-04:00

May 6 - Today is a little better day and she feels a little better. She is going to Bella's final Awana at Southside Fellowship this evening, and Bella's class will be singing and saying memory verses for the audience. This will be a real treat, and I am so glad that Dianne will be going, and it will bring her some big smiles, I am sure. Kathryn Huggins came by to see Dianne today, and she really enjoyed her visit. Kathryn brought her a beautiful floral arrangement and belated Easter basket for Bella.

UPDATE ON DIANNE MAY 4 2009

2009-05-04T11:55:00.004-04:00

May 2nd - We drove up to Flat Rock, NC for the day, and Chad and Bella went with us. Tooled around the Highland Rock development which is a unique place of cottage homes, a lake, and a village with restaurant and motel. Dianne and I got in the hammcok for a while and Chad pushed Bella in a swing. We walked around, toured a home for sale, and just enjoyed being together for the day. Dianne got really tired and so we headed back to Greenville. Dianne and I watched a Tommie Lee Jones movie at night and Dianne is feeling the effects of the chemo now. No taste, not wanting to eat or drink, and just feeling yucky is the best way to explain it.

Bruce

UPDATE ON DIANNE MAY 2 2009

2009-05-02T23:24:00.008-04:00

April 10th - 17th -Dianne had chemo number 5 of 6 scheduled on April 10th and the following week was not a good week. She felt horrible everyday and had significant swelling in her feet. Monday April 13th, she had a neulasta shot which is to help boost her white cell count.

April 24th -26th - Dianne's aunt Martha, Uncle Bill, cousin Susan, and her husband Vernon came to see us on Friday and stayed until Sunday. Veron and Susan brough their camper and they all stayed at Scuffletown RV park since they have 3 dogs. We had a great time with them and Dianne was so happy to see them as it had been many years since thay had been to see us. They also brought Dianne's grandmothers sewing machine to her. Her grandmother taught Dianne to sew and wanted her to have the sewwing machine. This was a pleasant surprise. We took all of them to downtown Greenville for a few hours, had lunch, and just had such a wonderful time talking with them and having some good laughs which is so healthy for Dianne, as well as the rest of us. Dianne cooked a wonderful breakfast casserole, and a lasagna dinner that night. We all just "pigged" out. Dianne's sister Donna and husband Larry, and her Mom Elizabeth came on Sunday and also spent the day with us.

April 27th - 28th - A special friend Lisa Slay and husband Joby, and 2 children Joseph and Savannah came to see us and we took them to downtown Greenville and had lunch on Monday and to Heritage park on Tuesday with Bella. We really enjoyed their visit.

April 30th - Dianne had a visit with Dr Edenfield/Oncologist. He was extremely pleased with Dianne's ability to handle her treatments. He said that her treatment regimen was the hardest regimen he gives for breast cancer patients. He congratulated her on tomorrow's treatment being her last as #6. Dianne will come back to visit Dr Edenfield to discuss her hormonal treatment which he said will be as important as her chemotherapy. He is setting her up to begin her radiation treatment which will begin in probably 3 weeks, but she has to get her hemoglobin count above 10, which is now at 9.7. Dr Edenfield is a great Doctor and has a terrific personality.

May 1st - This Friday Dianne went in for a #6 treatment and this will be her last chemo. Thank the Lord. While ther, I talked with Cecil who had stomach cancer and they removed 25% of his stomach. He was was an Evangelist for 10 years and then served as a Pastor until he retired some years ago. Cecil is 81 years young, and a wonderful Christian who loves the Lord. I really enjoyed talking with him. Shelby came over and talked to Dianne, her husband Johnny is being treated for melanoma. Shelby said her son has custody of his children and travels a lot and they keep his kids alot. Her son's wife is bi-polar and has a lot of issues. Dianne's RN gave Dianne and me a big hug and told Dianne to come by and see her sometime. Lynn is a special person.

Dianne has been having chemotherapy since January and it seems like forever. I have prayed, I continue to pray, and I know that God will completely remove this disease from her body. What God has taken her to , he has and will completely take her through and will heal her.

God continue to bless her! Bruce

2009-04-25T15:36:00.002-04:00

Elizabeth - Dianne's Mom

My sweetie - Dianne

Donna - Dianne's sister

Martha - Dianne's aunt

Susan - Dianne's cousin

Bella - our grandaughter acting silly

Easter April 11-12 2009

2009-04-12T22:23:00.002-04:00

April 11 2009 Saturday
We took Bella to Heritage Park in Simpsonville for the Greater Easter Egg hunt. They had so many people there with little kids and Bella really enjoyed it. There were so many rides and fun things for her to do. She met her school friend Izzie and they held hands and had a great time on the train and rides. Dianne got really tired because we were there from 10-2.

April 12 2009 Sunday

We really enjoyed the church service at Southside. Bella had her pretty Easter dress and shoes and was just darling. We came home after the service and Dianne was so wiped out that she could hardly walk. She has been on the sofa in the den most of the day. I have to keep encouraging her to eat and drink but she has no desire for food or drink of any kind now.

UPDATE ON DIANNE APRIL 10 2009

2009-04-10T22:00:00.002-04:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS:

April 9th Thursday

Dianne met with her Oncologist and her labs were good except for her hemoglobin which was 13 count, and before she started chemo in January it was 9.7.Therefore she either had to get a blood transfusion or a shot of aranesp tomorrow which will boost her red blood cells over the next several weeks. The aranesp wil be given when she has her chemo tomorrow, Friday April 10th.

April 10th Friday

Dianne went in for her 5th chemo treatment at 8:45am and we got out around 2:00pm. After chemo, we went to McAlisters for lunch because she wanted a potato with all the fixins, knowing that in a few days she will again taste nothing. It is also interesting that her sense of smell is more sensitive when she cannot taste anything. Dianne received her intravenous shot of aranesp to stimulate her red blood cell production and get her hemoglobin up. Her nurse Lynn is so sweet and does her best to not stick her more than once in order to insert the intravenouse line for the chemo drugs. Man, that adriamycin has to be administered manually by Lynn, and it is so toxic that Dianne begins tasting metal almost immediately.

We met some interesting new people while Dianne was getting her chemo as well as saw some people we had previously met. I know that the chemo room is not the place that you go on a Friday just to meet people, but I believe that people come across your path in life for a reason and that we should take advanatage of that time.

I met a gentleman named Cecil Grant who was born at Paris Mountain and grew up in the Greenville area. Cecil was born in 1925 and was recently diagnosed with lymphoma and comes in frequently to get chemo. He has a wonderful sense of humor and is such an inspiration to meet and to talk. Cecil has a passion for life even as he is the same age as my Mom at 84 years young. He remembered well the Great Depression and the tough times during the 1930's and said we do not know anything about hard times, because those were some tough times. There were no jobs, low pay, no food and on and on. It made me even more thankful for what we do have, and I already thought that I was very grateful.

We met another couple Johnny and Shelby Bowling. Johnny went to his Doctor for a checkup and a mole on his back turned into melanoma. He and Shelby were so shocked when they got the news that Johnny had cancer. Johnny is 71 years old and he is now retired but had been in the plumbing business all his life. We had some interesting conversations as I told him that both my brothers had also been in the plumbing business. Shelby worked at their church and they were members at the same church, Fountain Inn Baptist Church. Both of them are fine Christians and have a genuine faith in the Lord. It was such a pleasure to meet and talk with them.

I met another gentleman whose name is Dave. He went to the bathroom and was having a hard time getting back to his seat, and I helped him get back and then started up a conversation with him. Dave is originally from India and is an American. He graduated from College with a degree in Mathematics and worked for Zerox and several other companies. After Dave was recently diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma he had a stroke, and that is the reason that he is not so steady on his feet.

Well, we know that Dianne has one more chemo and there is light at the end of the tunnel. You hear about how hard it is to take chemo, but you realize how hard it is when you or your wife have to go through it. Dianne is one tough girl and it really gets her down.

Through it all, we know that God's hand is on the steering wheel and he will get her through this and be well again.

God bless...Bruce

UPDATE ON DIANNE MARCH 18 2009

2009-03-18T22:39:00.001-04:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS

MY BLOG: http://whatamazinggrace.blogspot.com/

Prayer request: Please continue to pray for Dianne. She will have her 4th chemotherapy treatment this Friday March 20th.

Dianne will be having routine blood count tests tomorrow and her 4th chemo treatment follows on Friday. Chemo is really tough on her body, but Dianne is a fighter. And with God by her side, it gives her incredible strength to endure the bone pain, loss of hair, loss of taste, nauseau, no energy, and I could go on and on. Dianne has close friends that have been through chemo and they understand what I am talking about.

But we understand that God has allowed this struggle and it has its own purpose, and we pray that this purpose will be accomplished in each of our lives. Our prayer is that we draw closer to our Lord.

Again, Dianne and I want to express our sincere appreciation for all the calls, words of encouragement, and most of all your continuous prayers.

May God bless each one of you.

love you all ......Bruce and Dianne, Chad and Bella

Psalm 33:12

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD;
and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance."

DIANNE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
HOME: 864-288-6093
EMAIL: SDCHAMBERS@CHARTER.NET

BRUCE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
EMAIL: BWCHAMBERS@CHARTER.NET

UPDATE MARCH 13 2009

2009-03-16T18:18:00.004-04:00

Hi Family and Friends:

Hope all is well with everyone.

March 6 Fri - Dianne had a fever of 101.5 and her Dr prescribed her cipro to be taken for 7 days. She also began to have some swellling in her left ankle and left wrist and her Dr said it was just side effects from her chemo.

She appears to be losing a little weight and at 125 lbs she does not need to lose any weight. However, she tells me that she has lost no weight, but I will find out when she is weighed at her next treatment. Drinking liquids has been a real challenge for Dianne, and she eats watermelon, cantelope, tangelos, and icy pops in order to get down some fluids.

March 8 Sun - I took Dianne to downtown Greenville in order to get her out of the house because she enjoys some walking and especially enjoys the sun. It was St Patricks day and there were so many people, the weather was sunny and beautiful, music playing, and all sorts of festivities which livend her spirits.

March 11 Wed - Dianne is feeling better and she took Bella to Awana at Southside Fellowship which Bella enjoys so much. Dianne has such a good heart and wants children to be brought up in the church so that they will have the solid christian foundation that will be needed for the rest of their lives.

March 15 Sun - Dianne, Bella, and I went to Bella's cousin Caleb's birthday party at Tony and Allison's house from 1-3:00pm. Well, I had to sacrifice and miss the Duke - Fla State ACC Championship game, but fortunately when I got back I saw that Duke had won. Bella had a nice time with her brother Ian, and cousins Caitlyn and Chloe.

March 16 Mon - Our friends Wayne and Judy Eanes and Eddie Scott came from Fayetteville to see Dianne and we had a nice time together. Dianne was feeling good today and really enjoyed having friends in our home. Dianne fixed lasagna, spinach salad, and topped it off with coffee, cake, and strawberries. She loves to have friends in our home and to eat and socialize with each other. I found out that Dianne was in a majorette club in Martinsville Va where she was a majorette and Eddie played the drums. She had not seen Eddie for many years, and it was a pleasure to see him again. Wayne and Judy are dear christian friends and we appreciated so much that they drove so far to see Dianne and then had to drive back in the same day.

Dianne is scheduled to have #4 chemo treatment this Friday March 20th, and will have 2 more treatments after this one. I pray that all will go well and that her side effects will be as little as possible. It is so hard to see her just be completely wiped out after each chemo, especially since she always has so much energy. Well, I know God is in control and he will be with her all the way.

During these tough economic times where 600,000+ people per month are losing their jobs, stock market has dropped over 50%, retirement programs are down 50%+, we can be assured that all of this is no surprise to our Lord. As Christians, we have faith that God will provide for our needs as he promised, not our wants but our needs. How many of us have been without a meal? how many of us do not have a warm place to sleep? how many of us do not not have a car to get around? how many of us have no water to take a bath? and how many of us have our good health. During these tough times, let us be thankful for what we have and not what we do not have such as "things". God brought us into his world without one penny and we will not take one penny when we leave his world on earth.

We have been so blessed to be born in the best country on this planet earth, and so blessed with the freedoms that we have in being able be anything we want to be as long as we work hard enough for it. Thank you Lord. Let us never forget that everything we have is from above, including the air that we breathe.

Thanks so much to everyone for the continued prayers for Dianne that she will soon be restored to her full health. We proclaim her being cured and know that God will cure her fully from this disease.

God's richest blessings to each one of you......Bruce

Update Feb 27 2009

2009-02-28T20:07:00.000-05:00

Thursday February 26 -
Dianne had lab tests today and met with her Oncologist Dr Edenfield. Her lab results were good overall, but her white cell count was down slightly. Dr. Edenfield talked to her 30 minutes and asked her how she was doing and what were her side effects. He was surprised that she did not have any blisters in her mouth, diarrhea, extreme nauseau, or other pains such as in her bones. Dianne said she has extreme fatigue after each treatment, cannot taste food, liquids are tough for her, and just feels yuckey all the time. Her bones hurt after the neulasta shot which follows each treatment, but is controlled somewhat by aleve and claritin, which the Doctors do not understand how it helps, but it does.

Friday Feb 27th
Dianne had 3rd chemotherapy treatment. Thank the Lord she has only 3 more treatments to go. Her treatment started at 8:30am and we left around 3:00pm. Lynn is her RN that administers the intravenous drugs. I cannot imagine what Dianne has to go through taking this chemo. She is always a very strong, energetic person, and but the chemo totally wipes her out for about 1 week after each treatment.

We saw some people that we had met previously as well as met some new people.

Sarah - Previous post told you about Sarah. She has ovarian cancer; her sister had breast cancer 1 year after she was diagnosed; and her Mom had breast cancer 30 years ago and fully recovered. Sarah originally had monthly treatments but due to the side effects. She now has weekly treatments which will last for 6 months.

Jan - It was the first time we had met Jan. She was initially diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 26 years old and was tested at the genetic center. She is a carrier of Barc1 and Brac2 genes which have mutated and this gives her an 80% chance of getting breast cancer also. She has not elected to have mastectomies yet, but will decide later. Jan is a very compassionate person and she is director of the Greenville Ovarian Cancer Foundation. Jan recommended that Dianne try Newman's lemonade or Kristens lemonade in order to help with the metallic taste caused by the chemo.

Judy - Was diagnosed in May 2008 with stage 4 colon cancer. Judy had 6 surgeries and states that she lives 1 day at a time. Judy was a testimony as she told us that she was a Christian, God had been good to her, and that she had a home in Heaven. What a wonderful testimony to all the people in the room. She was a caretaker for 2 years before her Mom passed away, and was having pains which was later diagnosed as cancer. She delayed having tests because she was caring for Mom, and attributes the delay in her tests which caused her to be stage 4.

Many of these women are truly a testimony to everyone to whom they talk, but also to me.

I go with Dianne to every treatment and to every Doctor's appointment because I love her so much, and I believe that is what God wants me to do. It is also inspirational to me and makes me appreciate my health as well as appreciate more "each" day that I have on this earth. I see God at work in the cancer patients lives as well as his work in my life.

We spend so much of our lives working at our jobs, taking care of the house, taking care of the children, and do not take the appropriate amount of time to spend with our Lord each day. Why have so many of us gone astray and lost our focus, meaning, and purpose in life. I do not make 1 penney going with Dianne to her treatments but there is nothing, and I mean nothing, in this world that would take me away from spending this valuable time with her.

I watch the stock market, look at our retirement protofolio which is down 50% from a year ago, and I say to myself, I need to be out here making some money. But, then I think, where does my security come from - it comes from the Lord above. Then I remind myself - he has provided food for us, a home for us, a beautiful marriage of 36 years, and I could go on and on with the goodness that he has given to us. And then I think, ye of little faith. God will provide our needs, not our wants, but our needs which he has been so faithful in providing to us for all these years....God bless my sweetie and I pray that he will completely heal her of the cancer that was in her body; and I have complete faith that God will do so.

UPDATE FEB 8 2009

2009-02-08T22:57:00.003-05:00

Dianne, Chad, Bella and I went to Southside fellowship this Sunday morning. Brian Onken was preaching and is continuing the series in the book of Mark. One of the points that comes to mind from the sermon is that we should trust God and not just trust in the things that he can do for us. After the service I was talking to Brian about this point, and it reminds me of times that children come up to us and ask us for things, and the child really wants more than to just give them what they ask for, which in most cases would be the simplest thing to do. God also wants more from us than that - he wants us to trust him and have faith in him totally and he wants us to talk with him, walk with him, and make him a part of our everyday life in a meaningful way. It was special when Brian then asked me if he could pray for us, and his prayer was touching.

Dianne began to feel horrible during the worship service due to the effects of the chemo. When we got home she was totally wiped out and had to lay down all afternoon. Today has been a really rough day. Dianne's sister and mother drove down from Charlotte to be with Dianne and to help out around the house. This means so much to us, and we are so thankful. Donna cooked a wonderful meal for us tonight and Dianne was able to eat but drinking liquids is hard. She did eat some watermelon which is a source of liquids for her.

My brother Bobby had a birthday today, his 63rd. I called him on the phone and he was so inspirational to me. Bobby is living a Godly life for the Lord and has a wonderful wife Joan and two lovely children, Tommy and Carrie. Bobby reminded me of the September 12 1954 when our dad led he and I to the Lord in our bedroom. Bobby was 8 years old and I was 5. Dad led Bobby to the Lord and I was crying and Dad asked me what was wrong and I said I wanted to be saved and that was the night that we both started a new life.......Bruce

UPDATE ON DIANNE 2.06.2009

2009-02-06T23:18:00.000-05:00

Dianne and I went to the Cancer Center today, Friday Feb 6, 2009, for Dianne’s 2nd chemotherapy treatment. She is scheduled for 6 treatments every 21 days. We arrived at 8:30am and finished at 2:00pm. Initially she is given intravenously an anti-nauseau drug called emends, and afterwards received each of the 3 chemo drugs. Lynn Wilkinson is her RN that administers the drugs and she is a real sweet person.

We were first in the chemo room today, but after an hour others arrived, but overall it was not as busy as it was for her 1st treatment.

These treatments have allowed Dianne and I the opportunities to reach out to others that also have cancer. We usually start up a conversation by just saying hello and letting them lead the conversation into the direction they wish.

There was one couple named Dan and Julie Coe probably in their late forties. He is the General Manager of Joe’s Crab Shack which is a seafood restaurant in Greenville, SC. In November 2008 he was not feeling well and a knot came up in his neck. He was later diagnosed with Hodgin’s Lymphoma, had surgery to remove the cancerous nodes, and has been having chemotherapy thereafter. Since beginning chemo, he has lost 50 pounds but has recently regained 8 pounds. His hemoglobin got down to 8 and he had to have two pints of blood to get it back up to around 12. He is in great spirits and still works 50 hours a week at the restaurant. His wife Julie is a real partner to Dan and you can tell they enjoy and love each other. Several weeks ago, Dan even went to a seminar in Las Vegas and did very well. Since his diagnosis he has quit smoking after smoking for 20+ years.

There was another lady named Sarah who is about 50 years old. She came with a friend who by the way is a 4 handicap in golf. She has ovarian cancer and has such a pleasant personality and smiles all the time. Sarah’s Mom and sister both had breast cancer and Sarah was tested positive for the BRAC1 and BRAC2 gene mutation.

Another lady named Sandy Wright is about 50 years old. She met Dianne at Pariesienne this week while they were looking at wigs, and Dianne was there with her friend Jean who was just looking to change her hair style. Dianne and I got her wig Saturday of last week and it looks like her real hair. Sandy has breast cancer like Dianne and is having chemo since her HER2 receptor was positive, and also there was cancer in one node. She had her third of six scheduled chemo treatments. Sandy’s husband is a cardiovascular surgeon and is on the 4th floor at Greenville Hospital. Like Dianne, her surgeon was also Dr. Gayle Blouin and her Oncologist is Dr Edenfield, the same as Dianne. When she had her biopsy, she was scheduled to go back several days later and talk to the radiologist to get the results. Her husband had a surgery that day and would not be able to go with her. So, her husband wanted to know the results, and being a Doctor, pulled her radiology report and saw that she had breast cancer. He called Dr Blouin, told Dr Blouin about the report, and Dr Blouin said do not worry, I will come to the operating room and we can talk to her when she gets the report, and that is what happened. Dr. Blouin is such a wonderful human being as well as a great surgeon. Sandy loves to play tennis and is anxious to get back on the tennis court. Sandy met her husband when she was a senior in high school and he was in college. They dated for about 4 years before they got married, and then waited 4 years before having children. Dianne told her about how wonderful it is to have grandchildren, and she said that she cannot wait until her daughter gets married and has children. She is a genuinely sweet person and seemed happy to see Dianne again.

Another lady named Elaine who is from Easley. SC. She was a schoolteacher for 36 years and is retired now. She appeared to be about 70 years old. She had a recurrence of ovarian cancer. Fifteen years ago, she had a hysterectomy and only until this latest surgery and reviews of the prior pathology reports, she did not know that she had a cancerous tumor removed in the hysterectomy. Last October, she had pains in her side, and was later diagnosed with ovarian cancer again. She is in her fifth chemo treatment and appeared to have some weakness when she walked. Elaine is married and says her husband is so helpful but he does not like to sit with her during the chemo treatments.

You know, I would not want to be anywhere but with Dianne when she goes to her chemo treatments. I love her so much, and just want to be with her all the time. During these treatments in the chemo room, we see so many different people from all walks of life that have been stricken with this disease called cancer. It strikes young or old, male or female, white or black, overweight or underweight or right size, and it is unbelievable the number of people that have cancer. But, you know, the courageousness of the human spirit of these people are remarkable. I have not heard one person say, how could this be happening to me. Each one of them have a different cancer at different stages and each one is fighting it so hard. I know that God is so proud of how these people fight this disease and do not just say, I give up and do nothing. The fight has to go on for the people they love and the people that love them. I just want to pray with each one of them and ask God to be with them and that his will be done in each of their lives.

Well, my prayer today has been that God will be with my baby and that this is another step in this journey towards the cure of this disease that has infiltrated her body. I know that God will cure her, and I feel God’s hand in the middle of this process. What a wonderful and awesome God that we have who we can call our Lord and Savior. He died for all our sins and by the acceptance of him into our lives as our Lord, we can be assured that we have eternal life. He gives us a peace that passes all our understanding, and I can testify that this is a fact. Through prayers, we have come to know that peace, and we have proclaimed that peace in our lives. Faith and fear are at odds with each other, and since we are human we are going to have some fear, but our faith will help us conquer that fear. In closing, I want to thank the Lord for today and the wonderful people that we met. It is my prayer now, that you God will be with each one of them, heal their bodies of this cancer if it is your will, give them the same peace that can only come from the Lord, and if they do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they will come to know him now.....Bruce

UPDATE ON DIANNE 2.02.2009

2009-02-02T16:32:00.001-05:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Prayer request: Please continue to pray for my sweetie Dianne. She will have her 2nd chemotherapy treatment this Friday Feb 6th.

Dianne has completed physical therapy at Stedman Hawkins. This therapy was required due to her surgeries.

Dianne is scheduled for 6 intravenous chemo treatments; every 21 days. Chemotherapy has some awful side effects primarily with tiredness, nausea, sleeping problems, and the loss of hair is no fun either. Bella, our granddaugher, has a hat the same color as Dianne and they are so so cute together. Don't tell Dianne, but I will take a picture and send to everyone.

Our faith is strong and we continue to be thankful to God for the abundance of grace he provides to us. As life continues to move us down this path, our faith and belief has become even stronger that God will cure her of this disease. During these times when we become faint of heart and fear creeps in, we just pray even harder that God and our strong faith will defeat the enemy, fear.

Dianne and I are so thankful for every phone call, email, letter, visit, and words of encouragement. Everyone one of you are very dear to our hearts.

May God bless each one of you.

love you all ......Bruce and Dianne, Chad and Bella

MY WIFE DIANNE UPDATE 1.21.2009

2009-01-21T13:51:00.004-05:00

Jan 16 Friday - Dianne went to the Cancer Center at 8:45am for her 1st chemotherapy treatment which was completed at 2:00pm. Lynn Wilkinson was the RN that administered the intravenous treatment and she is a very compassionate person.

We talked to 4 patients that were getting chemo at the same time. One was Matt who is a young man 29 years old and has Hodgins Lymphoma. He has the same Oncologist as Dianne, Dr. Edenfield. He is on Medicaid SSI and cannot work because of the lymphoma effect on his lungs as well as the the side effects of the drugs. His problems started over 8 years ago and he finally went to Dr. Edenfield in 2008 who requested a large cell biopsy from his lung which resulted in the Hodgins Lymphoma diagnosis and treatment thereafter. He and I discussed how God works in the timing of his diagnosis. When you see a young man who at 29 is the same age as our son Chad, you wonder why he has this disease at such a young age and others do not. Well, it is not my place to question why God allows such things to happen, regardless of age, because I would have no answer to the question, except it is to draw Matt closer to God. We will pray for Matt.

There was another couple whose names are Lester and Dianne. They are probably in their late 50s. Lester has small cell lung cancer and he said he had smoked for 40 years. He takes chemo treatments every Friday and has been doing so for 2 years. Two years ago, his Oncologist said he had 6 months. Lester is still living and seems to be full of life and you would never know he was sick because of his attitude. His wife Dianne, whose name is also spelled with 2 N's same as my sweetie's, previously had brain surgery but she is well now. They have been married for 36 years. Lester's ongoing sickness has caused a serious financial burden to them, and their Church and friends have been helping them get through their financial problems. They are Christians and we told them we will pray for them.

There was another couple and she had ovarian cancer. She had all kinds of medical issues and was so negative about her cancer and the effects on her life. Dianne and I told them that they would be in our prayers. She was telling Dianne what terrible effects the chemo was having on her, could not get out of bed, nausea all the time, bones hurt, and on and on. Her husband said he had to make coffee in the garage, and cook outside on the grill becuase the smells made her sick. I was sitting there thinking that my sweetie would have to go through all of the side effects and sickness that she was talking about. Dianne's nurse, Lynn, and another RN Mary Ellen, bith told us that she did this to other patients every time she came in for her treatment and that Dianne would not have all these side effects and problems. Then, I said thank God for that.

As we left the chemo room, we shook hands with some of the people and especially told several that we would keep them in our prayers.

Afterwards, Dianne and I later went to Publix grocery store to pick up a few things. Dianne would smell metal which is a side effect of the chemo. On the way out of the grocery store, we saw Cindy Williard and Dianne and Cindy just hugged. Cindy is such a sweet person and Dianne loves her so very much.

Jan 17 Saturday - Dianne's sister Donna came from Charlotte to be with Dianne and help out around the house.

Jan 18 Sunday - Dianne, Donna, Chad, Bella, and myself went to church at Southside and Brian Onken preached a wonderful sermon. Later that day Dianne got so sick that the chemo completely wiped her out and she was in the lounge chair or bed most of the time. The tiredness, nausea, not wanting to eat or drink, and as she said just feeling blah. She was taking phenergan every 4-6 hours for nauseau. Dianne did not sleep hardly any all night and she was having a rough time.

Jan 19 Monday - Dianne had a really rough day and could not hardly get up due to the tiredness, nauseau, and no sleep. We took her to the Cancer Center to get her neulasta shot at 3:00p. Alecia was her RN. The neulasta shot should help build her white blood count back up and will help her immune system fight infection. She should also begin to feel better. The RN said to try using ativan at night and phynergan during the day. She took ativan at bedtime and Dianne slept better during the night. It is still hard for Dianne to drink anything. She is eating watermelon and icey treats in order to get hydrated. If she becomes dehydrated, she will have to have intravenous hydration.

Jan 20 Tuesday - We went to the American Cancer Society and looked at wigs and other caps to use if she loses her hair, which will probably happen next week. She is still fairly weak but feels a little beter today. She took ativan at bedtime.

Jan 21 Wednesday - Dianne slept all night and feels some better today. Donna is going home and she has been so helpful to us with cooking and just taking care of things around the house, and being support for Dianne. Dianne's friends call and email us and it is such a blessing to have friends that care so much and cointinue to keep Dianne in their prayers.

MY WIFE - DIANNE

2009-01-14T11:03:00.004-05:00

Dianne went to have her MUGA scan yesterday to test her heart before she begins chemotherapy this coming Friday. Later in the day she went to physical therapy for her left arm which has been improving since she started the therapy several weeks ago.

Today Dianne went to see the Human Resource Director at the City of Mauldin who has asked her about insurance needs for some City employees. I want Dianne to do whatever she enjoys doing if she feels up to it.

It continues to be my prayer that Dianne will be cured of this cancer forever but the next 6 months with chemotherapy, radiation, and hormonal therapy will be a tough road to travel. But, we both feel that this is the road that God has allowed to be laid out for her, and we intend to do what we feel is God's will in travelling this road.

Hebrews 11:6 says, without faith it is impossible to please God. We have faith in his Word, and it is our mission to please him during this time of pain and suffering. God is with us and I feel his presence and guidance in the path that we are taking to cure Dianne of this cancer.

It is not uncommon to ask, Why? But, I believe that God has a purpose in all things and his purpose is to draw us closer to him so that we will get to know him even better.

MY WIFE - DIANNE UPDATE 1.9.2009

2009-01-09T13:31:00.004-05:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS

JANUARY 9, 2009

Prayer request: Please pray for Dianne and that her upcoming chemotherapy treatments will be successful with minimal controllable side effects.

Update:

Physical therapy - Dianne has been having physical therapy twice per week due to the continuous pain she has been having in her arm as result of the axillary node surgery on Dec 8th. The pain is a result of the damage to the local nerves as well as the side effects of removing regional lymph nodes. The physical therapy along with time and healing should aid in reducing the pain.

Chemotherapy -

We met again today with Oncologist Dr. Edenfield and Dianne will have 1st chemotherapy injections on Friday Jan 16th. She will have to receive some tests next week prior to her treatment.
Each of her treatment injections will take about 2 1/2 hours at the GHS Cancer Center.
She will receive the TAC [3 drugs] chemotherapy regimen.
There will be total of 6 treatments, each scheduled every 21 days.
In between treatments there will be testing to check different functions.
The TAC chemo regimen was decided based upon her cancer profile as being in excellent health, histologic grade 2, tumor size 1.7 cm, 1 node involved, and her biomarkers - estrogen receptor positive and HER2 negative.
TAC is a standard protocol regimen that would be used for her breast cancer whether she was at Sloan Kettering, MD Anderson, Mayo, or any other major cancer center.

Dianne is extremely happy with her Oncologist, Dr. Edenfield; he is very bright and he connects and communicates well with Dianne. Dr. Blouin, Dianne's surgeon, highly recommends Dr. Edenfield.

Our Pastor, Charlie Boyd, said something last Sunday in his message which has stuck with me this week - God is our only constant and we need to trust his ways and not our ways. Dianne and I are thankful to God for his grace and the peace of mind that we receive from him through prayer and receiving of his grace.

We continue along this journey and have faith that God will cure her of this disease.Dianne and I cannot express enough how thankful we are for your continuous faithful prayers for her.

May God bless each one of you in this New Year.

love you all ......Bruce and Dianne

DIANNE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
HOME: 864-288-6093
EMAIL: SDCHAMBERS@CHARTER.NET

BRUCE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
EMAIL: BWCHAMBERS@CHARTER.NET

MY WIFE - DIANNE UPDATE 12.12.2008

2008-12-12T13:41:00.002-05:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Update: Dianne met with Dr. Blouin today. The uncomfortable fluid drain tube was removed. Thank God, the additional lymph nodes and tissue removed in surgery this past Monday did not have any cancer. Her stitches will be removed by Dr Blouin on 12.19. First meeting with her Oncologist will be on 12.22.2008.

Prayer request: Please pray that God will grant the Oncologist and us wisdom and guidance for her upcoming chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Dianne and I are thankful to God for the negative pathology test results on the lymph nodes and other tissue removed in surgery this week. We have faith that God will cure her of this disease.Dianne and I cannot express enough how thankful we are for your continuous faithful prayers for her.

May God bless each one of you in this Christmas season in which we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. We will keep you updated of her progress.

love you......Bruce and Dianne

DIANNE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
HOME: 864-288-6093
EMAIL: http://www.blogger.com/

BRUCE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
EMAIL: http://www.blogger.com/

MY WIFE - DIANNE UPDATE 12.9.2008

2008-12-09T13:43:00.002-05:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Update: Dianne had surgery under general anesthesia yesterdy primarily to remove more lymph nodes for pathology testing. We should have test results this week. The surgery took about 1 1/2 hours. She was in recovery longer than expected due to pain since they had to get her abnormal pain under control. She will have followup with Dr Blouin in 1 week. She is resting reasonably well with her pain meds.

Prayer request: Please continue to pray for her recovery from the surgery and especially pray that the additional lymph node pathology test results will be good, and negative.

Thanks for your continued faithful prayers. God bless each one of you, and Dianne and I have a deep faith that God will cure her of this disease.

love you......Bruce and Dianne

DIANNE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
HOME: 864-288-6093
EMAIL: SDCHAMBERS@CHARTER.NET

BRUCE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
EMAIL: BWCHAMBERS@CHARTER.NET

MY WIFE - DIANNE UPDATE 11.22.2008

2008-11-22T13:47:00.003-05:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Dianne had surgery yesterday, Friday, and she is home recuperating with her pain meds. Dianne's Mom Elizabeth and Sister Donna have been with us and this has been a big comfort and help for Dianne and I.

Praise God the lymph node tests were negative, and no cancer in the nodes which is terrific news!

The cancer itself was about 2cm which was between the reading of 1.3cm on ultrasound and 3cm on the MRI.

Clear margins have to be achieved around the cancerous area removed, which is critical before radiation treatment can begin. Radiation will last for 6 1/2 weeks.

Dianne's surgeon, Dr. Blouin, was pleased with the surgery, but will not know if she got clear margins around the cancer removed until pathology tests are completed sometime next week.

A special thanks to Kerry Buttram and his prayer for Dianne and her Doctor right before she went into surgery. Kerry's prayer was also a reminder to each one of us in the room that God created Dianne and her unique DNA and he can heal her, remove the cancer from her body, and restore her to full health again. We believe that God will completely heal Dianne, we proclaim it, and give God all the glory!

Thanks for all your prayers and please continue to pray for Dianne that the surgery has achieved clear margins and that she can begin radiation treatment soon without further surgery.

God richest blessings to each one of you and we cannot thank you enough for your faithful and continued prayers for my sweetie Dianne.

Bruce and Dianne

DIANNE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
HOME: 864-288-6093
EMAIL: SDCHAMBERS@CHARTER.NET

BRUCE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
EMAIL: BWCHAMBERS@CHARTER.NET

MY WIFE - DIANNE UPDATE 11.16.2008

2008-11-16T13:56:00.003-05:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS:

We met with Dianne's surgeon Dr. Blouin last Friday and surgery is scheduled this week:

Mon Nov 17 - We will meet with MDC Surgical and Oncology Team of Doctors at Greenville Hospital to review all films, all tests, and get their 2nd opinion. Dr Blouin will also be at this review
Wed Nov 19 - Preasessment for surgery
Fri Nov 21 - Prep for sentinel node biopsy test at 11:15am and surgery at 3:00pm.

We would ask that you continue to pray that God will lay his healing hands on Dianne and heal her body, and that we will be guided only by the will of our Lord above and that our wisdom and courage will come from him.

God bless each and every one of you......Bruce

DIANNE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
HOME: 864-288-6093
EMAIL: http://www.blogger.com/

BRUCE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
EMAIL: http://www.blogger.com/

MY WIFE - DIANNE UPDATE 11.13.2008

2008-11-13T13:53:00.003-05:00

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS:

Dianne received her MRI results and the cancer results were fairly similar to her mammogram and ultrasound, except the size was some larger which may or may not be just fibroid tissues from the past.

Please pray for our meeting with her surgeon Dr Gayle Blouin tomorrow, this Friday at 8:30a, to discuss surgery, treatment options, and map out a plan of action.

This is a very emotional, confusing, and sometimes fear tries to take over our minds. Then I remember the 23rd Psalm prayer which I prayed on all my basketball teams many many many years ago and the part that says- "yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for God is with me". What an awesome thought to know that as Christians, God, the one who created Dianne, is with Dianne and I every step of the way.

Please know that we feel your prayers, and we ask thankfully that each of you and your Churches will continue to lift up Dianne and our family in your prayers, that God will lay his healing hands on her and heal her body, that we and her Doctors will only be guided by our Lord above and that our strength, wisdom, and guidance, will come from him.

God and him only will be given all the glory during this difficult journey.

God bless each and every one of you......Bruce

DIANNE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
HOME: 864-288-6093
EMAIL: SDCHAMBERS@CHARTER.NET

BRUCE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
EMAIL: BWCHAMBERS@CHARTER.NET

MY WIFE - DIANNE UPDATE 11.10.2008

2008-11-10T13:50:00.002-05:00

DEAR FAMILY AND FRIENDS:

Dianne's bilateral MRI was completed last week and as of last Friday Dr Blouin had not received and finalized her review of the pathology test results. Dianne called Dr. Blouin this afternoon and we will hear back from her shortly.

We have been told by some ladies who unfortunately have travelled this same journey, that waiting for test results creates a lot of anxiety, and we can surely attest to that. Several dear friends have told us to quote over and over in our minds when we become anxious - Philippians 4: 6, 7 - [6] Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. [7]And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

You do not know how much we appreciate each hug, each phone call, each voice message, each email, every letter, every card that has been given to Dianne or me with so much love and kindness as we live through this time of uncertainty. However, there are some things we do know for certain - God is in control, God is not asleep, God is Lord of our lives, and God is the great physician.

Please continue to keep Dianne in your prayers, that God will heal her body, that God will give us strength, wisdom, and guidance, and most of all that he will be given all the glory during these difficult times.

God bless you......Bruce

DIANNE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
HOME: 864-288-6093
EMAIL: http://www.blogger.com/

BRUCE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
EMAIL: http://www.blogger.com/

MY WIFE - DIANNE UPDATE 10.31.2008

2008-10-31T13:45:00.004-04:00

To: FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Unfortunately Dianne's MRI had to be rescheduled this morning until next Monday 11.3 due to her cold.

Please continue to keep her in your prayers that God will heal her body and that he will be given all the glory during these difficult times.

God bless...we love you....Bruce and Dianne

----- Original Message -----
From: Bruce Chambers
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 10:53 PM
Subject: Dianne Chambers update
To: FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Dianne will be having a MRI tomorrow morning at 9:30am on her other breast. Please keep Dianne in your prayers that the MRI will be good results and negative.

Will keep you updated of progress.

God bless...we love you....Bruce and Dianne

DIANNE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
HOME: 864-288-6093
EMAIL: SDCHAMBERS@CHARTER.NET

BRUCE CHAMBERS
CELL: 864-420-1719
EMAIL: BWCHAMBERS@CHARTER.NET

October 28 2008 MEETING WITH DR. GAYLE BLOUIN - DIANNE'S BREAST SURGEON

2008-10-28T11:24:00.002-04:00

October 28, 2008

DR BLOUIN

Abnormal mammogram, biopsy shows lobular cancer

Lobular – 2^nd most common breast cancer [20%], harder to diagnose because it infiltrates the tissue, 2^nd behind ductal breast cancer, lobular has higher incidence of being on both sides, huge majority of people today are cured, have to figure out what is best for Dianne to get it cured, Dianne has family history, genetic testing – small number of patients have abnormality that increases risk significantly like 68%, braca 1 or braca 2 tests, gene mutations, 1^st degree and 2^nd degree relatives, consider breast mri because Dianne’s is lobular and could have chance of something going on in other side, need to know that before making plans for surgery, biomarkers to determine how hers may behave, nothing you could have done caused this, across the board 1 in 8 women get it, not fair, no rhyme nor reason, good news is found it when she did, studies show that hormone replacement therapy increase risk but more so with combined hormone, premphase being one of them, estrogen and progesterone, did it cause it do not think so, numbers are small that HRT combined could act as fertilizer and make grow faster, real controversial,

As a surgeon my job is to get rid of cancer on chest wall and give best chance of not coming back, that’s what radiation drs do with radiation treatment, the medical oncologist the ones that give chemo when it is indicated are the ones that evaluate your chance or risk of developing recurring disease or disease to another site down the road, it is an educated guess and the way they make that determination is how big the tumor is, what it looks like under the microscope, they give it a grade 1 2 or 3, what your estrogen receptors, progesterone, and her2 that are the biomarkers which they test on the cancer cells themselves. Then we look at lymph nodes. I can tell you right now that your biomarkers are very favorable – your estrogen receptor is positive, your estrogen is positive, and your her2 is negative, and that is what I want. That is best situation of the 3 and those are the 3 that they check. Option # 1 is a lumpectomy and taking the cancer out and a rim of normal tissue around it and that is followed by radiation and they go together. I you have a lumpectomy and say I do not want radiation, then you compromise your pure rate of death. The other option is a mastectomy, you take off all your breast, do not the muscles anymore. Those are the options to get rid of the cancer. The survival is the same. In both situations I need to evaluate your lymph nodes. So what we do is a sentinel node biopsy. Now we are able to identify, 98% of the time, the node that would be positive, if any are. We do that by injecting a blue dye, a radioactive material, then we make a small separate incision from a lumpectomy under your arm and we look for blue nodes to radioactive nodes - we have a Geiger counter. We find those and we get them to look at them during surgery to see if they see any cancer cells. They are pretty accurate but not 100%. If any nodes are positive, then I would take more nodes. But those that we identify are negative, and then I do not do anything else. Occasionally a week later they will come back and say we have looked and looked at these and then we may have to go back………………….they do not check the total lymph system but only check the nodes that are at risk for harboring breast metastatic disease. So, you have lymph nodes everywhere as far as your defense system. They seem to drain certain areas. All most all of the breast 80-90% cancers drain to the axcilla, what we are trying to come up with is a profile to determine if you need chemotherapy or not. I know that you need local control. You can get local control by a lumpectomy followed by radiation or by having a mastectomy. Radiation is not required after a mastectomy except in a few unusual situations. 1 is when you have a huge 5 cm tumor, which you do not. And the other is when you have 4 or more nodes that are positive in your arm, the axcilla, which I would really be blown away if you did. Radiation takes about 6 ½ weeks. The therapy is done mon – fri for 6 ½ weeks, but you lay on a table, get your treatment and come home. It does not hurt. Effect is tiredness and you will be worn out. The surgery itself is an outpatient and you will be put to sleep, and you will go home. You will have an incision in your breast over the breast cancer and an incision under your arm. A mastectomy is done under general anesthesia as well, and you can consider reconstruction or not at the same time. If you are bound to have your breast taken off; stay in hospital 1 or 2 nights and then go home. And you do not have to follow with radiation. Chemo is not determined by what procedure you have, but determined by the information we obtain during surgery. We get the same information with each procedure, size of tumor, what it looks like under a microscope, grade of tumor, we already have our estrogen receptors, and then whether any nodes would be positive. Dianne asked about braslo grade. Some people use Nottingham and some use braslo. You are a grade 2. 1, 2, 3. 1 is low grade, 2 is intermediate, 3 is high grade. Dianne asked if it is invasive. It is invasive and let me tell you what that means. If you do not have invasive, then you have in situ cancer. Invasive is the most common type. If you have in situ, it will be ductal. They are abnormal enough to be called cancer cells, they are sitting in situ the duct. As longas they are just sitting in that duct they are not harmful. At some pint they grow from the duct, as in your case, they were sitting in the lobule and started invading the surrounding tissue. Dianne asked if it could have gone through chest. It is rare that it would happen, a locally advanced disease. What we are looking for if it has spread to a lymph node. If it has spread to a lymph node, then you would get chemotherapy unless you just say I am not taking it. You would also get a lot of scans to make sure in no nodes. We are sitting here which looks like a favorable situation, the tumor is not huge, actually in stage 1 area, there were no abnormal lymph nodes that showed up on any of lymph nodes. It is a moderately differentiated, so it is not a bizarre breast cancer, and the estrogen receptors are positive progesterone positive and her2 negative. Her2 is the growth factor and we do not want it to be positive, we do not want it to be over expressed. . Estrogen positive tumors have a better outcome, #1. #2 they have therapeutic implications. Because that can base your treatment, the oncologist will recommend that you either go on tamoxifen or arimidex every day for 5 years which will reduce your recurrence rate huge, like 40-50%

The thing that you need to think about right now is, what are you most comfortable with. This is not an emergency. It is to you, but now is to decide what you really want to do. Because it takes 5 to 8 years before you can see it. It does not mean that you have been negligent, that is just biology. It just may not have shown up on anything, and so it is not like packman in there chopping away, which is probably what you think. We have time to get MRI and recommend strongly since you have lobular. Would you be comfortable with lumpectomy as opposed to a mastectomy? I would be if my MRI was ok. I like lumpectomy with radiation because it interferes less with your life. Except that you have that 6 ½ week period running out get your radiation. You wear your clothes normally. You are not hospitalized. You can function more normally in the midst of your therapy. If perchance you had a strange situation and had a positive node, which I would be surprised about, and you required chemo for some reason, you would get that upfront and then radiation. Dianne asked we decide what we are going to do, and then you get in there and then decide that I need breast taken off. People ask me that, and if I saw something blatant, I would go ahead and do it if you gave me permission to do it. However, I can tell you that is not going to happen because I cannot look at and tell. Only the microscope can tell me if my margins are clear. If my margins are not clear, we will go back. I will not compromise your life. We are talking about a cure here, and that is what we are planning on. We are going to say well we have breast cancer and we are going to make you feel better. We are planning to cure you. You will not believe this for a long time. Every time you exercise, get sore, wake up with a crick in your neck, cough, you will think it is cancer. That will get better. I promise. You will get over feeling that you will die, because you will not. You are at a higher risk of dying in car after talking to me. It is terrifying. I know that. I want you to leave knowing that we will have a very good plan and it will work. Now let’s get a MRI first.

Susan Love – the breast book...4^th edition. She is a breast surgeon. Read just the part about cancer.

Dianne told her about Mexico and asked her opinion. She said no I have never seen it work. Now do I think wholelistic is important, healthy diet, exercise, low fat diet? Drink too much, never misses mammogram.

There are a lot of things that have scientific merit but right now unfortunately we have nothing to cure breast cancer without surgery.

We told her about Linda. Now your mind has been totally skewed to think that a mastectomy works better thank anything else. It doesn’t. There are no survival benefits to mastectomy. I tell people this is 1 time to set your emotions aside and listen to the facts. The facts are that have been proven over and over that there are no survival benefits to mastectomy. The recurrence rate is a little bit higher after lumpectomy. You have a breast there. The recurrence rate is about 4-6%. Meaning 94 to 96% of the people have no recurrence in that area. If you do have recurrence you would have to have mastectomy because you can not have radiation twice to the same breast. But if that happens, then you would have the same survival as if you started with as a mastectomy in the beginning. That has been proven over and over again. I see no point in going straight to a mastectomy unless you can not sleep at night. Now the MRI may tell us something differently. You may have spots here and there, you may have something in your other side, and we may say we need to look at this a little more closely. Or, you may say I really want to have some genetic counseling and see if I have high risk of that gene. If you had that gene I would support taking both breasts taken off. These are some things that you can think about while you are waiting to get your MRI.

Or you may just want to keep a closer look with MRI, etc. You may not even fall in risk because you do not have 1^st degree relatives.

MEMORIES WITH MY BROTHER BOBBY

2008-02-18T17:02:00.009-05:00

1st Picture - 1950 Etta Mae [Mom] and Bobby at our house on Hardee Street in Durham, NC
2nd Picture - 1953 Bruce, William [Dad], Bobby at our house on Goodwin Road in Durham NC
3rd Picture - 1963 Bobby at Carolina Beach NC 17 years old in August 1963. He must have thought he was "Elvis" in a straw hat.
4th Picture - 1989 Bobby and Joan with children Tommy and Carrie in June 1989

February 8th is the special day that my older brother was born into this world as the first born in our family and was named William Bobby Chambers. He was named after our Dad, "William" Bud Chambers. Now, I do know the origin of his first name William, but do not ask me the origin of Bobby, but I would just assume that it was a name that Etta Mae and William Bud liked and so that is the name given to their first son.

There are three children in our family and God bless poor Mom, they were all boys. Dad had always wanted a little girl, but instead there were three boys. Bobby was born in 1946, three years later Bruce born in 1949, and lo and behold, six years after I was born, there was a surprise, another boy, and he was named Wallace Armstead which I will tell you more about when his birthday comes around in June.

I am sure Bobby was a real lonely boy, ha ha, until I was born and then the excitement began when I was old enough to run, and Bobby could not catch me. The only way to defend yourself from an older sibling is to be able to run faster, that is, when you throw rocks or other objects that you can get your hands on when there is a squabble. Well, there were not too many of these disagreements as youngsters, because we got along really well, and I looked up to Bobby because he was able to do “big boy” things like drive the tractors and so on. Bobby was born the 1st year of the baby boomer generation in 1946, and later in 1949 I was born at our house on Hardee Street in Durham, North Carolina when Bobby was three years old. After several years my parents bought 17 acres of land and built a house at 323 Goodwin Road in Durham, NC. My Dad had someone build the house and Bobby and I were responsible to clean up the yard. We had to pick up all the rocks in the yard, used a sling blade to cut down all the weeds, and this was a big job since the yard was so large. When Dad planted grass in the yard, Bobby and I would mow the yard with a push mower which was manual, not a power mower; and wow that was a hard way to mow the lawn.

When Bobby was 14 and I was 11, we began working with our older cousin Mack Chambers [Mack was the son of my Dad’s father (Jesse's) brother Wilkes] in his tobacco fields, which comprised of many acres of land. It seemed like a million acres sometimes when we were working in the fields. We would help plant the small tobacco plants which were picked from the plant beds, and then we would hoe the tobacco plants in the fields so that they would have adequate amounts of dirt around them in order to grow to be large plants. While the plants grew larger, there were small leaves called “suckers” which would grow above each leaf at the base of the stalk. These suckers would deprive the leaf of proper nutrition, and we would manually break and remove the suckers from each leaf of the plant, and this was a really boring and tedious job. When the plants were full grown, Bobby and 2-3 others would prime the tobacco leaves from the stalks and put the leaves into a tobacco sled pulled by a mule. Then the mule would pull the sleds between two rows of tobacco until the sled were full. Then, I would drive the tractor and pull the sled to the barn where it was dropped off. A person would hand three tobacco leaves to a person [tier] that would tie the 30 leaves onto each side of a six foot stick, and each stick of tobacco would then be hung in the barn to be cured. Bobby was a really hard worker. Since I was smaller, I was only able to drive the tractor and hand leaves to the tiers. Bobby would drive us to and from work every day during the summer months, and we would eat lunch at one of the local stores if we did not eat at Mack’s house, our great uncle Wilkes house, or our cousin’s house Roy and Edna Aiken.

We had really good times working together in the tobacco fields, but when I was 13 years old, I got osteomyelitis from the chemicals that were sprayed on the tobacco. This was a very serious disease which I will tell you about in a later post.

Bobby always loved to drive cars fast, and he was always scaring me with his driving. On day at lunch, he drove the car through a 90 degree curve so fast that he went off the road and we flew went through a corn field and tore down a man’s corn stalks, and if he had not been such a good driver, he would have turned the car over. I almost messed up my pants, it scared me so bad. Well, we had some good memories together. Another time I remember; I was throwing mud and other things at him in the field; then he proceeds to throw a huge tobacco worm at me when I was laughing, and it landed right in my mouth, and I almost threw up. He thought that was so funny, and today it is funny to me, but not at the time it happened.

I was really mischievous but Bobby was also mischievous at times, and I will give you a few examples for the record. When I was around 13, he and Mark Stephens, our neighbor, locked me in a barn. Bobby had always told me that the barn was haunted and the barn only had one set of windows. He and Mark stood outside, and the louder I yelled for them to open the barn, the more silent they became. So, I decided that the only way to get out was to knock out the window. When I hit the window with the palm of my hand and as my luck would have it, my hand went through the window, and the blood flew. Bobby begged me not to tell Mom, but the two cuts on my hand and arm were so bad that I had to tell Mom so she could clean the wounds and bandage up. The cuts needed stitches but I hated Doctors and needles, so I talked Mom out of it. Guess what, I still have the scars today as proof that he was also mischievous at times; well that is, only when he could lock me up, because if I had been outside the rocks would have been hurled furiously, and I would have been able to out run him. My secret weapon was that he could not catch me since I was so fast. The other mischievous event was when Bobby and Mark ran me into a 5 foot ditch as we were riding down a hill on Goodwin Road to Sykes Lake. Needless to say, my legs were torn up, but being a young fellow, I healed quickly.

But, I loved Bobby and he took care of me; well, most of the time. When our neighbor Joe Sykes, who was a bully, hit me in the stomach after playing baseball at our house, Bobby and I held him on the ground while Bobby filled his mouth with dirt. Since Joe was older than we were, he thought he could do that to me, but Bobby would not allow him to get away with doing that to me.

You can see from the pictures that Bobby was a typical youngster, and now he has a wonderful wife, Joan, and they have two beautiful children together, Tommy and Carrie. Bobby has owned a plumbing business all of his adult life and now Tommy works with him. Poor Joan has to pick up all the pieces in the business, and answer all the crazy phone calls that seem to come in every few minutes of the day. God blessed Bobby with Joan and I am so thankful for that. There is nothing better in this world than to have a lovely woman that loves you and most of all Joan loves God with all of her heart.

Bobby had lung cancer when he was 43 years old, and after surgery to remove the upper lobe of his left lung, God brought him through it and he has been cancer free and today he is 62 years old. Wow, how time does past by so fast, and it seems like yesterday that we were playing in the sand behind our house. I am so thankful that Bobby loves the Lord and has accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. It is such a comfort to know that our whole family - Mom, Dad, Bobby and Joan, Wallace and Sue, Bruce and Dianne, and all of our children have accepted Jesus into our hearts and as a result we will all be together in Heaven one day.

We only see Bobby and his family a few times each year since we live in Greenville, SC, which about 4 hours from his home in Bahama, N.C.

In upcoming posts, I will discuss some memories about the rest of my family.

God Bless. Bruce

GOD'S SAVING GRACE

2008-01-30T06:38:00.000-05:00

January 22, 2008 was a bittersweet day in the lives of our family, since it was the day that the mother-in-law of my younger brother Wallace died, but it was also the day that she went to be with the Lord. Mrs. Edna Aiken was 82 years old and had been diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in March 2007 and her Doctor told her she could live between 9-24 months. She had smoked for many years but had stopped smoking in the year 2000. Anyone who knows a little about lung cancer knows that small cell lung cancer is a very aggressive cancer, and her chance of long time survival was not very good.

The last time that my wife Dianne and I went to see her was at Treyburn convalescent center in Durham NC in December 2007 over the Christmas holidays; the month before she passed. She was at that time confined to the bed because it was becoming very difficult for her to breathe with any exerted efforts, even with being hooked up to oxygen. I remember Dianne telling me about someone in the room asked Mrs. Aiken about her hair and I paraphrase "Your hair looks really good, who fixed it for you"; and Mrs. Aiken wittingly replied, "Chemo". Even with her deteriorating condition, she had such a beautiful smile and was so sweet, although her breathing was laboured and her body was weakening.

I believe the reason she continued to smile was because Mrs. Aiken accepted Jesus Christ as her Saviour in year 2007, and she knew where was going to spend eternity. Oh what a joy to know where her home is now, and that she has eternal life with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Mrs. Aiken funeral was held on January 22nd in Raleigh NC, and her good friend Pastor Westbrook preached at her funeral. Mr. Westbrook had known Mrs. Aiken and her best friend Doris for many years, since they both used to frequently vacation at White Lake.

As we get older and our parents and grandparents get sick, it makes me appreciate more the love that Jesus Christ had for us, that he would give his life and die for our sins so that we could have remission of our sins and as a Christian we know we will be able to spend eternity with him. John 3:15 states that "everyone" who believes in him shall have eternal life. And for those who have eternal life; we read in Psalms 49:15 - But God will redemn my soul from the grave, he will surely take me to himself. What a comforting thought. God bless.

AMAZING GRACE SUNG AT DIANNE'S UNCLE GOING HOME CELEBRATION

2008-01-21T14:57:00.001-05:00

The Library of Congress has information about the history of the song Amazing Grace and can be found at this link..... http://www.loc.gov/.

Wintley Phipps gives the history of Amazing Grace as well as he sings the song at this link... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMF_24cQqT0. It is worthwhile so please spend approx 8 minutes to view and listen..

This song Amazing Grace recently touched my heart so much, as it was sung at the funeral of my wife's uncle Jack Stultz in Virginia this past weekend. Jack was a wonderful burly man who lived 86 years and became a Christian at the age of 43 years old. Unfortunately, Jack's Godly mother died before Jack was saved, but I am sure she is rejoicing now in Heaven when she saw Jack. Oh what a joyous and happy reunion that must have been; a Mother being reunited in heaven forever and ever with her son. Mothers can be such a Godly influence on their children even after the Mom is gone.

God's grace is sufficient for all, and it is my prayer today that whatever trials and troubles are pressing on your heart, you will go to the Lord today, right now, and lay it at his feet. He died that we may have life, and that we may have it more abundantly. In John 3: Jesus declared that unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of God. If you do not know Jesus, please confess your sins and ask him to come into your heart. God bless.