Sally's Obituary

The following will be submitted to the Houston Chronicle, San Diego Union Tribune, Denver Post, Tennessean, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times.

Sally Goode Nies, 68, passed away Sunday May 2, 2010 in Sugar Land, Texas after a courageous battle with cancer. She was born in Orange, California on October 8, 1941 to the late Claire and James Goode.

Sally is survived by her loving husband of 49 years, Alan and by her two children Lorrie and Craig and their spouses John Shinol and Kathie. She also leaves behind her 4 grandchildren Stephen and Andrew Shinol, and Christopher and Gavin Nies. Sally is survived by her brother Jimmy Goode and many other friends and relatives. Sally is preceded in death by her sister Priscilla Lorenz.

She was raised in Orange, California back when it was surrounded by orange groves. She and Alan were married in Orange on June 25, 1961. In their early days they moved around the country from Boston to Seattle to San Francisco to Washington DC. They then settled to raise their family in Nashville and Denver. Later they lived in Perth, Australia and Scotch Plains, New Jersey before retiring. There was no better place to retire than near her children and their families in Sugar Land, TX and Carlsbad, CA.

Sally was one of the kindest hearted people and truly cared for everyone. To the end she was hopeful and cheerful--her life was a remarkable example of Abraham Lincoln's quote "With malice toward none, with charity for all". She left a wake of grace.

Sally's presence brought a smile to those around her. Her generous heart and soul will live on in all who had the pleasure of knowing her. 

"If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together...there is something you must always remember. You are stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart...I'll always be with you." Winnie the Pooh (and Sally too).


There will be two memorials for Sally. A memorial will be held in Sugar Land, Texas at 10am on Saturday, May 8 at The Settegast-Kopf Company, 15015 Southwest Freeway, Sugar Land, TX 77478 (281-565-5015). A reception will follow.

A memorial will be held in Carlsbad, CA on May 29. Details will be posted at alannies.blogspot.com

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Sally’s memory to Heifer International (www.heifer.org)

So Sad

This is the hardest entry I have had to make. Our wonderful girl started bleeding from her intestines Friday night. She was hospitalized and the bleeding point was tied off, but she had another bleed and a cardiac arrest. She was resuscitated but the bleeding continued and could not be stopped in spite of the massive blood transfusions, etc. Sally passed away at noon today 5/2/10. Some time later we will have a memorial/celebration service and I will try and remember to post that so anyone who wishes can come. To the end she was hopeful and cheerful--her life was a remarkable example of Abraham Lincoln's quote "With malice toward none, with charity for all". We all miss her terribly. We had a great 49 years together!

I wish I could be more upbeat

This is a tough time for darling Sally. There are a lot of problems and it doesn't all make sense yet. First, the fluid in her abdomen was drained (1700 cc) and fluid in her left chest (pleural cavity) was drained 300 cc. Sally felt better for about 16 hours but the fluid reaccumulated and she is back to not being able to eat much and feeling miserable. We do not have the cytology on the fluids yet. Second, her liver function is deteriorating with abnormal enzymes, a bilirubin of 2.7 mg/dl, and a prothrombin time (INR) of 1.5. A Doppler ultrasound of her portal and hepatic venous systems does not suggest any thrombosis in those vessels. I know this won't make too much sense to many of you, but for the medical people following this, I thought I would put it in. Third, her serum sodium has been falling and is now very low at 117 mEq/L with a normal about 135. The reason for this is obscure. Renal function is normal. It may be related to the liver or an effect of the cancer (a paraneoplastic syndrome), but his would be rare for breast cancer, I think.

At least the bone marrow seems to be functioning OK now, whereas that was the problem earlier. All blood counts are normal except for mild anemia with hemoglobin of 10.6 g/dl. And all of this in the face of an absolutely normal CT scan recently except for the bone metastases. Clearly, this cancer is not imaged by CT except for the metastases in the bone. Why, when everything seemed to be going well, is the liver having problems? Sally is not taking many medications but even these few are being stopped in case they are contributing to the problem. It's not clear what the next steps will be. We will discuss with Dr. Conlon on Monday.

I'm worried!

Things have not been going well this past week. Sally has continued to feel tired and she has developed more swelling of her abdomen. We saw the doctor today who thinks she has fluid in the abdomen (ascites) and that is contributing to her lack of ability to eat much at one time and her shortness of breath. Sally is scheduled to have a tap of the fluid with cytology to see if there are cancer cells in the fluid. She is also scheduled to have another endoscopy of her stomach to follow up on the previous EGD to see the status of the cancer in the wall of her stomach. We should know more in a week.

Kinda slow recovering

Sally is still not feeling as well as she would like. We think this is probably just the effects of the 6 cycles of the chemo taking its time getting out of her system. There is not anything specific, just lack of energy. We had a great Easter at Lorrie's, and we were so psyched that she wouldn't be having any more chemo for now that we expected her to be feeling better than she is now. I hadn't updated the blog because I wanted to report more good news, but I think that it is time to let you all know what is going on. I'm hoping my next entry will be more upbeat.

Reallly Good News!!

We just got back from seeing Dr. Conlon. First, the CT scan did not show any tumor in the liver (he was worried that it might) or in other abdominal organs. The chest is clear. The pelvis is clear. The CT did confirm multiple metastases to bone--as before. The blood counts are all normal and the hemoglobin is 10.6. There are some mild abnormalities of liver function that have been present previously, but not terribly elevated.

So, his conclusion is that she has had a significant response to the Taxotere over 6 cycles of chemotherapy, and that it is now time to stop it and watch. She will remain on the Aromasin (the hormonal therapy). He wants to see Sally in one month.

We had not quite expected this and we are both excited by the news. We are, of course, hoping that there will be a durable remission and the the tumor in the bone will be held in check with the Aromasin. Sally is ecstatic as you can imagine.

We will be going to Lorrie's for Easter dinner and celebration.

Feeling pretty good

Sally had a successful trip to the Texas Hill country to look at antiques with Lorrie and Judy. They left about 9:00 am and got back around 6:00 pm all exhausted and happy. I'm so glad this worked out well for everyone. We have had a great few days with Judy who is leaving today. Interestingly, Judy had the same intestinal illness that we both had and has just recovered from it. We think she must have gotten it from Sally over the phone--one of those phone viruses I guess.

Today Sally has the CT scan that was cancelled last week when she was ill. Tomorrow we go to Dr. Conlon's office. I hope the scan results will be available then. We will discuss with Dr. C. the upcoming chemotherapy session (scheduled now for next Wed).