Great News!

I had my chemo today - Cytoxin round 3 of 3. The appointment went very well. The doctor did a physical exam and could find no trace of the tumor at all! I said, "So does that mean I can stop coming in for treatments?" I supposed that the laughter meant no.
So this drug is great for me. My blood levels are all normal and aside from being wiped out for 24 hours (that will hit me on Saturday), the rest of the time is very much normal. Tonight we brought a picnic dinner and went to downtown Collierville for the Summer Sunset Concert.
Next appointment in two weeks will be a new drug and will take 5 hours to administer!!
Once again, thank you sooo much Aubree for watching Tolan and Alana for me today -- you're the best!

Weekend Away!

We had a great weekend in Heber Springs, Arkansas! Our family loves to 'get away' as often as we can, so with the go-ahead from the doctors we finally took the chance to leave for the weekend. We rented a nice two bedroom house on Greers Ferry Lake and took a boat out with a knee board and a giant tube. The weather was perfect and it felt sooo great to be outside.

Craig's parents live about an hour away (in Conway), so they came up for the day and joined us on the boat.

Sunday morning our car battery was completely dead! The house didn't have a phone and both Craig and my cell phones were dead and we only brought car chargers! So Craig and Bryce walked down the street until they found some good Samaritans in a pick up truck with jumper cables who came to our rescue. Craig's parents came up that afternoon with Great-Grandmother Lewis (100 years old!) and brought a delicious lunch for everyone. Great weekend!

Boys in the Kitchen!

The rule (by recommendation from my doctors) has been: No other kids in the house while Mom is on chemo. So my poor kids have had to wait to be invited to play at their friends' houses this summer or just play with each other at home. Well, with this temporary stint of good health I'm enjoying, we invited Noah and Matteo over tonight. The Briscoe family has been such a blessing to us these past few months. JoAnn has called me every few days just to check up on me, and they've had the boys over to play and swim many, many, many times! Their teenage girls have even invited Alana over to swim! What a great family.
I gave the boys free reign in the kitchen tonight and here's what they baked all on their own. Noah and Bryce made peanut butter cookies from scratch, while Matteo and Jared made chocolate cake mix cookies. (A great success, but I won't post a picture of what the kitchen looked like after they got done!)

You're Gonna Love This!

The town of Collierville celebrates the 4th of July on the 3rd (I don't know why). There's a big to-do at Powell Park with vendors and a stage with live musical performances and a big fireworks show to cap off the night. Well, my appointments went so well today (Chemo in the morning [see earlier post] and a booster shot at 5pm -- Thank you sooo much, Lisha, for watching Tolan for that!), that I decided to take the kids to the celebration. Craig has been working an evening shift all week, so it was just me and the four kids. We packed up blankets and the diaper bag, and stopped at Arby's to pick up some dinner. There was free parking at the High School with a shuttle bus taking people over to the park. We decided to do that instead of look for a place far away and walk.

Alana loved the bus ride there. We found a nice spot on the lawn for our blankets and in no time Bryce and Jared found friends that were playing ball nearby, so they joined in. Alana, Tolan and I checked out the vendors; Alana got an icee. We walked around and talked to friends as we ran into them. We sat on the blankets and ate dinner and just enjoyed being out! Tolan loved the activity all around.

Well, 9:00 came and when there were no fireworks, I told the boys, "Maybe they start at 9:15". 9:15 came and went, and the kids were getting a bit impatient. I asked some nearby friends if they knew what time the fireworks started and they said, "Yes, 9:45!". Oh, too long for us! I asked the kids if they wanted to wait, or just go home. They opted to just go home. So we packed up the blankets and bags and headed over to the buses. Just in time -- the buses were just pulling up. We went to the first one and started to climb on when the bus driver said, "Were not running now. We're taking a break until 9:45." I sighed and told the kids that we'll just have to walk the two blocks to the car. So off we went. Tolan in my Baby Bjorn carrier, Jared with a blanket and bag, Bryce with the other blanket and diaper bag, and Alana holding his hand. There were more than a few "Are we there yets".

About halfway there, BOOM, CRACK, the fireworks show started. We could see some of it over the trees as we kept walking. Almost there, and Alana tripped and skinned her knee! Bryce was such a great kid and tried to carry her along with everything else. Jared, equally good, came right over and took the extra blanket and bag from Bryce. Alana soon calmed down and I tried to keep the mood light by singing, "Pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked..." Jared interrupted me and said, "MOM. This is NOT the time!"

We finally made it to the High School and piled into the car, and what do we see pulling into the parking lot?? The bus - of course!!! We just had to laugh. The kids were sure troopers.

At home, everyone had much needed showers and I informed them that according to Google we walked 1.6 miles. Not bad for a clan like ours.

The funny thing is -- this is has been the greatest night for me in a month! I was out with my kids having a good time, visiting with friends, and healthy enough to walk 1.6 miles carrying a baby! Life is good.

Cytoxin Round #2 of 3

Good appointment this morning. Cytoxin isn't as harsh as the Adriamiacin I was on in the beginning, so my blood counts recovered quickly and didn't get too low. So for the next four weeks, I've been given the go-ahead to take a little vacation and not worry so much about the germ factor. Yea!
After four weeks I start a new course of drugs: Taxol and Herceptin. It will take 5 hours to administer those!!
I'm still doing well. The doctors are amazed at how little the side effects are hitting me. With this drug I get woozy in the head for a while and my fingernails are striped white and dark and I get a bit constipated, but that's pretty much it. All very manageable.
I had my 6 week obgyn check up yesterday, and my c-section incision is healing great!
It's soooo nice to be feeling better from childbirth and being pregnant. I feel like my body is almost mine again! I don't even mind getting up in the middle of the night to feed Tolan. He's so sweet.
Thanks Aubree for watching Tolan this morning! I'm sure going to miss you when you go off to college!