Business As Usual

After a nice relaxing Memorial Day Weekend, the kids are back in school and counting down the remaining eight school days until summer vacation. Hard to imagine that Kelsey will then officially be a senior and Derek a junior! All of the kids will be changing schools for next year- our new house is located in a really good school district and I think the kids will have lots of opportunities.

Kelsey has already taken her SATs and ACT for college and did well on both. She is currently looking seriously at attending North Dakota State University in the fall of '09 and is well on her way to getting applications...etc done. Her summer plans include getting a job and a driver's license as well as doing some volunteer work and possibly taking a college class online.
Derek and Kevin found a good Boy Scout troop here in Schertz and are hoping to get more involved this summer. Derek is also working on helping plan August's youth ACTS retreat for our church. Meri is looking forward to summer vacation although she will miss her friend Madison who is moving to Nebraska next month. Wil is getting bigger every day. He is crawling all over the house and into everything. He is very curious! His older brothers and sisters love him and are always eager to play with our littlest guy.

Pat is busy taking care of me and the kids. He has been giving me my twice daily shots as well as changing out my IV antibiotics. He was supposed to start an Emergency Medicine course but dropped his slot when I was diagnosed with Hodgkins. Hopefully he will get back into the course at a future date since he was looking forward to it.

Right now we are looking forward to cheering on our wonderful San Antonio Spurs in the NBA western Conference Finals against the LA Lakers. We have a nice BOSE surround sound system in the family room and the game sounds really great! (even better if we win!)
I am feeling good, just very very tired today- almost like having the flu. Overall though, I have no complaints. My stubble hair on top of my head is shedding and making me itch but otherwise- feeling good and kicking cancer's butt as usual!

I have a few DIY projects I'd like to get done around the house this summer. Mostly yard work- weeding the flower beds and planting some new things. It is incredibly hot right now here in south Texas- close to 100F and we are in a drought so it looks like we are in for a very long, hot summer already and it is not even June yet! We'd love to get a pool to help beat the heat- we'll see. My sister is coming to visit for two weeks next month- I'm planning on putting her to work helping me paint the kitchen while she's here. I'm sure we'll try and do some fun stuff as well.

We hope all of you are busy making your summer plans as the school year wraps up. Feel free to drop us an email or give us a call anytime. We'll be here- teaming up to fight cancer and thankful for all the wonderful people cheering us along the way!

Today's Glass Half Full: "Optimism is the foundation of courage." ~Nicholas Murray Butler

Countdown to Chemo

Just testing a countdown ticker.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Well, I had my second chemo treatment today and it went just fine. I feel good, no nausea. I finally started losing my hair a few days ago. It was really falling out in clumps and luckily my stylist Julian was able to squeeze me in this afternoon to get my head shaved. We had fun with it- he gave me a mohawk and Kelsey took a bunch of pictures. It's not every day a woman gets to be bald on purpose.

I took a shower last night and there was so much hair in the drain it looked like a small animal had drowned in there! I really couldn't take it anymore- I used up an entire lint brush getting hair off the seat in the car! ick!


So, now I am sporting a GI Jane/Sinead O'Connor look and it's not too bad! I have a nice shaped head and to be honest, I really love it! It was about 100F here today and walking outside with my bald head felt so cool!

So, I should have some hair again in about 6 months. Until then, bald is beautiful!

Today's Glass Half-Full : With the high cost of groceries today, think of all the money I will save in shampoo and conditioner!

Go Ahead, Make My Day!

Just wanted to take a moment to give kudos to those family and friends who remember the little things that make my day.

First, my better half, Patrick who took charge and jumped right in at home when I was in the hospital last week. He took such great care of Wil (and the older kids too!)- I did not worry for one second about how the baby was doing. Wil adores his daddy and Pat has no problems doing all the baby care stuff. Everyone did just great and when I got home on Friday, all was well. Pat is also taking great care of me. He gives me my twice daily shots for my blood clot- he is very gentle, even though the actual medicine stings a bit going in. He also changes out my IV antibiotic bottle and flushes my PICC line everyday. I think he is enjoying doing a little medicine at home! Plus, he does it all with love!

To my great kids for pitching in around the house and for being so understanding, especially when working around medical appointment schedules. Babysitting, cooking and helping with errands- it hasn't gone unnoticed! Big big thanks!

Thank you Julie for the snazzy knitted hats from your mother-in-law! What a nice treat and I will use them for sure (my hair is getting incredibly thin so I think it is about to get shaved this week). It gets chilly under the ceiling fan in the family room so they will keep my bald head nice and toasty warm! :)

My incredible sister Tanya- who found all kinds of cool humorous cancer gifts online and sent them to me. I love the "Mr Hodgkins" bag! Very cute! You always know how to keep me grinning! (and Pat too!)

My numerous friends who have sent cheerful. witty and caring cards! They always seem to arrive in the mail just when I start thinking I might be having a yucky day. thanks for thinking of me- it really means a lot!

Deanna aka Sunny Dee- who never lets more than a day go by without checking on us. Your late night ice cream and popsicle deliveries have been a special treat. It also takes a special person to know just when chocolate is needed!

The gang who sends me email- the personal notes as well as the forwarded jokes and funny stories. I may not always get a chance to email back- but please know how much I appreciate being in your thoughts and prayers.

Danke Claudia, mein BEST FRIEND in Deutschland! Die Kinder Schokolade war köstlich und das Paket behandelt wurde eine wunderbare Überraschung! (I hope my German is not too bad!) Meri sagt, danke fur die gummi baren!

My Bunco group for lifting my spirits every month when we get together and for your offers of support, caring and hugs.

The Army SP Corps- for all you have done and continue to do in support of our entire family. I don't know what we would have done without you, especially KK who manages to pull things together with apparent ease! :)

All my wonderful online August Playgroup moms who wear blinkies for me, post supportive messages, send positive thoughts and lift our family up in prayer. I don't know how I would have gotten through this past year without you wonderful ladies! {{HUGS}}

To the rest of our family and friends who check in on us to see how we are doing with a call or email. Knowing people care about us makes a world of difference and it really does make our day!

So, thank you all for everything. Love and hugs from all of us!

Today's Glass Half Full comment: "Sometimes the biggest act of courage is a small one." ~Lauren Raffo

Hospital Sweet Hospital

Sorry for my hiatus this week! I was spending four relaxing (not!) days at Brook Army Medical Center getting IV antibiotics for an infection at my arm port site. On Mother's Day my arm was sore and felt warm so I went to the Emergency Department to get it checked out. After six hours- can it ever be less?- it was determined that I had a small clot in the vein where my arm port was. I was given a prescription for six months of twice a day blood thinner shots and sent home. On Monday morning, shortly after returning from the ER, we took the kids to school and passed our housing inspection at our old house- thanks Roma and family and the Nielsons for your help cleaning on Saturday! HUGS!

I returned the the hospital and had my port removed- OUCH! I would rather have given birth than do that again! Unfortunately, later in the day I got a fever of 103F so back to the ER I went for another night of getting poked with needles and no sleep. Finally I was admitted to the hospital at 4am! Because of my chemo, my white blood cell count was already low and I needed help from strong IV antibiotics to fight the infection. Luckily it was not a serious infection like MRSA, just a generic skin staph infection. The doctors and nurses at the hospital were very nice and took great care of me. I was not feeling that bad, just mostly bored sitting around in bed watching tv and getting another dose of medicine every six hours. Once I stopped running a fever, the swelling went down in my arm and my white blood cell count was back to normal, I got a new PICC line (like a permanant IV) in my other arm today and I got to come home.

I am still on antibiotics for two more weeks but I can have them at home. I just hook a bottle of the medicine to my PICC line once a day and place it in a super cool fanny pack. The antibiotics last for twenty-four hours until they get changed out again. It's pretty high tech and I am very happy to be home and not in the hospital for two weeks! Want to learn more about PICC lines? Here's a great link: http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Treatments/Chemotherapy/Linesports/PICCline

I will be getting my chemo next Wed instead of yesterday and Iam looking ofrward to sleeping in my own bed! Yay!

One Week Down

So far so good! I had a few bouts of queasy and have been very very tired but otherwise, no real shake ups. We are just about finished moving into our new house. Absolutely LOVE it! We received a HUGE welcome basket from the neighborhood on Saturday. Chock full of goodies and coupons for area businesses. Did you know that Money Magazine listed our new town as one of the best places to live? Here's the link: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/moneymag/0707/gallery.BPTL_top_100.moneymag/40.html

We met some of our neighbors- even had one bring us a cake today. Yes, what they say about friendly people in Texas IS true! Speaking of nice people...we had so many wonderful folks show up and help us with our move over the weekend! It was quite overwhelming. Bear with me while I give a shout out to a few (some I just don't know who they were so I apologize in advance!)

• KK (aka Maj Brasfield!) If we ever need to plan an invasion, a vacation or bring about world peace...you are our 'go-to' person! Organization and motivation- cannot be beat! (and Megan and Blake as super cute sidekicks are a bonus!)
• Mike Kroger- that SF training and loading of the truck- like Tetris in Action! Amazing that much stuff fit (or that we have that much stuff!) Kudos to you for bringing your son along and he never once complained and worked his butt off all day! :)
• SunnyDee for her smiles and grace under pressure, uplifting motivation and all around cheerful go-lucky attitude- {{HUGS}} and to Erik for lifting everything heavy and helping get my cabinet there in one piece
• Col Tozier for keeping everyone moving along like energizer bunnies all day! We so appreciated your help and support!
• Adam who gave up most of his college break week to lug boxes and furniture, drive the minivan back and forth from house to house all in exchange for sleeping on an air mattress in an empty house. We could not have done it without you!
• the teenagers: Derek, Kelsey, Ricky, Emily, Ramon, Nelson, Justen, Jennifer- who worked for food, like teenagers should!
• our other friends and helpers (whose names escape me- you know who you are!) who all pitched in when and where they could so that we could rest and not stress out- love you guys! (thanks for cutting the grass too!)

Now we just have a few more things to move and the dreaded CLEANING of the old house! Yuck- that's the part I hate! After Monday we'll be all finished. We finally have phone, cable and internet at the new place and the phone# is the same so don't be shy.

Here's today's "Glass Half Full" comment:

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. ~Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book

TGIF

Today's "Glass Half-Full" Comment: (lovingly swiped from a book title) "I'd Rather Be Getting Chemo Than Cleaning Out The Garage"

Well, my chemo experience was pretty good. Thanks for all the calls and emails to check on me. I really appreciate it!

I sat in a comfy recliner with my fuzzy blue socks on (and my cool "Cancer Sucks" tshirt) and got hooked up to the IV in my port. A port is a small plastic disk with a stretchy membrane over it- it is implanted just under the skin and a line is run directly into your vein- it is more sturdy than having an IV in your vein directly and makes it easy to adminster chemo drugs and do blood tests. I was given some anti-nausea pills to take before we started and I settled in with a warm blanket.

Anyway, I got some fluid and a test dose of one of the drugs and the nurse monitored my blood pressure. Once I passed that test then I got a bag drip of one drug and the other three manually in my IV. I am one of those people who have the ability to taste everything put in my IV so I had sort of a weird taste in my mouth. Luckily Pat hooked me up with some hard candy and that was a godsend! I sat and read a book (thanks Jen- I LOVE it! It is already a new favorite!) and chatted with two of the other ladies there. Watched a little television, ate some scooby snack graham crackers and had some gatorade and I was done in about 4 hours. All in all, not a bad day.

I was a little tired in the early afternoon and took a catnap on the couch for about 30 mins. I did not feel nauseous but had a little upset tummy and was not very hungry for dinner. I did eat a chicken sandwich and managed to run two loads of stuff to the house. Kelsey's boyfriend Adam is home from college and staying for a few days to help us move. He's a nice kid and a GREAT help! He slept at our new place last night since we are all at the old house still- it saved him hotel fees-(we don't do co-ed sleepovers and I was joking with him that he should take advantage of sleeping in Kelsey's room while he can since it's going to be his only opportunity to do so until she's 18 and living on her own! haha) I think he was a little embarrassed! Funny. When we move our beds to the new house then he can drag the air mattress here and camp out at the old place with Derek this weekend so they can goof with the electric guitars and bass. It is nice that Adam is also friends with Derek so they all get along.

Today I am shopping for appliances and picking up a small u-haul truck to help us transport some stuff. We are getting some moving help but we may as well move all the stuff we can since the more we move the cheaper the estimate for the heavy/bulky things we aren't able to move. There are some charitable organizations here that volunteer to pay for movers to help out war veterans and we are very grateful but we don't want to take advantage and take money for a move out of someone else's pocket. I see so many soldiers here each and every day that are far worse off than we are. May God bless them.

We have a couple of Kelsey and Derek's friends coming by tomorrow and also some of our friends have offered to help transport our stuff. I am sure we will be fine. I've already got the kitchen, bathrooms, knick-knacks and linen closets moved- so that is half the battle. Today we are moving small things like endtables, lamps, clothes, bikes and mattresses. Nothing too taxing. I can't pick up anything (because of my port)- not even Wil, so I will assume queen bee status and direct the help.

I put in a request to change our phone-internet-cable service but I am not sure if our home phone number will go with us or change. Our cel #s will stay the same.

Well, signing off for now. I need to go get a little something to eat.
{{{HUGS}}}

Tammy

The Journey Begins

Well, tomorrow is May 1st- 10 days since my official diagnosis of Hodgkins Lymphoma. Tomorrow I also start my first of 8 cycles of ABVD chemo. I am actually looking forward to getting started since the sooner I start, the sooner I am finished. In the past several weeks I have been poked, scanned and prodded more than I could have imagined. So far I have had an MRI, CT scan, needle biopsy, surgical biopsy, PET scan, chest xray, mammogram, ultrasound, MUGA scan (to check my heart), a complete lung function test, 4 pregnancy tests (haha) and numerous lab work.

My super cool sister sent me a bright pink "Cancer Sucks" tshirt and my wonderful husband Pat went to the store and got me assorted goodies (crackers, gatorade...etc) to take to chemo tomorrow. I went last week and got my new short haircut from my stylist Julian in anticipation of losing my hair in a few weeks. It looks snazzy as usual. I am planning to get him to shave my head once my hair starts coming out in clumps. I think it will be easier than losing huge chunks of hair. I also ordered some cool scarves, a turban and two hats. No wigs for me. It is too dang hot in Texas for fake hair!

Yesterday I started my anti-nausea meds. I am participating in a study to test out new anti-nausea treatment. It is sponsored by MD Anderson Cancer Center and Wilford Hall (where I go for chemo). I am hoping that by participating in this study I will help get new measures passed with the FDA to allow the use of these drugs to help other cancer patients. I debated whether to do it or not and decided that since my treatment and prognosis look good, it would be easier on me to test something new than maybe someone worse off than me. Whatever I can do to help fight the fight!

Monday I met with my radiation-oncologist, Dr Dullea. He is also Pat's doctor and we think so very highly of him. He is just all-around great. I am definately in good hands (and God's hands too of course!) I will do a few weeks of radiation after my chemo. I got my radiation mask made and it wasn't too bad- kinda like having a warm wet washcloth over your face. Not great but I managed.

Today I had my port placed. It is on the inside of my right upper arm. Right now my arm hurts like heck and is all bruised up looking, but the actual procedure was pretty easy and done with conscious sedation. I liked that they played music and the operating table had memory foam to lay on so it was very comfy! Having the port will make getting my IV meds so much easier and will 'save' my good arm veins. Pat has a port too but his is on his chest (I jokingly refer to it as the third nipple-haha TMI I know). I was teasing Pat today by saying that my port is better than his!

Well, I am off to bed. I will post again soon and let you know how chemo is going.
Thank you all so much for your kind words of support and of course prayers. It means so much to all of us! {{HUGS}}