CT Scan Results

Today Mom and Dad met with the doctors to get the results back from the scan on Friday. The scan shows that the tumors have grown, but that the hormone levels in her blood have decreased by ~75%. We are very encouraged by this because tumors usually create or feed off of hormones. So the decrease means that the chemo is hurting the cancer. The fact that the tumors were larger was actually expected because it took us 8 weeks to start chemo after the diagnosis. Overall we are very happy and very positive about these results.

Favorite Nephews

{Mom's new favorite nephew's, Tanner and Tyler.}

Sunshine and Streams

This round of chemo has been so much better!! Mama is feeling really good! She is still tired, but she has some energy. Yesterday she wanted to go to the store with Aunt Wenda, and today let me take her for a walk! Of course afterwards she needed to take a nap... but what energy she has got we’ll take!!

Also enjoy these cute photos of Mom and Dad... at a sad time because I wasn’t there to add more sunshine. But they still seem happy for some reason...

{Summer of 99}

Round 2

Three weeks ago Mom had her first round of chemo. They said they were just going to do a mild to your vein chemo, but hard on your cancer. The Oncologist in Yakima and in Seattle came up with what they felt would be the best combo of two different types of chemo. Pemetrexed, known as Alimta and Carboplatin and an immunotherapy called Keytruda. The first three days were wonderful for relieving nausea and symptoms she had with the Cancer because they pumped her full of antinausea meds and other stuff to help her body handle the chemo.  Mom had to drink water like crazy during the first three days to flush the chemo out of her body.  The week that followed left her exhausted,  it doesn't help that she's anemic. She had small symptoms that were nothing to complain about, tender head, rash, and acid reflux...but they always had a means to treat it.  There were 4-5 days her bowels were affected and it hurt Mom bad and made her very discouraged.  She got an iron transfusion the following Friday and that helped her energy for Mom Prom...YEAH!  She was tired a lot still.  The next Friday she got another iron transfusion and this helped her have the energy for several days, the following Saturday she felt like her normal self, which was very exciting for her and she made effort to play with the younger girls.  The second week, she was starting to feel really great. Now that it is week three Mom is getting pretty strong, which has been really exciting! But means that she is going to do round 2 of chemo this Friday.

Today Mom had a doctors appointment to talk about what the plan was, and to look at her blood. Her blood work came back very encouraging and her hemoglobin is up!! 2 weeks from Friday (so the 22) we will do a CT scan to see how the chemo is affecting cancer.  We should then get the results back that Monday (the 25). We are hoping that this will all be super positive, and I will keep you posted! (Pun intended!;)) For now it is looking like Mom will be going through 5 more rounds of chemo, but the CT will offer more insight on that front.

Since Mom is doing chemo this Friday we are saying no visitors for the week starting Friday. If for some reason you feel the great urge to come, contact me or my Dad and we'll see how Mom is feeling then! Thank you so much for all you guys do!! I am constantly blown away by all that our friends, family, and ward do for us! We couldn't do this without all of your support.

And as promised I have more photos of Mom Prom. It is in a slideshow, and up on YouTube, but you can only access it through a link. So here is the link:

"Rewrite the Stars" MOM PROM

Made by the lovely Tausha! Thanks for all you did (including the slideshow and actual event.)! We are so blessed to have you as our friend!!

Mom Prom Photos

Thank you so much to all that came last night! Mom was able to last about two hours which was so exciting!! At the beginning of the week, Mom felt super awful! She is feeling better every day!
Definitely more photos to come! But here is a start!

{Iron Infusion}

{Limo Ride}

{Dance Photos}

{Mom and Uncle Clyde}

{Family Photo}

{Queen and King Dance}

Chemo and Prom

Went to Mormon Prom this last Friday! Mom had just had her first chemo treatment and so she couldn’t come take photos so my aunt did. Since she couldn’t be there, we took this photo to send love her way using ASL!

Mom is feeling really good because they gave her antinausea medicine! So keep the texts and phone calls coming but we are still saying no visits or touching. If you really feel the need to come visit contact my dad and he’ll see what is going on for the day and how mom is feeling.

Loving From a Distance

Many of you may not know this, but my Dad served a mission for our church in the greatest mission in the world, the California Riverside mission. On his mission, he had the opportunity to work with the ASL missionaries. Now that Mom is starting chemo we would like to decrease the number of handshakes and hugs since she will be more prone to illness. So instead of a handshake/hug try one of these signs!

Hug:

I love you:

Or applause, kudos or hurrah:

So please, instead of hugs and handshakes please use some ASL sign or be creative and learn a different one. Thank you for all you guys do for my Mom!

Again if you are sick, or have sick kids do not come to visit! This does not mean you can bring your kids if they are healthy. No kids. Sorry! Also no visits for the next few days. We aren't sure how Mom is going to react to the chemo. And even though we ask for no visits doesn't mean we don't want to hear from you. Texts and phone calls are great! Thanks so much for watching out for my Mom and being careful.