The Chemo Home Stretch

Mom received her 3rd out of 4 A/C chemo treatments this past Tuesday, as well as her shot on Wednesday to increase her white blood cell count. So far she has been tolerating this round much better than the other two. She is still experiencing nausea and fatigue, but has been trying her best to eat and drink to avoid another stint in the hospital. Kristen has been there this past week and is leaving on Friday. She has been putting her nursing skills to good use, reminding Mom to take her medications, taking Mom's vitals, and whipping up Mrs. Grasses soup! Last Monday when Mom was still feeling good, they enjoyed a roast beef sandwich at Houston's! It was a smart decision for Mom to take her last two chemo treatments 3 weeks apart instead of 2, because that 3rd week really gave her an opportunity to recuperate. Dad was even able to convince her to have an adventure at the Fine Arts Museum and she also enjoyed some lobster mac & cheese :)

Mom and Dad met with the surgeon today, and if everything goes as planned,  Mom will be having her surgery on August 19. She will only have to spend 1 night in the hospital and following the surgery she will have 3 weeks of rest with very little activity.

Aunt Margo and Uncle Ben came to visit this past weekend. Aunt Margo helped Mom put together a 500 piece ice cream puzzle, while Uncle Ben and Dad headed off to the races! They had a blast dodging the rain at the Houston Grand Prix all day on Saturday. Yesterday Pat (Kristen's husband) flew into town for a three day visit. They have plans to go to a Houston Astros game tonight... hopefully they will catch a foul ball!!

Dad is still enjoying his newest identity as a 'squirrel enthusiast'. He is very pleased because he has a red cardinal that frequents his squirrel-proof bird feeder daily. He is keeping the varmints well fed with his corn cobs, although the squirrels got on his bad side last week when they ate some of his sunflower seedlings. He has also added a number of new butterfly bushes to his backward garden, but is a bit frustrated that he is unable to attract hummingbirds to his Houston botanical sanctuary... you know how he attracts droves of hummers at the farm!!! 

Nature Therapy

Mom is doing much better than she was last week :) Even though she opted to skip her chemo and move it to next week, she kept her appointment with her oncologist and had an ultrasound done to see how effective the chemo is. GOOD NEWS! Her tumors have shrunk by 50%!!!!! She also met her radiologist for the first time yesterday and Mom and Dad both think she is wonderful! We found out that because MD Anderson is so awesome, they have the latest and greatest radiology machines that are able to target areas that many other machines are unable to. If things stay on track, Mom should be having her surgery in mid- August, followed by 4-6 weeks rest, followed by 6 weeks of radiation. 

Sunday was Father's Day and we had a gastronomically delightful lunch from James Coney Island Hotdogs. Mom even felt good enough to ride with us in the car over there and enjoyed a vanilla icecream cone on the way home! After lunch, Dad and I had an adventure at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It was SO cool! Definitely one of the nicest and most extensive natural science centers I've been to. We really enjoyed the butterfly house, where dad and I both had butterflies landing on us! Dad was very happy because he was able to find two different butterfly bushes in the museum gift shop to add to his garden. He also picked up a brochure on how to grow a butterfly garden (like he needs it). On display that day was a temporary Faberge exhibit we found fascinating; but not nearly as fascinating as the Dinosaur exhibit! It was gigantic! So many fossils and huge dinosaur bones put together, Dad was like a little kid again! Unfortunately we didn't have time to walk through the whole thing, but we were able to catch a 3-D movie about the Galapagos! Dad is already planning his trip :) 

Because we found out on Tuesday that Mom was safe to go out of the house with her white blood cell count, we decided to make the most of it and go to the ... can you guess... Mall!!! We shopped around for a couple of hours and had lunch at Neiman's :) Dad has been tinkering around in the yard and has created a squirrel-topia! He has various butterfly bushes, squirrel jar feeders, a peanut butter log, numerous corn cobs, bird houses, bird feeders, and even a squirrel bungee! He wanted to challenge you to count how many feeders he has placed in the yard! Kristen is arriving on Monday and staying into July for Mom's next chemo. She is going to introduce Mom to Frozen!!! 

NT2WORRY

Yesterday Dad and I were at Mass and they had a visiting priest who was doing the service. For his homily he discussed this phrase: "Those who know do not say and those who say do not know". He got this phrase from a book of stories (I can't recall the title of the book, it was something to do with spirituality), and in one story a teacher was trying to teach his students how it feels when you have an encounter with the Holy Spirit. In order to illustrate how difficult it is to put an experience with the Spirit into words, the teacher asked his students to describe the scent of a rose. The priest told us that although the students had all smelled a rose before and knew exactly what one smelled like, none of them could describe it.

A couple weeks ago I was driving back from the mall (Express was having a huge summer sale on dresses and tops...yes!) and I found myself thinking about my mom. My thoughts were very different than normal that day, because instead of praying for her or thinking about her getting better, I was worrying. I was worrying about Mom's outcome. I was worrying about her pain. I was worrying about my Dad, my family. As I was worrying I realized I should have been using that energy to pray instead but I didn't. I just let my mind go and gave up for that moment.

As I was about to start crying, I realized the red light ahead and slowed down. I came to a stop and looked at the rear of the car in front of me. I froze. The license plate read "NT2WORRY". It was in that moment that I became overwhelmed with peace and joy. I can't even describe the feeling really. That's when I just thanked God for being there for me and my family. It was then I was crying, not because I was sad or worried, but because God sent his Spirit to give me comfort and hope. In the preceding minutes I had chosen not to pray, not to be hopeful. God was still there. He was still trying to talk to me. He wanted me to have his peace. The message God gave me was comforting, yes, but the feeling I had in me from his presence was indescribable. I guess some people could call me seeing that plate at that exact moment a coincidence, but even still, the peace and joy that entered my life afterwards wasn't.

I decided to share this story only because I know there are others of you who are praying for my mom who also worry...I mean how can we not most of the time? We are human! I just wanted you to know that all the prayers are heard. God is comforting us every day and we greatly appreciate your support, thoughts, love notes, emails, and singing telegraphs (ok, joking about the singing telegraphs but that would be awesome)!

Super Trooper

On Monday Mom was having such severe cramps and nausea that Dad and I had to take her to the emergency room. In the ER they gave her fluids and ran some tests to try and figure out what was causing the pain. Mom said she thought she had died and gone to Heaven when she was in the ER and a waiter appeared in a tuxedo trying to take her order for dinner! Later that evening she was admitted, and it was decided that a blood transfusion would assist with getting her hemoglobin back to normal. Her white blood cell count was also extremely low, and the doctor suspects that the shot she gets that's supposed to boost her WBC count 24 hours after her chemo has not been effective. She returned home yesterday early evening with some antibiotics. The doctors decided to push her chemo back another week (she was supposed to get her 3rd dose on June 17th), so now she will be receiving it on June 24th. They are also lowering her dose. Mom did say that she can now barely feel her tumor, so the chemo has been doing its job. 

Last week Russell and Iris were visiting. Unfortunately Russ was suffering from the Bubonic Plague for half the time he was here and was confined to his chambers. Once he was feeling a little better, Dad took them over to the NASA Space Center. One of the photos is of the Orion control room for the Mars program. Apparently we are supposed to touch down on Mars in the next 4 year...wouldn't be surprised if Dad was one of the astronauts. They also enjoyed cheering on the Miami Heat in the NBA finals! GO HEAT! (In case you're not up to date, Heat are behind in the series against the Spurs 1-2... so while you're praying for my Mom send a little P.S. up for the Heat). 

Mom wants to thank everyone for the cards and letters. Even though it's difficult for her right now to respond back because "the super chemo is sucking the life out her", she still enjoys reading your notes. She thanks everyone for the prayers; she feels lifted up daily.