Labor Day

Karen and I headed to our parents' for the weekend.  Her parents were down last week right after her chemo appointment and were able to help her can some green beans (70+ pint jars).  On Thursday they loaded the kids and her in their van then headed out of town.  I worked the full day and left after I was done.  They were able to stop by and visit with Leslie.  That is a cousin on Karen's side and she and her husband invited us to live in their basement while we waited for Becca to be released from the hospital.  They were able to catch up and little and Leslie was able to see Becca and James.

Thursday night Karen was not feeling well and wasn't holding food down.  Her chemo treatment was changed up since the neuropathy hadn't gone away since her last treatment.  Neuropathy is tingling in the finger tips and sensitivity to heat and cold.  Karen was still experiencing some tingling in her fingers and the tingling would be present in her mouth and throat when she drank cold water.  The doctor removed the oxaliplatin from her regimen in the hopes that the neuropathy will not be permanent and the drug can possibly be added back at a later date.

Friday we had planned to head to Bear Lake but instead Karen slept and I tried to take care of the kids.  We were able to get Karen some anti nausea medication later on.  We aren't sure if that is what helped or if she had a stomach bug but by Monday she was eating much better and was more like her usual self.  Saturday and Monday she was feeling a little adventurous and we decided to do some car shopping.  The intent was to window shop so we would know what was out there, what we liked and didn't like and how much everything was going for.  Instead we found a nice SUV and ended up trading in our little Corolla.

We had been making do but having everything fit in the car for trips was getting very hard.  Karen also made the point that for driving back and forth through canyons every two weeks during the winter an AWD or 4WD would be better.  We had just gotten the car paid off before Karen's diagnosis so going into debt again for a car was not an easy choice.  In the end our car payment now will be about the same as it was before.  Oddly enough our insurance agent told us the rates on the SUV (same year as the Corolla, 2008) are $4/month lower.  Just more proof that someone else, as Karen puts it, is driving this flying umbrella.

Braden