Fourteen years and still going strong!

Since Karen's last post a lot has happened.  On July 16th and 30th she went in for her directed therapies.  I was able to be with her for the treatment on the 16th though not the 30th.  The treatment on July 16th was actually a little harder on her than her normal chemo for the first day or two.  Karen really struggled to keep any food or much liquid down for a day.  On the second day she was able to eat a little but was really feeling run down due, I think, to the lack of nutrition.

Between the two treatments we moved closer to family and I started a new job.  We had lots of help from friends and family packing, hauling and 'unpacking'.  Unpacking was really just putting the vast majority of our belongings into storage.  Our house is currently under contract and we hope it goes through but know that there is still the possibility of a problem coming up.  While we wait for the sale we are also looking for a house.  Karen and I both feel it is best to wait until the sale goes through before we make a real offer on anything.  Trying to afford two house payments and medical bills would be just a tad difficult.

While waiting for Karen to come out of sedation on July 16th I received word that the daughter of a neighbor and friend had been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma.  Karen and I decided at the last minute to make a side trip to visit him and his wife during our move on July 18th.  I wish we could have spent more time with them but we still had almost 100 miles left to drive and a moving van, a trailer and two other vehicles to unpack at the end of it.

That experience was just one of many that made it so hard to pack up and leave behind all of the people we had come to know and love.  When we first moved to Sanpete county I didn't really imagine I would ever be homesick for it but I am.  It's funny how a place and the people that live in it can come to mean so much to you in such a short period of time.


Karen's second directed treatment on the 30th was actually more involved than we had thought.  As it turns out the directed chemo actually has more side effects than directed radiation.  I hope I am getting this right since I wasn't with Karen for the second treatment (no time off yet with the new job).  It turns out that Karen also has something called spastic veins (caused by one of the chemo medications) which can collapse and then open back up.  It made consistently delivering chemo inside the liver difficult and another session has been scheduled for September.

Today, August 9th, is our 14th wedding anniversary and Karen is in Salt Lake without me again.  She has recovered enough from her surgery in July to start her regular chemo regimen again.  Friday we went out to eat and then spent Saturday together looking at houses, driving around and relaxing with James and Rebecca.  Not your typical anniversary but it's one more we were able to have with each other so I'll take it.

Braden