18 Month Comparison

No, I did not forget. I just have not gotten it posted.

Here is Becca at 18 months.

She is walking and talking. It is still kind of gibberish, but she is learning new words everyday. Her first words were please and uh-oh. She loves to tease people. If you ask her to come here usually she will run in the other direction laughing. We love her very much.

Hair; To Be or Not To Be

Braden mentioned severe hair loss in the last post. Well this is what I did about it, after much convincing.

Before:

After:

Ah, much better.

Busy Month

Since the last post Karen and I found time for a day trip to City of Rock.  We had a lot of fun and Karen was able to actually walk a lot more than last year.  James couldn't get enough of trying to climb the rocks and started to cry when we had to leave.  The views weren't quite as good as last year due to all the smoke in the air from the fires.  In a way the smoke was a blessing since there weren't nearly as many people.

The first week in September was the closing on the sale of our home in Mount Pleasant.  It was sad to sell it.  It was the place where so many great and happy memories were made.  Where we were finally blessed with the children we had struggled to have for so long.  I hope the new buyers realize what a special place it was for us.

Karen has resumed chemo though had to skip her regularly scheduled chemo session after Labor Day due to some low blood counts.  It didn't affect the targeted chemo the next week.  She is actually recovering better after this last treatment and has more energy.  On the down side, the new chemo medications have some other side effects.  One of those is severe hair loss so Karen has less hair on her head than me now.  All just in time for some family portraits this weekend.  To help she bought some hats to keep her head warm and protected from the sun.

Braden

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

Half way thru craziness

June 29th I went in for another blood transfusion. Two units this time. The July 1st was the mapping procedure to make sure the Y90 radiation will work like they want. (And so far so good.)  July 2nd was the bowel reconstruction surgery. I just got out of the hospital July 8. They were able to do a bowel resection, so no colostomy for me. :-)

While we were in the ER in June Braden was offered a job with IHC in Logan which he accepted. He starts July 20th so we are hurrying to pack and get the house listed for sale. Okay, I'm not doing any of the work, I just get to direct people which I am not good at. Usually I jump in and help even if I am out of energy. There are a lot of people coming to help so this should go fast. We have seen so much love and support where we are that it is hard to leave, but we feel good about the job and know that every thing will work out for the best.

Love you all. And thank you for your support, love and prayers. We truly feel blessed.

Karen

Off again on again...

Karen is out of the hospital and at home now.  The surgeon has her on his schedule for July 2nd.  There are three likely scenarios that could play out. They will look with a scope first to see if there are lots of little tumors that don't show up on a CT scan. If that is the case nothing will be done. If it looks like there is enough good tissue available they will attempt a resection. If their is too much damaged tissue they will perform a colostomy.  We are hoping for the resection scenario.

After the appointment with the surgeon we had thought the directed radiation treatment would be delayed but after a few phone calls and some questions it looks like it is still a go.  The oncologist and radiologist both say it shouldn't affect recovery from surgery too much with how it is currently scheduled.  The surgeon agrees but did say the bowel prep prior to surgery will be made more difficult and uncomfortable with a sore leg due to the incision and catheter insertion during the mapping procedure.  Karen has said she is willing so I'll do what I can to help.

My help usually involves cracking jokes and twiddling my thumbs while she does all the hard work.  Some day we'll know why she had to go through all this.  Until then we just keep plugging along, hoping for the best and raising our little miracles as well as we can.

Braden

Y90

So the insurance has approved the Y90 procedure. The one where they use an artery in my leg to insert radioactive pellets to my liver.

It takes three appointments to do the procedure. The first is to map the blood vessels that go to my liver to make sure that the pellets will go to the cancerous areas without affecting too much healthy tissue. They use die covered pellets for this and then do a CT scan a few hours later to see where the pellets ended up. It is an all day thing, but if it doesn't show the doctors what they want to see then we don't move onto steps 2 and 3. This will happen just before the 4th of July.

If all goes well then mid July we have our second appointment where they go in and inject radioactive pellets into one half of my liver. Two weeks later they will go in and do the other half.

On the off weeks from radiation I will still be receiving my chemo treatments. We also have two family reunions in July. It is going to be one crazy month, but the timing seems to be working wonderfully. There was only one day where it looked like I needed to find help and then my sister tells me that my niece can come help.

I love my family and the way we come to each others aid. We are a crazy lot and don't always agree with one another, but when someone needs help there is usually someone who can come.

This post was originally created prior to Karen's latest hospital stay.