Monday, April 25, 2011

What's up next.

First of all I hope that you all had a great Easter!!! Ours was FAB! We went away for Easter and spent time with family. It was amazing! The kids had so much fun, we had so much fun. We visited, ate, laughed, shopped, vegged, crafted, had a surprise birthday supper (have I mentioned how great my man is??). I totally needed it. I think we all did.

Some of my favorite moments were watching the kids play. Wy was so cute playing as one of the "big" boys. They were playing some sort of catch game and he was a little stand-offish at first, but got right in there pretty quick. It is fun watching him turn into a big boy. But I don't want it to go too fast. On Saturday morning after the Easter Bunny came, we noticed that he had left some treats outside with the kids names on them. They then had to hunt for their own treats. Wy came upon a Pez bunny and was rolling the container around in his hands, searching for his name. His blond hair was bright white in the morning sunshine and I loved the fact that even in his grey under tank, he never felt the cool of the morning air. As he turned the tube he finally came across his name. A little smile formed at the corners of his mouth as he read his name. Then he put the tube in his basket and was on his way, looking for more.

Kate had so much fun because she learned how to "pump" on the swing set. Her fuzzy brown pants tucked into her over sized, pale yellow gum boots, pumping as hard as she could; she was so determined and so cute. Yesterday we had a weenie roast before we came home. Friday night Leon and Ken found these HUGE, and I mean HUGE, marshmallows. One was probably the size of 4. So we roasted them up yesterday. Kate had a pink and white one. After she was done, she came up to me with her lips stuck shut and pink marshmallow all over her glasses and in her hair. Again, adorable!! Those glasses sure take a beating!

And last but not least, Carson (little fart). Being as he is a little pip-squeak, he had the most fun in his baby cousin's jolly jumper. He jumped and jumped and spun around in circles like he was tying to get a lead part in Cirque du Soleil. He was hilarious. His hair was flying out to the sides when he was going round and round, and he really only liked to jump on one foot. Then he would alternate feet with his little legs out to the side, jumping from one to the other like some sort of Russian dance. Then he wanted us to watch his magic trick. At this point he would pull his legs up in a tuck and hang there. We were entertained for sure.

And one of my favorite parts was a Birthday supper with almost all of us! We missed Lloyd, Rach, Nancy and Eric and I wished that they could have been there (just means we have to do it again!). But it was SO fun, to be able to go on a group date, eat and visit with everyone. I am so blessed to be married into an amazing family!

All right. Enough about my weekend. I have felt bad about not updating until now. I have had new info since last Wednesday, but we have been busy and when I wasn't busy, I was feeling a tad bit cranky.

Last Wednesday I went into the Oncology dept. at the hospital. The oncology nurse just wanted to take a look at my veins to see if she wanted to have a portacath put in. We found out that I will be doing two different types of Chemo. I will be doing Chemo for 1 year (that is a LONG freakin' time!!) and they don't want to "burn out" my veins over that time. I will probably be in for day surgery again sometime this week to have the portacath inserted. It looks like a little metal stethoscope with a long white tube attached to it. It is placed into the fleshy part of my upper chest, to the left of my arm pit and the white tube is connected to a central vein. I told the nurse she could put on in my arse as I have a lot of excess skin there to which she replied, "We don't usually put them in your ass!" We are going to get along just fine! :)

My first cycle of Chemo will be made up of two different drugs. As far as I know I am starting on May 4th. I will have the first dose then and it takes about an hour and a half to inject. Three weeks later I will go back and do the same thing until I have had these drugs 4 times. After this period I will start another two different drugs that I will have injected every two weeks (I think, I can't remember) for the remainder of the year.

I found out that I am HER2/neu+ and ErPr- (estrogen/progesterone). I have been trying to do as much research on this particular type of cancer, but again, we have been busy and I haven't had a lot of time to check it out. As far as I am concerned, all cancer is crappy but with treatment, life can go on, so that is my main concern. To live my life for a LONG long time!

I still don't know if I will need to do radiation or not, but I am glad that we are moving onto the next step and at least we know how long-ish this part will take. I have a video conference with the oncologist on May 2nd, so I am sure that I will know more then. I'll keep you posted! ;)

4 comments:

  1. Glad you had an awesome Easter weekend!! Your kids are so cute!!!
    Chemo for a year sounds like a very long time.....but, as you said, you plan to live a LONG, LONG life, and the chemo will let that happen. Kudos to Ken for the surprise dinner.....Happy Birthday!!! He's a definite keeper!!
    Great to hear how you're doing....I check the blog at least twice daily to see if you've written anything new. Thanks again for keeping us in the know!
    Lots of Love, Linda xoxoxo <3

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hahahaha! Yeah, I don't think you'd want the portacath in your butt. Would make it very uncomfortable for sitting (or even for laying). A year is a long time, but if it continues to fly by the way it always does, it'll be over before you know it. I loved the way you described your kids activities. I could totally picture it, It made me smile too. Nice that you had a birthday celebration. The actual day is next Sunday, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  3. love ya geneva - glad you had a good weekend! and that things are moving along. i am sure you are dreading but also ready to get moving on the chemo. the sooner you start, the sooner it will be over and you can get on with your LONG life:)
    p.s. still serious about the puking offer:) let's hope it doesn't come to that!

    ReplyDelete
  4. So sad that we missed seeing you guys...we will have to make plans to get together some other time. I have heard from everyone that the dinner was great - way to go Ken for advanced planning!

    ReplyDelete