Quick Health Update

I saw the oncologist yesterday (Monday). After reviewing my bloodwork it has been determined that I am no longer a candidate for chemotherapy. Basically - Chemo suppresses your bone marrow, as does radiation. My bone marrow has been so suppressed that it is not rebuilding itself. If I continue to do chemo it will just make me weaker and sicker and destroy, or at least dramatically impact, my quality of life. So, no more chemo!! YAY for me!! I am so thrilled. I am also a little concerned about what that means for my cancer, but I am grateful that I don't have to go through the side-effects of chemo again.

My doctor said that if we were seeing another doctor they might just say that they would send me to hospice and from what I understand of that, it's their way of saying - "Sorry, nothing more we can do for you." But my doctor has noticed that my body is fighting this cancer and that I am not showing all the symptoms/signs of some one who is as "sick" as I am. This gives him hope and so he is willing to try a very experimental treatment. This is so experimental that they are not even in clinical testing yet and in fact it is just a theory backed by one study of a doctor that shows promise. The treatment is that I take an extremely low dose of a certain drug that is usually used to help drug addicts get over their addictions. The size dose is about 10% of the traditional dose. I am not 100% sure that we are going this route, but it does sound promising and I don't have anything to lose - there are no side effects. I will be researching this over the next few days and probably start with it next week. We shall see.

Other than that, things here are going well. We are doing lots of homework, cleaning house, making dinner, running errands and just the everyday goings on for a Mom. Halloween is almost upon us and I think I am almost done with the costumes!! So excited!!

Hope all is well with you all. We love you and appreciate your prayers and kind thoughts in our behalf. Enjoy the remainder of your week, we will - with all our activities planned how could we not?!?!

Grumpy - Grateful

Lately I haven't felt the best so I have been a little grumpy. I think it was Friday night that I looked at Gloria and Nephi and just felt a wave of gratitude wash over me. Yesterday was the school carnival. We went and again as I watched all of my kids playing the games or hangin' with their friends and my wonderful husband helping the 2 little ones (who aren't so little these days), I again felt that gratitude. So, rather than post all the goings on around here for the past few weeks, I decided that I wanted to post what I am grateful for. Here goes:

My loving Father in Heaven and his son Jesus Christ

My wonderful, loving, helpful husband

My beautiful, energetic children

My delightful and very helpful parents

My extended family and their prayers on my behalf

My friends and their concern for me

A warm home that fits us all

A soft bed to lay on when I feel crummy or am just ready for a good night sleep

A car that fits us all and gets us where we need to go

The bus for bringing David home from school some days

The gospel

The scriptures for teaching me of the Lord

The sun

The rain

The clouds

The beautiful trees and flowers

Umbrellas

Clothes

Shoes

Having plenty of food and even more treats

Store bought sugar cookies with frosting - you know the ones

A good school for my kids to go to

The opportunity for me to go back to school

Hearing Aids

Being crafty

My camera

Time

My health - I know I have cancer - but it could be worse

Pain medicine

Doctors

VIP week in Kindergarten

Star week in 3rd grade

Smiles

Hugs

Kisses from my kids

The United States of America

Memories

The ability to read and write

Music

My husband's beautiful voice

A clean house

Just for Kids (an organization that provides activities for families with cancer)

Sutter Cancer Center's CATS program

Panda Express (yummy spring rolls!!)

Chipotle (love their chicken tacos)

Sees Candy

Pictures

Disneyland

Rollercoaster Rides

Animals (just not at my house)

Sewing

Dates with my husband

Quiet times

Peaceful feelings

Happy thoughts

People that read my blog :)

People that make comments on my blog :)

A Dishwasher

Washers and Dryers for my clothes

Toilets that flush

Running water in my house

A place for my kids to play right outside

Parks

Learning

and the list goes on...

I hope you can take some time today or in the future to just think about what you're grateful for. I know that what I am grateful for far out weighs what I don't care for. Thinking about these things and writing them all down gives me a bit of perspective, kind of like a pro/con list. I have so many things to be grateful for.

I had blood work done today and it came back very close to the same as last time I got it done a month ago. Tomorrow I will meet with my doctor and find out exactly what that means - I am thinking that chemo is a no-go again. In fact, based on my very limited knowledge and understanding, I believe that I am no longer a chemo candidate. My bone marrow has become too suppressed. We shall find out tomorrow and I will pass on any news here.

Enjoy your Sabbath Day. Remember to be grateful. Tell whom you love that you love them and give hugs. All things considered I am doing well and I love my life. Have a happy day!

A month?

Wow!! Time sure flies when you are having fun - and we have been having lots of fun! Let's see if I can get you caught up with our busy lives. On August 20th the girls were in a great play put on by the Arden Players Club. They both had speaking parts and singing and dancing parts. It was really a cute show and they had a fun time over the summer going to practice 2 - 4 days per week and learning a lot of music from the 70s and 80s.

The 23rd of August was the first day of school and the wonderfully forgetful mom that I am forgot all about taking pictures. So you will just have to believe me when I say they were the cutest 6th grader, 5th grader, 3rd grader, 1st grader and Kindergartener that I know!

They had a great 1st day and now it has been a few weeks and they are still enjoying going to school!

August 27th I took Vilate on a date to the mall to get her ears pierced! She was so funny walking around the store trying to decide if she was brave enough. She was so nervous that it was going to hurt and she hates to get hurt. After about 20 minutes of coaching from me and the lady who worked there, she decided that she could handle it. She held on so tight to that teddybear and my hand for the first ear, but then once she realized that it didn't really hurt, she did the other ear on her own! Way to go Vilate!!

Faith is my big 6th grader this year and is loving it! The 6th graders at our school have the privilege of having one of the teachers being a guitar fan. Mr. Martin has, for years, taught those 6th graders with a desire to learn, how to play the guitar. Faith was so excited and her Dad took her to a couple of music stores where they located the perfect guitar for her. She is supposed to bring her guitar to school on Fridays for class, but she brings her guitar everyday so that she can play during recess and after lunch. She is constantly cleaning the house up so that she can have some guitar time. So far she has learned: Mary had a Little Lamb, some of Jingle Bells, some of Smoke on the Water and some other parts of songs. She is loving it!!

Let's see what else have we done? We went to the Chili-Cookoff/Pie-Bakeoff at the church a few weeks ago and the kids were bobbing for apples. They were having so much fun. Nephi kept trying to do it - he kept just dunking his head in the bucket of water and was so proud of himself.

On the 31st of August school started for David and I - yes I am going to school again. I need something to do that is a challenge for me and that I enjoy doing. I am taking 2 classes. One is online and it is a class on the family in society and the other is in class two days per week and is a child development that covers infants through adolescents. So far I am enjoying them. David is taking 4 classes (a full load) and his are communications, economics and math classes. So we are busy - but it's a good busy!

I love this picture of Nephi. He came in my room one evening and climbed under the bed and was using the bedskirt as his blanket. I thought he looked really cute laying there!

So that's our month in a nutshell and now we are just plugging away with our routine every week of taking kids to school, going to school ourselves and picking people up.

As for a health update, I saw my doctor a few weeks ago and my bone marrow was too suppressed to do chemo right then. So, today I went and had another blood test and I am at about the same levels, in some areas I am a little worse than last time. I go see the doctor tomorrow and I think he was hoping to do chemo this week, but I know with the numbers that I have now, that it would not be good, so I get a few more weeks off of chemo. I am enjoying feeling almost normal and I love that I have energy to be a part of things. I don't really want to go back to doing chemo so right now we are debating it deciding the pros and cons and counting the cost. I feel good, although I am still very tired.

Life is good, family is great and I am loving every minute of it.

An Apostle in our Town

Last night right after Faith sang, David and I left the kids with Grandma & Grandpa Morgan at the field and the little ones were home with Grandma Eve and we headed over to the church. It was Stake Conference weekend. We had an Apostle from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles come and speak to us. For those of you who don't know about our church, it is organized like Christ organized the church in the Bible. We have the First Presidency which is the Prophet and his counselors, then we have the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. They all reside in Salt Lake City, UT and frequently travel the globe to visit members of the church. There are so many members of our church in so many countries that they only make it Sacramento every so often. We were very blessed that L. Tom Perry, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, came to visit our Stake and speak to us. David and I went up to him last night and shook his hand and met his lovely wife.

It was a unique and wonderful experience to sit at an apostles feet and be taught. I felt the spirit and knew that, even though it was hard to sit there physically and my kids were crazy loud today, I knew that I was in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. I was reassured of the love the Lord has for me and I was reminded that He really does know everything that is going on in my life. I was reminded that He has experienced all this and that He wants what is best for me and my family. What a blessing to live in this day and age, when there are so many things that are good for me to see, feel and hear. I needed yesterday and today to remind me that I am not alone. Not only do I have a wonderful husband, great kids, a wonderful family and awesome friends, I have my Savior. I am one blessed lady!!

One of the Coolest Things

Last night David and I took the 3 older kids, Faith, Hyrum and Vilate and went with my parents to the River Cats game. Faith had tried out and been chosen to sing the National Anthem at the game. It was so cool! Because she was down on the field preparing to sing the song, they also let her throw out one of the first pitches along with some other kids.

We were told that we would get some pictures and a DVD of her performance from the River Cats. When I get them I will upload them for your viewing pleasure.

She really did a great job and I was a proud Mama watching her out there on that huge, beautiful field and seeing her on the big screen! So cool!!!