Here I go again... empty promises, promises unfulfilled. I'm going to make an effort to update at least once a week. We'll go with another quick updated bullet list just to make things easy on me tonight.
Its March already... Aiden turns 6 in a week and a half.
We leave on Weds for a 5 day trip to Branson, MO. Going to check out silver dollar city, the Branson showboat, the fish hatchery, and maybe the butterfly palace as well while we are there.
Mom is going with us... should be an interesting time for all.
Easter is in 2 weeks.. Darrian is planning on being baptized at our church www.lifechurch.tv
I really suck at this blogging thing. Gonna have to try and do better with it. So much has gone on in the last couple months. Guess I'll update this with bulleted points and then try to at least do one post a week.
I started a new job in November.. Super Kids, I work in a room full of 1 year olds all day. I love my job and am so thankful to have it.
Thanksgiving was great, got to spend the day with family.
Christmas we got snowed in... I have never been snowed in before lol. We had blizzard like conditions come in on Christmas eve, so our Christmas eve plans got cancelled. We did get to go to my moms on Christmas day. Was so great to spend time with everyone and the kids were really spoiled. Christmas night, we went over to our friends house and had a great evening with them.
Christmas morning... kids woke up around 730 and Aiden was all excited because Santa came! The kids were very grateful for everything that they got. Aiden's favorite gift is his Connect 4 game.
New Years Eve the kids were all scattered at friends houses. J and I convinced my mom to go to the bar with us and hang out for a bit. So awesome spending the time with her.
As many, if not all of us know, October is the month for Breast cancer awareness. Breast cancer has touched my life, in the form of my mom. Although breast cancer is something I have always been aware of, I never really thought that something like this would touch me personally. We always think that this is the stuff that happens to other people and their families, not us. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women in the United States and is the second leading cause of deaths caused by cancer in women. According to the American Cancer Society, 192,379new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2009. Breast cancer will effect 1 out of every 8 women in their lifetimes. By clicking my title link above, you will be helping to raise money for mammograms for women in need! Early detection is critical and without this help a lot of women would be unable to afford the tests needed. So please take two seconds of your time and click to help breast cancer research
In May of 2008, my mom found a small lump in her right breast. She waited to have it checked out until my little sisters wedding because she didn't want anything to overshadow that day. The following excert is from a journal that I started shortly after she was diagnosed. Today, she is in remission and currently cancer free!
I started this last week.......so here go's
6-26-08 i just found out today that they think that my mom has breast cancer. She has been problems with her breast and i finally convinced her to go to the doc. She had a mammogram and u/s done today and they found a mass in one of her breasts. She is scheduled for a needle biopsy for next Thursday....and i am falling to pieces. I'm so scared and worried.......please send up a prayer for my momma. I don't know what i would do without her.....
7-3-08 I took my momma to the biopsy this morning. The procedure only took about 30 min.... her doc told her that he would be Very, Very surprised if it doesn't come back as cancer/ He said that is what it looks like...and the fact that it has tripled in size since last Thursday. We get the pathology report on Monday...and she has an apt with a surgeon on Weds morning...to discuss options...because no matter what she'll have to have surgery to remove it,
6-28-08 We just got a copy of the mammogram report to take with us to the biopsy on Thursday. The report says there are 2 masses in her right breast, both about 15mm in size, and the report says 90% chance that it is malignant.
How do i soak this all in? I'm so scared and don't really know what to do. We haven't told the kids anything yet...but we should know a def answer by July 8.
7-09-08 We had the surgeon's apt today. the surgery is tentatively scheduled for next Thursday. She will be having a lumpectomy and a sentinal node biopsy at the same time. Right now Chemo is still up in the air...but she will have to under go 6 weeks of radiation...5 days a week. The chemo treatment depends on what these other tests come back to show us. She has to have a breast MRI before surgery to see if anything looks suspicious in her left breast...if so treatment options change. They will also do complete lab workup where they check her liver profile (or something like that) because the liver is one of the first places the doc said cancer will spread to.
We won't know what stage the cancer is at until our first post operative apt..after all the extra tests have been finished....
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!
July 14 2008: Its hard to hold my head up and pretend to everyone that i am really handling things well. I keep saying I am ok and that she is goin to beat this...but the truth is Ireally dont know...Idont know if she is really going to be ok, Idont know how to explain to the kids, Idont know how long I can keep my job, i just dont know....sorry it seems like everytime I look up we get hit again. The mri she had came back showing several area's / masses in the same breast...they are now sayin chemo is def now. The chances of the cancer already spreading have increased greatly.....
7/22 Well I told the kids last night that mom has cancer...they seem to have taken it pretty well...Darrian already had an idea that it was going on...Taryn of course was clueless...she really doesnt get it I think...Darrian understands, had some questions and worries...but I think we will all be ok.
7/23 We finally got the results of the hormone tests on the cancer back....all horomone receptors came back neg.....meaning that she wont have to undergoe hormone therapy for the next 5 yrs....but chemo is a def....along with the radiation thereapy. This is called triple negative breast cancer.
August 2008: 1st chemo treatment begins on Thursday the 21st.
10/06 i know it has been awhile, things have been goin alright. We shaved mom's head after because her hair was coming out in clumps. J shaved his head as well, so know i have two wonderful bald heads to be so grateful for!
My mom, with Taryn in the background watching My husband J, bald along with my momma!
We are starting our 3rd round of chemo this week, and so far everything has been really well, mom's red and white blood cell counts are higher than they ever have been!
November 2008: Mom and I went out to do a bit of shopping today for Taryn's birthday present. We wondered around Wal-mart and finally found this really cool kit for Taryn to make her own jewelry, we head to the checkout stand because mom is starting to get really tired we get to the checkout stand and low and behold the gift we picked out for Taryn has been recalled due to lead. So we leave Walmart empty handed and head to Joseppi's for lunch.
This is where things get really interesting. We get there and there is about a 10 minute wait to be seated.. so we sit on the window seat and mom says to me "i'm really not feeling well" and complains that she is hot. So we decide to head over to her doctors, since she was due there for a shot that day anyways. We pull out of the parking lot and I dont even get half a mile down the road and she passes out in the passenger seat of my van and has a seizure. I've never been so scared in my life! I called 911, and because I couldn't get mom to respond to me, they send an ambulance out for her.
I follow the amublance to the hospital and find out once we get there that her blood pressure was extremely low...low enough that she could have died. They can't find anything else wrong after all the tests that they run and so they chalk it up to chemotherapy.
December 2008: December was a good month! Her next to last round of Chemo was done and this is the month she started losing her eyelashes. We had a good Christmas and did some family portriats on Christmas Eve.. my sister did the pictures.
Daniel, Bumpy, J, Krysti, Mi-Mi, Me, Aiden, Bobby, Darrian, Angel (the dog), Taryn, Chris
We did the pictures so that, just in case we didnt have another chance, we at least had 1 picture with all of us in it.
January: Last round of chemo!!!! Radiation begins.
Febuary 2009: Radiation finished.
March 2009: First post cancer treatment checkup... everything looks great!
June 2009: Blood work and mammogram...so far so good
Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
I am going to do my very first Not Me Monday! I have been reading.. aka lurking over on MckMama's blog for a while now and decided today would be the day I join in on the fun!
I most certainly did not sit in front of the computer working on my blog layout for hours the other day, not screaming at the screen because of my images not appearing on the side where they belong instead of the bottom where they most certainly aren't still sitting.
I also most certainly did not yell at the pharmacist on Friday when they did not tell me that the nebulizer that my youngest son certainly did not need had to be preauthorized. I most certainly did not immediately feel ashamed and I did not apologize profusly knowing it wasn't their fault.
The kids' first day back to school was last Thursday, August 20 and I am just now getting around to posting about it...sorry.
Darrian has started 7th grade :) he is so excited about the school year, he is in band playing trombone again, has a top locker (of which he cant reach the hanging hooks), and is enjoying all of his classes so far.
Taryn entered 5th grade this year, loves her teacher, and the fact that her teacher is the 5th grade science teacher... for those of you who don't know, T's favorite subject is science. She has also finally decided that YES she is going to do competitive cheer again this year... this is a decision she struggled with all summer.
My baby, Aiden, started kindergarten this year... I can't believe that my baby is in big school now! He loves his teacher and has some friends from pre-k in class with him this year. He loves to ride the bus and came home very excited the first day telling me "mommy, guess what... we have rest time, we don't have to sleep!" This was a big thing with him because he rarely takes naps lol. He insisted even on the first day that he was riding the "big boy bus to school" so I don't have any pictures of him actually at school the first day.
I am a momma of 3 crazy kids whom I love more than life itself. I've been married to my best friend for 11 yrs now and he is the glue that holds me together. I am hoping to be able to tell of our journey in life as we make it through school, work, family time, and everything else that life throws at us.
