Breast Cancer Awareness

October.... Breast Cancer Awareness Month

For my momma, a breast cancer survivor!

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, 192,379 new 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!

Breast cancer....my thoughts...details...journey

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.

We got the results of the biopsy on 7-8..she has invasive ductal carcinoma

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

September 2009: still so far so good.

Krystal and mom at Frontier City

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

 

The last days of summer fun!

NOT ME!!! MONDAY

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.

First day of school and more

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.

Getting to know you

1. What time did you get up this morning?730 am

2. How do you like your steak? med rare

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? umm one of the Underworld movies i think

4. What is your favorite TV show? Extreme Home Makeover

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Wherever my family is

6. What did you have for breakfast? a chocolate brownie lol

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Mexican

8. What foods do you dislike? bologna, mac n cheese, hot dogs, ramen, brussel sprouts, fish, seafood,

9. Favorite Place to Eat? texas roadhouse or el chicos

10. Favorite dressing? ranch

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? chevy venture

12. What are your favorite clothes?jeans and a hoodie

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?to the ocean or mountains

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? 1/2 full

15. Where would you want to retire? someplace where my kids are

16. Favorite time of day? evening

17. Where were you born? Albuquerque, NM

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?any sport my kids are playing

19. Who do you think will not tag you back? ?

20. Person you expect to tag you back first? don't know

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Everybody I tagged

22. Bird watcher? sometimes

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? night

24. Do you have any pets? 1 cat 1 dog

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? not at the moment

26. What did you want to be when you were little? a marine biologist... to bad i sucked at science

27. What is your best childhood memories?i have a few

28. Are you a cat or dog person? Cat

29. Are you married? 12 yrs

30. Always wear your seat belt? ALWAYS

31. Been in a car accident? Yes

32. Any pet peeves? rude people, loud people in public places,

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? the works or a veggie pizza

34. Favorite Flower? tiger lilies

35. Favorite ice cream? cookie dough or mint choc chip

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? whataburger or taco mayo

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? passed first time

38. From whom did you get your last email? allure

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? sephoras or vs

40. Do anything spontaneous lately? nope

41. Like your job? I love being a mom

42. Broccoli? Love it

43. What was your favorite vacation? floating the river

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? my mom

45. What are you listening to right now? the radio

46. What is your favorite color? pink, black, silver

47. How many tattoos do you have?2

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? not sure.

49. Coffee Drinker? no

50. What time did you complete this ? 646 pm

OH WOW! Long time no blog!

Wow! Where to start. I know its been awhile since I posted last, and I apologize. I promise I will do better! I can't seem to organize my thoughts very well right now, so I am going to do a quick update in bullet format.

• J got layed off of work in May. Its been a big change but we are surviving. The kids and I love having him home with us, and know that when one door closes another door opens, we are just waiting to see the door open for us.
• In June we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. We took the kids to their Aunt Sue's and then we joined some friends at the lake for a 2 day camping trip. The kids love to spend time at Aunt Sue's and we are very blessed to have family that is willing to watch and spend time with the kids.
• July 4th we had a blast... spent the day out at the pond with family and friends, bbq'd lots of good food, enjoyed the company of several great people, and then it rained. It rained for 6 hours that morning, and then that evening as we were setting up to blow stuff up, it poured again.. a lot of people left then.. but a handful of us stuck it out until the end. After the rain quit we blew lots of stuff up and then we crashed in the tents until morning.
• July 29 Darrian turned 12! That is a post in and of itself, coming in the next couple days.

So there is a quick update on us, I will be posting more in the days to come.. we have a trip to whitewater bay and froniter city planned this weekend, plus an opportunity to see grandpa and grnadma Flo Saturday morning, so I'll be sure to post pics!

Kayleigh

I broke down in tears this morning reading a blog that I have followed, pretty much silently, since I came across it several months ago. Little Kayleigh was born 10 months ago, 12 weeks premature weighing only 1.1 lbs. She remained in the NICU and her family was very much looking forward to finally being able to bring her home, and that day looked like it was very much a soon to be reality. Only that day will never happen, little Kayleigh Anne Freeman went to be with our heavenly father on Monday, May 11th 2009. Kayleigh is in heaven looking down on us all. My heart is broken for her family and everyone that she touched in her short life. Please take the time to go by their page and let them know that we are all thinking and praying for them.

Mother's Day fun

On Sunday, we took the kids along with my mom and brother to Frontier City for the day. Although the day was cloudy and cool and the fact that it poured in the morning, we really had a good time. We were able to ride everything that was open and got to ride some of the rides twice. We learned that mi-mi can't ride the ship ride because it makes her lightheaded and dizzy, but other than that mi-mi rode everything that didn't go upside down. Aiden got to ride the ship for the first time and he LOVED it! It started a light rain right before we left for the day, but we took it in stride. :) My brother took us all out to dinner after we made it back to town and that was a good time as well. TY Bumpy!

Band Concert

D had his 6th grade beginning band concert this evening. Was a fun night, 5 different bands played. Let me say WOW what a difference from the beginning of the year until now. They played 3 songs, my favorite was the 2nd one. Only 10 more days of school for the kids left....NOOOOOOO lol.

D is the cutie in the purple shirt :P .... so i may be a lil partial lol

Crazy Weekend

This was a relatively busy and crazy weekend.
Yesterday was a girls day... me, mom, my sis, and T all got to hang out for the day. We went shopping, got hair cuts, went out to lunch, and just really had a good time. After we did all that, the kids all got to stay the night at my mom's :) which is always a good thing for me lol. They love their mi-mi and love being able to spend the time at her house.
Today the kids went to church with my mom and sister, and then they brought the two lil ones home, D went back to mom's for the afternoon. A had a birthday party this evening, so we went to that, then picked D up from mi-mi's and came home for a quick dinner, showers, and bed.

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12 test border

Friday

Today I had an awesome day with my mom and Dawn. We went to eat breakfast at Perkins restaraunt....SLOOOOOWWWW service....like always. After we left there we ran to Sally's Beauty to pick up a few items and to look for some scruples hair color for me. They didnt have it so I am still looking. Then we went to kids stuff and my mom bought T the CUTEST church dresses ever, along with buying both my boys a pair of kahki pants and a few shirts for church. Have I said lately how much I love my mom?
Then we went to walmart, Dawn had some groceries she needed to pick up and mom wanted her hair cut. So Dawn shopped, mom got her hair cut, and then we looked around some more and bought some unecessary and some necessary stuff.
Fast forward to this evening.... D's last school dance of the year :( I am so sad and yet happy at the same time to see my oldest baby growing up. He is a joy to be around and always so respectful. He has plans to meet this girl "A" at the dance she is someone he has been talking to lately.
A is at his first REAL sleepover with a friend tonight. He was so cute and excited to be going. He sure is growing up fast.
T is home with mom and dad tonight, I am debating on putting a temporary color in her hair after I pick D and his friend C up from the dance tonight and take them to my moms.I think I will, she has been asking for awhile and after all it is only temporary.
Well, that has been my day condendsed. I will post pics soon of the kids and recent activities as well.

Bored

Ok so what do you do when you are awake at 6 in the morning and bored out of your mind?

69 words

Speed test

This is what I did this morning. Along with about 50 things trying to get kids up and ready for school. What did you accomplish this morning?

Migraines

Migraines totally suck! I am down at least 5 or 6 days a month with migraines anymore. Today was one of those days. I am so tired of them. They come on with little warning and there really isn't even a pattern to them. Used to be I could sleep them off, but anymore its gotten to where I just have to deal with it until it runs its course because nothing I take seems to help anymore. I don't have insurance, so going to the doctor is out. I just wish sometimes that my head was detachable so I don't have to deal with these damn things anymore. Any ideas out there that may help me? I am willing to try just about anything at this point in the game. I can not continue to be knocked on my rear with these migraines. I am tired of hurting so much I can't see strait, and then when I am hurting I take it out on Whisky and the kids. I know that isn't fair, but its like I cant stop it. So really if anyone has a suggestion please help me out!

Rain, Rain Go Away

Nothing but rain around here. Supposed to rain for the next week.... I am so tired of rain. I want to get outside and play with the kids. Even when it does stop raining it is to muddy to play outside and on our bikes. YUCK! I am so ready for summer time to get here!

Aiden had a well child check up today.. his 5 yr apt. He did awesome, typical little boy, recieved a prescription for yet another albuterol inhaler because he was wheezing when we went in. Could be because we had to park a block away and it was raining so we ran the entire way into the building though. He is 43.5 inches tall and weighs 42lbs. So he is right on track for where he needs to be and the good news is that he didnt even need to get any shots for school! YAY.. he was happy about that.

I had planned on taking him to the park after the apt. but because of the rain we just came home and ate lunch and built a fort out of blankets to watch tv under. He enjoyed it and we got to spend some quality time together today though.

Whisky's thumb

Whisky had an appointment with the orthopedic doctor again today about his bum thumb....again. He broke the wrist on mother's day last year, had surgery to fix that, and then in March of this year he somehow managed to snap his flexor tendon in his thumb on the same hand. He had surgery to repair said flexor tendon in March.
Last Thursday he said it felt like a rubber band snapped on him and now yet again he can't bend his thumb at the knuckle. So we go to see the doc and he gives us two options, wait and see for a month to see how much movement he can get, or the only way to repair it now is to go in and do a tendon harvest and totally replace the flexor tendon.
Why us? Why now? We have spent thousands of dollars on medical bills in the last 11 months on his hand and he still doesn't have full use out of it. So where do we go from here? The only reason the tendon snapped in the first place is because the metal plate the doctor put in his wrist when he broke it rubbed on the tendon for 9 months until it finally snapped.

WOW! My first post!

Ok, so I have finally decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon. I have been an avid reader of several blogs and have recently given a lot of thought to having my own blog. This is going to be a way (I hope) to let far away family know what is going on in our lives, and an outlet for me to be myself, and hopefully make a few friends in the process.
I am a married mom of 3 crazy kids, ages 11 1/2, 10, and 5. We have been a family since 1997 and although there have been some wild moments that make you step back and say "WOAH" I would never change a thing! My husband works for a cabinet company about an hour away from home, I am a SAHM and loving it!