It's Been a While, but I'm Back

My mother-in-law is still undergoing cancer treatment.

Janni turns 2 next month.  I can't believe my little girl who made me a mommy is growing up so fast!  She's sweet and cuddly and just a ball of fun and energy!

I'm planning her birthday party: kitty cats.  But not realistic cats, cartoon cats!

I've started making her party favors and decorations and I'm certain of 2 things:

1.) It's time consuming, and
2.) I need a better camera

Here's the party favor I've made so far, where you can clearly see that my camera and eye for natural light are real winners!

Now that we've cleared some things (hmph, my picture abilities bite harder than a a bear with babies), I can focus on the content of this blog and start looking for a Canon via Craigslist.

And just for fun,  here's a recent photo of Janni.

Okay, it's a picture of a picture. I can't wait until our new desk to come in!  Our old desk is embarrassing and I estimate, purchased the time of the ice age. 

Here's to getting better at blogging, new furniture, and snuggles in bed with my sweet baby who decided throwing up on the way home from lunch with my sister-in-law and nephews was the best time to throw up! 

Update/ Merry Christmas!

Well, my Mother-in-law got as far with the Induction Chemo that her body would allow her.  She got through the 2nd and then to the first does of round 3 (there are 5 doses, one day after another) when her heart and kidney started to fail, so to speak.  So they pulled her off of the chemo and gave her a day for her heart and kidneys to rest.  The next day, they were reading normal (as normal as somebody flushing terrible toxins out of their body can be) and her heart seemed fine.

She took it as a sign that her body was just done with chemo, that it had had enough.

Now we are waiting until the first week in January to decide further treatment.  As far as we know, there are only 2 options:

1.) Surgically remove the tumors (there are 3, not 1 as I had been led to believe and Zack (her own son) and I have just been informed last week that there were really 3 tumors) from her tongue and then proceed with radiation to kill any left over cancer cells.

2.) Proceed with radiation to shrink the tumors more and save more of her tongue (with each tumor, 50% of the size of the tumor will need to be removed from her tongue as well to ensure that they get any straggling cells) but then that is it.  Radiation is so powerful that there won't be another shot to receive it.  If any of the cancer cells are left behind... then who knows what the options are.

After she receives her treatment,they will take a skin graph off her leg and use it to reconstruct her tongue.

I really can't wait to begin blogging regularly.  I have so many ideas but life has been so rough recently.  I went to a really thorough doctor and she did some blood testing and other testing and actually found why I have been feeling so terrible and now we have a treatment plan to get my body back in shape!  I am super excited to start feeling better!  I start all my treatment tomorrow!

Hope everybody is having a merry, wonderful, family-filled Christmas!

Enjoy you family and presents but always, always, always keep in mind the reason for the season: Our desperate need for the Savior, Jesus Christ!

Seasons

I've not felt well and life has been hard.  I'm on a supplement that is suppose to help level out my progesterone and balance out my adrenal glands.  This week I am feeling amazing!  I am feeling normal!

My sister-in-law confessed her exhaustion for being primary caregiver to our Mother-in-law and now all three able sister-in-laws (there are 5 of us. One lives in Minnesota and the other has three children and 2 are school aged and she needs to be present with them and their school work/activities) are going to be rotating taking care of her.

She received her 3rd induction chemo and is currently in the hospital.  It is so life threatening the first week after chemo that she must be in the arms of skilled, life-saving professionals, so she spends close to a week in the hospital.  She is then pretty sick and in pain for the next two weeks and that is where the three of us will rotate.  All three of us live in Northern Arizona, so being away from our husbands and homes deems way, way too difficult so we will need to take our child/ren down to Phoenix and go on 4 day shifts.

I begin my first shift this Tuesday.

I am scared beyond measure.  I've memorized their address and will likely need to call 911 often.

When somebody has a trachea and a feeding tube, it makes the already hard and challenging nature of chemotherapy that much more difficult.  When vomiting must come through a small trachea opening and food must be administered slowly, every 3 hours... it pretty much means that she will vomit every 3 or so hours. 

But God is good.  He gives strength to the weary and gives power to the powerless.  These are the days where I will have to release my own capabilities and strengths to God so that He can make my weaknesses build up in strength.

I Lied

I lied.  Not intentionally... But I lied nonetheless.  This is the hardest week to sit down and blog.  Between shopping for my part in Thanksgiving (going to my Mom's) and preparing to make not one but two trips to Phoenix,  I'm swamped!  Next week I'll have to get going on blogging.

Such is life.

Cheers

Update on Mother-in-law and Us

My mother-in-law, Cheryl, is still in Gilbert undergoing chemo.  The tumor isn't shrinking like they would like to see and it and so she has to keep her trachea and feeding tube in.  They started her on an even more powerful induction chemo.  She ended up in the hospital last week because it was so intense that even the medicine meant to keep her from vomiting wasn't working at all and she needed help with IVs and hospital administered only anti-vomiting medicine.  Please keep her in your prayers.

We are going down to Phoenix tomorrow for the weekend to care for Cheryl while my sister-in-law takes a much needed break from her care giving responsibilities but I plan that next week I will be blogging and socializing with other blogs every weekday.  I have several fun ideas and outfits to share and I think I am finally going to be able to be a responsible (daily) blogger!  It's been a very emotional few weeks and it has been too difficult to blog.

An update on us? 

I went into a natural path doctor yesterday to start on my thyroid and adrenal panels.  I've been sugar and grain-free for over a month and still feel so bad that Zack and I decided that it was finally time to figure out what is going on with me. The doctor actually had a free thyroid and adrenal test kit she had been given to give to a patient and asked if I wanted it. I promptly agreed.  So I will have about $670 of tests done for free (we are still trying to figure out insurance for our family so most things are done out of pocket)!  Feeling very fortunate because natural paths aren't cheap nor do they take insurance!  If this one doesn't yield the results we're looking for then I will have to pay for other testing, but please say a prayer that this kit is able to give light to how I am feeling!

Zack and Janni still as cute and fun and sweet as ever! 

I look forward to blogging daily come Monday!

Cheers!

Partners in Crime Edition 2: Bringing Frodo Home

As I get older, I am beginning to realize a lot of traits and things about myself that I am sure have been around for some time but I have been blind to.  A few of those things are:

1. I hate exercise.  I know I say I enjoy it, but after my last walk with Janni, and my overwhelming desire to turn back, I admit now that I don't.  I spent the whole entire 30 minute walk singing to the tune of Finding Nemo's "Just Keep Walking, Just keep walking, Just keep walking, walking, walking..."

2. If I could mentally handle it, I'd skip the whole getting ready for bed thing.  I hate it.  I like being clean and knowing I'm not taking any daily dirt or bad breath to bed with me, but let's face it... By the end of the day, I don't feel like brushing my teeth, combing my hair, or washing my feet/face. I'm just ready to collapsed into bed and call it a night.

3. I am not a pet person.  Oh, I love animals!  But I don't like owning one. I don't like them living in my home, leaving their fur behind, training them, or taking care of them. I love our dog, Frodo but it took some time to warm up to the idea that I would be being responsible for his care and upbringing for the next 10-15 years.

This is the story of bringing him home!

The cuteness of a puppy enamored everybody’s heart, even before the sweet moment when we threw out the voice of reason and Zack said we could get the very last puppy being sold in front of a local grocery store.  No hesitation.  No regret.  Zack seemed thrilled to be able to give me such a sweet gift (it’d been a tough week).  Even Janni squealed with delight as soon as Zack showed the puppy to her.  She grabbed him by the back of the neck and shook him side to side as the puppy yelped and hollered.  After a stern correction, Janni slowly learned that puppies are not animated stuffed animals!  We named him Frodo

Good ol’ Albert Einstein (and God Himself) could have been heard laughing at me that first night when I had to get up with Janni twice and the puppy THREE times.  That night, Einstein’s quote was caught staring me in the eyes, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”  Clearly, I had done a stupid thing.  I had gotten a puppy, which resulted in Emily, mommy of TWO!!!  I lay in bed that night with a snoring husband.  I didn’t know whether to be more upset that Zack was snoring or that Zack let me get a puppy.  The third round of puppy cries, I seriously considered putting him out in our then not fenced backyard and letting whoever found him keep him.

But this family doesn’t give up on difficult situations.  So the puppy stayed.

If there are two things I know about puppies, it is that they are stinky and they like stinky things … For some time, Frodo quickly became my dirty diaper radar; equipped with a magnetic nose that became stuck to Janni’s diaper when filled with smelly content.  When Frodo was seen following Janni’s diaper with his nose, we knew that it was time for a change. That was helpful but has since ceased.  He also still likes trashcans, bathrooms, and any and all food that Janni decides should be thrown on the floor.  He is also deadset on stealing Janni’s caterpillar stuffed animal and relentlessly snatches Janni’s no longer used pacifiers.

One night, a week or so after we got Frodo, as the puppy wimpered from his kennel (before you judge, at the time, he still treated the ENTIRE house like it was his bathroom), I confessed to Zack that getting him was a horrible mistake.  “Why did you let me get a puppy, Zack?”  Zack spent part of the conversation chuckling and the other part admitting the with such a young baby (Janni was all of 8 months old at the time), it was the wrong season to get a puppy.  Another conversation, another conclusion: the puppy stays.

Slowly (and by that, I mean sssslllooowwwlllyyy), Frodo began to mark a place in my heart.  His peepees on the carpet still made me cringe, his poopies on the carpet still made me scream, and when Janni got a hold of one of his turds, I cried (you better believe I had poison control on the phone in about .0378 seconds).  But his silliness, lightheartedness, energy, and the joy he gave my Janni made all the hard feelings slowly melt away.

He started to become a little less dependent and I started to become a little more patient with him.

So, here’s to our family dog, Frodo … stealer of pacifiers, smeller of Janni’s behind, eater of sand, barker at the neighbors (we’re still working on this), and snuggler of our hearts!

And why do I write this you ask?  Because yesterday was Frodo's first birthday!

Happy Birthday, You Crazy Animal!

Frodo, we're so glad you're home!

Bumps in the Road Called Life

I've felt a little bad because I have seen my page view count go up and up and have had no new posts for a few days now.

I really want to start some DIY posts up for the Fall season but it's been such an emotional week that I have had a really hard time completing any post.  We've spent a few days 100 miles away down in Gilbert, AZ.  My Mother-in-law had a tracheotomy and a feeding tube put in because she has a tumor on her tongue about the size of a crab apple that is obstructing her breathing.

Today Cheryl, my Mother-in-law, starts what is called Induction Chemo Therapy.  I'm a little shaky on the details but my understanding is that it is a very strong chemo that will be delivered through a port in her chest, directly to the cancerous tumor.  She will stay in the hospital until Friday and deliver the chemo there because having a trachea makes this intense kind of chemo very dangerous due to the high potential of vomiting and it needing to be done through the trachea.  Suffocation is a huge concern.  My sister-in-law will be staying with her starting next week, in a rental near the hospital and will have to learn how to save her life if, God forbid, her breathing through the trachea is in jeopardy.  This is a difficult time on our family.

I really want to be authentic about our life.  It is lovely and wonderful and I feel unbelievably blessed to have such a caring husband and a sweet little girl.  But life is often hard, and I think that if I only show the good times in life, I will end up hating blogging because I don't feel like I am being real.

So for the above reasons, I am choosing to update about my Mother-in-law and her cancer treatment.

I will post DIY and other categories sooner than later so keep looking. :)