1 year of Chemotherapy and Cycle 17

MONDAY
FEBRUARY 24, 2014

I don't like to get up at the crack of dawn when we leave for SLC but I sure love the skies. Dick has his 6 week CT Scans today and chemo. Scans every 6 weeks, chemo every 3 weeks. A lot of radiation and poison going in him but what do you do? We hit a large something on our way to Salt Lake City. It scared me to death. The sound was awful. I say a big something because we really don't know what we hit. When Dick looked through the rear view mirror, he said whatever we hit was the size of a big dog and had reddish fur. I thought it was a bobcat. It happened about 20 miles before we got to Sweetzer Summit. When we stopped in Tremonton, we noticed that there was quite a bit of damage to the bumper of our car.

Sometimes I'm so grateful that I've been a nurse for over 27 years. Even though I have no desire to work in any medical setting right now, I'm grateful for the knowledge and confidence that I've gained through the years. If it wasn't for this, I'd be a total mess these past 5 years. The CT Scan showed that Dick's tumors are staying stable. They're not shrinking but they are also not growing or spreading. They did find something disturbing though. A pulmonary embolism. (A blood clot in his lung.) That would explain his cough and his shortness of breath. They will be doing an ultrasound to see where that clot came from. At this point, they think it traveled from one of his legs. He has very poor circulation in both of his legs. In the meantime, the poor man needs to start a new injection twice a day. (Lovenox) Poor Dick already looks like a pin cushion with all his insulin shots he gets.  The Lovenox is a blood thinner. They also said that it's not uncommon for cancer patients to suffer from pulmonary embolisms. We'll know more tomorrow. 

Dick went to the Jazz/Celtics game with Travis and Deacon. I had a girls night with Leanna, Brianna, and Aubrey. Happy times! And just like that... these people made my life better.
 After the game the kids drove back to Burley. :(

 TUESDAY

Today was the one year anniversary of chemotherapy every 3 weeks for this amazing man. He is the strongest human being I know and ALWAYS so positive.

For dinner we met up with Heinz and Nancy Mahler at a little Italian Restaurant. The reason Dick wanted to go to this Italian restaurant is because he heard a friend from high school owned it. Nancy is also a friend that he grew up with. Leanna was able to join us. We've been staying at Leanna's house when we go to Salt Lake City and I am so thankful. When we first started this journey, we'd stay in hotels and it got pretty expensive. We are so grateful for Leanna for letting us impose in her.

I could tell while we visited after we ate, that Dick was looking pretty exhausted.

I think tonight we wore him out. 

 "Often we do not know what we can endure until after a trial of our faith. We are also taught by the Lord that we will never be tested beyond that which we can endure."
Elder Robert D. Hales

WEDNESDAY

I love how Dick is always working on a puzzle while he waits. This was before chemo and after chemo today.

After we got home, Dick got pretty sick to his stomach and rested most of the night.

Leanna went visiting teaching and I had another lonely night while Dick rested.

 THURSDAY

Dad got his Neulasta and we headed home.

It's so good to be home. I love coming home. I love our little house.

Dad was so tired and took a long nap.

The kids had been waiting patiently to give Dick a "welcome home" hug.

As soon as he woke up, they all jumped in bed with him and gave him a big squeeze.

Then Dad and Deacon had to fill up the bird feeder.

Those birds miss Dad when he's gone. I really think they sense when he comes back and get extra noisy with their chirping. He always makes sure the birds have their bird seed. 

Deacon is so good about reminding him and loves to help.

This came in the mail while we were gone. I feel so loved.

We also found this in our mail box. I love our little town and all our dear friends!

FRIDAY

Deacon and I made some Easter Bunny Race Cars today.

I know it's a little early for Easter fun but I wanted to practice before Easter. They turned out really cute and they were so much fun to make.

GOODBYE FEBRUARY

Grandma Moments

So this is an example of my "Grandma Moments" lately... What we thought was a touch of food poisoning was a nasty bug we brought from Utah. Sophia and Josie threw up after we put them to bed on Wednesday and were pretty quiet and cuddly all day Thursday. The only thing that was good about that is that they both wanted to cuddle extra which I loved, but I hated seeing them sick. I asked Sophie several times if she wanted me to take her home and she said she wasn't ready to go home yet which made me feel good. Both Brianna and I couldn't believe how brave Josie was. It was her first time away from home and she was also sick but she never cried. I was disinfecting the whole house before Dick comes home because the poor man catches EVERYTHING! I started with our jacuzzi since that's the little one's favorite place to play in. I put some bleach and hot water and was going to run the jets for 30 minutes. I ALSO SPRAYED SOME CLOROX BATHROOM CLEANER! Oops! It had a lot more soap than I ever thought. After about 15 minutes, I went to my bedroom and noticed soap suds coming out from underneath our bathroom door. This is what I found. It was on top of the sink, counter, toilet, AND EVERYWHERE ELSE! Yep! These are the things I do lately. I'm so glad I didn't wait 30 minutes! I watch out for everyone else. Who's going to watch out for me? Poor Aubrey. I'm always giving her heart attacks! She couldn't even find me in there when I hollered for help.  Anyway, I think the bathroom is disinfected now!!! And me too!

These are some pictures that Anson sent on Monday. They're from his birthday and he said our package got there on time.

February 22, 2014

Saturday

Last night I watched Deacon while Brianna worked. Dick and Aubrey had a father/daughter date and went to see Les Miserables so Deacon and I had a fun evening.

A fun week with our little princesses

We left Monday after school to Logan. Dad and Richie left the next day to California. Richie was going to present some Theater Workshops in LA and Dad joined Richie. They stopped in Vegas on Tuesday night and saw KA , a show by Cirque du Soleil.

Chrislynn had been having trouble with a kidney stone and on Monday had a lithotripsy to blast the stone.

I took Aubrey with me to Logan so that we could help her on Tuesday and Wednesday with the children to help her recover.

Giselle is so busy with a full time job, directing for Pillow Theater, and school. She was thinking of taking Tuesday off to help but instead Aubrey and I went to rescue them.

Tuesday was also Anson's 19th birthday in the mission field.

It was fun spending time with the little ones. 

I took them to McDonald's to eat and play. There was a moment when Grace kept getting on top of Josie. I thought she was going to pop her so I put her on time out for 5 minutes. But after this face...

and this one, she was only on time out for 2 minutes before I let her go.

Seeing the kids working on their Valentines brought back so many memories doing this with our children.

Aubrey and I took the girls shopping for a little Valentine's outfit.

It was so much fun bonding with Josie. 

Richie III's room consists of a picture of our Savior, his scriptures, tons of books, a piggy bank, building Legos, his amazing drawings, books that he's written and illustrated, and this drafting table and chair. Since he was so little, you hardly ever saw him playing with toys. He's always drawing and creating books and games. He truly is amazing! I know I thought my Richie would be famous because he was so good at writing stories but I have no doubt that this Richie will certainly be famous one of these days. Thanks for sharing your room with grandma Richie.

On Wednesday when Aubrey and I were returning to Burley, we decided to bring the girls with us. We stopped in Snowville for snacks and even little Josie chose her own little treat.

These two love each other so much and I don't think they fought even once.

The next morning, after Aubrey went to school, Aunt Brianna took all of us for breakfast in our pajamas.

Grace went to Deacon's pre school and joined his Valentine's Day party since she missed hers in Logan.

Sophie brushed my hair and fixed it really pretty using 30 or 40 rubber bands. I love it when someone plays with my hair.

I miss them so much!

When we dropped them off on Saturday, as I was leaving I noticed this little face by the window. It was a different expression than before. It was a little expression that was saying, "Thanks grandma. I had so much fun. Let's do it again." She is never away from her Momma... I think it was her first little adventure! 

Dad and Richie went whale watching on Saturday with Rob and Annie before they returned on Sunday.

Dad and Richie arrived pretty late on Sunday. We all went straight to bed. The next morning was President's Day and Richie left pretty early.