Round 2 of Chapter 4

Wednesday April 13

Another day at Chemo.  At least this time we are refreshed after a fun vacation to Arizona.  Cody did pretty good after his first round the only thing we noticed was that he had quit a bit of fatigue. His tumor count this time went down a little its now at 8.3.  So .4 down we will take that.  As long as its not going up we will be happy. 

Cody really has been a trooper.  He hates his picture taken and he just puts up with his wife.  Since I have to take one every time we are there.  As you can see he still has his sense of humor.

But I was persistent and made him keep taking one until he gave me a good one.

This is our good friend Jim.  He is a character gives every one a hard time.  Today Cody and Jim ganged up on the poor nurses.  Jim has been gone for several months.  We would see him every once in a while when he would come in for follow up appointments.  Today was a little different.  Jim started out with Pancreatic Cancer which they felt like they had caught really early.  In January Jim was given a clean bill of health Cancer free.  Six weeks later he came in for his follow up blood work which at that time was hit again saying something must be wrong cause his tumor count was coming back in the high 400's.  What a set back this must be when you were told only 6 weeks prior that you were cancer free.  He said he felt like things were going fast and he didn't know what to think about all this.  This time when we saw Jim his tumor count was in the 1100 range.  He's had a Pet scan and it showed that he now has cancer in his Liver.  So back to chemo again for him.  We were so devastated for him, but on the same hand now we have our Chemo Friend back to play with.  You never want to see this kind of a set back especially to someone who you really care about.  We look forward to helping him through this next journey of his.  The only words that come to my mind every time I see him now is CANCER SUCKS!!!!!!

Arizona Spring Break

April 6-12

So this year for Spring Break we decided to get away somewhere warm.  We thought since we haven't seen my brother and his family for at least 4 years we would head down to Chandler Arizona.  My parents went with us and we stayed at one of their time share resorts.  The weather could not have been any better.  It was in the high 70's low 80's.  It felt so nice to sit by the pool.  This vacation was a much needed by everyone. 

They had this slide at the pool area that the kids loved and I believe they spent most of the time at.

They also enjoyed the pool.  They made up many games and Tenlie would pull Stetson all around the pool. 

The resort had many activities for kids going on.  One of the contests was a Watermelon one.  Tenlie participated in this one.  It was kind of fun watching to see how she was going to eat with no front teeth.  Good thing Watermelon is soft.

The next game they had for the kids was a dive for golf balls.  They split the kids up into 2 teams.  Tenlies team one every time.

The next activity was a a cannon ball contest.  Tenlie won the most creative one. 

The final activity of the week was a water balloon toss.  I was helping the kids with this one and we were not a very good team. 

The best part of the trip was seeing my brother Ryan and his family.  I have not see them for at least 4 years.  My niece Heather has had a darling little girl since then and the kids were so excited to meet her. 

We really enjoyed relaxing and and just hanging out next to the pool.  It was kind of nice just hanging out as a family and not having any where to go.

Ballet of Peter Pan

Thursday March 31

This Weekend Tenlies dance group put on the production of Peter Pan.  They did such a great job with it.  Our little ones were Tinkerbell's friends.  Tenlie just loves Tinkerbell so when she found out she was going to be performing with her she was very excited. 

The back drops they had for this production were amazing. 

Once again grandma and grandpa didn't let her down.  Flowers they brought with a little encouragement from her brother.  Stetson went in and told grandpa before he left to make sure his sister gets flowers. 

This picture didn't turn out so good.  Stetson had been playing with my camera and changed the setting before I noticed.  This little girl that played tinkerbell was extremely talented. 

I'm so proud of Tenlie and how far she has come with her dancing.  She just shines up on that stage.  You can always tell she is having the time of her life. 

Round 1 of Chapter 4

Wednesday March 30

So we have choose to move forward on chemo again.  He is now off the maintenance program and starts a new regiment today.  The new drug is called Irinotecan.  The side affect to this drug is a lot of fatique, Severe diarrhea, decreased white blood cell count with increased risk of infection.  We have felt really good about things this past week so I believe we have made the right choice.  His Tumor count starting this treatment was at 8.7 so I feel we have still time to get it under control again considering when we found out about his cancer he was over 200.

Back to movies again considering we are back to the 5-6hr treatments.

Radiation

Tuesday March 29

Today we went up to LDS Hospital to meet with Dr. Watsin.  He is the radiologist who does the biospheres into the liver.  What is a biosphere? Its a radiation treatment that they do from the inside.  They go in from the groin area and inject the tumors in the liver with little glass beads of radiation.  This is the only way to do radiation to the liver.  If they were to do radiation from the outside it would kill off the healthy Liver before the cancer cells. 

After talking to Dr. Watsin he felt the same way we did.  After seeing that the colon was clean at this point and Cody has been handling chemo so well we should keep going forward with the chemo and hold radiation in our back pocket.  Cody still had a concern about the spot on his pelvic bone so he asked if he could have radiation on it. They got him prepped and we zapped that little spot.  Dr. Watsin felt like he would only need on zap to take care of it.  So here he goes and eliminated one more spot.

This is the radiation machine that they put you under and it rotates around you in the area you are targeting.  

Colonoscopy

Monday March 28

Well today Cody had a Colonoscopy.  This is were the cancer all began and Cody was a little nervous on what they would see.  We asked how long this procedure should take and they told us about 20 minutes from the time they take him back.  They came and got him and 20 minutes have passed by then 30 minutes then 40 and I started to get a little nervous.  I finally found someone at the hour mark.  They told me that the Dr. was just taking his time and making sure what he was seeing was right.  When the Dr. got in and was looking around he could see no signs of a cancer tumor anywhere.  There were 4 very large palups that he went a head and removed, but could not see any signs of the original tumor.  When they brought Cody back out the Dr. came out to confirm what the nurses had already told me.  Cody was cancer free in his Colon as of right now.  What a relief to hear those words.  Even though we knew he still had it in his Liver and pelvic bone we could eliminate the colon and rule out surgery.

Stetsons turning 4

Saturday March 26

Today my baby is turning 4!! I'm so sad my little guy is growing up.  He is such a great boy and so full of ENERGY!  Our lives are very entertaining with him around. 

The birthday fairy came for another visit.  This tradition has been such a fun one that our kids look forward to every year.

Stetson loves to be just like his older sister.  He too choose to go to kangaroo zoo for his birthday.  We had lots of fun.

This time we were able to get Dad to join us in the fun.  The kids have so much fun playing with their daddy.

That night Stetson choose to to eat at Texas Road House.  His reason was he just wanted t sit on the saddle.  So he pulled out his Cowboy attire and away we went.

The saddle was sitting right next to our table and there was a lot of birthdays that night.  Every time they came to get it he was worried they weren't going to bring it back so he could sit on it.  I've never seen a kid so excited to sit on a saddle before. 

You can see the excitement in his face.  This was worth it all.

then back home for some cake and ice cream.

Present time!!!

Round 8 of Chapter 3

Wednesday March  23

Today we met with Dr. Rich to go over the results from the Pet Scan. Good news is that the cancer has not spread to any other organ that we had not already knew about.  Bad news was that it was showing activity again in his Colon, Liver and a spot on his Pelvic Bone.  Cody and I had been praying about what our next move should be if it came down to it.  We both felt really strong that we needed to precede with the Chemotherapy.  There is another drug that we could add to his regiment right now.  After talking with Dr. Rich he felt the same way, but thought we should hold off treatment today until we knew more about what is going on and what all our options are.  He felt like we should have the Colonoscopy first, meet with the Radiologist that does the biospheres radiation on liver.  If after the Colonoscopy it showed we should do surgery then we would have to wait 4 weeks before surgery after the last round of chemo.  So if we held of today then we would only have to wait 2 more weeks.    We decided it was probley smart to hold treatment and find out exactly what was going on. 

Tenlies turning 6

Friday March 18

Well 6 years ago today our family grew with this wonderful addition.  Tenlie has been such a fun part of our lives.  She has such a big heart and always thinking of others.  This year we told her it was a family party and she was so good with it.  We told the kids they could go anywhere they wanted fun and then to their favorite restaurant.  She thought about it for awhile and responded with "I know how about Disneyland." we started laughing and told her nice try, but it has to be somewhere around here.  So she chose kangaroo zoo.

Birthdays have always been big around our house.  The Birthday fairy always comes for a visit and decorates their bed room doors and leaves Balloons around the house.  The kids get so excited for it.

Then after lunch we headed of to Kangaroo Zoo.  We let her invite her Cousin Katelyn to go with us.  They have so much fun when they get together.

They were running, jumping,and having a good old time.  They would come by every once in a while just to grab a drink.

Then back to the house to pick up dad,Grandma and Grandpa.  While we were there we let her open her presents since she was dyeing to do so.

Her place of choosing was Brickoven.  She loves that place.  I believe she really just likes the balloons.  She is really big into butterfly's so her first pick was a butterfly.  Then later they came by again and asked her if she would like a princess since it was her birthday.  So she got Belle.  This one was incredible I couldn't believe how good it was.

After wards we headed back home to have cake and ice cream.  she has always been our little tinkerbell so her dad had to get her this cake.

We had such a great time as a family and Tenlie brings such joy to us.  Its hard to believe she is 6.  These years have flown by so fast.  We are so proud of our little girl.

Pet Scan

Wednesday March 16

So today we were back in for another Pet scan.  Its kind of nerve racking waiting to find out where the cancer is active again.  Lucky for us they read the Pet scans on Wed. afternoons so we will have answers today. 

Here is Cody in this little room and I mean little. I was standing right next to the wall on one side trying to take this picture .  He was not looking forward to the treatment.

Here they are injecting him with the radioactive chemical that lights up all cancer.

This is the Titanium canister that they have to use around the shot of radioactive fluid they give him.  This thing is solid and quit heavy.  After they get done injecting him away he goes into a dark room all by himself for an hour and a half.