The Holidays were a blur. Planning, feeding, sleeping 40 (39 forgot to subtract Jessica) people for over a week is crazy. We ate out a bit. They were wonderful times and didn't give me any time to worry about me. But after Jon's farewell on Sunday December 28 until December 31 I was pretty sad. Hard to let your baby go let alone two of them. Kind of a triple whammy. Send off two missionaries, become empty nesters and find out you have cancer all in the same month. I guess I can be little sad now and then. Yesterday morning when Jack and I were saying prayer. He turned to me and said, so it is just the two of us, of course I started crying. Then he said it will be okay that is the way we started out, just the two of us. Gotta love that guy.
For Christmas, my Jamie, my daughter-in-law Jamie and I gave our guys tickets to the Sugar Bowl. So we packed up and the six of headed to the Sugar Bowl for the weekend. A last hurrah for Jack and I. Go Utes!! It was amazing to be there at such a great game. The Ute fans hardly sat down the whole game. It was awesome.
So on to the saga of my life: I didn't lose any weight (one of the symptoms of the cancer) and then I found out that one of the drugs they are going to give me causes weight gain. UGH! This has been a standard conversation with Heavenly Father. I just don't get why we have to worry about weight and the guys can take it off by just thinking about it. I think we should have got a better deal, like instant flat bellies, no dieting, I don't mind being curvy but seriously why not make it a little easier for the person who is bearing, nurturing, nursing, chauffeuring, teaching etc. etc. trying to raise stripling warriors of righteousness. Just kidding (kind of)!
Funny story, I thought I was getting my port in yesterday. I missed the appointment because when I was going to do chemo in December they set it up at 3:00 pm on Dec 15, but when I rescheduled it for January it was set up for 9:00 am. I thought it was strange I hadn’t heard from them (the Doctor’s office) because I was pretty sure some type of surgery was involved. So I got the card out to call at 11:00 am to see if I needed someone to drive me to the appointment and pick me up. As I looked at the card I realized I had totally missed my appointment. I called and they told me that they could see me on Thursday. I informed them that my chemo started on Thursday. They said that it wouldn’t work. I asked if there was someone else they would recommend as I was starting my chemo on Thursday. She huffed and puffed and finally said that I would need to be there at 2:00 pm sharp. When asked about driving myself she said it wouldn’t be a problem because it was a consultation. Dr. Todd came in and told me a little bit about the procedure and said so you are having surgery tomorrow and I said sure. Anyway, everyone acted like it wasn’t a big deal so I just thought in and out surgery, local anesthetics and bing, bang, boom I would be done. I called the nurse back to ask her how long the surgery would take and she told me 30 minutes, so I told Jamie that we shouldn’t be too long if the surgery was only 30 minutes. Well 4 hours later I am at home. In my room while waiting for surgery the nurse was asking me tons of questions, what pills I was taking, surgeries, any other diseases beside lymphoma (isn’t that enough?) and finally after all that she asked if I was Diabetic I said not yet. We all had a good laugh on that one. Right after my surgery the nurse said if I had any pain to let her know and she could give me some morphine pain medicine. A bit latter I said that maybe I would like some pain medication she said rate your pain on a scale from 1 to 10, I so wanted to say 8, say 8 but I said it was only a 3. Then I asked her if she knew about Brian Regan the comedian and his comedy act about the hospital (she didn’t). We have some of his comic acts on dvd if you haven’t heard him he is a riot. It was pretty funny.
The port is in, I survived, it isn’t to bad feels like a muscle that needs a good massage. I am happy to have that behind me and realize that my Savior is standing right beside to help me get through all this. I honestly don’t know how anyone gets through these things without knowing their Savior. I take great comfort in knowing that is what my sweet little missionaries are doing, helping people to know they have a living Savior, Jesus Christ and a Heavenly Father and Mother who love them and are beside them carrying them when the times are tough. Looking forward to Jack giving me a priesthood blessing Wednesday night. Not looking forward to the chemo so much.
I love you all so much. It is truly a blessing to have so many family and friends looking out for me, the power of prayer is so real. I know that is why I am staying positive (most of the time) because of your love and support. I will be strong and I will get through this with flying colors (maybe a little faded) with all of your help, concern, emails, notes of love and support. Truly I am humbled and so thankful for all of you. I see the Lord’s hand in my life every day and thank him for all my many, many blessings.
I love you!
For Christmas, my Jamie, my daughter-in-law Jamie and I gave our guys tickets to the Sugar Bowl. So we packed up and the six of headed to the Sugar Bowl for the weekend. A last hurrah for Jack and I. Go Utes!! It was amazing to be there at such a great game. The Ute fans hardly sat down the whole game. It was awesome.
So on to the saga of my life: I didn't lose any weight (one of the symptoms of the cancer) and then I found out that one of the drugs they are going to give me causes weight gain. UGH! This has been a standard conversation with Heavenly Father. I just don't get why we have to worry about weight and the guys can take it off by just thinking about it. I think we should have got a better deal, like instant flat bellies, no dieting, I don't mind being curvy but seriously why not make it a little easier for the person who is bearing, nurturing, nursing, chauffeuring, teaching etc. etc. trying to raise stripling warriors of righteousness. Just kidding (kind of)!
Funny story, I thought I was getting my port in yesterday. I missed the appointment because when I was going to do chemo in December they set it up at 3:00 pm on Dec 15, but when I rescheduled it for January it was set up for 9:00 am. I thought it was strange I hadn’t heard from them (the Doctor’s office) because I was pretty sure some type of surgery was involved. So I got the card out to call at 11:00 am to see if I needed someone to drive me to the appointment and pick me up. As I looked at the card I realized I had totally missed my appointment. I called and they told me that they could see me on Thursday. I informed them that my chemo started on Thursday. They said that it wouldn’t work. I asked if there was someone else they would recommend as I was starting my chemo on Thursday. She huffed and puffed and finally said that I would need to be there at 2:00 pm sharp. When asked about driving myself she said it wouldn’t be a problem because it was a consultation. Dr. Todd came in and told me a little bit about the procedure and said so you are having surgery tomorrow and I said sure. Anyway, everyone acted like it wasn’t a big deal so I just thought in and out surgery, local anesthetics and bing, bang, boom I would be done. I called the nurse back to ask her how long the surgery would take and she told me 30 minutes, so I told Jamie that we shouldn’t be too long if the surgery was only 30 minutes. Well 4 hours later I am at home. In my room while waiting for surgery the nurse was asking me tons of questions, what pills I was taking, surgeries, any other diseases beside lymphoma (isn’t that enough?) and finally after all that she asked if I was Diabetic I said not yet. We all had a good laugh on that one. Right after my surgery the nurse said if I had any pain to let her know and she could give me some morphine pain medicine. A bit latter I said that maybe I would like some pain medication she said rate your pain on a scale from 1 to 10, I so wanted to say 8, say 8 but I said it was only a 3. Then I asked her if she knew about Brian Regan the comedian and his comedy act about the hospital (she didn’t). We have some of his comic acts on dvd if you haven’t heard him he is a riot. It was pretty funny.
The port is in, I survived, it isn’t to bad feels like a muscle that needs a good massage. I am happy to have that behind me and realize that my Savior is standing right beside to help me get through all this. I honestly don’t know how anyone gets through these things without knowing their Savior. I take great comfort in knowing that is what my sweet little missionaries are doing, helping people to know they have a living Savior, Jesus Christ and a Heavenly Father and Mother who love them and are beside them carrying them when the times are tough. Looking forward to Jack giving me a priesthood blessing Wednesday night. Not looking forward to the chemo so much.
I love you all so much. It is truly a blessing to have so many family and friends looking out for me, the power of prayer is so real. I know that is why I am staying positive (most of the time) because of your love and support. I will be strong and I will get through this with flying colors (maybe a little faded) with all of your help, concern, emails, notes of love and support. Truly I am humbled and so thankful for all of you. I see the Lord’s hand in my life every day and thank him for all my many, many blessings.
I love you!
