Your Prayers Please.....

Normally I like to joke and be funny, but this post is more serious.  Mom had her fifth round of chemo last Thursday and she's not doing well.  It really is finally affecting her ability to enjoy her days.  For those who know about chemo, it can cripple you.  It harms bone and nerve function.  If it gets too bad, they discontinue the chemo.  Well, Mom's there.  She is having problems with pain and with functionality of her nervous and skeletal system.  She has to decide before her visit to the doctor next Tuesday whether she will finish her last treatment.  If she does, she will be on Avistan the rest of her life; she'll be in the study and it will pay her medical expenses.  If she discontinues, her medical bills will not be covered as well.  She has to make a decision about the quality of her life.  Because of this, we are having a family/friend fast this weekend.  It will be a difficult decision.  She's received a priesthood blessing, we've put her name on the prayer rolls of the temples and now we ask, if you are able, that you join us in our fast.  This is an important decision.  Thank you.
Lora is with Mom and Dad now, so they have additional help.  Rick's the rock that's always there and we're glad.
We appreciate those of you who follow the blog and are interested in Mom's health.  You mean the world to us.  Thank you.

4th Treatment-Finally Shows Signs of Weakness

So, Mom received her next-to-last chemo treatment today and guess what?  She couldn't take the Plavex, or Plavtex or whatever the drug's called that hurts your bones.  She whined about her pain.  Gosh, Mom.  You've gone all this time without hardly a whimper and now you're telling us you can't take it?  Just because your legs are going numb in the shower and your fingers are tingling?  What's with that?  With as strong as you've been all along, I'd have to suspect you've been at the bottle again.  Either that or you aren't Superwoman as I had been suspecting all along.
If you've been following Mom's journey, you realize how totally awesome she is.  I sure hope I have her genes.  Oh, that's right, I do!  I have her genetics for wrinkles, large you-know-what's, long legs, tiny ears, small bones, propensity to gain weight around the middle, and high intelligence--stop laughing LeeAnn.
I only hope all we girls inherited her strength.  This test has been formidable and she has been astonishing.  Her attitude is better than when she was raising five teenagers at once.  Hmmm ... what does that say about her children if she's happier fighting cancer than she was raising us?  I'll choose to ignore that last thought.
Mom said her hair is growing back.  We'll see if it stays through these last two rounds of chemo.  Now's your last chance to see her bald if you want to.  I want to because I want to draw those cartoons on her head and haven't gotten to.  No one has.  What's with that people?  Get out those markers.  Let's give her some last hurrahs as she finishes fighting this demon!  (I am speaking of cancer as the demon, not those of us who would choose to decorate her head with lovely graffiti.)
Until next week, keep your panties out of a bind!

Mom just became an assignment!

It's been a long time since I last posted hasn't it?  Mom's had her surgery, had her fourth round of chemo and survived even worse-Georgia went to her house to help.  All that since the last post.  She's a very busy woman!  Get this, in her surgery they only found four little cancers the size of rice.  (I'm thinking it was actually Minnesota Wild Rice that wasn't cooked thoroughly, but then you must remember that I'm not a surgeon.)
Georgia's visit was eventful to say the least.  She made Dad clean up his paperwork that was laying around everywhere holding his dust collection.  But the funniest event ever can only be achieved by Georgia.  You see when you go to Mom and Dad's house there is no bathroom downstairs where you sleep.  When I went I would have to go upstairs in the dark in the middle of the night to use the facilities located in the hallway.  They do have two bathrooms.  One is a common bathroom-which I used; the other is the Master Bathroom.  To get to the Master Bathroom (Dad's private throne) you have to go through his bedroom.  Mom, being the loud snorer she is now occupies her own bedroom and gets to use the common bathroom (it's larger and has a tub and magazine rack for her trash mags).  When Georgia came, the common bathroom was being remodeled.  So, since Dad didn't want disturbed in the middle of the night, he gave her a large bucket in which to do her business when he was sleeping.  After one night of this, Georgia let Dad know that if she was going to have to use that bucket, he was going to have to carry it upstairs and empty it.  That's all it took to get Dad to put in a toilet next to the laundry room sink and block it off.  Here I spent all my leftover energy climbing stairs after those long, hard, busy days tending to Mom, but Georgia gets the queen bee treatment!  Moral of the story---don't be nice and you'll get treated like royalty!
Georgia stayed with them for 6-7 weeks and they still have their wits about them.  Actually I imagine it's fairly quiet now.  Georgia was a great help and left to rescue Sumerae after the birth of her 4th child.
Mom had a more difficult time after the fourth round of chemo.  It's getting to her bones and she is more tired and achey.  Her sense of humor is still there though.
She has now become my weekly assignment.  I'm taking a business communication class at BYU and we have to create and maintain a blog.  It has to be extremely professional-NOT.  It just has to be a blog.  I get to be as sarcastic and mean-spirited as ever.  Feel free to add your own annoying comments-Mom loves them.  I will have to post a video.  Still trying to figure out how I'll do that since I have to make the video.  Any hints would be appreciated.
So, set back, relax and become part of my grade.  If Brother Murdock were to meet Mom and she could tell stories on me, I'd fail for sure so we'll keep her contact information under wraps!
Til next time----

No Cats, but a light in her behalf is coming!

Ok, so Mom had the CAT scan.  They didn't find any cats.  (I could have told them that, she has this cute little dog that can chase them away.)  They did however find very little cancer so she is now going to have surgery on the 20th of March so the Doctor can remove what they did see.  Georgia is flying in to take care of her during this process.  It's her turn to sit and eat bonbons!  Anyway, in Mom's behalf her granddaughter Nicole is running the American Cancer Institute Relay for Life. If you go to this link, you can view information and donate to Nicole's relay to raise money to fight cancer in Mom's behalf.   https://secure3.convio.net/tacs/site/Donation2?idb=1425141832&df_id=1009554&FR_ID=43052&PROXY_ID=26320195&PROXY_TYPE=20&1009554.donation=form1 
Outside of this, not much new is happening.  Mom's gotten some new Muslim head wear.  Nice of her to join their throngs.
Til next time-----

It's 8:41 am in Utah which means it's 10:41 am in Ohio.  I'm calling Mom to get an update on her life.  She's so busy I get her answering machine.  So, I call Dad's cell phone.  She was in the living room and couldn't even hear her phone ringing in her room-tells you she really is old.  Dad heard it, but it took him too long to get to it so the answering machine came on.  Their house is about 900 sf, so that tells you how old Dad is because he couldn't walk that distance in 5 minutes.  That, plus he couldn't tell whose phone it was because the old are a little deranged.
Mom's doing well.  She is trying to put on weight for the first time in her life.  She weighs her ideal weight, but since she goes into surgery the 20th of this month, the doctor says she has to put on weight because surgery will take it off and that will put her in an anorexic condition if she doesn't gain any now.  Lucky Mom!  She's working with a dietitian to put it on.
Her next adventure is a CAT scan scheduled for the 6th.  I don't know why they're scanning her for cats, but whatever.  In order to find the cats they have to make her drink some awful stuff.  Mom says it's crap but I thought crap came in the solid form so she couldn't really drink crap unless it's diarrhea.  I don't understand what drinking crap has to do with scanning for cats but then I'm not a doctor.
Like I said, her surgery is on the 20th of this month.  Two weeks after surgery they take her staples out and two weeks after that she gets her next chemo.  Who says life for the elderly isn't full of adventure?
So....Mom and Dad are having the adventure of their lives.  They're in really good spirits and taking the attitude of enjoying the journey.  They've even gotten their doctor to open up with a sense of humor.  If you remember, back when Mom went to find out all about the chemo experience; Rick, David, Lora, Mom, Dad, Rick's sister-in-law Brenda and I showed up at the doctor's office to find out what was going on.  Apparently most families don't do that.  When Mom went in to talk to the doctor about her surgery, he asked her if he was going to have to book a theater for her surgery so all her family could fit!  :)  Way to go fam.....

Surgery's Next-what will they find?

Ok, so life's just been puttering along fairly uneventful.  After Mom took those drugs for her white blood count it jetted up to 8000 and she was able to get her third treatment of chemotherapy.  She's recovering. Her legs ached a little after the shot for the white blood cells, but Dad massaged them for her.  None of us girls could come take care of her because we all have colds or flu bugs and even though we've taken care of Mom, will she let us come so she can do her motherly duties and care for her sick children?  No, she's all worried about herself.  Go figure.  Anyway, she has surgery on the 20th of March.  A week before that she gets oral surgery to have a tooth removed.  She's having so much fun.  I thought I'd bone up on the game "Operation" just in case the doctor needs me to assist in surgery.  I'm actually curious as to what constitutes her inside.  It's tough as steel apparently because she's fought this chemo harder than anyone I've ever heard.  But, she's rotten too, so I'm wondering what kind of rotten junk she has in there.  Who knows?  It's gonna be interesting.  The doctor probably won't want me to assist cuz I needed smelling salts the one time I went into the emergency room with Sumerae (my niece) when she cut her head on a dresser jumping from the top bunk bed.  For some reason I figure they'll want to have all their attention on Mom.  Kind of like "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha"---remember when she got all the attention?  Now it's my mom.  I can't wait until this is all over and everyone can pay attention to me.  :)
Mom is really grateful for all your prayers.  She believes that's what's healing her.  Please continue because our entire family thinks so too.  You've all been so generous and thoughtful.  Thanks.

My Mom's a Zero

Ok, so it's been awhile.  Mom's been doing pretty well since her second round of chemo.  She's just been a little tired.  I actually think that's her excuse for not doing anything. 

Mom had her weekly blood draw on Tuesday and today her results came back.  She has zero white blood cells. (Probably hasn't contributed to the energy thing-but whose fault is it she has a zero white blood count huh?  She's the one making--or not making the white blood cells)

We shouldn't really be surprised, after all what's one more low thing in her life?  Most of her life she's had low blood pressure, low patience, low tolerance for fighting children.... need I say more? 

Now Mom has to get shots of antibiotics (drugs) that will do for her what she won't do for herself-create white blood cells.

All kidding aside, please keep Mom in your prayers.  She has to get her white blood count over 500 in order to get her next round of chemo on Thursday.   Mom shouldn't have other people around until her count is up.  So, feel free to check in with her on the phone.

Thanks y'all.