Archive for January, 2008

January 25th 2008

A Quick but Important Post

There is one thing that is weighing heavily one our minds having nothing to do with cancer or Kai, and we need your prayers and help!

We own a house in Fresno and were blessed with amazing renters for the past 3 1/2 years.  One of them bought a house (much celebration for her), and they are all moving at the end of January.  Being so far away, this makes it extremely hard to get the word out and find good renters.  If anyone in Fresno may know someone needing/wanting to rent a house, please let us know. 

It is a 3 bed/2 bath house at 4577 N. Lorna.   It is near Shaw and Marks.  The neighbors are great, and both have a few kids.  It is a pretty quiet street, and the dual pane windows we had installed really keep out the noise and the weather!  😉  We are asking $995, which would include water, trash and pest control.  If a gardner is desired, it’s $55/month. 

We’ll be coming up to Fresno soon to take care of a few details on the house, but would love to hear from anyone with a good lead.  We check the site mulitple times daily, so you can post a comment below, respond to this email (if you signed up to get it in email), or post on the encouragement board.

If you want to move to Fresno next month, let us know that, too!  😉 

It’s just one more thing to take care of!  Thanks!

2 Comments »

January 23rd 2008

Feeling Yucky

I just wanted to let you know what has been happening.

First of all, Sol’s band didn’t make it to the next round of the radio contest, but it was fun while it lasted. The thing that frustrates them is that the bands that made it weren’t the “best” ones. I’m sure he’ll write more about it soon.

Secondly, I just had one of the worst nights of my life. I spent most of night violently vomiting. I must have thrown up 20 times. It just wouldn’t stop. I tried taking the anti-nausea pill, but couldn’t keep it down. So in the morning we called the doctor, and he prescribed a different form of medicine (if you catch my drift). Anyway, it worked, and I stopped throwing up. The drugs knocked me out, and it was really welcomed after three days of not sleeping well. I am scared to eat anything, but am starting to feel a little hungry, which is good, I guess. I didn’t go to work yesterday and will not be going in today either. Hopefully, by tomorrow, I will be feeling much better.

Thirdly, Kai and Daddy are at the doctor’s office. When we picked Kai up from daycare yesterday, his right eye was swollen, red and full of goop. He woke up yesterday at 5:00 and didn’t eat much of anything yesterday either, so after calling the doctor last night, we decided to take him in today. I’m sitting here waiting for Daddy to call as I type this.
Today I have an appointment with the plastic surgeon to discuss options for reconstruction. I am really nervous about even talking about it. It means that it is actually going to be happening. Anyway, I’m going to go rest and wait for news.

3 Comments »

January 17th 2008

Chemo#5 Update

Well, 5 down, only 1 to go.  Nothing exciting…which is what we want! (They got a vein the first time!)  🙂  A new friend, Sandy, went with me, and we watched “Short Circuit”.  It made the time pass quickly and was very nostalgic.  (Thanks for the movie, Karen) 

I am praying that the next few days are just as uneventful. 

So as for now, I am feeling pretty well, glad that there is only one left.  February 7th is my last one. 

I do have a few appointments coming up. 

Wednesday, January 25th – consult with plastic surgeon about reconstruction

Monday, February 4th – genetic testing consult

Wednesday, February 6th – bloodwork

Thursday, February 7th -Doctor’s appointment and LAST CHEMO!!!

That’s all that’s set up for now, but I need to make a few more appointments (general surgeon and surgery).  I also have a few decisions to make regarding surgery and reconstruction options…but I don’t have all the information that I need, yet to make those decisions.

Thanks for all of your prayers, as I am feeling pretty good right now.

Love to you,

Monica

1 Comment »

January 9th 2008

Feeling Better

Sorry it’s taken me a while to update you all on how I’m feeling.  I wanted Sol’s band to have some air time and get tons of votes.  So if you haven’t voted yet, do it now!  🙂 

I’m physically feeling a lot better.  This last chemo really had me down for about a week.  My symptoms kept me close to the restroom.  Oralia, Sol’s mom, was here for about 6 days and took Kai on many long walks and got up with him many times in the middle of the night.  I know Sol and I both really appreciated having her here.  School resumed on Monday, so it’s back to the grind.  It has actually been a great few days at work.  Praise! 

So physically I’m doing fine, but emotionally it is really hitting me.  I spent most of Friday in tears.  I have spent the last three months just doing what needed to be done, but never really took the time to think about what was happening.  It finally hit me that I have cancer.  I started thinking about everything that I’ve been through and continued grieving the loss of my baby.   I am having a really difficult time letting go and not feeling guilty.  I know that it was the right decision for saving my life and being here for the family I have, but it is so hard.  The road ahead scares me as well.  Two more chemos, surgery, radiation, reconstructive surgery…it all freaks me out a bit.  My mind is on overload and the road ahead is long. 

Please pray for my mind and heart.  I don’t know how I’m going to walk into that doctor’s office on Monday.  It’s going to take strength beyond what I have right now.   My schedule for next week is Monday – doctor’s appointment at 4:00, Wednesday – bloodwork, Thursday – Chemo at 8:45, and Friday – Neulasta shot at 2:00.  It makes me ill just thinking about next week.

Thanks for your prayers and support and for just listening to my ramblings.  It means a lot having all of you out there – just a click away. 

God Bless you all – Monica

5 Comments »

January 3rd 2008

We’re On to Round 2 of the Radio Contest!

Star 98.7 Rock Star Contest
Thanks to everyone who voted in Round 1 of the Star 98.7 Rock Star radio contest! Because of you and your votes, we have moved up to Round 2 out of 175 bands that were eligible at entry. It’s down to only 25 bands now.

This is great news, but now we really need to kick it up a notch. The band with the most votes in Round 2 will compete with 4 other bands picked by the judges for the grand prize. The winner gets a record deal with Dave Matthews’ label ATO Records, $25,000, and a West Coast tour.

The voting process is exactly the same as it was before. The main catch is: you have to “confirm” your vote by opening your email and clicking on a link in a response email that the radio station sends you. Your vote doesn’ t count unless you click on the link in the response email!

Anyways, here’ s the link to the radio station contest:
http://www.star987.com/pages/rockstar2/vote2008.html

We are the 10th band from the top of the page.

Again, all your support is greatly appreciated. Please do what you can to get the word out to anyone you know who might be vaguely interested in helping out. And if you have more than one email address, or if your household has more than one email address, be sure to vote with all of them. Each valid email address gets counted as a vote. Thanks so much!

INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO VOTE AGAIN:
After you confirm the response email, the web page with the poll to vote will no longer contain the poll “circles” to make another selection; even if someone else besides you voted on that computer! In order to vote again, you either have to use a different computer, use a different browser like Firefox, or clear your “cookie” files.I’ve tested the process of clearing your “cookie” files and I know it works. It’s a good house cleaning thing to do on your computer anyways, so if you want to know how to do it here are the instructions:

How to manually delete cookie files in Internet Explorer 7

1. Exit Internet Explorer 7, and then exit any instances of Windows Explorer.
2. Click Start, click Run, type inetcpl.cpl, and then press ENTER.
3. On the General tab, click Delete under Browsing History in the Internet Properties dialog box.
4. In the Delete Browsing History dialog box, click Delete Cookies.
5. In the Delete Cookies dialog box, click Yes.

How to manually delete cookie files in Internet Explorer 6

1. Exit Internet Explorer 6, and then exit any instances of Windows Explorer.
2. Click Start, click Run, type inetcpl.cpl, and then press ENTER.
3. On the General tab, click Delete Cookies in the Internet Properties dialog box, under Temporary Internet Files.
4. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the Delete all offline content check box, and then click OK.

3 Comments »