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Well, today started off with a bit of fun building things out of blocks with Kai!  He’s so creative!  After sending the boys off to work and school, I hustled off to my 8:45am chemo appointment.  Things went really smoothly and a good friend, Keri, kept me company as we chatted and watched “Surviving Christmas” – cute movie if you’re looking for something!  We went to lunch and then I came home and have been resting and surfing the net.  Today I spent a lot of time on facebook looking up old friends and writing a few messages to many I haven’t seen in over 15 years.  It has been fun to get to do that; I just know that it could consume my life if I let it!  🙂  It just sucks you in!

I am so excited about Christmas at Alliance Redwoods.  I can’t wait to hit the beach – yes the beach in December.  It’s tradition up there for us to go to the beach for a few hours with the entire family.  Salmon Creek State Beach here we come.  Bet those dunes aren’t really as big as I remember!  

Thank you for your prayers.  Please continue to pray for me as the side-effects generally are the worst the next two days.  Something I don’t think I’ve posted is that I have been having daily bloody noses (avastin side-effect) and my nails seem to be dying.  It starts with a red line or mark in the middle of my nail and then from there to the tip it begins to discolor.  They are a little painful and ugly.  I thought it was a new nail polish I had tried, but it’s just been getting worse instead of better without the polish.  More than likely it’s chemo, so I’ll be painting my nails to cover it up and make them pretty! Fatigue has really been getting worse for me.  It seems to be compounding.  I just want energy to play with Kai and go to the Christmas parties (I went to two this weekend)!

We are still making offers on houses.  One day we’ll have one of those offers accepted!  I’m ready to be done looking at all of these homes.

Thank you to those of you posting on the encouragement board and sending responses to these updates…I read every single one and it lifts my soul.  Girls from 6th grade – of course I remember you!  Thanks for the fun messages!

Much love and Christmas joy to you all,

God Bless,

Monica

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On Wednesday, I began another round of chemo.  It went well, but as so often is the case these days, I spent Friday (2 days after chemo) in bed.  It seems to be the trend these days.  I’m getting more and more tired.  

I think that I don’t do very well ‘taking it easy’.  I have found myself doing all the things that I wanted to get done before and then find that I am exhausted afterward.  I haven’t become the nutrition expert yet either. I have been eating differently and juicing fruits and veggies almost daily.   I miss pizza and chocolate, but I know that my body needs this chance.  

Today Kai and I went to the Whittier Parade.  It was so much fun watching him and his little friends enjoying the show.  They were so cute that they kept getting candy dropped in their laps.  They were on sugar highs for a while, but Christmas only comes once a year, right?

Well the house hunting continues.  We’ve made a total of six offers so far and have been the back-up offer on just about each one.  We are submitting two offers this weekend though, so we’ll let you know.  🙂   Keep your fingers crossed!

My schedule the next few weeks is this:

Monday – bloodwork

Tuesday – Chemo

Saturday – Bloodwork

Monday – Chemo and then fly out for Christmas at Alliance Redwoods – both nostalgic and very anticipated!  

Christmas – head to Fresno for the weekend.

Week of New Year’s – CT scan to see what’s going on inside

I am so thankful to be celebrating this Christmas season with my little Kai.  He is such a joy.  He has been learning about Santa and Baby Jesus.  Sometimes he says “I’m not getting any presents because I not nice.”  It’s cute, but so sad at the same time.  He’s really a good kid.  He loves Christmas decorations and lights and can’t wait for the sun to go down so the lights come on.  I can’t wait until he sees all of the presents under the tree.  A fun memory – for the first few days the stockings were out, it sounded like he was calling them “donkeys”.  

Well, that’s about it from here.  I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas season.  

Love,

Monica

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Hey Everyone,

This will be quick.  I just wanted to share the results of my bone scan.  The lesion they found on my spine on the latest CT scan is NOT malignant!  It is a benign tumor that is common in many people.  The rest of the scan was clean!  The cancer has NOT spread to my bones like we initially thought!  This is a much needed boost of hope!  Thank you for all of your prayers as we waited for these results and continued treatment.  I know God heard you!  

Love,

Monica

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