Mom Cancer Update

I thought I would do an update on my mom.  So she had a mastectomy on Tuesday and as far as the surgery part it went really well.  She had to be at the hospital at 8:00 in the morning and they injected dye into her breast to help determine if the cancer had spread.  Then she and my dad waited until almost 2:00 when they were finally ready to take her back to surgery.  The surgery went good but was long and she didn't get out of surgery until about 6:00 that night.  So it was a super long day for her.


I think I mentioned in my last post that we were hoping the cancer had not spread and that she could just do hormone therapy instead of chemo.  Well the bad part is that they did found cancer in her lymph nodes.  Not good.  They removed three and tested them while she was in surgery and found the cancer so they then removed 22 additional lymph nodes to test and see if the cancer had spread even farther. 


My mom's surgeon pretty much sucked and was not very supportive to my mom or optimistic about the test results.  My poor mom.  Here she had just undergone massive surgery and then told that things were even worse than the doctor had originally thought.  They told my mom to plan on six months of chemo, radiation and then hormone therapy.  My poor mom was devastated by the bad news.


Luckily she got to go home Wednesday afternoon and my dad had all of Wednesday off and could stay with her.  My younger sister, Brittany took off Thursday and today so she has had someone with her every day.  She is definitely a trooper and is doing better than expected but she has been really discouraged.


So she got a call this morning with her test results and out of the 22 lymph nodes that were removed and tested only three came back with cancer cells.  The doctor said that was a great prognosis and that her chances to beat this are really good.  It may have spread a little but with chemo and radiation they should be able to get rid of all the cancer.  So she is at a Stage 2 cancer and will start chemo treatments in four weeks after she has recovered from the surgery.


It still sucks that she will have to go through cancer treatment but she is feeling so much better knowing that the cancer has not spread through her body.  When she called to tell me the news she was just crying because she was so relieved and happy.  Even though the situation is not great it could be so much worse and we are all just grateful for the situation that we have.  It is so much better to know what you are actually up against and have a game plan.  I will keep updating on my blog about her cancer when we know more.

My Mom Has Cancer

My mom has cancer.  Even to type the title of this post seems so surreal.  She was diagnosed three weeks ago and it still doesn't seem like it could be real.  It's breast cancer and she is going in tomorrow for surgery.  Once she has her surgery the doctors will know what stage her cancer is and whats next.  So for three weeks its just been a waiting game and we are all so on edge.

When the doctor first told her he wanted to do a biopsy and test her for cancer he told her not to worry.  He said that he didn't think it was cancer and that 70% of people that have a mass like hers don't have cancer.  Then she finds out that she has two masses and both are cancer and one has broken out of the cell wall and is invasive.  We are just hoping it has not spread to her lymph nodes.

I'm just in shock.  And sick.  And panicked.  And really just about every emotion in between.  It's like, how do you be strong for someone else when you can't even be strong for yourself?  My mom and I were talking on the phone this morning and she starts telling me that she put tags on all the Christmas presents and these presents are in this closet and birthday presents are in this closet and if she isn't here for Christmas please distribute the gifts.  And in my head I know that is crazy talk but its hard to not go there sometimes.  And of course I got mad at her and told her to stay positive but I think she's having a hard time not going there too.

It will be better once we actually know what stage her cancer is and what is next.  Then we will know for sure and our minds can stop going to the worst possible scenario.  It's still scary though.  Cancer is scary, surgery is scary, the unknown is just scary.

Nathan's Birthday

There was a lot of hype leading up to Nathan's 3rd birthday.  I'm pretty sure hes been talking about it since his birthday last year so when his birthday actually rolled around he was in heaven.  Nathan's birthday landed on a Thursday and I had to work so he spent the morning with my mom and the afternoon with Matt's mom.  Then we went to Cafe Rio for dinner (his choice) and then let him open his presents from Matt and I.  It was kind of fun to just have a small family party on his actual birthday and Nathan loved it.

To infinity and beyond!

Fire and Rescue (Fireman's Rescue as Nathan calls it)

 

His favorite present was the ninja turtle

We had Nathan's birthday party that following Saturday and our families came again to celebrate with us.  Originally Nathan wanted a Dusty Crophopper party, then it was Ninja Turtles and a week before the party he insisted that it needed to be a Cars party.  Lucky for me because I had saved all the decorations from his cars party two years ago and so I just pulled everything back out.  Matt and I wanted to make the cake and found a tutorial for an awesome cars cake and everything just came together.

My handsome little three year old with his presents

Trying on his Fireman's Rescue shirt

Celebrating Nathan's birthday was so fun because he was so excited about it.  It was all he could talk about and just loved having everyone come over and celebrate with him.  He sang Happy Birthday to himself and blew out the candle all by himself.  Nathan was all smiles all day and I'm glad he had so much fun at his party.  Here's to another year with you kiddo, I love you more every day!

Halloween

Oh Halloween, it is one of my most favorite times of the year.  This year was especially fun because Nathan was so excited about it.  He started talking about what he wanted to dress up as, um probably about six months ago.  It has ranged from Lightning McQueen (so glad he dropped that) to a Ninja Turtle to Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  I was thrilled when he settled on Woody though, he looked so cute all dressed up.  Nathan was pretty upset that we didn't dress Logan up as Buzz Lightyear but he made a darling Tigger none the less.  

I took the kids to Fotofly's Halloween costume pictures and loved the way they turned out.  They aren't perfect and it was pretty painful to get what we got but I love having some decent pictures of the kids in their costumes.  

 I had originally planned on taking Halloween off of work but decided not to when Nathan's daycare planned a Halloween party.  Nathan had a blast!  They let the kids wear their costumes all day and do Halloween crafts, have treats and go trick or treating.  It was darling, I just love having a good daycare that go above and beyond.

That night Matt's parents and Brittany and Bryce came to our house for Chili and cornbread.  Then everyone except for me, Logan and Matt's dad headed out for trick or treating.  I think Logan was thrilled to get to stay home and crawl around instead of stuck in the stroller and it was nice of Dan to keep me company.

Cutest Tigger I have ever seen

Nathan and Luke so antsy to get out and go trick or treating

Photo bombed by Gavin dressed up as a skunk

Such a cute Woody!  

Annie dressed up in her bee costume

After trick or treating.  They couldn't wait to bust into their candy

Pumpkin Patch

Emily, Chase and Matt all went out of town the beginning of October so Brittany, Shawn and I decided to take the kids to our favorite pumpkin patch.  The weather was so warm and the kids (especially Nathan) absolutely loved it!  There was a life size Dusty and Mater there too and Nathan was in Disney heaven.

The pumpkin patch had amazing pumpkins and they were all so stinking cheap.  We let Nathan pick up smaller pumpkins for him and Logan and I picked out medium pumpkins for me and Matt and I only spent $8!  There were two corn mazes to take the kids through as well as tractors for them to sit on and wheel barrows so they could get their own pumpkins.  Such a fun way to start off Fall!

Logan's Birthday Party

 Logan loves Mickey Mouse so of course we decided to do a Mickey Mouse party.  Logan's birthday was on a Saturday so we got to have his party on his actual birthday and it was my first time getting to throw a party at our new house.  It was so fun and I think it turned out really cute.

 I was amazed how  many people came to celebrate Logan with us.  My parents, Brittany and Shawn, Emily, Chase and Paisley, Matt's parents, Christian, Brittany, Bryce, Luke and Gavin all came and it was quite the houseful.  Logan got so excited when we handed him a present and he figured out that he could actually play with it.  He was full of smiles the whole night.

Not quite sure how to get the paper off the present.

 

 My dad and Paisley

Brittany and Logan

 Logan's Mickey Mouse cake that Matt and I made.  The large cake 

was chocolate and the ears were white cake.  It was our first time

making and decorating a birthday cake.

Christian and Nathan.  Nathan was absolutely

dieing to eat the cake.

Logan and his Grandma Shayne

Nathan insisted (as always) that we had to

have the light off to sing Happy Birthday.  Logan

thought it was so funny to have everyone singing

and Nathan helped him blow out the candle.

Birthday boy loving his balloons.

I'm pretty sure Logan took two bites of his cake and then started to cry.

Crazy kid does not like cake or ice-cream  but we all enjoyed it and 

Logan was just as happy with his sippy cup of milk.

It was such a great day celebrating my baby boy.  I can't believe he is one already!