Derek is Home!

We’re a little slow in getting pictures out, but Derek made it home over a month ago.  He got in at midnight, but we were happy to have him home!  (airport pictures are still on our phones.  I’ll pull those off another day).

We had some fun gatherings with family and friends.  Of course we couldn’t resist smoking some ribs for the occasion.  It was very fun to have everyone over to begin to get reacquainted with Derek.  Here are  Uncle Kent & cousin-in-law Ben in the back, Joe behind the couch, Jon, Josh, Derek, & Jeremy in front.

 

 

 

Cory, Amanda and her little ones – Sarah and Ryan.

 

 

A few little cousins: Emily, Jenny, Anna, & Grant.

Grandpa Marty with Everett and Ryan.

 

 

 

 

Lots of friends: Johanna, Jonessa, Brandon, Cory, Jon, Steven, Joe, Samantha, Jeremy, Derek & Josh.

 

Since then he has been swept up in all the comings and goings of our busy family. Jeremy had ‘wax museum’ the next day and did a report and presentation on the Wright Brothers.  Thanks to Jon’s hat, he almost looks like Orville.

Well, this is all old news, but at least it’s more current than that last post in October:).

We are very grateful for lots of fun times with our great kids!  They keep us hopping!

Surgery Went Well!

First and foremost - today's surgery went well! I met with Cynthia's surgeon and he was very pleased with the outcome.


Today has been long awaited. We are a little over one year from Cynthia's first surgery (lumpectomy) - and deeply grateful to be past the other phases of cancer treatment.


For those that may not be aware, today was Cynthia's reconstruction surgery. The surgical procedure itself is fairly involved, but for those interested in learning more about it, it is called "DIEP flap (deep inferior epigastric perforator)" procedure. This is the latest and greatest in reconstructive surgery and we are pleased to have it as an option. It uses Cynthia's own tissue to reconstruct the breast removed in the mastectomy.


We checked into the hospital at 5:30 am and Cynthia went into surgery a shortly after 8:00 am. The surgery lasted a little over seven hours. Cynthia will be in the hospital for 3-4 days. We have been told that the recovery takes about six weeks - with the first couple of weeks being the most challenging.

More updates will follow.

Thank you for all of your support. We can't imagine having gone through this last year without the love and care provided by family and friends! You are some of the many blessings that Heavenly Father has given us.

My New, and Old, Sandbox

Diana asked for some pictures of our yard, so I thought I'd post them on the blog. Last summer, Rob increased the size of our driveway and my 'sandbox' to play in. I bought a few new plants for my new play area, but for the most part, I just divided up perrennials and grasses that I already had elsewhere in the yard and brought them over. Perennials are really easy to share, and most of mine are big enough to share, so if you'd like some, come see me soon - if not now, then in the fall.


The garden behind the pond and bench have a couple of hostas from a friend and a few more from elsewhere in the yard, a deep red clematis that was around the corner of the house, a striped grass from out back and a new 'Lion's Head' japanese maple.

My twisted, weeping cherry tree is all done blooming. We planted pink tulips in a ribbon out front and around the cherry tree. They didn't all come up to make a good ribbon, but the ones that did pop up were sure pretty.

The most spectacular blooms now are on my white tree peony. I also have a small magenta one and another that's pink (in the background). There are two more in the yard that aren't blooming this year, but they did survive the move. Next summer should bring even more blooms.

The birds love the pond. A pair of ducks spent a week or two hanging out here. We were happy to have them until they started leaving a mess in the pond. Thankfully they decided to nest somewhere else. We haven't seen them for a while. In the early morning, the hummingbirds even stop by for a drink.

The best things growing at our house are the kids. Here's Jeremy in the apple tree and with his Grandpa Goates. Josh is with his date for MORP (a twist on prom, the girls ask the guys). The theme was 'Heroes', so Josh went as Indiana Jones thanks to a hat from his cousin and an old leather jacket from DI.

Spring is Here!

I think spring is finally here! The daffodils and my snow fountain cherry are blooming. I finished radiation treatments on April 3rd. The staff at IMC's cancer center was wonderful, but it's nice to be done. I get a bit of a reprieve this month from doctors' visits. I take tamoxifen now for 5 years to keep the cancer from coming back. So, I'm now a survivor!

We had a fun visit from Roger and Kat and the little ones March 27 & 28. They are great parents! The kids really took to Jeremy and Sam. It was even more fun to have Kristen & Greg and their little ones join us for some of Rob's BBQ. The cousins had a great time together.

The next weekend Barbara and Jay stopped by on their way to Washington state for a vacation. And guess what?? Jay has the same haircut as me! My goal is to have the same haircut as Barbara by the time we get together in June. We'll see if I get as many curls as she has. It think it will be a while before it's long again.

For spring break, Rob worked, Josh went on tour to California with choir and the kids and I went skiing. I went spring skiing on my own on Wednesday. It had gotten warm on Tuesday and then froze that night. Thankfully they groom all the blues and greens at Deer Valley, so it was skiable. One run looked like a lot of fun but once I got on it I discovered that all the tracks and 'powder' were actually frozen solid - oops. That would explain why I didn't see anyone else skiing on the run. On Friday, the kids and I went up to Brighton. It was a great day with fresh snow all over the mountain and clear weather. The blue runs were just perfect. The black runs will have to wait till next year. My oncologist says it will take about a year to get feeling all the way better after what the chemo has done to me. He says it's a good indicator, though, if I'm out skiing.

Thanks for giving us strength and courage for all of this. Here's hoping you are all well and have strength and courage for whatever comes your way.

Spring is here - almost, and Radiation

Last week we had great weather, with days in the 60's. We thought for sure spring was here. This week we've had snow again and temperatures are back in the 30's. Oh, well. I guess spring will have to wait a little longer.

Here are some highlights from February:

We took the family skiing on President's Day. Yes, all of us, even me! Usually I talk the older boys into going down all the black and blue runs with me. This time Rob and I let Jeremy take us down all the green ones. The picture includes Rob, Jeremy, Cory, Josh, Sam, and Joe (I'm taking the picture). It felt good just to be out skiing on the fresh snow. It was really a great day of easy skiing.

Derek has been transferred to Newport News and is with 2 English Elders. He gets to teach any Spanish discussions and help with the others. He is also on a bike and getting more exercise than he has in a year. He's upbeat and doing well.

Josh has earned his Eagle Scout rank - yea, Josh! He has also lettered in choir. He prepared a vocal solo for the school's solo & ensemble competition. He earned a II (I is the highest score) and was selected to go on to region competition this month. Thanks, Aunt ebbie, for being his accompanist.

Cory participated in the chapter Math Counts competition in February. He came home with 3 trophies: 1st place team, 2nd place individual, and 2nd place countdown. It's a fun competition where the students compete in the area of math problem solving. He'll go to the state competition the end of March.

Samantha participated in science fair at school and was chosen to go on to district. Her project was in the consumer science area. She tested various pretreatment laundry cleaners. Most of them got rid of the ketchup, but none of them did a good job on the grape juice. She has a big red ribbon for second place from district. Way to go, Sam! She's in the school musical, Edwina, which will be showing March 19-21.

Jeremy is enjoying cub scouts and looking forward to the Pinewood Derby next week. He and Sam are looking forward to being off track from school and having time to play outside when the weather warms up.

As for me, I learned that wigs and hot ovens don't go well together. I was over at the middle school helping get dinner ready for the teachers and got a bit too close to their convection ovens. I thought it felt a little warm and then my hair felt a little funny. ;( Upon closer inspection I discovered that I had frazzled the bangs thoroughly! I got them looking the best I could and went on with the evening anyway. Josh and a few other students had come over to help serve so I just hung out in the kitchen slicing bread. (It's good to be humbled once in a while.) After a while, I decided I had to make the best of it. We finished the dinner and cleanup and then went over to the high school for Josh's parent/teacher conferences. Thankfully, everyone was kind enough to not say anything about my bad hair day. I'm sure they were wondering about that poor woman with the bad hair. I've been working through my scarf collection since then. Thank goodness for lots of hats and scarves!

Rob and I finally took a weekend off and headed over to Delta, Colorado to visit our good friends, Matt and Terri. They've only been there since December, but they are really making themselves part of the church and community there. They took us around to some of the town highlights: Clubbs (where you can still buy wooden pick up sticks), BBQ from the Big E market, Italian food at Devitos, a local antique market. We also explored the countryside. We're looking forward to taking the family back there this summer.

The trip to Colorado was our break before we start the next phase of my treatment. After meeting with a radiation oncologist, we decided that radiation would be an important step towards a cure. Those who do receive radiation lower their risk of recurrence of cancer as well as increase their overall survival. We are looking to achieve both of those, so I'm going forward with radiation. Those who've been through this say it's an easy part of the process. It involves 25 treatments (5 days a week for 5 weeks) that are similar to getting an x-ray taken. The radiologists are quick and like to stay on schedule. Side effects are minimal - maybe a sunburn-like reaction on the skin and maybe some fatigue as we go along.

It feels good to be more on the healthy side of life. It's nice to keep up with all that the family's doing. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers - they keep me going.

We're Done with Chemo!

Well, the chemo treatments are all done! Thankfully, most of the side effects are gone. It will take a while to get my red blood cell counts back up which means life will be a little slow for a while. What a blessing to have chemotherapy drugs that work effectively without making you extremently sick! It is amazing to see how much they have learned about early detection and treatment of cancer. It's been a lot easier to go through this whole process knowing that there is an end in sight and that I will be a survivor. We have an appointment on Feb 9 with a radiation oncologist to discuss the benefits of radiation. We hope to get some good direction on whether or not radiation will significantly improve my chances for a complete cure.

I would like to try to express our gratitude to so many who have supported and carried us through this whole experience. Thanks to Lauren and Teresa, my early morning drivers to get the kids to school. Thanks to many who have gone all the way to Hillcrest and Midvale Middle to fetch the kids at all times of the day and night. Thanks to Rachel for getting Jeremy through his mega-homework nights. Thanks for all my fun hats and scarves - it has made my no-hair days much easier to take. Thanks to wonderful cooks who have taken the extra time to fix dinners for our family and make our load here at home lighter. Thanks for all your words of encouragement and support, your visits, your notes and your prayers. Thank you for encouraging our children and strengthening them. You have carried us through something that could have been very difficult. You have made us stronger and our load lighter. And some of you may be saying to yourselves, "I didn't do much, it was just a little thing." Well, all those little things have come together into one beautiful whole which has filled our lives to overflowing!

Happy New Year!!

I can hardly believe it's the middle of January already! Sorry it has been a while since we posted an update. Between the activities of the holidays, chemo treatments and sickness, this fell by the wayside for a few weeks. Gratefully, we are back on track and doing well. Here are a few highlights from December:

Jeremy turned 8 on December 4th. He was baptized on Dec 20th by Rob - the last of our herd. We were so grateful for many family and friends to come and share the event with him. It was a great day!

Rob and Josh were able to go elk hunting a couple of times in December. They drew out for antlerless elk tags on Deseret Land and Livestock. Both were able to get an elk - now the freezer is full - and overflowing into Janet's freezer (soon to be transferred to Grandpa's freezer).

Christmas Eve was spent with the Goates family at Grandpa's house. It is a lot of people in a not-so-large house. However, everyone has a great time and it is a highlight of the season. We had a great Christmas day with a surprise visit from my sister, Barbara, and her family - all the way from Arizona. The kids loved the snow and built a huge snowman out back. I thought he was big when I saw Josh reaching up to put in the rocks for eyes. Then Rob pointed out to me that Josh was standing on then bench and reaching up! Josh and Cory also got to go skiing with their cousins while they were here - Thank you, Adrian!

New Year's Eve was the usual food fest w/ puzzles and games at the Goates. As always it was fun just to visit and enjoy each other. We discovered the magic of having a finished basement - the kids played video games and pool downstairs and the adults got to visit a bit more quietly upstairs.

It was rather sad to take down all the Christmas decorations and declare the holidays over. It was sure fun to have the kids home and to have Rob home a little more as well. We enjoyed all the goodies from our dear friends - Thank you! Christmas cards are also a favorite part of the holidays as we get to hear what's going on with many of you. All the cards get taped onto the study doors and so we have you smiling at us every time we walk by. The Christmas cards are still up - we enjoy having you with us!

Well, my third chemo treatment was on Friday, January 2nd. That was two weeks ago and I'm finally feeling like we've gotten past the treatment and everything that goes with it. The chemo treatment itself was fine, no big deal (it takes about 48 hours for the side effects to kick in). Unfortunately, I came down with a cold a few days after the treatment. It felt like your usual cold - sore throat, stuffy nose, a little achy. However, when combined with the side effects of the chemo and Neulasta, it made for a rough week. We called the doctor and he agreed that it probably was just a virus that I picked up somewhere, but he said he would put me on anitbiotics anyway just to be sure it didn't turn into anything else. When Rob got there to pick up the prescription, the pharmacist told him that the cost would be $83 for 7 little pills. Levaquin was the magic medicine, a super-anitbiotic usually reserved as a drug of last resort. I guess the oncologists have enough experience with their patients that they want to knock out any infection before any complications can arise. I always appreciate Rob's perspective: "It's cheaper than a trip to the emergency room." Thankfully, there weren't any side effects from the Levaquin. So, I'm feeling better now (just a stuffy nose) and I'm enjoying a 'normal' week before my next, and final!!!, treatment on Jan 23rd.

We anticipate making a decision on the raditation therapy by the end of the month. Because my case is kind of in a grey area, we have not yet received any clear direction from the doctors on the benefit that would be derived from radiation. For now, we are keeping our minds and options open. We will keep you in the loop once we make a decision.

Thank you for all of your love, prayers and support - it has definitely made a difference!