Talk about crazy!!!

Wow! A lot has happened since my last blog. I was so busy with my kids end of the year activities and family things that time snuck past me...well I guess a lot of things got past my radar and in more than just May too. Last friday night I was sweeping the floor and I noticed my left arm was getting numb, and kind of purple. So I went to the emergency room and to make a long story short, I have cancer, it is lymphoma. The good news is that this cancer has a high cure rate, the bad news is that the tumor has wrapped itself around my 'superior vena cava'
(the vein that brings the blood back to my heart from my arms, head and neck) and it is closed down to 1-2 mm. So I was given final diagnosis of cancer on monday and by tuesday I had my first dose of radiation. On wednesday I went back for another dose and a few tests and yesterday, thursday, I had my first chemo treatment. Talk about crazy! Everything has happened so fast that I just haven't even had time to process it. So chemo wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, just a very long (8hours) IV infusion. The facility is nice and the people are great! I can even have visitors, my husband, parents and all my sisters visited me and helped the time to pass. Now comes the hard part, waiting to see if I get sick, only about half the patients on my flavor of chemo get nausea, and of them only 1 out of ten actually throws up. There are some other side effects that I will get like losing my hair (they said at 17 days) and fatigue. So the next few days will let me know how sick this will make me. The great thing about my regimen is that most people can go on leading a normal life in between treatments with only 3-5 days of down time. At my next treatment in 3 weeks, I will bring Mitchel so that he can see that my chemo treatments aren't scary and hopefully that will help alleviate his fears for me. I think this has been harder on my family than on me. I feel positive that all will be well and hopefully soon some of the problems I've been experiencing from the tumor will go away as it shrinks. **Wierd that all of my symptoms from the tumor have been passed off as allergies (stuffy head, scratchy voice, swollen face) and a pinched nerve (neck & back pain). I'm just glad that I have finally been diagnosed and we can get to business getting better!

So I've finally done it...I joined Facebook and I just love it! It is so great to hear about family members that I otherwise might not hear from for a long time. I also love the whole sharing pictures and video thing! Wow...it is so amazing to live in a time when we have so much right at the tips of our fingers! My kids laugh at me when I say things like this, but only because they can't remember a time before cell phones, internet etc. I guess that makes me an old timer HaHa! Anyway...I think I hear Facebook calling.......

This is a picture of my Grandmother that I downloaded off my aunts facebook album, I had never seen it before...

Summer is almost here and we will be very glad to leave the cold wet winter behind! I feel like I haven't felt the warmth of the sun for too long! I can't wait to lounge outside and soak up the sun! I know that my kids are feeling the same way...my youngest was upset with me the other day for telling him to put on warmer clothes before he went to school, well he put up such a fuss I gave in and it ended up snowing later in the morning...but I'm with him on the lets get winter over with part!

We are getting ready for a non-stop, action packed summer, with football camps, scout outings, cheerleading camps, baseball games, family reunions and of course the long awaited back packing trip in the Uintahs! And lets not forget the best part of the summer...my trip to Holland with my mother and sisters!!!!

All the fun aside though, there is something to be said for lazy summer days (do I really ever get those anymore?) and just doing nothing but enjoying your time with your family in the way you only can during the summer! Reading a book while laying in the hammock, hiking, bike riding, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows...

I usually would say that fall is the best time of year, but right now I am pretty sure that nothing compares to summer....