a check-up & a check-in

Elise had her 15 month check-up today.  Technically she's 16 months but I had to reschedule because I had chemo.  And they had to reschedule me a month later - even when I told them I had chemo.  Cancer card failed.  

Not surprisingly - Elise is doing super!  She's in perfect health.   Poor thing had to have four shots today though.  She was a trooper - she took a long nap and was back to her sweet self by the afternoon.  She's doing lots of fun things these days - she can point to her tummy, toes, ears, eyes, nose, hair...and we're working on the rest.  She is twirling, jumping (sort of), and lots and lots of running.  She says dada...and that's about it.  She yells a lot but doesn't make out too many words.  She says "hi" but will only whisper it.  She waves back to the people in crowd when we watch the Today show in the morning, and will randomly come up and hug your leg and go back to playing.  She is the sweetest girl ever.  

Her stats: 

Weight:  21.5 lbs (19%)

Height:  30.5 inches  (40%)

Here's Elise doing a few of her new tricks:

This is as naughty as she gets.   Normally I would stop her but it was too funny...

I'm doing really well too.  I can tell it takes a little longer to feel "normal" after treatment, the more treatments I have.  I felt pretty good over Thanksgiving and was able to enjoy the delicious turkey Lauren made!  The biggest thing is that I get so tired.  I need naps and I go to bed early.   I still have some hair, and lots of cute hats.  

And - we are offically moved in to our new house!  We will move the crib this weekend and be there for good.  We.can't.wait. 

Thanksgiving in Peoria

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We are having a great time at Auntie Lauren's house in Peoria.   She even made Elise a turkey shirt!

Here's Nick and little Nick.

The girls took Elise to the park so Mommy could take a little nap.   Thanks guys!

Elise gets lots of love and kisses.

Pacey came too.   Elise loves to let him kiss her fingers. 

half.way.done. {chemo #6}

Chemo #6 was pretty uneventful.  Nick went with me today.  A little date to chemo.  He even bought me lunch and a latte.  What a nice guy.   :-)

My bloodcounts were good,  white blood count was a little on the low side, but not enough to warrant the Neulasta shot I needed two treatments ago.  My nice doctor just told me to watch my temp and not to kiss anyone strange.  I promised Nick I wouldn't.   We asked him about the steroids they are having me take for three days after chemo.  I think they make me feel worse (they are supposed to "reduce nausea") so he said to cut back to half a dose on those.   We also asked him about radiation, since the last PET scan looked so good.   He said that we will look after the next scan, but he will probably go for it because it will kill anything we may not see on the scan and just to make sure we got everything.  We don't want to deal with this again. 

Tomorrow we are leaving around nap time to drive to Lauren's for Thanksgiving.  We have lots to be thankful for this year.   I have no pictures for this post - we have been busy!  So sorry.  There will definitely be tons of Thanksgiving pictures to come!  And thanks to everyone that has sent cards, messages, and prayers.  We really appreciate everything so much.  We have such great friends and family.

triple date

This weekend we headed over to our friend's house to celebrate Jacob's 2nd birthday.   Dinner is a lot different these days when there are three kids 2 and under at the table.   Conversation revolves around how long they had bottles at bedtime and what we can get them to eat.  And it pretty much lasts as long as our kids will sit in their chair.   Which is not long.  Next time I suggested  babysitters and a bar.  Kidding.  Sort of.  Not really.  We still had a great time and it's always good getting together with friends.

  Our first attempt at a picture was a complete fail. 

Second attempt was much more successful.  Here's Elise and her boyfriends Jude and Jacob.  Aren't they cute??

I've been feeling so good lately it we pretty much forget I need to go in on Tuesday for chemo.  That's why I never put anything on the blog about it.   It's a weird feeling because I feel SO normal, and then I get the reminder call for my appointment and it kind of brings you back to reality that you have cancer and need to get pumped full of poison every other week.  BUT, after this treatment we will be halfway done.  And it's working.  We're halfway to normal, halfway to healthy.  Besides the fact that my scalp reflects light these days, the cancer thing is a non-issue.  Good thing Nick likes bald ladies.   Okay I'm not totally bald...but it's real thin.  I can still get away with just a hat, but I don't know for how much longer.  My hair is falling out at a normal rate, but there's none to grow in it's place, it just doesn't grow!  I guess an upside of chemo is that you never have to shave your armpits.  Win?

In other news, we close on our new house on Monday!  We are so so so excited to have those keys in our hand.  We can't wait. 

So ummm.......

...we put up the Christmas tree.  Last week.  

What?  Lauren was here and we were sorta bored.  And we love Christmas.  We are telling Elise to be "very gentle" with the tree and to "pet the tree" like she pets Pacey.  So far she's doing really good.   And there's no breakable ornaments within reach.  Having the tree up makes seeing Thanksgiving stuff in the stores a little weird though, it sorta makes you forget about Thanksgiving.   But that would be sad since we're going to Lauren's and we're so excited!

Vintage Sweater

Elise wore a special sweater today.   My mom wore it when she was little!  Grandma DeGroot made matching ones for her and Rosie (my cousin.  who is the same age as my mom).   Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of her in it, but it is the cutest thing. 

Auntie Lauren went home today.  We were so glad she was here this week to help!

chemo numero cinco {and pet scan results}

Today was my fifth chemo treatment.  We did the normal blood work, and met with my doctor.   While we were waiting for the doctor my mom wondered where the giant light boards are where they slid the x-rays to view them a la ER 1996 (Dr. Ross anyone??).   We broke it to her gently that they do that on computers now.  The doctor had the results of the PET scan I had last week Tuesday.  He called the results "excellent".  Yay!  And my blood counts were good so I don't need the white blood cell boosting shot that I had to have last time.   Bonus.  I'm so good at chemo.   :-) 

A few key phrases from the PET scan report:

• "no hypermetabolic adenopathy in neck"
• "near-complete resolution of extensive bulky hypermetabolic adenopathy previously involving the upper anterious mediastinum on the left and the left chest wall as seen on prior PET/CT scan"
• "involvement of the left chest wall has markedly improved with only moderate residual metabolic activity"
• "findings are compatible with marked favorable anatomic and physiologic response to chemotherapy"

 So, after spending some time with my friend Mr. Google, I figured out that:

• there's no more cancer in the lymph nodes in my neck. 
• the large tumor that was on/in my chest and sternum area is almost gone.  
• there is a small amount of the tumor left in my chest but it is dying a slow painful death (I embellished that one a little).  
• chemo is working! 

My treatment today was pretty uneventful.  They had to access my port twice because the first time something wasn't right and it was hurting me a little, when I usually don't feel anything at all once it's in.  I hate when they access the port.  It has hard silicone in it so they have to apply quite a bit of pressure to poke it through - no fun.  Nick calls it my porthole, and it makes me laugh every time.  Other than that we were out of there by 2pm.  I'm just feeling really tired but overall pretty good still.  

And, Auntie Lauren's here! YAY!!  She stayed with Elise today while my mom went with me.  Elise loves her.  It's adorable.  And Lauren loves her right back.

And here's Elise being cute.  She empties her laundry basket and uses it as a boat.  Or something like that.  She doesn't say any words yet really, she just babbles all the time like in the video.  I think she thinks she's saying words though. 

Overalls

Seriously.  How cute are these overalls??  so.stinking.cute.

Elise likes to put tiny rocks down the drain in the road.  Don't worry, there are like 2 cars that come down our street each day.  One of them is usually the mailman.   Playing in the street is not a dangerous thing at the lake.

I would say Elise and I have about the same amount of hair these days.  She might have a little more on top than I do.  Good thing for cute hats (and red baby curls)!