Week 20

May 12, 2012

Bringing a little color into the house.

Employed!

Week 19

May 11, 2012

After the long struggle of find a job that was close to home, I finally got a job! 

Woo-Hoo!

May 28

May 28 is an important day in my family.  

It is a day of remembering and a day of celebrating.  

Remembering how fragile life is.

Celebrating that there is still life left to live.

May 28 is a day that changed me.

It changed my life.

It changed my family.

2 years

730 days

17,532 hours

1,051,898 minutes

63,113,852 seconds

May 28, 2010.

(This is taken from my post May Twenty-Eighth from 2011)

One year ago today my life flipped upside down. One year ago today everything I knew changed. One year ago today my dad was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a blood cancer.

The Background:

In December of 2009, my dad graduated from nursing school. Throughout school, he kept saying he wanted to work in the OR, ER, or critical care unit. He enjoyed the blood and guts of the operating room.  But once he graduated he didn't go out looking for a job.  Mom and I became concerned.  We later learned that he wanted to work on his nursing skills before he specialized in anything.  In March of 2010 he finally went to the hospital and he got a job on the spot, which they never do.

Problems:

Everything started off great. Dad had awesome mentors and he enjoyed the work. But after a few weeks he started to get pain in his legs and back. We figured it was from working 14 hours days nights, standing on his feet, lifting people, etc. It got so bad that dad wouldn't leave his bed unless it was a day he worked. After his 8th week of orientation mom told him he couldn't go back to work until he went to the doctor.  We knew something was wrong and we knew he needed to be looked at.

On May 27, 2010 dad finally went to see our regular family doctor. Dad couldn't hold up his own leg. The doctor knew something was up so he did some blood work and scheduled an MRI for June. 3 hours later mom got a phone call from the doctor's office saying my dad was in acute kidney failure and had to get to the hospital right away. So they packed up and headed to the hospital not knowing the worst was still to come.

During this, I was in Kansas City, where I go to school. I was planning on staying there for the summer with hope of getting a job. When I heard my dad was in the hospital I decided to drive home the next morning.

That Morning:

May 28, 2010

I remember I woke up kinda early. I wasn't feeling to well with my allergies and just wanted to go home and be with my family during this rough time.  The entire hour ride home I played different scenarios in my head.  If this happens, then I move back home.  If he is ok, I will go back to KC, etc. The next thing I knew I was arriving at the hospital. As I pulled into the parking lot I got this horrible sickening feeling in my stomach. Something was wrong and my mom wasn't telling me everything. I even told her that as I picked her up from the parking lot to go run a few errands. She didn't say anything to my comment and it was soon forgotten.

It's bad.  I have cancer.:

When we got back to the hospital dad was in a prep room for surgery to have a central line put in.  Once we did all the normal greetings, things changed and got a little more serious.  I remember dad put his hand on my arm and told me the news was bad. He had cancer. They found out early this morning. I immediately started crying. My dad cried with me. I was 21 years old, and it was the first time I saw my dad cry.

The next few hours were a blur...literally.  Everything happened through rounds of tears.  We didn't know what he had.  We didn't know what the life span was.  We didn't know if he would fight.  We didn't know anything.

As time went on we learned dad had stage 3 Multiple Myeloma.  There is no stage 4 in this type of cancer.  But the important thing was to fix dad's kidneys first, then we would work on fixing the cancer. For those who don't know, kidneys functioning level is determined by a protein called creatine. Normal is around 1.0, 12.0 is critical. Dad was at 11.98. According to his doctors there wasn't much hope that dad's kidneys would come back and if they did it most likely wouldn't be to normal level.  In fact, he had less than a 5% chance.  We were told he would need to have dialysis 3 times a week for the rest of his life. As far as the cancer, he needed to have a transplant once the cancer came down to a certain point and when his kidneys got a little bit better. Our oncologist said he hoped dad's creatine would be around 3 or 3.5 when the transplant would take place, but we wouldn't worry too much about that right now.  So they started dad on dialysis right away for about 6-7 hours every day. By the third day they stopped because his kidneys responded so well and they wanted to see if his kidneys could hold their own.  They did.  After a few weeks, his kidneys came to a normal range. Daddy never had dialysis again.

Dad had bone scans done and we found out he had some fractures in his legs, back, and skull.  This happened because all the protein and calcium was leaking out of his bones and going into his blood.  This is part of the reason he was in kidney failure, because your kidneys filter your blood.  These fractures were also part of the reason he was in so much pain back when he was working.

Fighting Cancer:

Once dad's kidneys came back we were able to fight the cancer full force. He started chemotherapy a few days after he was admitted into the hospital and by October he was able to have a bone morrow stem cell transplant.  I won't go into much details of the transplant process, but it was the roughest thing I have ever seen.  Basically the transplant process kills your entire immune system.  Dad had to go into isolation (from other people-mom and I were able to be around him).  Daddy lost all of his hair and became incredibly weak.  For about a month the only way he could get from one place to the other was in a wheelchair.  Dad finally got a little bit stronger and was able to make it out of his room by Christmas time.

Follow Up:

In February, he hit his 100 day mark (after the transplant) and his cancer progression was reassigned.  They found a little bit of the cancer left in his body so his prognosis was 'pretty good' remission, not complete remission.  He went back on a low dose of chemo, which they do even if the patient is in complete remission--studies have shown that it prolongs life.  In May of 2011 he began is inoculation again (he has to get all the basic shots a baby gets).  And just a few days ago they found that there is only a teeny tiny line of cancer still in his body.

After:

It has been exactly one year.  My little family has been through so much.  We experienced numerous trials and triumphs.  And most importantly we experienced many, many miracles.  I moved home immediately after dad was diagnosed and spent many evenings watching movies with him through his recovery time. We have become great friends with our doctors.  They have experienced all the hardships and joys right along with us.  But most importantly we are all still here, fighting together as a team.  A friend of mine once told me that God doesn't play by numbers.  She couldn't have been more right.  We have overcome what science has told us.  Because according to science, my dad wouldn't be here today.

And now.

We are given a little hiccup.  

If you have been following this story you would know that dad was recently in the hospital.

He was sick with a gangrene gall bladder, which is not cancer related (we don't think).

But what I didn't share,

what I didn't know how to share,

is that the cancer is coming back.

At the moment, dad's white count is low so they had to take him off of his maintenance chemo in order for his white count to go up and for him to heal completely from the surgery.  

So right now, we just wait.

I don't know what will happen when he gets the all clear, but we have various possibilities and options to fight this cancer again.

Maybe putting him back on the maintenance drug will help, maybe trying different drugs will do the trick.  

I don't know.

But what I do know is that all we can do is wait and hope that this is just a bump in the roller coaster and not for the long haul. 

Week in the Life 2012 | Sunday Pages

Well, I finally finished my Week in the Life project.  I have ordered it and it should be on my door step soon!  I really loved doing this project and I can't wait to do it again next year!  Hope you enjoyed seeing what a week in my life looks like!

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Page 3 | Yes, the stop sign was actually upside down.

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday | May 27, 2012

What a week.
Work and photo projects and moving my grandma into a nursing home and wondering if she will get better because she isn't swallowing.  Busy, busy, busy.

Here are this weeks photos.  I quite like them  :)

Beneath Your Feet

Abby loves human food, especially breakfast.  Every morning she waits patiently for the leftover milk.  

Capturing Movement

I took this one last week on my outing during my lunch break.  Loved how this turned out!

Texture

Miss Abby and her baby.  She loves him.

Face Your Fears

I can't believe I'm sharing this, but I had nothing for this photo.  This photo is from 2010 when my business fraternity stopped at Ikea during our trip to Texas.  I have been terrified of sharks since I was about 3 and my mom had to watch Jaws with her.  (She used to have to park me at the end of the cereal isle at the grocery store because I would cry because there were cartoon sharks on some fruit snack box.)  So...despite what the prompt said, there is no way I am going to go swim in an ocean with sharks.  Plus, I live in the middle of the midwest, so swimming with sharks is very unlikely.  (Even though at 3 I thought sharks lived in any body of water, so you never know, there could be a shark in the Missouri river!)  Still not going to take any chances... lol. 

Currently

I finally finished my Week in the Life project!  Woo-Hoo!!!

Week in the Life 2012 | Saturday Pages

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Week in the Life 2012 | Friday Pages

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Week in the Life 2012 | Thursday Pages

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Page 2 | The note is about the birds who build on our front porch each year.

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Week in the Life 2012 | Wednesday Pages

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Pages 5 and 6 | Full page spread.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday | May 20, 2012

Wow this week has been insane.  I finished my second week at my new job and my dad went to the ER to have his gallbladder taken out.  I know this sounds pretty basic, but considering my dad's medical history it became a big deal.  (Story here.)

Rainbow

Rainbows are very significant in our family.  This photo was taken back in April.  I have not edited it, so this is SOOC.  The colors were vibrant and beautiful and full of hope.

Fluffy

The clouds looked like a bunch of little cotton balls.  It was really quite beautiful, this photo doesn't do it justice.

Letters

While I was work on Thursday, I took my lunch break to go into a small town to attempt my hunt.  While I was driving around I found this little garden.  It was surrounded by benches with letters and words on it.

Metal

A lamp post at the same location as the photo above.

Tree(s)

Do you ever get that panicky, can't catch your breath, hurts to breathe feeling?

I do.  Every single time I think about dad, cancer, and the future.

It is something that I try to control, but sometimes my mind just goes there.  And there is nothing I can do to stop it.

Yesterday while I was at work I got a call from mom on my cell phone (because she doesn't know my new office line).  I hesitated to pick up mainly because I'm only in my second week of work and I didn't want it to look bad.  But I work at a laid back place and no one really comes into my cubical so I answered it.  Our conversation was normal but I heard a beeping sound in the background.

A sound all too familiar.

I asked what the noise was.  She said she was at the hospital.  I asked with who (thinking either dad or my grandma.)

She was there with my dad.

{Panicky, can't catch my breath, hurts to breathe, tears welling up in my eyes.}  Why?  What's wrong?

Dad had been having some tummy pain since Saturday.  We figured he might have a tummy bug, but nothing too terribly bad.  Something we could monitor, but nothing to go to the doctor for.  Yesterday morning he called mom at work and told her he was in a lot of pain and to call the oncologist and ask if he should go to the ER.  The doctor said yes because he knows dad tolerates pain really well and if dad is checking himself into the ER then he is in some major pain.

The doctors do numerous tests to see if he has an infection.  Nothing major shows up.  Mom suggested they look at his gull bladder because she had hers taken out a few years ago and remembers the intense pain and location of the pain--same general area that dad is hurting in.  So the doctors do the tests and turns out she was right.

Dad's gull bladder is inflamed.

He had surgery today and all went well.  But his gull bladder was gangrene.  He was one sick puppy.

Now we just need to make sure that dad is strong enough to fight off the infection from his gull bladder.  So far, all seems well.  He was alert and talking and seemed to be in good spirits.  (Some of that might be the pain meds, but I'll take it!)

Once again, life threw us a curveball.  And once again, we are conquering.

Week in the Life 2012 | Tuesday Pages

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 Page 3 | A photo of the outside of my house.  Didn't want to share for privacy reasons.

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