Yesterday was a LONG day. It was a good day though. We flew out of Birmingham at 9:30, had a plane change in Nashville, and arrived in Houston at 2:00 which was 25 minutes early. His appointment was at 3:00 and we were signing in at 3:02. Pretty good huh? We got back to the room ready to begin treatment when the nurse realized Dave had not signed any consent forms for this new medicine. Soooo......we walked from the Mays Clinic all the way to the Sarcoma Center. That is a long walk! We had to wait 45 min. to see Dr. R's nurse. So we learned about the two new drugs, signed the forms, and took the long walk back. So it was 5:30 before he was able to start the treatment. He was done around 8:30. We had taken the shuttle to the hospital, which stops running at 7:00, so we had to take a cab home. What a long day.

The two new chemo drugs are Gemzar and Taxotere. The side effects are not supposed to be as bad. Nothing should be as bad as the Adriamyacin. It was brutal!! He is feeling good this morning. No nausea overnight. I'll let you know how he does.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day - Steven Curtis Chapman

This is my favorite Christmas song! Listen to the words. You need to go scroll down to the bottom of the page and mute my playlist so you can hear this song.

As I type this morning I am feeling sad. It was very good for us to come home and see everyone, but also very hard. As we were leaving our house last night we all just cried as we sat in the driveway. Not because of the house, although we do love that cozy little house, but because of what that house has always meant to us. It has always been full of people. College students, friends, family, neighbors, children. That’s what yesterday was like. People in and out all day. Eating, playing games, talking, and just hanging out. That’s what we miss…..
We loved watching our kids play with their friends. They pulled out every toy they could find. Samuel played outside for two days! It was cold but he didn’t care. Erin nurtured all her baby dolls and played office with some calculators she found in the desk. Abby sat with the adults mostly. That’s what she likes to do. She did enjoy getting to see her friends Kade and Bailey.
We will board our flight to Houston in a few minutes. Dave will begin chemo this afternoon. We are so hopeful that this new medicine will do the trick. Also hopeful that it will not make him as sick! I’ll update soon and let you know how he does.

Sweet Home Alabama.....oh so sweet

After our not so good news yesterday, we decided to fly home for a couple of days. It's going to be a short visit, but it is doing our hearts good to see family and friends and be in familiar territory. Dave's mama and sister were waiting for us at the airport....oh the emotion when we saw them. We surprised our kids : ) I got to hold my new nephew William....so sweet! Got to see my sisters, brothers, and mama and daddy. Now I am looking forward to going home, our home.

Results

Today's results from the CT scan were not what we had hoped for. The tumor has actually grown a little. Dr. R was disappointed and so were we. The plan now is to change the chemo drugs. He is going to discuss Dave's case on Wednesday and he is due to start round 3 on Thursday. He is still planning to do radiation and surgery as scheduled. The surgery should be in April or so. One bit of good news today was that the pulmonary embolism was gone. Dave is doing OK. It seems we just get bad news at these visits. But we are still hopeful for good results with the next round. I am thankful today that we had such a good weekend with friends. Dave laughed alot and that was good for me to see! Continue to pray for us.

The last few days have been really good for Dave. He has been walking on the treadmill, trying to build up his strength. The kids left on Wednesday with Mama and Daddy. It was so hard! Everybody cried!! I cry every time anyone leaves. We got to skype with them once they got home and they were running around, laughing, hugging their cousins......so that made us feel better about them leaving. Dave and I are homesick. We know we are in the right place for him to get the best treatment, but we miss our friends and families terribly! Tomorrow is the big day. He will have his first scan since having chemotherapy. He has an appointment with Dr. Ravi on Monday and will begin round 3 of chemo that afternoon. So next week will be busy with going back and forth to the hospital for treatment. I am so thankful the kids will not have to be here. I hope they have a couple of weeks to not think about cancer. I sent their schoolwork with them. My Daddy is responsible for making sure they do their work each day :) They are right on track, and will be ready for 2nd semester after Christmas. Dave has been teaching the girls Latin for the past year and a half, but I'm thinking about maybe teaching them a little Spanish next semester. Houston is such a melting pot. We hear lots of different languages everywhere we go. So maybe we should start learning one. If anyone has any ideas for a good, inexpensive Spanish curriculum, please let me know.

I will let you know how the scan goes. Have a good weekend!

Today after church, we went to Bass Pro Shop. The kids got to get their picture taken with Santa and of course told him what they wanted for Christmas. Samuel loves that store. He could stay in there all day. Dave has been feeling good the last few days. His scan will be Friday and the we will start round 3 of chemotherapy. The kids are looking forward to getting to go spend some time with their cousins. They have missed them so much!! They will get to meet baby William for the first time. : ) They will also hopefully get to see some of their friends. Being out here is hard for them. They have to be quiet in the apartment, they can hardly go to any part of the hospital, and when Dave is going through treatment he feels so bad. I want them to have fun, play, and just be kids for a couple of weeks.

So this our tree this year. We made most of the ornaments on the tree. The only ones we didn't make were the ones mama brought from our house that I had bought after Christmas last year...they were on top of all the Christmas boxes in target bags and easy to get to!


I love this picture of us with our bracelets. Reminders to pray and also to bring awareness to this horrible! horrible! cancer!