round 4

Dave had his chemo treatment this morning. I was able to be with him for part of it. The kids can only stay in the children's room for 2 hours, so I had to go get them. We ate lunch and waited on Dave in the lobby. He has not felt great today. He is very tired and battling a headache. I have also been feeling bad today. I think I had a bit of a stomach bug and was simply exhausted. I stayed up really late every night while we were home and just kept saying I would rest when I got back to Texas. The kids started back to school today. Dave did their History, Science, and Latin with them today. He is planning to do these subjects with them this semester. We are all settled back into our apartment. We are glad to have my sister Lori coming out Saturday to help us a little next week. It's always best when we don't have to take the kids to the hospital. Thanks for the continued prayer and encouragement. Now.... I am going to get in bed early tonight!!

We are sitting in the airport in Atlanta as I type tonight. Our flight is a little delayed so I had some time and thought I would share some thoughts from the past week. We have enjoyed being at home so much. We got to sit and chat with so many of you. Our house was full for 8 days and we loved every minute of it. I cleaned out closets and organized rooms at night after everyone else went to bed........I can't even tell you how good it made me feel to do that. Dave got to go to the church some and he got to spend a little time at the school. He cleaned the band room and organized it really well. Dave is funny about how his classroom looks. He likes it very neat. Every day before each class he straightens the chairs. He also did this at Hill Crest in the choir room. I would not dare to try to help him because he would just come behind me and do it over. He is very OCD about things being in order.....now you know something about Dave you may not have. :) But I digress. I wish I could have spent more time with some of you. I would love to have had coffee with you and talked about your plans for the new year. But there wasn’t enough time. We got to go to Grace Fellowship Sunday morning. What a sweet church family we have. It was a perfect morning. We got to see most of our family except for those that were sick :) Samuel got to play with his swords and run in the woods. Erin and Abby played with their baby dolls and Barbie’s. We danced with the Wii. We laughed a lot. Coming home was good medicine for all of us.



Now as I sit here on the plane with Samuel talking to me non stop, as I drink my ginger ale and eat my pretzels, I find myself ready to be back in Houston. Ready to get this done. Ready for the results of the scan on January 25th. Ready for this tumor to be gone. Ready to come home for good.

Looking back on 2010

I decided to write down my thought about 2010. Let's just start from the beginning.

**January. Happy New Year. Back to school. Very cold. Lots of sickness in the Swinney house...the flu, pneumonia, stomach viruses, sinus infections. yuck. good riddance January.

**It snowed in February. Beautiful snow. We spent alot of time helping mama and daddy work on their house. It was a very cold month.

**In March Dave and I went to Hawaii with the band and choir from Donoho. This was a great trip. We had so much fun. The kids spent the week with family in Talladega. We were away from each other for 8 days. Little did we know at the time how much time we would be separated from the kids this year.

**April. So much to say about April. I was sick alot during April. I had to have my gallbladder removed on April 14th. What a nightmare that turned out to be. I spent 12 days in the hospital because of a leak in the duct of luschka . A rare thing to happen, but of course it happened to me. This was another big span of time spent away from the kids. Our dog Charlie died this month also. We loved that pup. He was our first family dog. Erin and Samuel played soccer this Spring. The girls took SAT's.

**May was a month of recovery for me. I came home from the hospital with a drainage tube in my side and was still very sore. Dave was a wonderful nurse. He took really good care of me. He was mommy and daddy for a while. He had to do all of his jobs plus all of mine. Abby turned 10. She also had a piano recital. We finished school and began our summer break.

**Erin turned 9 in June. We were enjoying summer bliss. Swimming, skiing, fishing....just being lazy and enjoying it. Dave and I celebrated our 12th anniversary at a little cabin in the mountains. We got a new pup...Copper (he now lives at my sisters house).

**Dave went to Russia in July. He was gone from the 14th to the 26th. It seemed like forever to us. We missed him so much. The kids and I spent alot of time at the lake while he was gone. It was a very good trip for Dave. On this trip he started having pain in is side and back. The day after he got back he went to the doctor. They sent him for a CT scan.

**August was a BUSY month. It was also a month full of waiting. Dave was sent to a doctor in Birmingham on August 9th who biopsied the tumor they found with the CT scan. They sent the biopsy to Johns Hopkins and it took a long time to get results. Either Dave or I called every other day checking to see if we could get results. Dave turned 37. We started school. Erin was taking violin. The girls started taking an Acting class. Samuel started Karate.

**September came in with us still waiting on test results. On September 8th our lives changed forever. This is the day we got the news. Dave had cancer. What? Really. Surely not. Well if he has cancer its not the bad kind. Its going to be an easy fix. We were somewhat in denial of what was in store for us. But I think that was good in a way. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. My new job other than wife and mommy was now going to be to get Dave into a sarcoma center. So the process began.

**We had our first appointment at MD Anderson on October 11. WOW. We were totally not prepared for what we heard on that first visit. . We had to wrap our minds around the fact that things were worse than we thought and we would be living n Houston for about 6 months. Our kids came out after two weeks, we moved into an apartment, Dave started chemotherapy, and we learned to adjust to our new life....we are still learning.

**Samuel turned 8 and I turned 36 in November. We got a brand new nephew named William. Dave continued chemotherapy.We made our first trip to the MDA Emergency room. Scary! We had Thanksgiving dinner with Mama and Daddy in Houston. The food was Delicious. We continued to be thankful for the little things like Dave feeling well enough to go to the park or walk on the beach.

**December brought lots of visitors to Houston.It also brought news that the chemotherapy was not working. The tumor had grown. Dave started a new regiment of chemo. We visited the Space Center and Houston Zoo. We got to go home for a visit. We had a Merry Christmas in Texas.

I must say I am not sad to bid farewell to 2010. I am kinda glad to see it go. I am continually hopeful for what 2011 will bring. There are many good memories from 2010. There were also some really hard times in 2010. So...what have I learned in 2010? Hmmm...let's see. I know how thankful I am for family. I always knew how important family was, but going through a crisis reminds you. I am thankful for sisters who love my children almost as much as I do. I now know personally that God uses the prayers of His people to get us through some hard days.` I have seen the best in people this year. People who don't know us have sent us cards. Our church family constantly encourages us. Gods people from all over the country have let us know they are praying. It's been truly amazing!! I have learned to enjoy every day. We should all live like we are dying....because we all are or will eventually. I hope the New Year brings good news about Dave's cancer. I hope to be a better mother. I hope to be a better wife. I hope to read more, exercise more, eat better........you know all those things I want every year.

So Happy New Year from the Swinney's. We are entering this new year hopeful.

He has shown you O man what is good; and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Doctor Visit

Todays visit with Dr. R went well. He was not happy with the fact that Dave had not been given his steroid and assured us he would handle that. Dave will begin his next round of chemotherapy on Jan 6. This is the same Gem/Tax that he just completed. Now that we know he is supposed to take the steroid it should not be such a bad round. His Next CT scan is scheduled for Jan. 24. Then he will see Dr. R on Jan. 25. This is a day we look forward to and dread all the same. If the tumor is shrinking we will move on to two more rounds of Gem/Tax. If the tumor is not shrinking or has grown we will stop chemotherapy and start radiation. Then have surgery to remove the tumor. The reason it is so important for the chemo to work is that if it shrinking the tumor we know that it is killing the seeds that may have traveled to other parts of the body. It has been amazing how God has given us grace to make it through this. I have to take this minute by minute. Yesterday we went to Bethel Church. The pastor talked about Gideon. Most of us know the story of how Gideon defeated the Midianite's with 300 men who were armed with trumpets and jars. He didn't have the biggest army and all the latest equipment. Why? Because God didn't want the Iraelites to be able to take credit for the victory. You know how we like to take credit for things God does. No one else would be able to take the credit for the victory. God really used this to speak to me yesterday. Whatever God chooses to do with this cancer, He will be glorified.

Well, now I must go get packed. We are heading home for 8 days!!! Hooorayyyy!!! I can't wait to see our family and friends, go to church at Grace Fellowship, sleep in my own bed, drive my van, and see those beuatiful mountains. If you are not busy tomorrow night the 28th, you should watch The Kennedy Center Honors as our friend Jamey Johnson honors Merle Haggard. Gotta love that old country music :) I hope you all have a Happy New Year. I'll check back in after the first of the year, unless something really exciting happens that I really need to tell you!

Christmas

This is what our house looked like on Christmas day. We sure missed being home on Christmas. It was cold in Houston....but no snow!! We did have a good Christmas here though. It was emotional for me and Dave as everything seems to be lately. We could learn from our kids though....they said this was the best Christmas ever. They are happy as long as they are with us. We enjoyed having family here for a few days before Christmas. We went to see the new Narnia movie on Christmas Eve. We also went to the Christmas Eve service at Bethel Church. It was a very worshipful service. Christmas Day was good. The kids got lots of fun stuff. They each had a gift card to Target that a sweet Secret Santa sent to us. Instead of using it for themselves they wanted to buy me and Dave a gift. So Dave and I got some fun gifts too! Our Christmas dinner was Chinese Buffet. I thought it would be quiet and not crowded, but apparently alot of people eat Chinese buffet on Christmas day. We are looking forward to going home for a few days. Due to the New Years holiday Dave will have a break in his treatment. This will let us spend about a week in Alabama. Maybe we will get to see the remnants of that snow at our house.

Down below is a slideshow of our December in Houston. Enjoy the pictures !!

Create a slideshow

Wow. What a busy week this has been. My days are beginning to run together. Dave has been feeling better today. We found out he was suppose to be taking a steroid along with his chemo. How did this get overlooked? Not sure. But it seems he would have had a much better weekend if he had been taking the steroid. Maybe we could have avoided a trip to the ER. Well its neither here nor there now.....we just have to make sure to ask more questions and not let this happen again.

We have been enjoying the week with family. I have had the best time with my sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews and my mama and daddy. Yesterday we all went shopping......a man walked by us and said.....wow, you are a big pack of people. That made us laugh. It was a fun day. We went to the Bass Pro Shop and then walked around an outdoor shopping area. Today we all went to the Johnson Space Center. This was great!! We went on the tram tour and got to go see the control room which was totally cool!! Afterwards we went to a neat little town called Kemah. We walked on the boardwalk and let the kids ride a couple of things. We got back to the apartment around 7:30. Then Tracy, Lori, Giny, Mama, and I went to the Galleria and Target. This was so much fun. It has been so good for me to get to spend so much time with them this week. We laughed til we cried tonight. Then of course we came home and cleaned up and washed a couple of loads of clothes. : ) We had a picture taken of all 20 of us at the space center today...I'll post that soon. Well it's really late so I should try to sleep.....or go wash more clothes. Hmmmm....hard decision. Any way, Dave see's Dr. R on Monday then we get to go home. yay!! If you don't here from me again, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.