Fundraiser for Relay for Life

My dear friend Kim is donating her sales from her scentsy candles for our Relay for Life team.  If you go to Kim's Scentsy Page 

Look under "My Open Parties" for "Dave Swinney - Relay For Life"

Click on "Buy From Party" It's that simple! 100% of my proceeds on all orders placed here will go directly to Relay For Life in honor of Dave. Thank you in advance for your support! 

 How sweet is that?  Go check it!  I have several of these candles and I love them. This would be a great Mother's Day gift and it supports a great cause!  Thanks Kim for doing this!!

Also if you haven't gotten involved in Relay for Life yet and need a team...join ours,  Team Grace.  Just go here  and join.  It is looking like we are going to be home for the big event on May 6th and we are super excited! 

Six Months

Today, April 10th, marks six months since we packed up the Jeep and made the long drive to Houston.  We arrived at the Marriott at around 8:30 on Sunday night October 10th for what we thought would be a week long stay.  Well we know that's not how it turned out and we find ourselves six months into Dave's treatment.  Today was the first day in  many days that he didn't run fever.  We went down to the pool area around 6 and sat and talked while the kids swam.  How nice it was to just sit and have a conversation.  There have been so many days when he was so sick we haven't even been able to talk.  I have become so very thankful for little things like a cool night,  grilled hot dogs, talking to Dave, and watching the kids run and play.  This was a good night.  We are hopeful this will be a good week too.

Dave's fever continued to rise and he started having trouble breathing around 1 am.  We went to the EC....Sarah and Ron met us there and took the kids home with them.  The x-ray looked clear and all the other test looked good.  His white blood count was a little elevated.  Of course we have to wait on cultures but they went ahead and started him on antibiotics last night.  We are home now and his temperature is normal as of 10 minutes ago.  He still has a bad cough.  Please pray with us that he will be well enough to get chemo on Monday.  He usually has a hard time with the taxotere which he gets Monday. It's hard watching him like this. 

His next scan is Thursday April 21.  He will see Dr. R on Friday April 22 to get scan results.  Then we will leave on our long drive home.  We are so excited to be coming home for Easter.  We aren't sure how long we will be home.  Dr. R will present Dave's case again and let us know what the surgeon says.  I hope Dave is feeling much better then so he can enjoy his time at home.

BLOG UNDER CONSTRUCTION

I am working on our blog. If you have popped in for an update and have seen strange children at the top.....it's because I am not a computer expert and I am trying to do this on my own. I have literally been working on this for hours.  Ughhh!!!  So....stop back tomorrow and see how it turns out.

Dave is running fever and feeling yucky.  We are watching the temp and hoping not to have to go to the EC tonight. 

a few bad days

The last few days have been hard for Dave.  He is having flu like symptoms.....achy, bad cough, fever.  So far his fever has only gotten up to 100.5.  They want him to go to the EC (that's what Dave call it) or ER (that's what I call it) , anyway they want him to go there if his fever goes above 101.  Hopefully it will hold on below that and go back down tonight.  He is still having swelling in his legs and feet.  He had blood work labs done today and they all look good.  Please pray that he will begin to feel better before he has to go back Monday for the 2nd part of this chemo.  I hope the chemo is working.....but I also hope he never has to have chemo again.  It is just horrible what it does to him.  

my cupcake baker

Abby loves watching TLC. She watches 19 Kids and Counting, Cake Boss, and DC Cupcakes. There are probably other shows I just can't think of them right now. Every time I go to the grocery store she asks me to pick up some cake mix. Today she picked out green icing...maybe for Easter.  She has become quite the little baker. She mixes and bakes the cupcakes and then she lets Erin help her ice and decorate them. They look good and are quite tasty.

Dave had a lot of nausea during the night.  He said it was of the worst nights he has had since he began chemo.  He has slept a lot today.  I'm fixing him some yummy chicken n' dumplings for supper so maybe that will make him feel better.

Round 8 of chemo today.....well actually its round 6 of gem/tax, but he had 2 rounds of some other chemo first.  So this is what 8 rounds of chemo looks like.....not bad, huh?

He is doing ok today. He was having a little nausea but has taken some meds and is napping now. We saw the doc today. It was just a visit to make sure Dave was doing ok and address any problems he was having. Now we've got to get through this next three weeks of chemo and he will have a scan. Dr. R will take it back to the surgeon and see what they say then.  Dave will also be seeing a Urologist sometime in the next couple of weeks. The surgeon wants them to be involved since the tumor is in that area. We are super duper excited that we will probably get to go home for a week? or so after the scan. The kids are closing in on finishing English and Spelling. YAY!! Math will take a little longer. Science and History will probably take a little longer too. Our goal has been to get as much completed before Dave's surgery. Boy oh boy am I ready for summer!! Not quite ready for the Houston heat....but oh to be done with school!!!