10 days til Christmas

I can hardly believe its almost Christmas. All of our shopping is done and now we are waiting to see the family. We are excited about a possible trip home at the end of December. If all is well with Dave's numbers we will be coming home. He has felt amazingly well this round. An old friend of his came for a visit this week. They have enjoyed catching up and Dave has laughed alot! It does my heart good to see Dave feeling well and enjoying life.

Tomorrow he goes for the next dose of chemo which is Gemzar/Taxotere. He will see Dr. R on the 27th and if all is well we will come home. yay!!! I hope everyone is having a great December.

Until September 8, 2010 I didn't know what sarcoma was. We have become very acquainted with this terrible disease over the past few months. One thing we have discovered is that there is very little information and research on this type of cancer. I have linked several sites in the right column of this blog to sarcoma sites. I know God is the one who will ultimately heal Dave's cancer if he chooses to do so. I also know that He is using the doctors and their wisdom to treat Dave. My prayer tonight is that there will eventually be a cure for Leiomyosarcoma!! I am hopeful that this chemotherapy is killing the cancer in Dave's body. He is feeling good physically. Sometimes his emotions can wreak havoc on him. He tires easily, but has not had much nausea. Maybe I can get him to do a post soon. I would like to hear what he has to say....wouldn't you?

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.