Dad's First Chemo Treatment

My dad had his first chemo treatment on Wednesday. We had a nice, relaxing day at the hospital. We arrived at Schumpert around 8 (I ran a little late picking him up!) and had blood work, a chemo class, and a tour of the facility. We were excited to learn that Dad would have an actual bedroom for his chemo since it takes so long. Others have their chemo out in a big room along with 20 other people. We were glad to have a regular room. Basically Dad just read, watched TV, slept, ate, and visited. He had 1 hour of fluids, 30 minutes of nausea medicine, 1 hour of chemo, and 2 more hours of fluids. Cisplatin is a very strong chemo drug, so keeping him on lots of fluids is key...they say. It was a low key day and pretty relaxing. We were worried that he was going to be sick, but he had no side effects during the treatment. I enjoyed myself by sitting in the recliner with my feet up. I got to catch up on blogging and facebook. Neil and Carolyn both stopped by for visits. Neil brought me some lunch and chatted for a bit. Carolyn stopped by in between surgeries and then stayed until the end of the treatment at 4pm.

Here is the patient:

He was actually sitting up eating, but I got him to lie back down and pretend to read for the picture. Dad is the only person I know that puts on regular clothes to go to the hospital. I sure had my cotton sweats on. But, he always looks nice!

All of the nurses and volunteers were so nice and helpful. They even have a little room with snacks and drinks for the patients. Dad is a huge fan of the grape juice and graham crackers! I am, too! Neil said I was way too impressed with the snack room! All in all, it was a nice, relaxing day. Although we wish we would have been doing something different, it went better than we expected.

The next day, Dad had his feeding tube placed. This was a 20 minute surgery that went very well. He does not have to use it until he wants to. He was not excited that it was a little more bulky than they let on...but if it keeps him healthy...we are all for it!

11 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 11 Weeks

Size of baby: 3.73 cm

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Lost 1 pound

Maternity Clothes: All regular clothes

Gender: Can't wait to find out...hopefully in early March.

Movement: none yet

Sleep: I'm very tired. I am usually asleep by 8 pm. I do get up a lot at night already to go to the bathroom!

What I miss: feeling like my normal get up and go self

Cravings: Sweets always sound delicious

Symptoms: Feeling tired and nauseous

Best Moment this week: Going to the doctor on Monday and hearing this precious baby's heartbeat (I heard the heartbeat and then bought 7 boxes of Girl Scout cookies from the Ultrasound tech!)

Fetal Heart Rate: 173 bpm

Sunday School Party

Jean and Greg, members of our Sunday School class donated a Painting with a Twist party for our class. She had a great idea to collect donations for the Haiti Mission Trip that evening. I am proud to say that out class donated a little over $1,000 for the trip! Isn't it wonderful that our friends would give that generously? I was speechless!

Anyway, the party has been planned for over a month. We had to re-schedule because of weather, but still had a great turn-out. It was so much fun to hang out outside of Sunday morning.

I just love this picture. I think it turned out so cute.

Neil and me with our paintings. Wow. They actually look really good in this picture. If you were looking at them in person...you might not say the same thing!

It was so much fun! Thanks Greg and Jean!

Haiti Banquet

On Saturday night we attended the Haiti Gratitude Banquet at church. It was for sponsors, mission trip members, and people who wanted more information about the missions in Haiti. All of the Sunday School classes at church were invited to cover the cost of 1 person from their class to go on the trip. I am proud to say that our class is the only one sending anyone...and we are sending 2! Since Neil and Beau will be going on a mission trip soon, we got to attend. It was such a nice evening. We got to learn about all types of missions through the Global Orphan Project, Land of a Thousand Hills, and Living Water Ministries. It was so neat to hear about all of this cool stuff!

We even experienced a traditional Haitian meal.. I made sure to take a picture of the food to document on here. We had pumpkin soup, chicken in creole sauce, rice and beans, cole slaw, fried plantains, and my favorite...fruit salad!

Leigh and Beau enjoying their Haitian meal. Beau loved the pumpkin soup.

Me and Neil

I am so proud of Neil for choosing to go on this trip. I can't wait to hear about the life-changing experiences he will have!

Bennett Lately

Bennett has been growing and learning so much lately. He says so much that I wanted to try and remember it by posting it here.

He calls himself "Mennett." We don't know why because he can say his "Bs." I will say ba ba ba Bennett and he will say "ba ba ba Mennett!" Neil will trick him and say ma ma ma Bennett, but he will still say Mennett. We think it's cute.

He loves to sing. He sings Happy Birthday, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, Muffin Man, ABCs, and others. All of the songs are not the exact words, but they work.

He says things like "Hold you Mommy (or Daddy)," "want to go upstairs," "big hugs," and "don't want it."

A few weeks ago while staying at Nana and Granddad's... they served everyone gumbo and Bennett said "where my dumbo?"

He really loves trucks and motorcycles. Anytime we pass one on the road he will say "motorcycle" or "big truck!"

One thing we need to work on is sharing. He did not want to share with Mason the other day we were playing. I want him to be nice to his friends and his soon to be brother or sister.

He still loves any ball and is rather rough with them. He and Neil play games where they throw the balls at each other and it gets intense. We have to have rules for mom and rules for dad!

We are loving watching Bennett grow and learn every day. He is the joy of our lives and continues to amaze us daily!

10 weeks.

This photo was taken after a very bad day at work. I was so sick the entire day and had to drag myself off the couch for this picture.

I'm 10 weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 10 Weeks

Size of baby: a little over an inch

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Lost 1 pound

Maternity Clothes: All regular clothes

Gender: Can't wait to find out at our Gender Reveal Party that Casey and Erinn are hosting! I can't quit thinking about it!

Movement: none yet

Sleep: I'm very tired. I am usually asleep by 8 pm or earlier.

What I miss: feeling like my normal get up and go self

Cravings: I don't really want anything. Sometimes food makes me sick...just the smell.

Symptoms: Feeling tired and nauseous

Best Moment this week: coming home from work to get in bed.

Play Time

I had a few friends over for play time on MLK day morning. Since we don't have much furniture yet, our living room is the perfect place to play!

Erinn and Brown or Briggs? Help me out!

Casey holding Amelie. Bennett loved rubbing her little head. It was so sweet.

And the disaster that 5 toddlers can make! It was fun and they had a good time. Oh, this picture was taken 2 seconds before Bennett tripped over Baby B. It was so traumatic. Bennett was really embarrassed and Baby B was startled! I felt so bad for them!

We had fun and hope to do it again soon!

Doctors Appointments

We had 3 appointments on MLK day. So glad I was off to go to all of these appointments. My brother was off, too so he drove up from New Orleans for the appointments. I had my camera in my purse as always so we had a little distraction. My brother will take a picture of anything!

We picked up lunch at Taco Bell and headed to the Cancer Center. Here are Dad and Michael with his taco.

And let the random pictures begin...I brought my notes to write my thank you cards for my birthday.

The ceiling...

We got to Schumpert at 1 and here we are leaving around 5. It was an all day thing. Michael left straight from here to head back to New Orleans.

Now for the doctor recap:

Dad's first appointment was to have a mask made for the radiation. Every appointment was about an hour behind schedule. Good thing we had all day.

The second appointment was with Dr. Boniol, the chemo doctor. We really liked this guy. He had great bed side manner and was very thorough. We heard all of the options and decided to go with the cisplatinum chemo drug. This is what Dr. Boniol recommended. Dad will have only 3 chemo treatments each lasting about 8 hours each. The first one is 1/26/11. The main thing he said that Dad needs is lots of fluids. We will go in the next day after each treatment for more fluids. We have to be there on Wednesday at 8 am. He told us that this will be a really anti-climatic treatment for him. Meaning that he probably isn't going to feel too bad. Good News!!!

The third and final appointment of the day was with the GI doctor about the feeding tube. We met with the fellow first. I hope all of our friends who are just starting out being doctors sound better than this guy. We met with the doctor who will be putting in the tube and he was OK. We just got the facts and set up an appointment.

Family Birthday Dinner

I had an absolutely wonderful birthday weekend. I got to celebrate every day of my birthday weekend. Neil really outdid himself with planning yet another dinner for my birthday. I felt so special!

Rebecca came over from Ruston and brought her new friend, Jarrod.

Me, Mom, and Carolyn

Leslie made this gorgeous and delicious cake. Talk about fabulous. Check it out on Messy Aprons soon.

Leslie gave me the most thoughtful gift ever. She found a Wagamama cookbook at Barnes and Noble. Wagamama was our favorite place to eat in London. We loved it because it was good and you could get full on about 6 pounds. It was always a nice treat to our stomachs and pocket books. Thanks Leslie! She also gave me noodles and digestives to go along with it!

Bennett was a big helper.

I had 2 birthday cakes! I am a huge fan of the cookie cake.

So is Bennett.

I was so glad to finally meet sweet Eric!

Eric and Leslie=cuteness!

Neil and me

I had such a fun birthday weekend! Thank you to Amy, Richard, Janine, Leslie, Eric, Rebecca, Mom, Charlie, Dad, Carolyn, Jarrod for making it so special!

Mabry House Dinner

Neil made reservations at Mabry House (my favorite restaurant) for us for my birthday dinner. He made arrangements for Bennett to spend the night in Ruston with his parents so we could go. We had such a fun time talking and eating.

I love how Mabry House has your little table already picked out with your name on it.

Happy 29th to me!

We were on our way home around 9 pm and realized that we really didn't have to be home. Since we are old and I was extremely tired...we just went on home anyway. I was in bed asleep by 9:15! Thank you for a wonderful birthday dinner, Neil!

Friends Birthday Dinner

We had a great time with some of our friends for our birthdays at Texas Street Steakhouse. Me, Jared, Leigh, and Cole all celebrate a birthday in January.

Cole with his birthday ice cream.

Jared with his.

Leigh with hers.

And me, the biggest dork in America with mine!

The Smiths, Buteaus, Hannas, Bevilles, Raines, us, and the Montgomerys are (sort of) pictured here. You can't really see Neil, Jay, or Katie. Maybe next year!

Dad Update

We went to the doctor today and got a great report from the Radiation Oncologist, Dr. Chan. Glad to know we have some talented doctors working on my dad. Dr. Chan said that Dad will have 39 radiation treatments and they will be every day (Monday-Friday). He said that the treatments are really going to irritate his throat so eating and drinking may become an issue. To help this, Dad will get a feeding tube on January 27th. He doesn't have to use it until he wants to. They made it sound like it was a no-big-deal type of thing. He also said that every patient that has this type of radiation wishes they would have gotten the feeding tube earlier than they did...that is why we are opting for it now. He also said that he will not be able to shave this face with a razor because the skin will be so irritated. We have to get an electric razor to remedy this. I am so glad that someone told me to bring a notebook to write everything down, because I wouldn't have remembered everything!

We learned a lot about all of the different nutritional drinks and foods he will need to start drinking and eating. You would not believe how hard this stuff is to find. Good thing I like scavenger hunts! Biotene is about to be our friend!

The best part of the meeting was learning that the PET scan showed that the cancer did not spread! I was thanking Jesus right there in that room! It is such a praise and we know who gets the glory. Dad said that he didn't really hear anything else after Dr. Chan told us this information.

9 weeks.

(I always forget to keep my work clothes on for these pictures. I will try better next week!)

I am going to borrow Kelly's Korner pregnancy highlights list each time I update on my pregnancy. I want to remember these times!

I'm 9 weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 9Weeks

Size of baby: 1.7 cm

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Lost 1 pound

Maternity Clothes: All regular clothes

Gender: Can't wait to find out!

Movement: none yet

Sleep: I'm very tired. I am usually asleep by 8 pm.

What I miss: feeling like my normal get up and go self

Cravings: The only thing that always sounds good is Taco Bell!

Symptoms: Feeling tired and nauseous

Best Moment this week: Going to the doctor on Monday and hearing this precious baby's heartbeat

Fetal Heart Rate: 164 bpm

New Year, New Updates

Here is our non-matching back splash before the update.

This is the little bar area that had no back splash.

Ray Ray and Carlos did an awesome job. This is the demo...

And they finished after only 1 day of work! We are changing the light plate switches to nickel so they don't stand out so much.

A big fat thanks to Leslie (my awesome interior designer) for picking everything out! If you ever need design help... she is your girl! Whenever the installers would ask me a question I would say "let me call my designer!" It was fun because Leslie always had the right answer.

Bar area:

Oh and just because you try to do something fun and update your back splash...does not mean your dishwasher won't start leaking the same day. So, we had to get a new one.

And we love it even more. The thing we liked the most is all the money we saved at Appliance Outlet! My dear friends, Ann and Chris will be opening it next weekend. Check them out for all of your appliance needs!