Sorry for the lack of updates

Eek, I totally let the whole month of February go by without any posts. Let's see, in a nutshell, the Saints won the Super Bowl, we went to Mardi Gras parades and the day after Mardi Gras (Wed. 2/17) I had my 3rd chemo treatment. This last round really knocked me down and it took me over a week to really feel better. I've been saying chemo wasn't as bad as the first trimester of pregnancy, but this last time was right up there with the worst I ever felt while pregnant. Apparently the nurse forgot to give me my nausea meds in the pre-drip and I was soooooo sick! Bob had to take me back out to the cancer center that night for medicine and fluids and then I went back the next day for more. Nick and Vivian were out of school that week and thankfully my parents were down here for a couple of days so they could help with the kids. I've decided this is NOT going to happen again - I'm going to make them show me the bag and watch them hook it up! I'm only half-joking when I say I think I'm traumatized and I'm going to need the nausea meds before I even go out there next week for round 4. Part of the reason I hadn't blogged about it earlier is that it still makes me shiver and gag when I think about it. So on to better news.....

Monday I went to see my surgeon for a follow-up ultrasound to see how everything is going. The tumor is still there but it is definitely smaller -- yea! Originally it was 1.5 cm long and .9 cm thick. Now it's 1 cm long and only .4 cm thick. She also said it's a lot less dense and has less bloodflow. This means that for all the nastiness I've gone through, the drugs are working!!!!! We're going to keep on going with the chemo for 3 more rounds and in between the 5th and 6th I'll go back to the surgeon for another follow-up and to plan surgery. Once the surgery's done they'll decide whether I need radiation or not.

My goal is to get everything finished up by June 30th because July 1st is when our insurance year starts over with deductibles and co-pays. Yeah, I know it's an odd time of year for your insurance to start over, and this time last year I was really frustrated about it because Jake was due at the end of July. So basically everything I paid towards my deductible up to the end of June wasn't going to count towards the bills when I had him since I didn't figure insurance was a good enough reason to ask my doctor to induce a month early. But then when I was diagnosed with cancer four months later, it was kinda nice to know I had already met my deductible and put a good dent in my maximum out of pocket. Just goes to show you, even when you think something's a raw deal you never know how it might work in your favor -- God's got your back!

So now I'm halfway through the chemo and my next treatment is Wed. 3/10. Pray for less nausea because that is really the hardest part for me. And I'll try to be good and not to let another whole month go by before posting again. This means I may have to resort to writing about the really cute kids so all my posts aren't along the lines of "I'm sick... I'm tired... Now I'm feeling better...blah, blah, blah," so consider yourselves warned. :)