A lovely evening on the lake

Our good friends Missy Jo and Josh brought out their boat Friday evening for a ride and some fishing. It was a beautiful evening and was perfect on the lake. It was so nice to get on the water...this is one my all time favorite things to do! It really feeds my spirit!

We weren't sure how Heath would do and if he would even feel like getting on the boat since he had just received his 4th chemo treatment. He seemed to be kind of crummy at home, but as soon as we got outside and on the lake, he was a whole new person. Its great what a little fresh air, good friends, and being on the water will do for a person. The kids had a pretty good time even though we didn't catch anything.

When we got home from our fishing trip, dad called us and wanted to bring us out a fresh bag of organic mixed greens and herbs from Farmer Bob. When he walked in he had a hat on...but I knew what he was up to! Sure enought he had shaved his head to support Heath! Its kind of hard to see in this picture, but it actually isn't half bad.

Chemo: Round two

Heath started his 2nd round of chemo today. His sis, Sheila took him to his Dr. appt and then to treatment. Its only the first day, so its hard to tell how things will go. Last week he went in on Monday to get bloodwork done and it turned out that his white count (neutrophil count) was too low. So...they started him on Neupogen injections to boost his count. Its usually an exception if someone DOESN'T have to get these injections. The minimum count that they want him at is 1.5...and he was at 0.5 on Monday. By Tuesday he was at 1.0, but he still had to get an injection. That afternoon and evening his back started to really be painful. At first we just thought it was his "normal" back pain that he gets occassionally, but it wasn't. It was pretty excruciating for him and he was having a really tough time moving around and finding a comfortable position. He took some Tylenol because he is allergic to Ibuprofen, but this hardly did anything at all. He ended up "sleeping" in the guest bed, but was only able to get a couple hours of sleep. He then came out on the couch and got a few more hours of sleep. When he went to bed I looked up side effects of Neupogen online and found that back pain is very common. This is because it causes your bone marrow to expand which puts a LOT of pressure on your bones. On Wednesday he had another blood count...which had only gone up to 1.1. He was pretty disappointed because he figured that with all that pain it should be at a 3.0. So, another injection....but also a prescription for narcotics. We forgot that he had some leftover from his surgery, so when we got home he took some of those. These seemed to help his pain significantly and he was able to move around a lot better and also get sleep. Thursday....more bloodwork and good news...his count was 1.9...which meant it was above the minimum, so no injections! His pain kept subsiding and he was able to quit taking any pain meds by the end of Friday. Saturday morning, Heath, Greg and I all went for a 26 mile bike ride...so Heath was feeling much better. He also (I forgot to mention) did a 56 mile bike ride about a week after his first treatment cycle. Yeah, I was a little peeved at first....but it really lifted his spirits and he said it felt awesome!

Anyway, today he had more bloodwork done and his count was up to 3.5! We are prepared for him to have to get injections regularly following his treatment weeks....but we will also be prepared with good pain meds too!

Grayson's birthday party

Wow....we have a ton of photos from Grayson's birthday party. We kept the party pretty simple and just mainly had family over to Papa's house on Sunday. The weather was fabulous....in fact, my Grandma said that there is only 5 times in history that we've had a sunny Memorial Day weekend (I wonder how far back that "history" goes though). Some of us dressed in our Hawaiian outfits...but everyone got "lei-d". I wore my Grandma's vintage (1960's or 70's) Hawaiian dress....I think Grandma enjoyed seeing me in it also. Heath's sister, Sheila came up for a visit on Saturday...it was great to be able to celebrate Grayson's birthday with her. Overall, Grayson had a great time...and really enjoyed spraying everyone with the water hose! Missy Jo got a little wet from Grayson, but she got really soaked when her own daughter, Isabella sprayed her!

The kids were having a blast running through the sprinkler! Missy Jo's daughter, Isabella got so wet in her clothes and she loved it! Greg was in charge of the grilling....and he did a fabulous job as usual....except for his smart-assing me about mixing the red meat with my turkey burger! Paybacks....

Godmama Krissy got Grayson his "dream" cake! It was perfect for him since he loves trucks and tractors (and chocolate!)

Grayson likes to say "cheese" for pictures...which sometimes makes an awkward face...so we decided to tickle him to get a "natural" smile!

My annual half marathon

This past Sunday was the Capital City 1/2 marathon (and marathon, 5 miler) in Olympia. We had the best weather....sun, but not too hot. Normally I don't wear my headphones, but I saw many people with them on this year...so I wore them as well. Usually there is some sort of rule about headphones, but I didn't see it anywhere in any of the rules and they didn't make an announcement either. I run with headphones when I train, so I knew it would be really nice to have them for a race as well. Anyway, it was great to have them. I was in my own little world this year and didn't pay too much attention to other people....I could run my own race! This was the best 1/2 marathon I've ever run (I think I've done at least 10)...I felt awesome! I didn't set any records, but it was the best I'd ever felt. I kept at a steady pace of 9 minute miles, until I had one mile at 9:30. I knew I would have to make that time up somehow. It wasn't too difficult because I ended up making that up and was also averaging under 9 minute miles. Even at the finish line I was still feeling good where I normally am totally wiped out usually feel like falling over at the end. This year I just ran through and didn't even have to take a breather. I really think that spin class has helped tremendously because it has helped with recovery time. Anyway, I loved it and its been awhile since I've actually liked running a 1/2 marathon. I'm looking forward to my triathlon in June!

My time was about 1:55:27 with a pace of 8:48/mile; 19 out of 91 in my age group. Last year I did 1:55:50...but this year I felt a ton better!

Birthday Boy

We all decided to take advantage of the last of our beautiful weather (for a few days), so we ventured down to the "Point" to have a picnic birthday lunch and do a little fishing. Grammie Sue and Pawpaw Aaron came last Wednesday to help us out and be here for Grayson's birthday. They have been working very hard and today was nice to get a little relaxation. We didn't catch any fish, but we had a nice time regardless!

Sue has been cooking and cleaning like crazy and has made us some meals that we were able to freeze for upcoming chemo treatment weeks. Aaron fixed our gates that have been broken for quite some time...this was a pretty big project too! He also mowed and weed-eated; fixed our fire-hazard light switch; moved some pieces of lumber that had been sitting on our driveway pad for years; worked hard at trying to figure out why our dryer doesn't seem to dry (the dryer works---the vent hose not so much); and did many other clean up chores. We are so grateful for all their help and really appreciate all that they've done! Grayson has really enjoyed having them around also and will surely miss them when they leave tomorrow.

Just a little birthday yummies...more to come next weekend.

Happy Birthday Grayson!

Its hard to believe that three years ago today (at 2:18pm) we were blessed with our little baby boy! We were so happy to finally have him join us...and our lives have been changed ever since!

Here are some pictures from the first days of his life:

And....here's our little 3 year old!

Happy Birthday Grayson!

We love you!!

Gotta watch my language!

Ok....so, sometimes I don't have the most impeccable language and things just slip out.  I definitely have a hard time pretending that I have perfect language when I'm around Grayson...I'm definitely "myself".  Anyway, about a week ago (Friday before last) we were over at dad's to visit and do a couple things in the yard.  Dad was on the riding lawnmower getting his "mowing therapy" in while Heath decided he would get the blow torch and fry some weeds around the place.  I mentioned to Heath that he should make sure that he doesn't start the Pampas grass on fire (this grass was about 6-8 ft tall).  Dad laughed and said, "yeah, I did that one year".  So, I go inside to get Grayson and as I'm coming outside I notice that Heath is running to the house because the Pampas grass is on fire!  So of course I say "Holy Sh*t!" because the thing was totally torched and was getting the other bush next to it on fire.  And, of course my kid is now going to start saying what I just said.  He just kept yelling it randomly and it was really quite funny.  Its not like he hasn't heard it before, but it really stuck this time.  Anyway, in the meantime Heath finds a bowl and fills it up with water...which barely did any good at all.  I'm running around trying to find a dang hose.  I find one, hook it up, turn it on and run it out there.  Yank!  Too short....oops sprayed Heath instead!  (Dad is laughing about now and wishes he had a video camera...he was quite amused by the whole thing and just sat there on his lawnmower watching us act like chickens with our heads cut off).  So, now I go find another hose and switch it with the short one.  By now some of the fire is out because Heath probably made about 20 trips with the water in the bowl.  It was quite a funny time!

The point of my story was that Grayson is still saying "holy sh*t" at quite appropriate times I might add.  Last week when the rain was pouring down I said "holy moly"....to which he says "holy moly sh*t!"  He also talked about the time when daddy started the fire at pop's house...."holy sh*t".  I try really really hard not to laugh when he says all this because it is quite funny hearing it from an almost-3 year old.  Anyway....today he did say "holy moly" with out the other part....maybe its out of his system.  By the way, he does know it in German too...but, for some reason this doesn't bother me.  

Chemo: Round one, day 2 completed

Just a quick update to let everyone know how Heath is doing so far with his chemo treatment. Yesterday, we met with a new doctor, Dr. Sui to go over his blood markers and ultrasound results and answer any questions we had. We still have Dr. Wang, but because she is only in that office on Thursdays and Fridays, we were given Dr. Sui as well so we could have someone to go over things with at any time. We both were pleased with him....he was very nice and intelligent at the same time and answered all our questions. So...it turned out that Heath does have a small tumor in his right testicle (2x2x1 cm approx). This explains where the cancer came from. Now we can officially call it metastatic testicular cancer. Sure makes it a lot easier to explain it to people now. Since it hasn't spread to any of his organs then he is still in a 'good risk' category.

Heath will be checked periodically to see how the chemotherapy is working. This is done by checking tumor markers in the blood. Many testicular cancers secrete high levels of certain proteins, such as alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). These proteins (called tumor markers) are important because when they are present in the blood, it suggests that there is a testicular tumor. A tumor may also increase the levels of an enzyme called lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). In Heath's case his HCG was 80 where normal is 0-4; LDH was 785 where normal is 550 (not too extremely high in his case) and is AFP was normal at 1.9 (normal is 0-9).

He will also be monitored daily during his week(s) of treatment with bloodwork to check his platelet count, RBC count and WBC count. If these numbers are not in the reasonable range then it can delay his treatment.

We were at the treatment center for most of the day yesterday between bloodwork, doctor visit, chemo treatment and chemo class. Today was a much shorter visit with just bloodwork and chemo. Things seem to be going well and he really hasn't had any nausea yet....just fatigue and a slight headache. This morning he looked pretty good and it wasn't till after today's treatment when he seemed a bit more off. As I write this he is out for a little walk in the sun (with a hat on....since he is more susceptible to sunburn). He receives anti-nausea meds through IV during treatment with oral meds at home. Because chemo has a cumulative effect he may not experience any nausea for several treatments or even until the next cycle.

Tomorrow we meet the natropathic oncologist at the office before his chemo and then he also will start accupuncture on thursday.