Surgery tomorrow! 12/8/08

I haven't had a lot to report health wise or a while. Just the same old stuff - Herceptin every three weeks and Zomata every four weeks. However, today was a busy day, I worked this morning and then had an Echo at the Heart Center, followed by a pre-op appointment at Dr. Zempolich's and a pre-admittance appointment with a nurse at St. Marks. Tomorrow is the big day. I will no longer have periods! Yeah!!!!, but I might start having hot flashes or night sweats, yuck! Either way, in my remission game plan I can no longer have ovaries or fallopian tubes. They both produce estrogen and my cancer is fed by estrogen. The surgery is called LSC BSO (I have no idea what it stands for). If all goes well, the surgery will be outpatient. I should be home sometime in the afternoon. I'll be down for about a week and then hopefully feel almost back to normal.

I don't have my post-op. appointment yet, but I do meet with my oncologist again Thursday. Thanks for the good thoughts and prayers!

Garrett's Eagle Court of Honor 12/02/08

Today Garrett was awarded his Eagle Scout Award. This is the highest award one can earn in scouting. He began his journey towards Eagle when he turned 11. While 11 he earned his tenderfoot, 2nd class and 1st class advancement. His leaders, Rex, Bruce and Jeremy took Garrett and the troop camping three times and introduced them to scouting. Upon turning twelve, he started working towards his Life advancement. He worked on many required merit badges and began camping regularly. Ryan Colton was his scout master and was a great leader. The summer before Garrett turned 13 his troop went on a week long camp out - Hope of Israel. He had a great time and earned many merit badges. Shortly after summer camp, Nate Cox became the new scout master. He was very influential in Garrett's scouting experience. He really involved the scouts in decision making and they all set a goal to camp every month, even in the winter. Their camps involved winter camp, ice fishing and they continued working on merit badges. During this time, Garrett earned his Star advancement. Our ward was split in April 2008 and Dan Davis became Garrett's last scout master. They continued to camp a lot, mostly at Horseshoe Springs. He loved going to Camp Tomahawk this summer and earned the shotgun, archery, rowing, camping and other merit badges. Travis was able to go up and be with the boys for a couple of the days. He really didn't want to leave, but work called. Near the end of May, Garrett wrote up his proposal for his Eagle project, and then I got sick. We kind of put everything on hold for a few months until Dan Davis "bugged" Garrett and me to start it up again. Garrett made the necessary phone calls and flyers and organized his Eagle Project. The details of this project are on a previous post. All of the necessary interviews and paperwork were completed and we turned everything into the Boy Scout office the day before Garrett turned 14. Yeah! He met the goal that was proposed back when he turned 12.

Preparations for the Eagle Court of Honor began with me being educated on "How to" by Leslie and Trent Asay who had recently held their own court of Honor for their son Taylor. Bro. Allred conducted Garrett's Court of Honor. Garrett asked some of his former scout leaders to offer prayers and speak. He asked a couple of fellow scouts to do the music. Nate Cox, one of Garrett's scout masters gave an incredible talk about Eagles and how rare they are to spot and how amazing they are. The spirit was so strong while he spoke. Travis and I put together a DVD movie of Garrett's life and that was great to watch. A family friend of ours who is a mountain man, Leg Shot, did a short program on the symbol of the Eagle and Scout and Indians. It was great too. He was dressed in full mountain man gear, used paint on Garrett and they sat on a Buffalo skin. All the kids in the audience were way into this part. Finally, the part Garrett was waiting for, the presentation of his Eagle. He asked Dan Davis to present him his Eagle. Garrett present Travis and me the parent's pins and then awarded Nate Cox the Mentor pin. He gave a short talk about why he chose Nate and then thanked all of his scout leaders. Lastly, Garrett, his life long friend, Zach Anderson, Marsha Zach and Ashton Vandermyde, and Jake and Ali Lowry did a small orchestra's performance of Colonel Bogey. Garrett played his trumpet and they sounded great. We had great cake that was decorated by Heidi and Sherrie - it looked super! The night was so great! We so appreciate all of Garrett's leaders, friends and family. We are so proud of Garrett and this wonderful accomplishment!