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!

Farewell to Nigel

Today is a very sad day for our family. Nigel, our black lab of twelve years, had to be put to sleep today. This past weekend Nigel collapsed several times. He had very little strength and every movement zapped what strength he had left. Our kids slept side by side with him on the living room floor last night, wanting to be close to him. I wasn't sure he'd make it through the night, but he did. For five months now, we have known Nigel was on borrowed time. It was late June when Nigel collapsed the first time and he experienced a total nervous system shutdown. Out vet made a house call and told us he could possibly live six to nine more months if we really baby him. I no longer took him on morning walks and he didn't go down our back stairs, but went out the garage door to do his business.

It was a rough time in June for our family; I had just begun chemo when Nigel had his first collapse and we knew he was not going to live long. It just seemed to much to bear to loose our dog of twelve years at such a trying time in our life. I remember praying so hard the day of his collapse that he would live long enough to make it through my treatments. We are grateful for that tender mercies that allowed him to remain with us through this summer and fall.

He'll be missed so much, but we know he is in a better place.

Passionately Pink for the Cure - Last Treatment - October 23, 2008

We were pink for the day! Lots of people had been asking me how I was going to celebrate going into remission and finishing 20 long weeks of treatment. I had heard about "Passionately Pink for the Cure" during Race for the Cure a few years ago and always thought it would be fun to do. Anyways, I hope any who wore pink that day had fun doing so. We raised $ 400.00 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation and looked cute doing it!. My day was great. It began with a knock at the door at 7am. My cute "ladies" (past YW presidency) came with pink cinnamon rolls, pink strawberry milk and had decorated my yard so cute! We all ate breakfast together and took some pictures -yikes- me in a bathrobe! They are the best! I will truly miss them Mondays and Thursdays (thanks for the laundry help!)

Next, Alison Cogswell picked me up for treatment. She was my last chemo buddy. We chatted and laughed with the nurses. Lauren kept Ashton since she is offtrack. My nurses were happy that I was on my last treatment of my final cycle. They asked if we were going to celebrate and I told them it had already begun. They said knowing you, you've got pictures to show us - Yes I did. So Fun. Next Liz and Al took me to lunch. Crazy how life gets so busy that you hardly get to see your backyard friends. Lunch was great.

Finally, Tracie and Anthony (Trav's sister and bro-in-law) had a little end of chemo celebration at their home that evening with both of our families. It was kind of funny because Trav had mentioned that it was at 7pm and with light snacks. We just kind of dinked around our home killing time and then we got a phone call from Tracie wondering where we were and letting us know we were late for our own party! It had started at 6pm. It was fun and very pink! Lauren passed out Passionately Pink pins and the kids all scattered to play with cousins. A special surprise of the night was a DVD that Tracie and Anthony made celebrating making it through these past twenty weeks. It was super touching and lots of tears were shed. I loved it! Tracie also presented the scrapbook that was written along with the wonderful pictures that Jen Dillon took at the Chemo Mocktail Party. It has been so fun to read all the well wishes.

It is strange being done. It hit me at treatment when the nurse congratulated me on finishing the treatments and then said, "see ya next week." It is true, I begin "maintenance" treatments of herceptin every three weeks and every fourth week a quick treatment of zomata. It's not ugly chemo and minimal side effects. It will be a breeze compared to chemo. It is just weird to have this disease be part of my life again. Someone asked me how long do you have to do this and I said the rest of my life. That is so weird to say. Life is strange. I truly look at things different. My eyes rest on things longer. I listen to people better. Relationships mean more now than ever. My prayers are longer, more thoughtful and sometimes I'm exhausted when finished. I love more - in so many ways. Travis is my rock. He rolls with my tears, fears and lame sarcasm. He doesn't let me get too down with the crappy diagnosis. He always says, "We'll deal with the bad when it gets bad." My kids keep make me so happy. Their sweet prayers on my behalf are so touching. Their "normalcy" is reassuring. I appreciate and love Garrett's desire to do good continually. I appreciate and love Lauren's creativity and sweetness. I appreciate and love Ashton's playfulness and charm - he is my "smart baby".

I can't express how thankful I am to everyone. The meals were so helpful. I appreciate the laundry help, baby sitting during treatments, the housekeeper from Utah Cancer Foundation, treats and drinks, amazing encouragement card (see pictures below) most of all the countless prayers and fasts held on my behalf. I know the power of prayer and feel very close to the Lord each and every time I pray. I love the Lord and put all my faith in him and know there is a plan and my life is in his hands.

Much love, Jules

19th Treatment - October 16, 2008

Today was my 2nd to last treatment - yeah! Tracie, my sis-in-law, joined me for chemo before our families both took off for a weekend in St. George. It is wonderful to have such a supportive and amazing friend who you can call your sister too! We hung out and worked a little on setting up a "Passionately Pink" day to celebrate my completion of 20 weeks of treatment and going into remission. Dave, my nurse, ran my chemo a little faster than normal to help us get out of there early.

You might have noticed this lovely handmade quilt that is keeping me warm during treatment, Natalie and Pamela made this for me as they noticed I always had a blanket on me in my treatment pictures. Super Cute! I love it. It has my favorite scripture D&C 84:88, plus flowers stitched on it.

As a way to celebrate the end of 20 weeks of chemo, I have set up a "Passionately Pink" day on Thursday, October 23, 2008. Here is a link to my site (You will have to "cut and paste" the link as I can't figure out how to get it to be "clickable"):

http://www.komendonations.org/site/TR/PassionatelyPink/PassionatelyPink?px=3363935&pg=personal&fr_id=1080

It is a day where you can donate $ 5.00 to Susan G. Komen Foundation and wear PINK to support breast cancer. At the Race for the Cure luncheon this year I bought Lauren a shirt that says, "When I grow up, there's gonna be a cure." I bought that before I knew my cancer had recurred, but I believe that statement to be true. When I look at Lauren I pray that she as well as all of the other millions of little girls will grow up knowing it was an ugly deadly disease, but that there is finally a cure.

18th Treatment - October 9, 2008

Bummer, but no picture this week. I went to St. George the past weekend with my sis-in-law and mother-in-law and left my camera at my dad's house. I had my nurse, Doug, take a picture with my cell phone, but Travis and I can't figure out to get it off. We've tried to email, but it keeps saying "failed". Anyways, no picture this week. I am grateful for Uncle Jon being my chemo buddy this week. He has Thursdays off and was a total sport coming with me. We enjoyed catching up and laughing with my great nurses.

I can truly see the end of chemo is sight. Just two treatments left. Yeah! This past week I have been exploring alternative/holistic ways to "manage" cancer. I have spoken to several "friend of a friend" regarding trying to do something to keep the cancer away now that it will be in remission. Travis and I also met with a doctor who treats cancer with diet/nutrition and high doses of certain enzymes. It all makes my head swirl. I will meet with another woman who treats people with different herbs next. It is a lot to take in and try and mesh with "western" medicine. I also have to be careful that it doesn't make the other drugs that I'm on metabolize differently. The only thing I am sure about is that I am super sick of chemo and ready to be done. I am very grateful for the hair I have left and need it to quit falling out. Finally, I'm grateful for Travis, Garrett, Lauren, and Ashton, and all of your good thoughts and prayers.