A Christmas Miracle

Oh, my heavens. I don't even know where to start on describing the last few days. We have had a mixture of both good and bad.

My parents and brother arrived Wednesday, and we thoroughly enjoyed our few days with them. Because of previously scheduled events such as meeting my new oncologist and some church outreach, our time went by much too quickly. We also celebrated Camden's birthday (a bit early) - more on that later.

We spent July 4 at my sister's house having an indoor picnic. The weather was kind of insane all weekend long - to the tune of 73 degrees and pouring down rain. Crazy weather for July, right?

Friday while Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Matt, and Aunt Liz took the kids out for lunch and bowling, Brian and I headed to Vanderbilt to see my new oncologist. It was a very long appointment (mostly because Dr. W had failed to forward any of my records/scans). We're basically starting from square 1 (to use her words) and evaluating where my cancer is right now. To quote Dr. Crispens, "if your body and your disease have somehow found a balance, then a break from chemo is reasonable." Let's hope my body and disease are still in balance.

I should have CA125 results today, and my scan is scheduled for July 17. I see the doctor July 19 for results and discussion on what the next step should be. I can't even tell you how much easier the waiting is when I know exactly when results will be available. With Dr. W's office, I never knew if it would be 3 days or 3 weeks before someone would call with results (or even IF they would let me know). At Vanderbilt, all my records are available online, you see your doctor for scan results (48-72 hours after the scan) and the nurses actually contact *me* to make sure everything is scheduled.

ETA: Nurse just called me to let me know my CA125 was 16.5. Not only am I thrilled it's still stable, but can't believe they actually called me to let me know. It's like a Christmas miracle. Without the Christmas part.

In the middle of all the excitement of the last couple of days, I developed some fluid on my ears that turned into the some of the most miserable hours I've ever spent, including all my surgeries and chemo problems. Dr. Crispens looked at my ear Friday and determined it was viral. At that point, it was mildly irritating. The pain increased throughout Saturday. Enough that I missed our outreach event Saturday as well as shopping with my mom and Liz. Shopping, people! I went to an urgent care late Saturday afternoon, and he prescribed a strong antibiotic and strong pain meds (which I didn't ask for, but was extremely grateful for later in the evening). I continued to feel worse all evening, all day Sunday, and through Sunday night. It was incredibly painful, and even the prescription pain meds were only helping for brief periods of time. Thankfully I woke up with some relief this morning so I think the antibiotic is finally kicking in.

This is how bad it was. The pain from my ear was stretching down into lymph nodes in my neck and all through my teeth. I had to keep my head straight because it hurt to turn it, and when laying down could only lay flat on my back. I couldn't even drink coffee and I gave up ice cream because of the pain. COFFEE and ICE CREAM! ;)

Only a few pictures from the weekend. I left the camera put away most of the time.

Uncle Matt surrounded by kids.

Grandpa looking at his Father's Day photo book. The title says "The only thing better than having you as our dad is having you as our kid's Grandpa."

The only Independence Day 2013 picture.

Finally some sunlight on Saturday evening!