"Maybe Christmas perhaps, means a little bit more"

Last December was quite different than this December which I am quite grateful for. So happy to have Eric here and healthy this Christmas. He is an amazing man and spoiled his girls this year!

Christmas Eve and caroling with the Holman's was really great! Christmas morning was fun at our house and a yummy breakfast at my parents! 

Our beautiful girl!

Tayvia and I at the lights at Temple Square.

Oral Chemo Check-up

At Eric's check-up today things went really well. Eric's blood tests came back great and continue to show improvement in all area's. He started his LAST oral chemo today and we will go back to see Dr. C in four weeks.

In case you are curious as to what the pills look like. Also, on occasion when Tayvia goes with us to the Utah Cancer Specialists clinic she loves to look at the fish tank!

Our Christmas Card this year. 

Throwback Thursday

Eric had a doctor appointment yesterday. Just a check up to see how this round of oral chemo is going. He is on the anemic side...red blood cell count is at 29. So Eric is prob feeling tired but his red blood cell count has been steady so they aren't too concerned.

I'm sure you have all seen these pictures before but I thought it would be fun to put them all together and reflect on this past year. Even though a lot of hard things happened this past year it honestly flew by...thank heavens! 

On Monday we celebrated Eric's dad's birthday. At the party in honor of Eric's diagnosis year mark his brother Russ bought him some nut candy bars and non nut candy bars to give him along with a card that a few of his family members signed. 

Doing Swell Part 2, One Year, and Thanksgiving

Eric is doing swell with his second round of oral chemo. He is about 9 days into this round.

Last Saturday Eric took Tayvia to cousin Oliver's birthday party at Chucky Cheese!

Can you all believe it's been one whole year since I started this blog? We are so thankful that Eric is still here with us today. He has been through so much and has been such a fighter. We are also so grateful for all of you. We couldn't have made it through this past year without your continued love and support.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Justine's brother Jesse got home from serving his LDS mission the day before so it was an especially wonderful holiday! (please don't judge my google translated spanish poster)

This is us with gifts from our sweet Snarr family reunion.  We love the blanket that was signed by everybody and a grateful for the donations and sweet cards.

Round 1 Oral Chemo check up with Dr. C

     Eric's appointment went well today. His dad Gayle came with us too. Both of Eric's white and red cell counts are on the low side but not worrisome. Platelets look good and his markers are normal. He weighted in at 159! So awesome!

Daddy daughter fun!

      We weren't shown the CT scan like we have before but Dr. Chandramouli said both scan results came back good. There are nodules left in the brain, lungs, and liver but they are continuing to shrink!! So with tumor markers at normal levels and nodules shrinking means that there is no active cancer in Eric's body. We weren't given a rate at which they are shrinking. Can the tumor nodules shrink all the way away...yes. It depends on the size and how many. In the future it's an option after Eric is done with the maintenance chemo (about 10 more weeks) to go in surgically and remove what is left. It's not something we would rush into because we want to see if the nodules keep shrinking.  I have mentioned before but will remind you that some nodules can grow in place called teratoma. Once the nodules start doing that then they will be removed. After the oral chemo treatment is over we will re-due scans and check tumor markers and wait to see if the nodules keep shrinking. He will continue to do the Etopiside oral chemo maintenance for two more rounds. The second one starting today. 

Tayvia is on the left. Eric on the right. Love their big brown eyes! Cuties!

     We talked about Eric having the hives but it's likely related to the Bactrum so Eric switched to Septra and will take that instead. Eric has a cold but no fevers or green mucus which is good.

     We also talked about Eric's hearing. Dr. C wanted to know if it a safety issue? No. Does it affect work? No. (Many have asked if Eric has returned to work full time..yes) Therefore there is no rush to get his hearing checked again or rush to get hearing aids. We will wait and see how it improves on its own as the little hairs in his ears grow back. Yes, he likely has some permanent hearing loss but so do people who work in loud construction type jobs. I guess I'm the only one who will need to be patient with it. The loud music, loud movie/t.v. volume, and not being able to talk quietly will have to wait. Like any of those things are a big deal anyway right?! 

Scans

Eric had his scans this week. MRI of the brain and a CT of his abdomen. Tayvia and I took him to the CT scan. Everyone loved to see how big she has gotten since they saw her last. Tayvia also makes people in the waiting room smile when she is very excited looking at their giant fish tank. The Utah Cancer gal's also love to see Eric dressed up in his work clothes. They make cute comments like, "you look good all dressed up!" We meet with Dr. C Wednesday to discuss how his first round of Oral chemo went and to go over his scans. Eric did have hives this past week but not sure why. He took Benadryl to help with itching and I think they have subsided. I know Eric doesn't think they were a big deal but he needs to go get looked at any who. I think it's just a change in medication that came from a different manufacturer??

A few picture from our anniversary trip to Jackson Hole.

We started the weekend off with facials and pedicures. My Auntie Karen hooked us up with a free room upgrade at our sweet hotel. I love her! We went to a 3D showing of Thor and had a blast exploring Jackson!

I got 5 heart balloon for Eric and attached a picture and note from each year of marriage. Some gorgeous shots of our beautiful drive around the Tetons.

Amor.

Love n Junk!

Doing swell

Well how long has it been how that Eric has been taking oral chemo...12 days into this first round of it. While Eric is getting ready for work in the mornings he takes his anti nausea medication along with a few others he takes in the morning. Then he grabs his chemo pills and takes them when he gets to work with a glass of hot chocolate :) I haven't noticed any changes or side effects from it. He doesn't complain of anything either which is good. 

At Eric's check up today everything went well. Vital signs and blood counts look good. A little anemic but that's expected and will continue until he is done with treatment.

 We celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary this week (say what?!) and Eric has scans next week.

It seems as though Eric was able to come out of hiding(as I call it aka resume life as normal) just in time for Halloween festivities.  We were pretty busy in October with lot's of fun places to go, people to see, and of coarse costumes to wear.

Saturday we went to the Heber Valley western music and cowboy poetry reading. It was lots of fun!

The start of oral chemo pills and a few picture from our weekend

Out for a reverence drive on Sunday.

                                         Eating snow                                            Greeting dad as he comes back from hunting

The hunters and silly nephew Denzil

Playing Slap Scrabble

Swinging on the swings.

Digging potatoes. (note: Eric wore gloves and didn't work directly with soil. He can't put his hands in soil until next spring.)

Not sure if she likes the goats or not.

Playing in the rocks.

Eric took his first oral Etoposide pills this morning. Will let you know how things are going throughout. He was just starting to get fuzzy facial hair too. We still love him with out hair though!

We meet again Dr. C

     Yesterday afternoon we had an appointment with Dr. Chandramouli. Can I just say that its SO much nicer to only drive to 3900 South instead of downtown? They always take Eric's vital signs and do blood work to start the appointment. Everything looked good. We have a game plan for the next and final phase of treatment. Today Eric is 32 days our from transplant. Around day 60 is when he will do new CT and MRI scans. According to Dr. Einhorn (remember me talking about him before? he pioneered the treatment for TC?) Your results for being cured are either the same or better when you follow up the two bone marrow transplants with three rounds of oral chemotherapy. So starting Wednesday of next week Eric will start taking Etoposide for 21 days and have a week off. He may experience all of the side effects of chemo like before so including hair loss which I know he can't wait to have a mountain man beard again! About a half hour before taking the pill he will take a preventative anti-nausea medicine. We also scheduled a couple clinic visits during and after treatment. 

A little video of our fun trip to Lagoon thanks to my work!

ps. Eric's tumor markers are awesome! His HCG level is at 2...a 2!!!! They also track the Alpha Fetaprotein which when Eric was diagnosed it was normal but some recent blood tests it has come up slightly elevated. Right now it is at 15.3 and before the second transplant it was at 24.5 so at least it has gone down. I believe a normal level is 10 but I'm not for sure. I'm surprised that Dr. C didn't go over these with us at our visit but we will talk to him soon and get the scoop.

Exit Conference

     Eric had his Exit consultation with the Bone Marrow Clinic. First he had a clinic visit where they draw blood for labs and then a PA will come in to ask Eric how he is doing, go over medications, up coming doctor visits and check him out. Once we were done with that we met with Dr. Petersen and Greta(our coordinator) to discuss an exit strategy.  Eric will be on an anti-viral (prevents shingles) for a year, an anti-bacterial (pneumonia and lung protector) for about 3 months, and various multi-vitamin supplements for a long time.  The bone marrow was considered a success because Eric's marrow returned and is healthy.  He is still anemic; it appears kidney and liver function has not been harmed from the treatments.  All and all Dr. Peterson was very positive and happy that Eric reacted so well to the treatment.

   

The beautiful country of Fairview Canyon

     As for the question about what is happening with the cancer, well we don't really know yet.  They typically will do new scans after day 100 of transplant (today is about day 33), but said in my case they will recommend scans at day 60.  Eric will be transferred back to Dr. Chandramouli and has a meeting on Tuesday to talk about the new direction.  Eric will probably take Etopiside chemotherapy pills for maintenance to continue towards cure and to be cancer free.  Eric feels great, has been eating well, exercising and all in all in good health.

Eating snow for the first time.

atv ride

                                        Each Round of Chemo creates white in Eric's fingernails

Grateful for divine love

Some days are hard and some days are really good for all of us no matter what is going on in our lives. I thoroughly enjoyed the LDS General Conference this past weekend. Some great reminders that helped uplift my spirit for sure! Here are some cute posters that I found on pinterest that highlight some great quotes from conference.

In the moment it is hard to see past what is troubling you but Christ is always there with us. He knows how we feel and can help us through anything!

That Satan is a smart one. Trying to make us doubt our faith. No sir. It is what keeps me together and happy. Of course family is a big help too!

This was a huge changing point in my life when I was in junior high. Do I want to live in darkness of the adversary or the light of Christ?  So happy that I have chosen the light and have Christ on my side. He is my strength.

And oh does it feel like our maximum sometimes? Although I have never thought why us and have only yearned to become a stronger person because of our trial.

This is my goal. To become spiritually refined from my caregiver experience. 

 Elder Holland also added his testimony that Christs love for us, is here for us whether we are happy or sad. I know that many of you have asked, maybe twice even...what can we do for you? Although I have rarely asked for physical help you have all helped me spiritually and mentally which has been most helpful. More than you will ever know. Later in his talk Elder Holland summed up being a caregiver perfectly. Sleep. Don't be overwhelmed. Have Patience. Cherish every day. The dawn will break.

I leave with you my love and testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ. All things are possible through him.

Life is so much fun with them! Wouldn't trade it for anything. And so glad that we will be together forever!

The word

Thanks for being patient and waiting for me to give you more details about how Eric is doing. So Eric's doctor appointment on Friday, Sept 27th went well. They were happy with the results of his blood work. White blood cells were at 4.8, red blood cells at 30.5 and platelets at 89. I had a couple questions for the doctor. So in the booklet that they gave us in the beginning I read that Eric needed someone to drive him to his appointments. I kinda took this as he really shouldn't drive? So I have been doing most of the driving and he has gone a couple places on his own. I was reading the side effects of the medications that he is taking right now and none of them say that you shouldn't operate heavy machinery or anything so I asked if he was ok to drive. They were like yea he is fine as long as he doesn't take x and x medications and he feels ok in his mind to drive(not dizzy or anything). Wheew. He feels like a free man now! (ps. all things that I do as his caregiver I do out of love and concern for his well being not to be mean and strict as I'm sure he may feel sometimes. Thus the rebellion of not wanting to wear his mask among other things??..)

We love our neighbors! They have made us a few of these bad boys! YUMO!

My other question was concerning when Eric can get his line out. Because over that particular weekend Eric's dad had invited him to go hunting moose in Colorado. The doctor said that she could not give her blessing. It would be too risky being out in the middle of no where with a line in, because any bug traveling in your body could make it's way to his line, attach itself and make Eric really sick. We checked with the people who would be taking Eric's line out if they had time that afternoon to do it but they didn't. After much begging and pleading Eric knew that it was more important to be safe than sorry, and Tayvia and I are more important than any hunt. The next weekend Eric wanted to go hunting (elk) down by the cabin. We knew that Eric was well enough to get the line out and he wouldn't need it anymore so we kept bugging the BMT clinic and our coordinator so make sure that after his next clinic visit that Eric would be able to get his line out to make it possible to spend a weekend at the cabin.

Out for a bike ride. I occasionally make it out there with them depending on if I'm ready for the day or not. But I also think it's good daddy daughter bonding time too!

On Friday, Oct 4th Eric had a clinic visit in the morning. His blood counts came back as good or better as the last visit. White blood cells 6.2, red blood cells 29.8, and platelets 224!! At each appointment the PA goes over medications that they have Eric on, meds that he doesn't need to take anymore, and meds that he will need to take in the near future. It looks like Eric's kidneys have figured out what to do with potassium but not magnesium, so Eric can stop taking potassium but he may be on a magnesium supplement forever unless his kidneys figure things out. He will need a flu shot and a booster in 6 months. A year after his transplant Eric will need to get immunizations just like he did as a child; need to build his body right back up again. Eric has been taking and will need to take for a year Acyclovir to prevent fungal infections. He will start taking Bactrim on Wednesday and take it for three months to help prevent pneumonia. We will need to schedule a couple appointments for the first of November to see the hearing doctor, get an MRI, and then see a neurologist to see if Eric can stop taking keppra (anti-seizure). After Erics 'exit' conference on Friday we will go back to seeing Dr. Chandramoui (which btw I forgot to tell you that while Eric was in LDS hospital for his last transplant Dr. C was doing rounds of some of his patients on a different floor and remembered that he had some patients on the BMT level and he stopped in to say hi. It was good to see him again.) I believe in about two months Eric will orally take itopiside chemo pills for three months to top things off. The Godfather of treating Testicular Cancer has found the same success if not better to curing this type of cancer.

The night before Eric came home he had some visitors. His friends are funny!

Quick update

Hi! Just want to let you all know that the last couple of doctor visits for Eric have gone well. He was able to get his line out today!!!!!!! Yay!!! So we are busting out of salt lake county and headed to the cabin. I'll give a better update when we get back. Peace!

Follow ups

On Sunday the day after Eric came home from the hospital we took him in for blood work. Just to make sure that he didn't need any blood product (platelets were the main concern) and to see how his potassium and magnesium levels were. For some reason the potassium and magnesium have been strangely low after this transplant. Any way all was well.

They wanted us to return today to double check things (all was well again:)) the nurses are always so happy to hear that Eric is doing so well at home. (eating, drinking & walking) and on Friday he has a clinic visit to make sure that he is doing well after the transplant.

On Monday we were invited to go with our friends to the zoo. The weather was a little cold but I was happy that it wasn't windy and it wasn't busy at all this way Eric didn't need to wear his mask.

The aquatic part was probably my favorite! The seals were so fun to watch as they danced through the water. 

The Polar Bear was so fun to watch. I think it knew that it was putting on a show for us as he would dive down and then back up in front of the glass where people were watching and then glide on its back. It would do it over and over. So cool!

Just through the front entrance is this ball water feature thing. It may have been Tayvia's favorite thing lol In the gift shop we had a hard time putting the $30 stuffed animals back on the shelf. Sorry Tayvia, we know you love stuffed animals but we will pass on these insanely expensive ones!

She was just the right size to fit in the hollow log, Elephants walking away from us and Tayvia's other favorite part were these statues!