make glemonade

The week of Christmas was wonderful. It started with Early Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's in Grand Junction, which is a Christmas celebration the weekend (or so) before the real Christmas, consisting of my mom's family. It is one of the best family traditions we have. I am so grateful for the time we got to spend with all of them. We always have a small birthday moment for my Dad (12/17), my Uncle Dan (12/19), and me (12/9) and I am so spoiled to get to blow the candles out with these two every year! Eric overall did really well during all the celebrations. We wish he could have the Prednisone everyday because it seems to make him feel so much better. When it ran out the fatigue set in. He has also begun to experience tingly fingers on the verge of numb. Annoying, really, more than anything. Especially when you are the owner of an iphone. He is having a little more trouble typing so if you are receiving texts from Eric that don't make any sense, now you know why. He als...

The Good: As we headed towards Thursday, both of us increasingly became nervous for the meeting with the doctor and then chemo #2. You would think having done it once we would feel more calm, but that was not the case for us. Maybe it will come with time. From the moment we entered the Cancer Institute, however, everything ran like clockwork and we didn't have time to think about nerves. The woman working in Financial Assistance was ready for us as soon as we arrived, but I was more ready for her! I handed her my neat, 2 inch stack of paperwork, and she looked over it all. She was pleasantly surprised by my efficiency. Next, Eric was weighed... and please note this is in the good news section of the post. Eric is now a chubby 134 lbs. which is 6 lbs. heavier than the previous appointment. The nurse called him a heffer. Next we met with our doctor. She was excited about the weight gain and all the other progress he has shown since chemo #1. One of the tests they do on your blood is ...

Well, we knew it was coming, but we got all of these bills in the mail today! sigh. Eric has been doing decently well with the chemo. He has had a few symptoms: tired, strange tastes in his mouth, and a little nauseated at times. Not really much more than we have been used to the past few months. The other day we got a big surprise; one of his massive glands has shrunk to almost nothing in size! It is the first time we have seen something get better rather than worse in a long time. We are so happy! This week we had a lot of things happen. First, our heat really stopped working (it hadn't been very great for awhile), so we had to get that taken care of. It's been freezing in Provo as many of you know, but when we felt the heat pouring out of ceiling vents finally today it was like manna from heaven. Our dishwasher is also not working haha! Go figure. We are grateful for a good landlady that is quick to act when we call. A functioning dishwasher is on the way! We also got a new ...

Eric, Gav, John, and Pace Well the good news is we have a lot of news; the bad news is it is Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. It is narrowed down to one of two of the T Cell lymphomas: Anaplastic Large Cell (ALCL), or Peripheral T Cell Lymphoma (PTCL). Both are very rare. The chemo for each of these is the same treatment, called CHOP (the abbreviation for the four medications given). The doctor called this morning with all of this information and asked us to come up today for the first chemo session. We went and dropped off an assignment for school for me, then headed up to SLC. First stop: Fertility Clinic. Yes, the chemo makes Eric infertile at least for the duration of the treatment. It may come back after the therapy is over, we really really are praying that it will come back, but it sounds like the chances are good that he will be fertile again. And if he isn't, we now have an account at that bank. We then went to Huntsman to Infusion (which apparently is another word for chemotherapy)....

We are still waiting for results that we expected today. I know everyone was waiting for info, please continue to wait with us. We'll update as soon as we have new information. xOxoO.

... then you might have suspected how much our plans would change this week. Yesterday Eric went in for the bone marrow biopsy and they decided to keep him overnight and do the PT Scan as well. This was a change of plans we welcomed, despite the fact that I had to stay home while he stayed up there. We are very grateful that they did both procedures yesterday, so that hopefully we will know everything by tomorrow (again, here I am, trying to make plans!). They only biopsied one hip, and the only part that hurt was the needle to numb him, "like a hundred bee stings" I believe he said. Then Peggy and Eric waited in the waiting room until they fixed the scan machine and he was admitted to a room: the exact same room as the one we stayed in over Thanksgiving, in fact. One of the nurses didn't even know he'd left! We have a few updates on the condition of his cancer. First, they have narrowed it down to two types of lymphoma: Hodgkin or PTCL. We are hoping it is Hodgkin, b...

This week is littered with doctors appointments for Eric. Thankfully Peggy, Eric's mom, is in town for the rest of the week, so she will be here to cart Eric back and forth from Orem to Salt Lake. I, unfortunately, have to continue going to school for the next couple weeks. This is the schedule for next week. Monday : A bone marrow biopsy. Actually two bone marrow biopsies. They will be extracting from both of Eric's hips. He is really not looking forward to this and I don't think anyone can blame him. Wednesday : PT Scan is scheduled. I don't think this will be painful, but I guess we have a lot to learn about all of this. A PT is like a CT Scan except it is your entire body. Thursday : This is the day we've been waiting for for a long time. We will be meeting with Dr. Gilbert and going over everything. By then we will know which type of lymphoma, and which type of chemo they will be doing. We have so many questions and yes, we have been writing them down. Look for...

I have considered creating a blog for some time, and with recent events Eric would also like to start blogging so that we can keep everyone up to date with all the crazy things that are happening in our life. For those that might not know, Eric has officially been diagnosed with lymphoma, which is cancer of the lymph nodes. We have yet to here if it is Hodgkins of Non-Hodgkins. Right now, all I have to say is that we are so grateful for all of our family and friends that have been here and there to help us get through the beginning of this unpredictable journey. Thank you for your prayers, thoughts, and crossed-fingers. I know all of these things will reach Heavenly Father and that we have already seen blessings from them.