Good News

Posted to the Desmodian Group that we are a part of. Just wanted to keep this for my records as well. We got some good news today....

My husband had a routine CT scan yesterday to check the size of his abdominal tumor. First of all, the stress of those is sometimes just TOO MUCH! Anywhoo..... Results are in and his tumor has continued to shrink since December! I am so thankful for this! He has had a very long road over the last 18 months. He came close to dying three different times. His isn't resectable due to being up against his mesenteric artery, and so when it grew quite quickly, he had 28 rounds of radiation and finished August 18th of last year. The radiation caused major internal bleeding and he had 21 units of blood transfused as a result. He hasn't bled for 6 months now and is continuing to gain strength. He's been back to work for 5 weeks after not being able to work since July. He started Tamoxifen back in September and will remain on that. Overall, his tumor has shrunk about 40%.

I guess what I want to say is this... Don't loose hope. We have been down some very scary roads, even more then I posted about. Some days are hard. Some days you want to throw in the towel and punch the wall. But some days, like today, there's a glimmer of hope that something is working. I continue to pray for everyone here who deals with these beastly things. It's a hard thing to deal with. Most people will never understand just how hard it is. I'm so thankful for this group. I have learned so much from you all and want to thank you for all the support you show to everyone here. We truly are a family. Much love to you all. 

One year.

One year ago today (Sept. 24th), our lives forever changed. One year ago Jared's tumor was discovered and he was rushed into emergency surgery to save his life from a tumor that completely blocked his small intestine. A desmoid tumor that is still in him because of the location and the risks of bleeding out in order to remove it. It's been one year of recoveries from major surgery to redirect his intestines around the tumor, sepsis, infection after infection inside the tumor because of the biopsies and the "communication" between the tumor and his colon due to the fistula connecting it, 18 days in the hospital the first month, biopsies, 2 PICC lines, chemo pill for six months, tumor growing, 28 radiation treatments, and now, one year later, bleeding internally from the radiation. Since August 18th, he's spent 14 days in the hospital with bleeding, 8 blood transfusions, and is now starting one month of feedings through IV only to hopefully stop the bleeding once and for all by giving his intestines a rest. On this year mark, we are still in the hospital. It's been a long year, yet it's been a super crazy, fast whirlwind at the same time.

But the blessings we have seen, the prayers we have felt that have lifted us in ways we cannot explain, our testimonies that have grown, and the closeness we have felt as our little family has gone through this is something we could not have learned in any other way. I know God is mindful of us. He has a plan. It is not an easy plan, but it will bring us back to Him if we take these trials and do our best with them. When we face these trials with faith and hope and still look for the good in life, He makes up the difference. He carries us. I am so thankful to all of you who have prayed and fasted for Jared and for our family. These prayers do not go unnoticed. We have felt them everyday since this whole thing started September 24, 2015 at 12:25 p.m.. And thank you for the countless ways you have served us. We pray for you all to be as blessed as we have felt.

Now on to year two. May it bring a better year for Jared with good health and strength.

Hunter: "Mom, where's your impendix?"
Me: (chuckling) "Do you mean your appendix?"
Hunter: "Ya."
Me: "Do you have pains? Show me where first and I'll tell you."
He points to the very front of his belly and then tells me it started right after I made him eat some soup he hates.
I showed him where his appendix is and told him he should be ok and to take it easy.

Impendix.
I love it!

Cody: "I'm lucky."
Me: "Why?"
Cody: "Because with how old you are, you are still nice. Old people are usually mean, but you are still nice."
Me (laughing!): "Ha ha! Well, thanks Cody!"

He always cracks me up!
He has been the sweetest kid to me on my birthday this year. He text me happy birthday right at 6:30 this morning when his alarm went off. Then more through the day. Lots of hugs later on and then a sweet, thoughtful present from him - 90 tulip bulbs and mint truffles from Costco. My favorite!!
Love that kid!!!

Cody Caught the Bug, Too

Cody was asked to bring a story about one of his ancestors for Sunday School today. I gave him my book that Mom and Uncle Ron put together and he found an ancestor he wanted to talk on - Aunt Mame. After class he told me he has to teach the lesson on how to do family history next week. I asked him if he knows how and he said no but that they gave him a couple websites to look up. After church he told me he created an account on one of the websites. He then told me how much he really likes family history and wants to start doing it.

Yes!!

He was so sincere. He said again he really likes it. I told him there's a special feeling with family history and he said he knows, he can feel it, too.

The Spirit of Elijah.

I love it!!!!!!!!

He Caught the Bug!

Hunter: "We learned about the pioneers and heard some pioneer stories in primary today. I want to learn more pioneer stories and about our ancestors. It's pretty cool!"

Me: "That's awesome! I love the pioneers. They have a special place in my heart. I love learning about them. I have a book that Grandma Kenison and my Uncle Ron put together of some of our ancestors. You can look at it and learn about them. There's some stories in there."

Hunter: "No, Mom, there's a website that you go on. It's something Jesus. I can't remember the website name. But it tells you all about our ancestors and stories. We are related to....um....not Joseph Smith, but..."

Me: "Brigham Young?"

Hunter: "Yes! We are related to Brigham Young."

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that Hunter has caught the bug. I love family history and learning about our ancestors and where we come from. I am SO excited he wants to learn more about them.

Guess I need to check if we are related to Brigham Young now. :)

Planting Flowers

Hunter has been off track now for a week and a half. On days that I work, he goes to school with me and works all day in the library. The librarians absolutely love him and he is a great help to them. He knows how to check in and out books, restock shelves, aid in putting up new bulletin boards, and has helped rearrange shelves and deep clean the library. He loves being there and begs to go in even on my days off.

So naturally, when I have Wednesdays and Thursdays off, you can imagine how bored he gets being the only kid home. Today seemed to drag for Hunt. We ran a few errands which bored him the whole time, and once we got home, he sat in front of the tv because he couldn't think of anything else to do.

I somehow talked him into planting flowers with me. We had ran to Shopko and bought some flowers with a good coupon I had, and now we need to get them into the ground. It took some coaxing, but he finally came out. His job was to dig the whole the flowers were to be planted in. He chose that job and ended up having some fun doing it. We had planted about 3-4 different flowers when he started talking about the dead people underneath. I thought he was asking if there were dead people buried here, but he quickly explained that every time we planted a flower, it was for the dead person they had just buried. Apparently we were planting a cemetery, Ha ha!

Oh, this kid has quite the imagination!