One Year Ago...

Can you believe that one year ago today, I was writing my first blog post for A Cup of OJ?! We were sitting in Dr. Siever's office today and realized that it was exactly one year ago today that this whole journey started...and what a journey it has been! Although cancer is not a journey anyone wants to go through, I'd say we've been pretty blessed thus far!

Well it has been a pretty insane couple of weeks! As I started writing I realized I haven't even written about the first biopsy (just a littleeeeee behind on the blog). They did a needle biopsy through the lung and it went really well. Dad was in and out in no time! When we got the results, Dr. Weiss said that they were non-cancerous. WHAT?! We were shocked. They wanted to do more testing so we got an bronchoscopy, the same procedure dad had a year ago that diagnosed the cancer. When Dr. Wright came out after he was finished, he said the mass looked like scar tissue, and much different than it did a year ago. They weren't official results, but I thought I was going to puke! 

<3

Food Coma

Well we got the results, and there are still cancer cells in the tumor...which is what we all figured. Regardless, I know God is still working his wonder on Dad and I am confident the original biopsy results were not a mistake, yet a sign letting us know God is still with us through this journey.

Dad started Taxotere on the 15th. We got to sit with Christine and catch up with her which is always so lovely. The chemo itself takes no time at all! We were out of there in under 3 hours! Dad has responded pretty well to the chemo so far. There were a few days last week where I think his energy level was lower than he would admit :). This week we think he caught the stomach flu, he couldn't keep anything down for almost a full day! Poor thing. He is feeling much better now though. Uncle John also got to fly in last week which was wonderful! They played golf everyday until they got rained out Thursday and we had to send Uncle John home.

They took probably 15 pictures...this one was the best and they still all have goofy, sun blinded smiles!

Breakfast date!

Our appointment with Siever went well today. Dad got a new inhaler because his wheezing has been pretty bad. He also showed us pictures from the bronchoscopy which was SO COOL! It was nice to finally see real pictures of what they see.

These are the pictures of Dad's left bronchial tubes. The bottom left picture shows mucous and cancer cells. They aren't sure what those white things are in his bronchial tubes, Dr. Siever thinks possibly scar tissue.

We have a pretty uneventful week this coming week, but start chemo again next Tuesday. Dad will probably look a little different next week when I post pictures, he started losing his hair today. Although everyone says it's "just hair", its a huge part of a person. Although I think Dad will look handsome no matter what, he thinks he has "an alien head"...direct quote. We all love you daddy, hair or not, cancer or not, you are our hero!

Love that smile! Dad did not love those burgers so much.

Comparison of Dad's lungs from July (right) to now (left)

New Beginnings

Happy New Year!! And I suppose I should wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas as well! I hope you all had an amazing holiday season, I know we did! Christmas was definitely the best we ever had, so very special. Dad and I went to mass in the morning, followed by the traditional breakfast burritos by Mom. We opened presents, napped, and went to see Les Miserables. The movie was so incredible...but the fact that we brought shrimp cocktail and fritos with onion dip made the movie 10x better. It was a great, great day! We didn't get around to sending out Christmas cards this year so here is our Christmas card picture for your enjoyment:

Typical!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took these while celebrating Kristen's 22nd birthday on the 20th. I can't believe she is 22! I tell her all the time and I know she gets so annoyed, but I still feel like she is my 13 year old baby sister!

Yesterday we met with Dr. K at MD Anderson. It was good to see Dr. K again, he was very chipper yesterday. However they did not hear anything from TGen! I was a little disappointed in TGen yesterday, but apparently they sent the paperwork and scans on the 17th... Dr. K had no idea what was going on so we had to fill him in on everything. Long story short, our plan now is to have the biopsy tomorrow and when we get the results go from there. We will tentatively start Taxotera on the 15th depending on what the biopsy shows (remember we are looking to find out specific chemo cocktails that could benefit Dad). Dad has been having some back pain which makes it hard for him to sleep so Dr. K prescribed him some painkillers so he isn't taking a million ibuprofen.

It felt like a lot had change had happened at MD...new nurses, new doctors, and twice as many patients. We could not believe how many people were waiting for blood work, it was insane! Not to fret though we still got to see our favorites Juanita and Christine! I also locked eyes with Jill...muahaha "we'reeeeee baccckkkkkk".

We are ready to take on 2013 and all of the new beginnings it will bring us full force! God has blessed us with a family full of strength and positivity which makes facing any and all new changes easier. Please keep Dad in your prayers tomorrow and in the next few weeks while we are awaiting results. We are so blessed for you all! Xoxo