Treatment 4 of 12 / Christmas and New Years!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends!  I have to say, this was one of the best Christmases I've had in a long time.  We weren't exhausted from having to go to 100 places in 3 days, but still got to spend time with the people we love so dearly!  Everything was really put into perspective for me this year.  I gave attention to the parts of Christmas that are important to me, and I didn't worry about any of the other stuff.  It worked out nicely-highly recommend it!


This is Charles if you don't know.
He is practically the 5th Lilly brother!

We are officially 1/3 of the way through treatments!  This time our friend, Charles, took Matt to his chemo appointment the day after Christmas. (side note: the 26th was my first date with Matt 6 years ago!)  Normally Matt has blood work the day before, but since it was Christmas they had to do it that morning.  He usually begins treatment around 8:30a.m. and we are out of there by 12:30p.m., but this time they didn't get to start until almost 11:00a.m.  Any other day this would have been no big deal, but this was WVU bowl game day, and the game was at 1:30p.m.  Luckily they had recorded it, which is good because if you know anything about Matt and Charles - WVU football is life.  They made it home about an hour into the game, so when I came home from work, Matt was laying on the couch dozing off between plays while Charles, Chad, Jordan, and Matt's brothers were all watching the recorded game.  I thought it was really sweet that they waited to watch it with him, even though he couldn't keep his eyes open through most of it.  We are just so thankful for them and their friendship. (Charles will say that last part has too many "feelings" lol).

Tons of people ask me "How is Matt?" and I always say "really good, he is doing great!" because I feel like they don't actually want me to tell them that all of the suckage that comes along with cancer.  In reality, as the treatments go on the symptoms get more extreme.  I know I am stating the obvious, but cancer is really inconvenient!  Touching, eating, or drinking anything cold burns or feels like thousands of needles going in his hands or down his throat, which is really fun with it being 9* outside! The nausea is more severe, and the medication that used to take care of it is barely touching it now.  The port makes his neck very sore, and when he is hooked up to the chemo pump at home it is hard to lay in a way that is comfortable, so he is exhausted and just wants to sleep, but he can't.  I could go on and on, but overall he is doing okay because these are minor things that are more uncomfortable/annoying than anything, but it's still not fun!  Thank you to those of you who continue to pray for us, and please keep praying!
On a happier note, we are looking forward to 2018! I don't want to jinx myself, but I keep thinking this year HAS to be better than the last.  I love setting goals for the new year, so I am working on my list.  What are some things you're trying to accomplish in 2018?


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :)