Life with Helen

To day marks 1 year since Matt's cancer diagnosis.  As with most life-changing moments, it feels like yesterday while it also feels like eons ago.  You know what I mean, although it is so hard to explain.  God willing, this will be my last cancer related post.  This blog used to be fun and funny, and it is going to return to being just that! It's been a little over 4 months since Matt's last round of chemo, and we keep hearing "oh, you guys must be so happy!" And we are happy, but we keep waiting for that huge sigh of relief to come, and it just hasn't yet.  While we are extremely thankful for a good report - we now have a whole lifetime of hoping for good reports.  I think mentally healing from cancer is a lot like a breakup - you know how they say it takes twice the time the relationship lasted to get over someone - I think it's like that....maybe?  We experienced something tragic - and terrifying - and unbelievably difficult in SO many ways. ...

Writing blogs is Kell’s thing, so bear with me.  It’s harder for me to find the words to say.   I have a very long list of people I want to thank, and I’m sorry if I missed someone.  Thank you to my doctors, Dr. Saltz, Dr. Joggenpally, Dr. Eads, and Dr. Grandia. Thank you to all of the nurses at Thomas and MSK, especially Sabrina and Judy. Thank you to my parents co-workers at Dunbar Medical, my co-workers at Drug Emporium, and my wife’s coworkers at USDA Rural Development. Thank you to all the people who prayed, sent cards, money, gifts, food, etc. etc. etc. It was a huge help to us! Thank you to all of the church families who kept me and my family on your prayer list week after week. Thank you to all of our friends and family who checked in on us periodically and took time out of their busy lives to take me to therapy and keep me company. Thank you to my family, in-laws, my parents, and my brothers.  I can’t even list all of the things you all ha...

It’s been several weeks since I’ve posted any updates, and that is mostly because nothing too exciting has been happening.  We are just chugging along!  The nausea, vomiting, exhaustion, neuropathy, etc. has progressively gotten worse, so treatments have been a little harder each time.  The good news is that they have stopped giving him the Oxaliplatin to try to reduce the chances of having neuropathy long-term.  Some patients have it the rest of their lives, so we are praying that isn’t the case for him.  The other good news - I think I can officially say, he did not lose his hair!  They said it is about a 50/50 chance with this type of chemotherapy, and it looks like he was on the 50 that keeps it!  It definitely has a different texture and has thinned a little, but it’s still there!  The last piece of good news - ONLY 2 MORE!  It makes me want to cry saying that.  It has been a longggg 5 months, and I finally feel like we are seeing ...

The week before last was full of blood work, tests, scans, and various office visits just trying to figure out the best plan for Matt's port situation.  After several days of blood thinner shots every morning and night (which took a solid 5 minutes every time because neither of us could hold still from laughing.  I don't know why me giving him a shot was so funny?  And the poor boy looks polka dotted from all the little bruises, but I digress...) they determined the best plan of action was to either replace or repair the port.  He had that surgery last Friday, and they decided to remove the old port, and put in a new one on the opposite side.  He did not love it (as you can imagine) because he really didn't want any other procedures or surgeries, but I think he appreciated it more after having a much less painful chemo experience last Tuesday.  Ya gotta do what ya gotta do!  7 down, 5 to go!  He looks like he failed miserably at spray...

I definitely spoke too soon on my last post! *insert covered eyes monkey emoji* (by the way, emojis should be allowed in blogs!)  The last treatment was probably the worst yet. He has been having some minor pain in his neck for the past few treatments, but this last treatment it was almost unbearable.  There was absolutely no way to sit, stand, or lay comfortably, which meant no sleep.  Even with a sleep aid he was only getting 2-3 hours of sleep at a time.  Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Muscle Relaxers, massage, creams, salves, heat - we tried it all - nothing helped, but he was bound and determined to go to that WVU game, so off he went with his baggie of pain pills!  Annnddddddd then he came home with some type of stomach bug.  His immune system is down, so he had a really hard time getting back on his feet. We went for treatment #7 on Tuesday, and explained the neck/shoulder issue.  His Oncologist came in and poked around on...

First, I want to tell you about my life because this is my blog, and I like to talk about myself every once in a while! It has been an interesting couple of weeks, and  I WILL TELL YOU WHY. Rather than type the story, I will just include a video of my Snaps from interesting incident #1 on last Tuesdays snowy, icy evening... Soooo there's that.... Interesting incident #2 - If you aren't aware, I am a federal government employee, so I was forced to deal with all the shutdown mess on Monday, which carried into this week and really messed up my schedule! And then I woke up with a back injury.  Not really an interesting incident, but it's pretty annoying, and I have no idea how it happened. SO, my life is pretty great in case you were wondering! Okay, I will try to quit whining long enough to tell you all that Matt had a great birthday last weekend!  He doesn't do much on social media, but I know he loved the extra ...

I can't think of an amusing anecdote or anything interesting to start this post, so I will just jump right into it.  Matt will finish up his 5th treatment tomorrow, and my dad had the honor of taking him to his appointment this time.  I'm sure there was a lot of Mountaineer talk!  So far he is feeling about the same as the last treatment - tired, weak, nauseous, cold, no taste buds - that whole song and dance.  Never fear, Dr. Oz is keeping a close watch on his patient!  We are REALLY hoping he will be feeling better by the weekend becauseeeeeee IT'S HIS BIRTHDAY! YAY! In other news, we are currently working on selling our townhouse.  Now that it is completely empty, I plan on taking new pictures and posting them sometime this weekend.  I realize this is not a good time to list a house, but I don't enjoy paying for an empty house every month when we could really use the money to send to our besties at Thomas Hos...