Another holiday season in treatment

Well we left off in the last post withaudrey_cole Audrey recovering from surgery on her birthday at the Hospital in Houston.  She got discharged around noon and we went home to celebrate as best we could in our apartment we had rented in Houston.  While Audrey and I spent the night in the hospital Cole and Melissa had been hard at work getting the place ready for Audrey to come home.  They blew up and tied 84 balloons and filled a closet with them for her to dig through and find a little gift we had got her.  They also hung streamers and other decorations around the apartment to surprise her.  She really enjoyed it when we got home.  After that it was all about healing.  She was in quite a bit of pain but wouldn’t say it.  She was walking around all hunched over and we would ask her if she hurt and she would in a weak voice say she was good.  Each day got better and we just focused on healing and hanging out around the house for the next couple of days.

Thursday came and we saw our neurosurgeon and he said everything was looking great and we were cleared to go home.  We saw a few people on the way out and said our good byes excited to start getting ready to head home.  We spent the last evening with our friends Katie and Javier at our favorite place Little Matt’s.  It was a good way to end our trip.  The next morning we got up really early to finish packing and get to the airport by 6:30 so we had to leave at 5:30.  Everything went well and we made it hope safe and sound.

We spent the weekend resting and getting caught up a bit around the house.  We were exhausted but still had things we needed to get done before we start back with our local doctors on Monday.  Monday came and the pathology hadn’t come back yet which caused us to cancel the appointment and reschedule for Tuesday.  I did my job and start working the Houston team to get results and by that afternoon we had final confirmation the tumor is the same ERMS tumor that we had fought before.  Now we could sign off on our treatment plan and get the port put back in and start chemo.  With the short week we had a small amount of time to get chemo scheduled but our medical team did a great job of pushing through the insurance approvals and getting us all setup.

This morning we arrived at the Hospitalaudrey_childlife at 6:30 for our check in to get the port put in and start chemo.  Since we are already in for the port and we are doing 2 new chemo’s we all thought it best to spend in the night inpatient.  The surgery went well and last about an hour.  We had an Anesthesiologist that we haven’t had before and Audrey didn’t wake up as quickly from his mix of meds.   Will need to get the records and see what he used different this time.  We finally got to our inpatient room around noon and we have just been hanging out getting hydration and then chemo.  We finished chemo about 30 minutes ago and have just started our 12 hour post hydration and we are expecting to be released sometime tomorrow morning.

When I started writing this post I looked back on my post from last year.  As I wrote that post on the day before Thanksgiving last year I was sitting in this same spot.  We were getting chemo and we were very unsure of her future.  Last year I was just thankful for having a family of 4 and knowing if it would ever be 4 again.  Well God saw it to give us another one and we will fight for the next and the next after that.  What we have learned along the journey though is we have to take each moment and create lasting memories and not worry about whether the next will come but that we enjoy today.

I will end this post like I did last year.

Don’t worry about the perfect meal or the perfect party.  Don’t worry about getting the perfect gift or decorating the perfect tree.   Just make perfect joyful memories because that is what truly matters.  Only God knows the beginning and the end and the rest of us just have to enjoy the time we are given in every moment.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Eat, drink and have fun!

2 thoughts on “Another holiday season in treatment

  1. Thank you for letting us know how everything is progressing. We will continue to pray for the whole family in the coming months.

  2. Your family is so strong to still be going through the routines that you have so little control over, but to still have Audrey in your arms makes it so worth it! Stay strong and enjoy the holidays the best you can! It’s so great to see Audrey and Cole smile so brightly!!

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