the Saturday evening post

The last two weeks. In pictures.

Two weeks ago today, our little group of girlfriends, mothers, and daughters celebrated my mom's birthday, along with those of our friends Jane and Cari, with lunch at Caritas Village. Mom didn't feel much like celebrating last month when it was actually her birthday, but she's feeling much more like herself now. :-)

Last week my Aunt Bernie came to town, and she and Trish had a mini high school reunion with their girlfriends (My grandmother, Uncle James, and I were there, too, but we were just innocent bystanders). As usual, I was the group photographer. 

A week ago today I got to wake up to this smiling (and squealing) face after having a sleepover with my friends Ashley and little Nolan! Later we chased (and I do mean chased) Nolan around my backyard and snapped some pictures. Mom helped with the chasing (and catching) and later noted that it was the first time she'd held a baby since surgery. :-) Not for long, though - that boy is BUSY!

On Sunday we went to church and lunch with Halle's family to celebrate the baptism of her big sister Cierra! We hadn't seen them since October so it was great to catch up and spend some time with our sweet girl. Until we had to say goodbye, that is. That's never fun for anyone. :-(

Yesterday morning I gave some shots with Shots on the Spot, which is owned by our friend Cindi (sometimes I work for her on my days off . . . my "play job", as I like to call it!), and later Cindi and I crashed a press conference at the FedEx Forum to welcome our favorite basketball player back to Memphis! We are so excited that Shane Battier is playing for the Grizzlies again!

We got to talk with Shane for a few minutes after the press conference (just as super-nice as he's always been) and then we were interviewed by the news! Mom was proud that we didn't sound like total rednecks or say anything stupid. Check it out . . .

Tonight my dad and I went back to the Forum to see Shane and the rest of the Grizzlies in action. We won. It was fun. I'm a total groupie and I don't even care! :-)

As previously stated, Trish is feeling more and more like her old self each day. She's felt closer to normal these last couple of weeks than she has in six months. Being off chemo has made all the difference in the world! A month ago you wouldn't have seen Mom going out to lunch or laughing all night with her friends or holding babies or going on Target runs. It's so great to have her back! Her appetite's better than ever, though her eating habits are forever changed due to her remodeled digestive system. Her energy level's getting better every day. Her blood counts were almost back to normal when she went in for her Herceptin treatment a couple weeks ago. Her hair's still falling out, but we think we see some new hair starting to grow back! She saw Dr. B (surgeon) earlier this week and he continues to be very pleased with how she's doing. And she still gets a "treatment" every Monday, thanks to you guys.

The biggest issue Mom's having right now is sleeping. She's trying to come off her sleeping pills, but she's sleeping terribly (or not at all) without them. And she's also started having what seems to be restless leg syndrome in last few weeks (so sometimes that prevents her from sleeping even if she does take a pill). This is totally new to us, so if anyone has any tips on dealing with RLS, we'd love to hear them!

Thanks for your love and prayers. :-) 

puppy love

No, really.

  

 

The neighbors have puppies. Thirteen of them.

 

And they are beyond adorable.

 

Trish gets some puppy therapy.

"Somebody get these kids off of me!"

 

That's all. Cute puppies. Carry on.

a Valentine's Day proposal

Quit freaking out - I'm not talking about me. I have a proposal for you. A prayerful proposal, that is.

Most of you Team Tricia peeps know that Mondays are usually my mom's chemo days. And, since she is currently not getting any chemotherapy treatments (praise the Lord!), you know that prayer is our chemo. So here's my proposal. I propose that every Monday still be Mom's "chemo" day. In other words, pray for Tricia on Mondays! I know that many of you try to pray for her every day (and I am certainly not suggesting that you stop!), but I also know that life gets busy and prayer lists get long. It's sometimes hard to keep up with all the prayer requests. So I'm asking that Mondays be the day you remember to pray for my mom. 

It's been such a blessing to know that so many people are praying for us. If your family has gone through a time like mine has these last past few months, you know that prayers don't always come easily. Sometimes we just don't feel like praying. Sometimes we feel like we've said all we can think to say. It's during those times that knowing that others are praying is such a comfort to us. During Mom's last scan, I was sitting in the waiting room by myself waiting for her to come back, and I was a nervous wreck. After praying the same prayer over and over again all morning long, I finally decided to let myself relax. And I was only able to do that because I knew others were praying for me (as in, praying the prayer I wanted to pray, not actually praying for me specifically, though I know that was happening, too!). And of course on the day of Mom's surgery last September, I don't think anyone in my family would have been able to breathe all day long if we hadn't known that so many people were praying for her. Because of everyone's prayers, not only were we able to breathe during those long eight and a half hours, we were also able to eat, visit with friends, and laugh!  (Good thing about the eating part, too, because there was a lot of good food brought to us in the waiting room that day.) 

Many of us will still be praying daily for my mom, but I would love to know that there are some extra prayers being sent up on Mondays (I mean, seriously, who doesn't need a little extra prayers on Monday??). I would love for Mom to be covered in prayer every Monday for her weekly "treatment."

And this what can be on your Monday prayer list . . . 

• April 18th is Mom's next CT scan. This will be a huge test as Mom will have gone three months with no treatment (at least not the conventional kind). Pray for another clean scan!
• Complete physical healing for my mom. Healing from surgery, healing from chemo, healing from breast cancer, healing from pancreatic cancer.
• Complete spiritual healing for my mom and our entire family.
• More Jesus! Whatever the future holds, we want it to include more of HIM. We want God's glory to be revealed in every part of this journey. We want people (ourselves included) to come to know Him better as a result of this totally unwanted experience in our lives.
• Thanksgiving and praise for the AMAZING things God has done in my mom's life. And for the AMAZING things I believe are in her future. :-)

So . . . Tricia. Chemo. Prayer. Mondays. Got it?

Love to you all. Happy Valentine's Day!

Oh, by the way . . .

I can't believe I forgot to mention that my mom's latest (from January 24th) tumor markers for breast cancer were NORMAL! Her markers for pancreatic cancer (Ca 19-9) were also normal. We're certainly glad about that, but the Ca 19-9 marker is very unreliable so we don't put much stock in it. We'll rely on CT scans to check her PC status. And we'll rely on prayers and hope and friends and Jesus to keep us from going crazy as we wait for the next scan.

I wonder how many of Dr. T's patients' "report cards" look like that.

Way to beat two kinds of cancer at once, Trish.

the Saturday evening post

I've been a bad blogger. I know this. Fortunately there hasn't been too much to blog about around here. :-)

Throw up has shown up at our house a few times this week, but guess what? None of it has come from Trish! On Sunday night, my little brother Jamal came down with the dreaded stomach bug that's going around. Somehow the rest of us were able to avoid it . . . or so we thought until Tekia threw up early yesterday morning. But, as it turns out, we're pretty sure her symptoms were related to a migraine (she's had a similar experience in the past). So no stomach virus here! I'm so thankful that my mom didn't get sick as something like that could easily land her in the hospital.

Speaking of Trish, she's doing great! She still has good days and bad days, but lately the good days have far outnumbered the bad. She's been able to do lots of normal (old normal) things like eat lunch with Tekia at school, go shopping, go out to eat, and even cook a few meals herself. She's stopped losing weight and her appetite is much better. And she's now able to tolerate a lot more foods than she has been since surgery. This week she even attempted Pei Wei for the first time in four months! She's still low on energy and gets tired easily, but that gets a little better every day. Most of her chemo/Tarceva side effects are getting better (GI issues, skin rash, energy level), but she's still losing her hair bit by bit. :-( I mean, seriously, this round with cancer has made her sicker and changed her life more than any other, does it really have to add insult to injury by making her lose her hair for a third time?? We're hoping and praying that the hair loss will stop soon. She's got lots of shopping to do for some clothes that actually fit her - she doesn't have time to shop for a new wig!

Keep the prayers coming. I must go to bed now before the Saturday evening post turns into the Sunday morning post.