January 4, 2007 - Back to Reality

Happy New Year Everyone!

We had a lovely Christmas at my parents' house - just relaxing, eating my Mother's homemade turtles, having other people hold the kids, playing high-pressure games of Jenga, and spending time with relatives. Jim was especially happy with the trip because his Mom, Dad, Aunt Shirley and Uncle John were there. Jim got to hit the trails on a snowmobile a couple of times. He also went ice fishing and took Rachel outside. The neuropathy didn't bother him at all, which was wonderful. We had almost two weeks of cancer-free bliss. At least we didn't think of it every minute of every day like we do at home.

Well, it's back to the daily grind. At least for Jim it is. He had chemo on Tuesday, pump out today. I've mentioned before how our brains can effect our bodies - this week is a perfect example of that. His last treatment was the week before Christmas. That week he felt great. He wasn't sick at all. He was a little tired, but he was so excited about everyone's arrivals and getting up to the cabin that he really wasn't negatively affected by the chemo. This week is different. He's tired and he's sick. He slept almost all day today.

Early this week we had a lot of decisions to make regarding whether or not to go back to New York for another scan and to meet with Dr. Kemeny. I'm sure she's brilliant, but the bedside manner on the people in her office is painful. There are problems with the scans. New York won't accept scans from Sheboygan, and Sheboygan is having a hard time reading the scans from New York. Most likely insurance only pays for one scan. We need to have consistent scans. So we opted to get all our scans here, and pay for scans in NY out of pocket. We are still hopeful that a liver resection is in Jim's future. In the end we decided to go to New York, albeit a week later.

Jim got two bits of good news this week.

1. Dr. Haid ordered another CEA test. Jim's CEA has gone down to 69.2 from 75.2. That happened in one month. We were delighted. We want his CEA level to be 5 or under, which indicates a normal level.

2. My Dad is the lead sales guy in his office, and because of that he won a trip to the Mayan Riviera. He asked Jim if he'd like to go. My Dad and Jim got scuba certified last summer, so they will be enjoying Mexico mainly under water. Jim got a scuba suit for Christmas. Regardless of whether they enjoy Mexico on land or in the water, I'm thrilled that Jim will be able to go on such a lovely vacation. The sunlight and time away will be good for him mentally.

Here's the difference between Sheboygan and New York. The vacation to Mexico is the same week as Jim's next scan. When they heard about the vacation in Sheboygan, they immediately scheduled his scan for the day before he gets on the plane. They also figured out how to move all his bloodwork and next chemo treatment so he could go and have fun. When I called New York, the nurse spent 30 minutes chewing me out and telling me that I was making a mistake. I didn't tell them in NY WHY I wanted to move the appointment, I just said that we needed to move it...I couldn't handle any more kvetching if they thought my reason wasn't good enough.

With the negative comes the positive. I can handle 30 minutes of being chewed out so that Jim can have fun in Mexico. AND this week I got my reward to last all of 2007. RACHEL IS POTTY TRAINED.

{Insert happy dance, or see the links at right for Manamana.}

Two days with our daughter diaper free. Life is good. There are signs everywhere. We just have to look for them. Some of the poop is literally being removed from our situation. I crack myself up!