Quarterback sneak (The Results - Part III)

Liz has had a lingering, terrible cough for a couple of weeks now. Yesterday morning she woke up with searing pain on the right side of her chest. So I cancelled my work trip and we rushed into the doctor. X-rays were negative for anything related to cancer or broken bones. Hmmm... But we learned that you get to jump to the front of the x-ray line when you have a cancer doctor's nurse write "STAT" on the order.

Then Cohen's teacher told us that he was coloring and crying in the nurse's office with jaw pain, so Liz took him to the dentist then to the pediatrician. It turns out that he has a bad sinus infection that wasn't cleared up on the antibiotics he's been ingesting for the last nine days. Antibiotic switch. We learned that it helps to get into the fully-booked pediatrician when the dentist calls them first.

Now back to Liz.

Instead of having the cancer update CT scan on Thursday as we secretly had planned, we pulled it up to Tuesday morning, at the urging of the super cancer nurse. Like that's not supposed to freak us out. So here's the good and the bad news:

Good:

• The cancer has not spread to any new areas or expanded in any existing areas. WAHOO!!!! And her blood work still shows normal levels of the sciency things they track. Treatments continue to work swimmingly. We were really nervous about this test, the first one since she got the good news from the doc a few months ago. We didn't share the timing of the test until we could get the results ourselves. What a relief. So my quarterback ran a sneak and scored a touchdown against cancer. Go Team Liz!

Bad:

• Liz has a broken rib.

Her entire chest hurts when she moves, when she breathes, when she's lying down or sitting up. But it's definitely not related to cancer, so that's the silver lining here. She got some new cough medicine from the doctor and is curled up in her bed today. Ain't nobody got time for that. But here's hoping that she can get through the worst of the pain, that the coughing goes away, and that she's back on her feet quickly. Pumpkin carving tonight, trick-or-treating tomorrow, date night Friday... Gotta get well. Maybe she should be bundled up as a mummy tomorrow. Cohen and Jensen have been practicing, though I'm not sure their costumes will work well if it rains tomorrow night.

The latest Team Liz Logo submissions put a smile on her face, though. Thanks, Jen!

Go Team Liz.

Blue Ridge Parkway

South Carolina

The travelers

Quite an eventful couple of weeks. I intended to write like tons of bloggy stuff, but honestly, it is exhausting to think about the next test, the next treatment, the next anxious wait for results. I was waiting to blog after the results from her most recent scan, but it didn't happen yet (we had to reschedule for a few more weeks out), so I wrote nothing instead.

This is tough. Liz will continue going in for treatments every three weeks for as long as they keep working (and they are working). She will have scans every 3-6 months to make sure there are no surprises. I wonder if the nervous gulp in my throat will ever go away as we wait for each set of results. It's hard recognizing that cancer will always be a part of every major family decision, vacation plan, work trip schedule. Probably harder when the family is sick too -- Liz and Cohen can't shake the chest colds. But blood work is all still "normal" and all signs are good that she continues to recover. We are grateful for each day we have together, and the prayers continue to help. Thank you.

Liz called me last week, after we had returned from the trip and I was back at work. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hi babe."
Liz: "This is the first time I've been alone in 12 days. Just wanted to let you know. Love you, bye."

The trip to visit grandmas and grandpas was well worth it, and the boys cherished every moment. I need to see if I have some pictures of Grandma and Grandpa in Idaho with the boys. It was so good to see them after also spending a day or two with G&G of Utah. But the trek was tiring for me lady, especially since I left her for a few days to come back to work and school. So we went out to dinner and a movie last week to spend some time together. Liz is the hot one on the right:

It was so good to see my beautiful, wise, and hilarious 92-year old grandma while in Idaho:

And we took a quick visit to BYU campus and the bookstore for some gear before we went back to the airport:

 

 The tired traveling boys were really excited to get back on the airplane though.

And we capped it off with a Saturday night piano recital. Cohen's first. He was very anxious, but he powered through, and it was awesome to see the sense of relief and accomplishment and pride wash over him as soon as he finished. Big moment for him to overcome those fears.

Go Team Liz.

Happy birthday, Eli!

It's hard to believe that our baby is now one year old. We opened presents after work and Jensen got to pick where we went for dinner: Chili's. Boom. Then after dinner we went back home for our family's first-birthday tradition of cupcakes. I'll try to find a better one of Eli. He was super excited about Liz's baking prowess. The Bigs (Cohen and Jensen) sang "Happy Birthday" a lot. All day. Jensen got a little tired of it...

Early the next morning we got the boys up, drove to Midway, and hopped on a plane to Salt Lake City. Have I mentioned lately that Jensen is 3? Just wanted to call it out. He's 3. But we survived, and as you can see, the boys were all pretty excited about the trip.

We got the rental car, drove straight to Cafe Rio (yes, it was that important), ate in the parking lot of Smith's grocery store, then drove to Temple Square. The boys were mesmerized by the great artwork, videos of the life of Christ, the temple, and especially the Christus statue.

 

We kept walking across the street to City Creek Center. That place was awesome. If you've been there, you understand. She needs a girls shopping weekend... 

We loved seeing Grandma and Grandpa for the day, back in the hotel, and the next morning before we headed up to Idaho.

I stayed overnight, helped get the boys and me lady all set up, then I drove back to SLC and flew home. Typical Idaho fall drive, what a beautiful state.

Interesting plane ride home. The grizzled guy at the window seat was mumbling as I sat down at the aisle. I asked him if he was talking to me. He said that no, he was just talking to himself. I asked, "Does it work? Talking to yourself, I mean." He replied, "Yup, ever since I was in solitary."

Then halfway through the flight a young couple's baby started crying. My new ex-con friend looked at me and pretended like he was shaking the baby by the neck. I waved him off, shook my head "no," then he gave me a knowing nod and went back to playing poker on his iPad.

I won't even talk about the guy across the aisle who smelled like bum, who unfortunately liked to stand in the aisle by my face. Perhaps he goes to the gym? Totally a Gym Guy move.

Southwest now offers free TV you can watch on your own device. I got to watch the fourth quarter of the Broncos game (GO BRONCOS). When I stood up to avoid bum guy, Roid Rage Guy paused from flirting with anyone who would listen and asked from the aisle behind me, "Did you see the Broncos game?" I replied, "Yeah, last second field goal, Broncos win." He fake-threw his earphones, swore, and said, "Man, I was going to watch that!" I told him it was his own fault for not giving the obligatory disclaimer. Then he tried to save face by asking lame questions about how much I like my phone.

I'm glad to be home. Just wish I was with my family. Busy week of work and study before classes this weekend, but I'll head back to Idaho on Saturday night. Hang in there, Liz! I'll let you sleep in when we get back, I promise.

Go Team Liz.

Carpe Diem

Liz and I have been talking about how we can make the most of every day, every opportunity, every minute with our family that we can. Now that we're in a relatively "stable" place in her treatments, we have been striving to seize the day. Sometimes it just means some quiet time with her boys, or silly errands with me.

So like everyone knows that September 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day, right? Liz was a good sport and stopped by work to celebrate with my team. Arrrr, me hearty!

On 9/21 my friend Ross from my Notre Dame MBA class brought his Ford Mustang to show the boys. They went crazy for it. Especially Jensen: it's blue. Ross slowly drove each them around the neighborhood, then both of them together. Jensen tells me that it's just like my car ('02 Honda Civic with personality problems). Cohen apparently spent the whole time telling Ross how terrible my car is and that I need to get a Mustang just like his. Doh. So, Ross, even though you got my oldest son to hate my car, thanks for coming.

After Ross and I grabbed lunch at Frank's Night Out (YUM!), Liz and I decided to give the boys an apple orchard experience that included just the happy parts. The boys were sad that the apples they picked with Victoria the week before were left in the car after the accident. We wanted to get some more, and Liz wanted to make her own applesauce with the spoils of our labors (our booty, perhaps?). Some assorted photos from our journey below, including the boys playing in a silo of corn and Cohen shooting apples out of an air cannon. Awesome.

And Liz's applesauce is AMAZING. Her first canning venture, big success.

We've been enjoying our time together. Eli is a joy, even if he's growing too fast (he turns 1 tomorrow!). Jensen is a silly, quirky, joyful boy. Cohen is a loving, smart, active big brother. We're so blessed to have them in our lives.

Jensen has been sick for the past few days, and Cohen and I have coughs. Tomorrow evening we'll have Eli's birthday party, then we'll get the boys up early on Friday for a family vacation! About time. We'll see Grandma and Grandpa in Utah Fri-Sat, then we'll drive up to see Grandma and Grandpa in Idaho. Too much going on with work and school right now, so I'll come back Sunday night, then after classes on 10/12 I'll head West to go pick them all up. Wish us luck... !

Go Team Liz.