Updates from earlier this week!

Oh my gosh, it has been a totally crazy week, and that is why there has been a lack of updates...I'm so sorry!  

Sunday (9/23) we celebrated Sam's 25th birthday! We all had  very nice day.  Doug made a wonderful dinner and we had delicious chocolate cups filled with fruit for desert. It was nice to have a day to just relax and enjoy each others' company.  These days seem to come far and few between lately.  We all knew that living with cancer is hard, but none of us ever imagined it would be this hard.  I say "we" because in some way, we are all living with this cancer.  Yes, Anne is the one who has to go through all of the treatments and deal with the side effects and pain, but we are all here to support her, and if there was any possible way that I could take any of that pain away from her or go through the treatments for her, I would, Sam would, and Doug would.  Heck, I think if Jimmy could speak in full sentences and tell us how he felt, I'm sure he would too.  He has gotten to the point now where I think he knows that "Gram" is sick.  Any chance he gets, he crawls up the steps, and SPRINTS into Anne's room and gives her a big "heyyyyyyy!!!!"  It really brightens up her day.  He loves to spend time in Gram's room with her, that's the first place he goes when crawls his way up the steps (which he's not allowed to do, but thinks he can do anything he wants).  Who can blame him if he puts that big of a smile on her face when he bursts into her room? 

On Monday, we met with the Radiation Oncologist, which turned out to be a very informative and hopeful appointment.  They started Anne on radiation therapy on Thursday (9/27).  This is an appointment that she will have every day for the next 10 days.  Luckily, the actual appoinment only takes about 15 minutes each time, so we get in and out pretty darn quick!  She has only had two appointments so far, so we don't really know if it is working or not so far.  The hope is that the radiation will help to strengthen the bone in Anne's spine and it will also hopefully kill some of the cancerous cells in the spine as well.  So far, the treatments have made her extremely tired (fatigue is one of the biggest side effects of radiation).  They have told us that most people start feeling pain relief and stronger support (pertaining to the bones) after 3 or 4 treatments.  Hopefully this is the case for Anne.  Her back pain is so bad that she can barely support herself to brush her teeth.  We are all a bit worried simply because she has seemed to go down hill so fast in the past couple of weeks.  

This past week has been full of making appointments, moving appointments and cancelling appointments.  With radiation in full swing and chemo starting soon, it has been one giant scramble to get in all the preliminary appointments.  We met with the cardiologist on Thursday to make sure that he cleared Anne for chemo, and we got the green light! This coming Monday, she is having surgery at 10:30 am to have the port-a-cath put in so that they can do the chemo and not have to go through her veins.  Then, on Tuesday, we have to go to a radiation appointment as well as a "chemo teach" appointment to learn more about the chemo medicines and what the process is going to be like.  She will then start her first chemo session on Wednseday.  And we go back to radiation on Thursday and Friday.  Luckily, she won't have to go to radiation and chemo all in one day. 

Phew, I got tired just writing that! It can get crazy here now, but that is something that we are all learning how to deal with and get through.  Thank you all for your support, it really does help.  I know I say it a lot, but I feel like I can't say it enough.  We have all come together as one big family (my family included) and it feels great hat we have such a huge support system.