busy busy busy

Man oh man is life flying by!!!

Jason got his scan back the day before Christmas Eve. It would be one of 2 things......YAY it's shrinking or DAMN it's not. Well, it was damn.  Jason's cancer is not only growing, it's spreading. The tumor in his neck is growing around the back of his neck and the tumor in his lungs is growing down and toward his spine. Crap crap crap!  Way to go into the holiday weekend.

First I will tell you this, Jason is a fighter!! He will not give up.....but he is getting tired of fighting. Who can blame him? He is in constant pain, even with all his pain meds. This past week we went to Mercy Fairfield to have a feeding tube placed. Surgery went well and I am getting at least 4 meal supplements in him a day. Hopefully this will help him gain a little weight back. Currently Jason is down to 140lbs.

Tuesday we are heading to B North bright and early! He has to be there at 5:30 for a 7:30 biopsy.  Dr Chua hand picked this surgeon and has talked to him about Jason and his tumor. Apparently the last biopsy was nothing but dead cells. He knows that he needs to be VERY careful and has to get live cancer cells. This biopsy will be sent away to foundation 1 testing. They will test several different treatments on it and see if anything works.

We are also waiting for the Dr to call about getting a nerve block. They called and asked Jason 30 minutes of questions that all answered each other.  It was very annoying! My poor guy could hardly hold the phone up and they could care less. She wouldn't even talk to me.

My mom will be back home on the 9th. I'm glad, I miss having her here. She helps me so much mentally.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and here's to finding a cure in 2017!

What round is this anyway???

     My guy hurts!!!  I'm so tired of watching him try to hide the pain.  Jason has lost almost all function in his left arm now. He has to hold it when he walks and he gets horrible pain in it.

     Sunday night we spent the night in the ER. At about 7pm Jason was taking his meds when one pill got stuck in his throat. He did not chose on it, it just didn't go all the way down. He was able to breathe but not eat or drink anything. At 1am he decided it was time to go to the hospital and see what they can do.
     I get that with each new person that comes in our room they need to know what they are dealing with......but there has to be a better way than for us to explain it over and over! Anyway, they took him for a CT and the woman man handled his head.....not good! If he told me this before she left the room, I would have handled it! The CT showed that the pill had gone down, but the sensation of it being there could still be bothering him. He tried some water and it stayed down!!! By 6:30am we were back home and in bed. Jason now has a pain patch and liquid pain meds.

     Today we went to Jewish hospital for his PET scan. The nurse was AMAZING! She told Jason that his comfort was most important! She put 2 pads down and propped his head up! He said it was so nice that he slept through the 20 minute scan! Our drug store is working on getting some of the meds Jason needs....but for some reason they don't want to let this location stock the meds. The pharmacist is doing extra paperwork to try to get it. What does this mean? It means we drove to Colerain in rush hour to get his pain meds!

     While waiting for his meds, the GI dr called to set up an appointment to have a feeding tube placed. Jason will have that done Tuesday December 27th. Hopefully that makes it easier to get some extra nutrients in him.

     We hope that everyone reading this blog has a very blessed Christmas and Happy New Year. From our family to yours! Enjoy every minute, waste nothing and ALWAYS tell the people you love....that you love them! Leave nothing unsaid! <3 p="">

And the hits keep coming....

I'm done with this roller coaster!  Can I get off now?

Jason has been having more and more pain in his neck around where the tumor is. He is taking more pain meds and nerve meds, with no relief. Last week Jason talked to Dr Chua about his pain and she sent him straight to Jewish hospital to have an ultrasound done on his neck.  After the ultrasound he went back to Dr. Chua's office and found out it was clear. Next step was a CT scan. He left her office and the hospital called saying to head right over.

Dr Chua was trying to tie up all the lose ends before she headed out of town, so things were going fast. That night at 7pm I missed a call from Dr Chua herself!! That immediately sent an uneasy feeling through me! We tried to call back but got the answering service who were no help. Jason would call the next day.

So now we are at "the next day".  CRAP!  The tumor in his neck has gotten larger and now there are spots back in BOTH lungs! Why can't we catch a break?????

Telling the kids was not fun!  My poor kids have been through so much. I hate to have to break their hearts.  So, here we go again!  Back on the 3 chemo treatments.

I'm at a loss.

Vacation

We got home from a week in Cocoa Beach Florida on Saturday night.  It was a great break!  Jason enjoyed sitting on the balcony and got to spend a day on the beach with us thanks to a friend who let us borrow a beach tent.

For the most part we just hung around and enjoyed the down time. That is vacation to us. The Friday before we left we went out for dinner, putt putt and ice cream. Jason was not feeling well so he skipped putt putt. His loss! WE HELD ALLIGATORS! We picked him up after and went out for ice cream. He got a milk shake and then really started missing his UDF milkshakes. LOL

The car ride was interesting. 5 people shoved into Jason's small Civic.... Jason was not able to drive as long as he thought he would and when he did, so I drove. AND I STAYED AWAKE FOR IT! That is huge for me!

Now that we are back home Jason will go back to his regular treatment. He is going to talk to the Dr about his issues though. He has been having a hard time swallowing and he chokes on his food a lot. I'm hoping they move his scan up so we can see whats going on. He is currently at treatment now....so hopefully later today we will have an idea of what is in store for us next.

Noah started a new job and so far he likes it. He is working for a commercial window cleaning place. No high rises for him, the highest he goes is with a ladder.

XOXO

WE ARE GOING ON VACATION!!!

Not much has been happening on the Smiddy front.

Jason is now only taking Erbitux for his treatment. This is a once a week treatment. This was actually the first study drug he took in Chicago. He and Dr Chua decided that his body and mind needed a break. The trifecta of chemotherapy he was on was really hard on him. He had no energy and it was causing him to lose function in his arms. The scan he just got showed that the tumor in his neck has not grown...but it also has not shrank. We are hoping that the Erbitux itself can help maintain the tumor. We would have loved for it to shrink...but the fact that it has not grown is just as much a victory.

We are getting ready to go on a family vacation next week!! My mom came home from RI a week ago and is going to stay with the animals. We are going to Cocoa Beach with Faith's friend and her family. Jason is really looking forward to the break from work and the "normal" life. I think this will be a great time for our family to regroup again. As the kids get older I feel like everyone is going in different directions.  Noah is going into his senior year in HS and is planning on joining the Marines after graduation.  Faith is going to be a Sophomore and Austin a Freshman!! We have 3 high school students!  I'm not sure how that happened! It feels like it was just yesterday that I had them in diapers!

I want to thank everyone who has been there for my family through our fight with cancer. This has been a LONG and bumpy road. We have seen many people come into our lives and go just as quick....but through all of this......we got to see who really cares about us. THANK YOU!