Friday, August 17, 2012

Can't Post... Watching Olympics...

August is more than halfway over and I haven't even posted yet!  I'm slacking apparently.  It's not like I have anything else to do. ;)  Actually I've been wanting to write but I haven't been able to find time to sit down and put down my thoughts.  I'm a little (more) scatterbrained (than usual) lately.  Oh and also we watched pretty much every minute of the Olympics that NBC had to offer... even if a lot of it was fast-forwarded through.  We determined that Volleyball and Waterpolo are way more amusing when you speed through them.  We'd also like to note that trampoline and rhythmic gymnastics are Olympic sports?  Hruhwhat? Why isn't Golf? or Cheerleading?  Although trampoline was super super fun in fast-motion. Also not that we want to watch golf, just sayin.

We're doing ok, status quo I suppose. Owen is off on a whirlwind trip to the coast with my mom's side of the family.  I left Uncle Jaeger strict instructions to be his go-to guy although I know everyone will keep an eye on him.  He's tall(er than me) now and is wearing a touristy grey plaid hat, he's hard to miss.  It's the first time he's been away from us for a whole long weekend all summer, I miss him already and I think he's probably still at Nana's house waiting for the wagon train to hit the trail. I hope he has fun, I'm glad he gets this chance to get out of the house a little before school starts on the 4th.  8th grade.  Yikes.

Dave is doing as well as can be expected.  The last time (2 weeks ago) he went in for chemo we followed up with Dr Sharman about when to stop treatment.  He mentioned a couple of things the other dr didn't bring up.  He said once he stops the Avastin they tend to see quick growth of the tumor, quicker than if he hadn't taken it.  He called it a rebound of the tumor but it sounds kind of like a flood gate has been holding the tumor back and once the avastin is out of his system the flood gates open and the tumor grows quickly.  That might sound scary but to David it's a blessing since he's going to take that medicine until he isn't allowed to take it anymore because his body is too weak.  At that point he wants everything to go quickly.  The dr also said at that point he likely won't be able to use his arms anymore and if he doesn't actually WANT to eat he doesn't have to.  Not that it will be starving himself because his body won't need as much nutrition, that also relieved Dave because we're concerned about him choking and he doesn't want to have to be fed and those kinds of things.  It sounds like those are all negatives but he left the office somewhat giddy.  As cheerful as I've seen him all year really.

This last appointment (this week) his platelets are a little lower than they'd like them to be.  That can be caused by a few of the medications he's taking but they aren't really things we think he can go off of, including the Avastin.  So far they're letting him stay on Avastin, we'll see how long that lasts.  The platelet range they list as "normal" for this lab is 130-400.  In the last few visits his have been 82, 134, 77, 59 (hut, hut, hike!) we're not sure how low they are comfortable with that being as long as he doesn't really have other symptoms like random bleeding, which is a concern.  There isn't much we can do to raise that level.  His white blood count is still pretty good and in the normal range so they aren't worried too much. 

Next time he goes in he's also going to talk to the geneticist to start the process to find out if he actually has the Lynch gene that his family carries.  We started thinking this might be something totally random since Lynch normally causes colon cancer.  It's entirely possible that he has it but we figured the responsible thing to do for Owen would be to find out for sure.  It's odd how tests like that can cause a little anxiety even though we already know whether or not he has cancer.

I'm doing alright. I feel really busy.  I started back at the gym this month, I've been going at least twice a week.  Not bootcamp yet but cardio and some light weights so far.  It's like starting over and I'm sore so I know I'm doing a fair amount of stuff.  My trainer had a picture on his website saying, "Someone busier than you is working out right now"  I know it wasn't aimed directly at me but it got me thinking "I could be at the gym instead of watching tv right now" although sometimes I CAN'T be at the gym but you know... it just made me think so I finally did something about it.  I'm not sleeping well and that doesn't help with having energy to workout either.  That's not really new for me, insomnia, I think I sleep better during naps than I do at night because at night little noises wake me up.  During the day I guess I'm confident things are ok and I zonk out. hehe  probably the naps are part of why I don't sleep well at night but I'm not going to complain about quality naps.  Yesterday I treated myself to a long massage.  I'm a little sore today actually but that means she did a good job, right?

I'm going to skip the journal entry for right now because I'm eager to go pester my husband again.  He can't catch a break! I will share a convo Owen and I had the other day.  His best girl-pal's mom and I have been brainstorming their 8th grade dance theme.  We know we'll be two of the more involved parents so we're coming up with ideas. It prompted this convo with Owen.

Me: (totally joking) *gasp* you could have a Twilight dance!
Owen: We could have a jump-off-a-cliff dance, it would be equally as popular. We could do what all the girls are derping about and have a Hunger Games dance.
Me: We wouldn't want you to kill each other.
Owen: We would kill each other if we had a Twilight dance.

He's so quick witted.  He's going to keep everyone on their toes this weekend!