At Last!

Well the day is finally here, on Tuesday January 26th Caitlin had her last dose of her 21 at home oral chemo, which means she is totally done with all her chemo. I want to cry tears of joy, but I am also afraid because Caitlin will not be considered cancer free until five years from now, and then still for her it will be a lifetime of worrying if we really have beat this thing. Also she will have to deal with the side effects of chemo for the rest of her life. One of these will be that she will have hearing aids. I am so glad this trial is over, I am hoping we get a little break before our next trial comes along. I am sure Jesus's arms need a break from carrying me this long throughout this whole ordeal. Her hair is slowly growing back we are not really sure what color it will be yet, or if it will be curly or straight, and she is finally walking more and more on her own. Because of her hearing loss we still have a few trips down to Primary Childrens in the near future. We are hoping to get her tube out next week or the week following, we will also continue to have MRIs about every 3 months to check for new or regrowth of the cancer. Since Caitlin is in the Up to 3 program they offer sign language classes, which we are going to attend to learn a little sign language in case her hearing continues to worsen. That for me is going to be a challenge. I couldn't even learn Spanish in high school. Hopefully for this I will be more motivated. Since Caitlin is done with chemo we are trying to get our lives back to normal, I am hoping to return back to work at least part time, and maybe I will try to start to take some classes with Bridgerland to work toward getting my associates degree in accounting. That is between running Allie to school, and all the programs Caitlin is in to help her continue to recover and work on her gross motor skills. We also have the challenge of potty training Caitlin, wish us luck. We are also hoping to add another member to our family, preferably a boy. Jake says he is already surrounded by enough girls.
I want to thank everyone who has left comments and prayed and supported our family through all this. We have greatly appreciated it. Hopefully now only happy and exciting news will appear in my future posts.

The end is almost here!!!!

Let me explain by the end I mean that Caitlin is almost finished with her chemotherapy treatments. On Tuesday we picked up the 21 days of oral at home medicine for Caitlin. We also had an appointment with the ENT doctor to clean out Caitlin's ear wax, for a little girl she sure has a lot of it, and because we don't want to cause an infection we have to be careful with almost everything. After our chemo appointment we went and got another hearing test done since this time we knew for sure that she didn't have much or any ear wax plugging her ears. Unfortunately this test still show that Caitlin seems to have a little bit of a hearing loss from her chemotherapy, so the next step is for another sedated hearing test in mid March and then she would be fitted for some hearing aids. I am a little bummed about that, but we figured we would have to deal with some of the side effects from chemotherapy and radiation. Allie is back in school, thank goodness, she was so bored at the house, some days she is a really silly girl. Jake is now on his January shift which means he has to work everyday, which sucks but the overtime money is nice. Thank goodness, he is also working day shift, so we have him home at nights with us. I am ready for the new year to start, I have made some goals for myself, and for our family. Hopefully we can stick to them, one of my goals is to drink less pop, and to exercise, I have been doing pretty good so far. I also received my first letter from my little brother, Elder Hugie. I am also hoping that I can be a good letter writer to him, another goal. Thanks to all who have prayed for our little angel. We are so looking forward for her to be healthy and done with chemo, and for her hair to grow back in. I have really missed her hair!

The Busiest Time of the Year!

Sorry it has been so long since I last updated my blog, there was nothing really to report for a while and then there was so much going that I didn't have time to update my blog. On the 11th of December, Caitlin woke up with a fever, so unfortunately we had to take her down to Primary Childrens, I guess I spoke too soon when I said the overnight stays were behind us. Her ANC was so low that she had to stay in the hospital until Sunday afternoon, and then come home with antibiotics, needless to say Caitlin and I were very tired after a very long week. Thank goodness she was feeling better and we were able to attend the Hancey Family Christmas party, which we missed last year, since we were at the hospital with Caitlin. The party was way fun, good food and family. Thankfully Jake and I were finally able to finish up the Christmas shopping too. Christmas was a lot of fun. Christmas Eve was okay, Jake had to work so that was kind of a bummer. The girls got a lot of fun stuff. Allie got a glow in dark coloring board, a bed for her American girl doll, and lots of craft stuff. Caitlin got a little laptop, Elmo microwave toy, Little people animal farm, and a Tinkerbell doll. Jake got the new Tony Hawk ride skateboard game for Xbox360, and I got some clothes. This Christmas was especially fun and sad, because yesterday was my brother Kenny's missionary farewell. He is leaving for the MTC on Wednesday. His talk went really well, as did the luncheon afterward. Sorry there is no new pictures of course I had the camera sitting out ready to go, but no pictures were taken. We did get Christmas morning on our camcorder thank goodness. Well I guess thats it, until next time.

Great News!

Caitlin had an MRI scan on Monday November 30th, and there was no sign of cancer cells anywhere. She also had a lumbar puncture the next day, just to be certain. We have not received the result of the lp yet. But is looks like Caitlin is finally on her last round of chemo. On Tuesday was her last inpatient chemotherapy, so as long as she doesn't get sick we are done spending the night in the hospital for a while. As long as things continue to go well , she should be done with chemotherapy at the end of January. I am so excited for her to be healthy and for her hair to grow back. More good news is that my little brother Kenny got his mission call to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He leaves in 26 days, we are very excited for him but a little stressed since he has to leave so soon.