Happy Birthday Kaidan...

Wow!! Kaidan turned 9 today! She is growing up too fast.

I have to look back on the day she was born. It was December 3rd (obviously) and I wasn't due until December 21st. I had my regular check-up and my doctor told me I was in labor and already dilated to a 5... The rest is obvious. She was born at 8:08 p.m. and she weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces. (I wish I had pictures, but I'm too tired to find them and scan them in - but I can promise you she was super cute!!)

I can remember her 1st birthday. She had a twinkle in her eye from the time she was a baby and you just knew she was up to something. She's always been a little (okay...a LOT) on the mischievous side :)

I remember her 6th birthday. She was in the middle of the toughest round of chemo in her treatment - but she still had that twinkle and was always smiling. She never had a bad attitude about anything she had to do - I wish I could say the same for me.

Today, she is a super happy, mostly healthy 9 year old. She's finally gaining back a little weight and she getting taller by the minute. I am so grateful for today - so, so grateful for Kaidan. There are so many times she drives me to the end of my rope and I get so frustrated with her teasing her brothers, but she is a huge blessing in my life and I love her with all my heart. Life would not be the same without her and all her spunky-ness in our family.

She will have her oncology check up on Monday. We will check her blood counts and see how she's doing. I had a few moments of anger toward cancer today when Kaidan told me that her body just hurts everywhere. She said it starts in her chest and goes down her arms and back up to her head. Her legs hurt, her stomach hurts, everything hurts. I really don't think she even knows what "feeling good" feels like. It's not fair - she is doing so great and looking so healthy, but cancer has robbed her of so much. It makes me mad, sad, and every other emotion in between. But, I am quickly reminded that it could be worse and I really am grateful for Kaidan's life. She is a survivor...a 9 year old cancer survivor. Today, we are the luckiest people in the world.

Happy birthday Kaidan! I hope all of your wishes come true!

thanksgiving 2010...

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend in not-so-sunny and definitely-not-warm Las Vegas! We headed down on Thursday morning for a soccer tournament with Preslee. This was her first-ever out of state tournament and she did fabulous!! She is so much fun to watch.



Preslee played 4 games - they had 1 win, 1 tie, and 2 losses. The team played really well and all the games were really close, so we are very proud of her and the entire team. It was a lot of fun.

We hit the storm on the way home, which made for a LONG drive, and the car trouble we had in Nephi didn't help either, but we are all home, safe and sound.

I am thankful this year for many things, but mostly for my little family. I am so happy that my kids are all healthy and that I got to celebrate another holiday with them. We are truly blessed.

Please send lots of prayers up for Crystal and Skyler tonight. Skyler is having surgery tomorrow to remove his spleen and Crystal is a scared mom. She needs our love and support. I cannot even imagine what the last several months have been like for her, but she is absolutely amazing. And there are no words to describe Skyler! He has to be the strongest boy I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. He is definitely a super hero to us. www.crystalandskyler.blogspot.com

I hope you all had a happy, healthy, safe Thanksgiving. We are truly thankful for each of you and the support that you continue to give our family.

ONE YEAR OFF TREATMENT...really??

Wow! Yesterday Kaidan had her monthly oncology check-up, and it was her one year off treatment check-up, so they did extra blood tests, an echocardiogram, and a couple other tests. Everything looked really good, so for the next 6 months she only has to be seen every 6 weeks instead of every 4.

I can't really say that it feels like we've been done with chemo for a whole year. Some days it feels like we are still in the middle of it because of the side effects she struggles with, other days it seems like it's been forever since we were there. Either way, I'm happy that she's doing well and living a mostly normal life - she definitely deserves it.

Everyone else is doing well. Nate is recovering nicely and has gone back to work, my knee is almost back to normal, and Cash's hip complaints are few and far between. Preslee is getting geared up for a soccer tournament in Vegas over Thanksgiving and Porter has hit the terrible twos :)

Tonight I got to chat with some other cancer moms who have become great friends to me. Please keep all their little ones in your thoughts and prayers as they are all in different stages of treatment.

Halloween and Nate's surgery...

Lots has happened since my last post, so I'll do my best to recap without rambling.

Cash is doing much better. He's still complaining of the hip pain, but it's becoming more and more rare. His glands are still swollen and he's still having lots of tummy aches, but a million things could be the cause of that, so I'll try not to worry about the ONE thing that caused it with Kaidan. He is loving school too, which is nice - I'm enjoying the 9 hours a week I have with just Porter. Porter is doing great, he's usually asleep during the 9 hours a week that he's alone with me, which makes it nice too :) The girls are both doing well too. Kaidan starts her doctor appointments in 2 weeks for her 1 year post treatment and everything. She's got her labs, echo, and clinic in November and then in December she will see the GI doctor and the neurologist within a week of each other, and then have her 9 year check-up combined with her monthly cancer check all before the holidays. Something is telling me that time is going to fly and Christmas will be here WAY TOO SOON!

The kids had a lot of fun this year for Halloween. Cash was Paul Bunyan and Porter was Babe, his blue ox. They were really cute, but Porter hated his costume and it was a challenge to convince him to wear it. Preslee and Kaidan had more costumes this year than I care to admit, but they had fun. Originally, and for their school parade, Kaidan was the Twister board game and Preslee was Pippi Longstocking. For other parties Kaidan was a mummy and a clown and Preslee was a zombie (which I missed getting a picture of somehow?). The rain made trick-or-treating a little hard, but Preslee had a good time with her friends and Nate took the other 3 out to his sisters and they had fun with their cousins. He said Porter preferred to sit in the wagon and have others fill his bag for him - smart boy, already learning that eating the candy is much more fun than collecting it! We did pumpkin carving and clam chowder the week of Halloween too, but I didn't even get a picture of everyone with their pumpkins...what kind of a mother am I?? (my apologies for the random spacing of these pictures. i'm too tired to fix it.)

My knee is recovering well. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow morning and then I'm sure physical therapy will start full force...I'm so excited ;) I'm out of the brace now though, which is fabulous!

Nate is not doing so well at the moment, but hopefully his recovery will be speedy. I'm typing this from the hospital as I listen to his oxygen machine and other random things beeping. He had quite a surgery: his deviated septum was shaved and fixed, something was done with his sinuses, he had his tonsils, adenoids, and uvula removed, and then they drilled a hole in the bottom of his jaw and did something funky with his tongue, so he's got a 3 inch incision along his chin area. This is all an attempt to help with his SEVERE sleep apnea and hopefully save his life. I hope it works. Right now he needs to be able to keep his oxygen saturations higher without assistance, swallow food/water/medicine, and get the drain from his incision removed. Hopefully we'll go home tomorrow, but it may be Saturday. He was really nervous about the surgery and he's still struggling, poor guy, he doesn't want me to leave his side. It's been a rough couple of days. Tonight the boys and I are camping out here....should be interesting!

That's about it with us Sudbury's. Thanks for reading, I think I rambled....

Sudbury happenings...

Sorry it has taken me so long to update on this week's doctor appointments. I'm a slacker.

Cash's blood work was all great, but his ultrasound did show some fluid around his right hip. It's called toxic synovitis, but that name makes it sound much worse than it is. Basically we have to wait it out. We are treating him with Motrin twice a day and hopefully it's better by within a week or two. The doctor said it usually lasts about a month, but he's already been dealing with it for at least two weeks.

Kaidan missed her doctor appointment because I haven't figured out how to clone myself yet and I was dealing with Cash, but her blood counts look great and she has a full work up next month, so I figured she'd be okay. Next month she will be ONE YEAR OFF TREATMENT!! She will be having an echocardiogram to look for any possible damage from the chemo to her heart, seeing the GI doctor for her stomach issues, a neurologist for her headaches, and she will have her normal blood work and clinic visit. Sounds fun, right??

Everyone else is doing well. I will keep you all posted.

Please pray for Skyler and his mom Crystal http://crystalandskyler.blogspot.com/ .

monthly check-up and hip pain...

Kaidan has her monthly check-up this afternoon. She had her blood work done yesterday and I don't have the exact results, but I did talk with her doctor for a minute and she said it looked great.

Also, Cash is having more blood work done today and an ultrasound on his hip. He's still complaining almost daily of pain and the past 2 days he's been in tears about it. In fact, yesterday afternoon he was playing the Wii and he just started bawling and wouldn't walk. I gave him tylenol and a heat pack and he fell asleep, but even in his sleep he kept waking up and crying out to me.

Preslee started an antibiotic Friday for a possible sinus infection. She has had this dry cough for over 2 weeks now and the antibiotic was a last ditch attempt to try to get rid of it. She has no other symptoms, but the cough keeps her up at night and you can tell it's wearing her down. Anyway, the medicine doesn't seem to be helping, so she may be visiting the doctor again today as well.

I am recovering from my knee surgery quite well. I started physical therapy today and it went well. I'm sure it will just get worse and worse though...I hate physical therapy. It is nice to get my leg out of the brace and stretch it out a little. The goal is to get rid of the swelling and be able to bend to 90 degrees within the next 2 weeks. The physical therapist is a little concerned because I have some strange swelling below my knee that just popped up. It doesn't appear to be a blood clot, but it is a concern, so I'm watching it closely.

What else...I think that about sums us up right now. We are kind of a mess around here, but we are functioning. I finally got my house cleaned today, that felt so good. Nate did a great job of trying to keep up on stuff while I was down, but he doesn't do things like toilets and mopping unless he absolutely has to, so the house was in need of a good cleaning. I felt relieved to get that done, now I just need to find time (and money) to sit down and pay bills. Ugh.

Nate's surgery is fast approaching. He had a second opinion today and the doctor recommended the same things as his original doctor did, so I guess it's a go for sure now. He is really nervous. He's getting his sinuses/tonsils/adenoids/deviated septum/etc. all worked on - so it's quite an intense surgery. He's scheduled the first week of November for that.

I'll update again tonight about today's doctor visits. I hope you all have a great day.

Cash's bloodwork looks great!!!

All of Cash's blood work came back normal. He is doing well, except for the occasional complaint that his hip is hurting. The doctor said to bring him back in if he's still complaining next week. We are very grateful that he is healthy and that his blood work showed no abnormalities.

Please keep the families of Devan Lore and Thomas Musser in your thoughts and prayers, both of these boys entered heaven recently. Also, please pray for Grant Olsen and his family. He is in the maintenance phase of his treatment and has not been feeling well for quite some time. His doctors just confirmed relapse. Closer to home is cute Erin, she has been at PCMC for 22 days and is dealing with some pain, cellulitis, and her ANC has been 0 for most of those 22 days. Her mom has such a strong testimony and you can just feel her faith in her blog updates. Also at PCMC, Skyler and his mom Crystal. Skyler has been in the hospital for almost 2 months, in the PICU most of that time. Please keep all of these kids and their families in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

Many of you know I had knee surgery Wednesday. The surgery went well and I'm home recovering. It's been tough, because I hate not being able to get up and move around, but I'm in a lot more pain than I expected. I'm hoping that I'll start feeling better before the weekend is over. Thank you all for checking in on us. I'll keep you posted on Cash's leg. We love you all!