Update

Well, Dave is wrapping up his second round of Chemo. This time around we had friends watch the kids, and our foster son. It was a little stressful, both for me and the kids, but we made it through! We get to pick Dave up from the hospital later today. This round has made him a bit more nauseus and this time they are sending us home wtih a Nulasta shot to hopefully avoid the week long stay he had last time because of his lack of white blood cells.

So that is where we are at right now! Here are some pictures I have taken of the kids latley too! :)

Superwoman???

A friend of mine refered to me as Superwoman... I'm not so sure I agree. Dave's cancer has really thrown a wrench in things. This weekend, on Saturday, he had a bit of a fever. We took him in and good thing we did. He has an infection and has been in the hospital ever since. His white blood count is ZERO and they don't know whats wrong yet.

On top of that, just before he went in, we got a call saying our foster care license was finally approved! In that call they also asked us to take a 22 month old little boy. After some discussion, we decided to do it. So now I am like a single mom of three. We didn't expect Dave to be in the hopsital but so far, I am doing well. Maybe I am just so busy that my mind isn't on anything to do with the C word. Our foster son is doing very well though! He is adjusting well and taking to the monkies quiet well.

I don't know... Superwoman? I think not. I am copeing, I am managing, I am living my life and holding myself together.... mostly... I seem to cry at the drop of a hat. Today when we got to school (for Little Miss) I realized that we had forgotten her backpack and lunch in the foyer at home. As I was dropping her off she got so worried about it, it made me so upset that something I had overlooked was upsetting her. I assured her I was going straight home to get it and as I said goodbye, I got all teary. ..

I don't think Superwoman would do that....

When It Rains, It Pours

So, we had another wonderful visit to M.D. Anderson today, sarcasm included. As soon as the Doctor comes in, he shakes our hands, sits down and logs in on the computer. He pulls up my lab and test results from a few days earlier and says everything looks great...except for one small thing. In fact, it is only 1.2cm, but it sits right between the aorta and the vena cava. So, it's official, we are now a Stage II and will be starting 3 rounds of chemo on Monday.

-Dave

YAY!

My remote sync came in today! WOO HOO, it took like 3 weeks, I guess that is what you get for paying $8 on ebay and having it sent from China... but it works perfectly!! Little Miss and I headed out to the garage.... I mean studio ;) and took some shots!

OUR STUDIO

So we have been working in the studio trying to keep our minds off other things and our hands busy. It is really coming along! I still have to paint the other three walls and baseboards white and that will be good for the mean time. Once we get a little bit of money, we will be buying two large storage cabinets and putting them where the white drapes are, and all the crap..ehhhmmm i mean, stuff that is there will be put in the cabinets. Oh, and figure out what kind of top I want for the white cabinets, something cheap or free I am hoping, I need to take a look around craigslist and freecycle. Any ideas?

List of what we have done so far...

-Clean out the Garage

-Have the floor stained, then re-stained, then fixed again...still not what I wanted it to be, but it works

- Add an air vent

- Add lighting

- Hang backdrop roll-y thingy

- Paint walls

- Paint Cabinets

Seems simple when its all laid out like that, add a 4 year old and 16 month old to the mix and it gets interesting :) Its been way fun though!! Luckily most of the stuff we used was free or really cheap. The blue paint is leftover from Bobo's room, and the white is from the builder, I traded photography to get the floor done, we got some of the air vent stuff that had been discarded at a local job site. So woo hoo for that!

Welcome to MD Anderson

We heard this several times over the last two days. Welcome?? Ok, I mean I get that they want you to feel good about your stay, but really? Who wants to be welcomed to cancer land?? Anyway... we had a really busy last two days. First, we arrived at the Mays Clinic (part of MD Anderson) and we had to register. We asked how long we would be here yesterday and once she checked she said "all day" grrrr we weren't prepared for that, we also weren't prepared for the fact that we had to be there today also. So here is what our day was like...

12 PM Arrive and Register

1 PM Meet with our nurse and Doctor, they were both a little different, but very friendly. They each took their time to make sure our questions were answered. We were told about the slew of tests we needed to take over the next two days and that our course of treatment would most likely be either one or two rounds of chemo.

2:30 PM Blood Work... we were a little late to this one, no biggie though

3:00 CT Prep

5:00 CT and Chest X-ray... this is where we waited for a long time, luckily my friend Kim came to visit me. Her husband also has cancer and he was finishing up his inpatient stay of his 3rd round of chemo, Kim has been my own personal cancer dictionary/encyclopedia through all of this... this chick has her cancer knowledge together! You can read about her and her husband's journey through cancer here....

Then we finally got to go home! My mother in law decided to take the kids over night to her house since we had to be back this morning at 9. I missed my little monkeys :( but that is part of this process I suppose....

Today we arrived at 9 am for an ultrasound...

9 am, u/s we got there a bit early and they got us in right away. The u/s only took about 15 minutes so we headed to our next appt

9:20- arrived at the MRI place, our appt wasn't until 11:30 but we hoped we could get in early. We waited about 1 1/2 hours and we finally got in!

11 am- They took us back and started Dave's IV we sat there FOREVER and finally asked if we could go get something to eat.. so we did

1:30... after waiting 2 1/2 hours in this little tiny room they took us back for his MRI... poor baby, he sat in this little tube for 45 minutes, I would have been freaking out! He was so brave!

After this we headed home... we will see what the tests say, Dave feels a little sick from all the fluids and things he has ingested or injected ... this is going to be a bumpy ride!!!

Dr's Appt

Bobo had his 15 month appointment yesterday, although he is now 16 months. Peyton also had her 4 year old appt in August and I forgot I used to always update on their stats. How else will I keep track?? :)

Little Miss- 4 Years
Height 40" - 55%
Weight 35 lbs 50% - Finally she is right in the middle, after 4 years of being so tiny! lol
BP 60/40

Bobo 16 months
Height 32" 75%
Weight 25 lbs 55%
Head Circ. 19" 75%

My little man is getting so big!

Little Miss at 15 1/2 months was 21 lbs and 31 inches :)

They both had to get shots :( Poor babies!

Just wanted to share these adorable pictures!

Little Miss's friend joined her at cheer on Thursday. Aren't they adorable?

Cancer, photography and life

Things have been crazy around here. With Dave being home and taking care of him and the kids, I'm defiantly working overtime!

We got the results from the pathology report from Dave's surgery, and unfortunately its not good. There are two types of cancer that it could be, seminoma and non-seminoma, seminoma can be treated by radiation and doesn't require chemo and is less aggressive.... he has non-seminoma :( The specific kind is embroynal carcinoma. He is stage 1B PT2. We have an appointment at MD Anderson next week and will know more about our course of action....

On the complete other side of the spectrum, things are taking off with my photography business. I have been busy shooting, learning and making wonderful mistakes :) I crunched a memory card with one half finished and one barley started session on them and lost the images. And this happened about 10 minuets before my first in studio session was about to start. I had to quickly put it behind me and do the shoot. Boy, I was pissed!! But, lesson learned... Pilgrim memory cards SUCK! :)

We are also in the process of converting the garage into a studio! I scored an awesome deal on some lighting and accessories and have traded photography in exchange of getting someone to stain the concrete in the garage. I will update with pictures soon!

Update

I compeltly forgot to update about Dave. We are going to the hospital for his surgery on Monday. After that they do a pathology report and we will find out which type of cancer it is and will know the route to take. We are dealing with it step by step and he is handling it very well, so that is good.

On the plus side, my photography business is taking off very well! My weekends have been filled with sessions and I've been getting referals and lots of great feedback! Here are some from a session today. He was TOO cute!!

Check out http://www.nenametcalfphotography.com/ or search Nena Metcalf Photography on Facebook!

The worst 6 letter word...

Dave was diagnosed with testicular cancer yesterday. I feel like a bomb was dropped on us. It came out of no where and now we are left here having to pick up the pieces. We have doctors appointments and things going in the next several days which will be followed most likely by surgery and chemo.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers during this trying time.

DISNEY WORLD 2009!

We are back from what was an extreamly magical vacation! While the 10 day trip was long, expensive and exhausting, it was worth it! Little Miss surprised me by riding the Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain, and just about everything we threw at her. Bobo was a trooper having a great attitude depsite the craziness, heat and all that was going on! One bad thing.... my poor beloved $250 Maui Jims were abliterated :( They fell off during Test Track at Epcot when I was reaching in to help Little Miss out of the ride, the attendant moved the car to reach them and CRUNCH. :( So sad!

Disney offered a promotion for free dining during September, we took advantage of that and boy was it amazing! We got to go to so many character meals that we normally wouldn't have been able to afford. It also made it so easy to just eat in the park and not have to worry about money. I don't think a single meal was under $45, (and Bobo just shared) our most expensive was Cinderella's Royal Table, inside the castle. That was great :) Cinderella, Bell, Snow White, Jasmine and Sleeping Beauty were all there. Little Miss just loved it.... and Bobo was quite smitten :)

Here are some of the pictures from our great trip!

New Week

Although it has only been a week since my last post, I feel like I am neglecting my blog!

Three days until Disney!! I can hardly wait, I can't imagine Little Miss's anticipation...oh wait, yes I can... EVERYTHING is about Disney! There is a billboard announcing a new addition to a local hospital that has fireworks, she automatically associates that with the fireworks we will see around Cinderella's castle. Everything is Disney related!

We were at the mall this weekend and hit up the Disney store, her excitement there was so high I can't imagine what it will be like when we are actually there :) I can't wait!!

I am keeping busy preparing for our trip, but I also have my final interview for the fostering homestudy tomorrow. I am a bit nervous, mostly because I don't know what to expect. Wish me luck!

I have also been busy taking pictures, pretty much of anyone or anything I can get my hands on! I want to get better and am doing whatever I can think of... and I am having alot of fun doing it.

Busy Busy Busy

Man!! Life just gets crazy sometimes! We are getting ready for our trip to Disney World, Little Miss has started school and just all around craziness!

I am starting to get more into photography. This weekend I did 3 photoshoots. One for a little boy, one for a newborn baby girl and a senior picture shoot! Here are some of my favs!

Little Miss's First Day of Pre-K

First lets start this time two years ago. Little Miss's FIRST first day of school, when she was 2! We skipped prek last year so nothing there, but here we go. Its funny she picked out jean bottoms and a pink polo again. LOL

And now... my big girl!! In full fledged Pre-K! She totally didn't even care that I wasn't there, she ran into the room and I had to hunt her down for a kiss good-bye! Little stinker!