7 of 8....done!!

Yep, treatment #7 was last Friday, and went well. My youngest sister Kate, and Hailey went with me. They decreased my dose significantly, and I must say, it has helped. I'm usually confined to bed on the Monday following treatment due to bone pain, and can barely make it to the cancer center to get my Neulasta shot. I'm beyond thrilled to report yesterday wasn't bad at all, and I even worked 8 hrs today. The 8 hrs of work damn near did me in, and I'm happily laying in bed with the kiddos right now debating what movie to watch and relishing the thought of all of us sleeping in tomorrow!

So 7 of 8 done, and #3 of 4 Taxol, leaving my last Taxol dose for Friday July 13th. Seriously. What was I thinking??? I know, I was thinking "get this last tx scheduled, done, and over with-the sooner the better!!!". So, party on the 13th-maybe a GNO-Chemo's Done Happy Hour?!?!?

At one point just a couple of weeks ago, I was ready to throw in the towel and be done. I was pretty sure I wouldn't and didn't want to live through another dose of Taxol. Aside from the pain, my abdomen is terribly bloated, and my face is rounder than ever from the steroids, my shingles came back, the fatigue is horrible, and really hard for a person in constant motion like me. I've felt like a terrible wife, mother, friend and co-worker. Oh, and did I mention the early menopause this is throwing me into accompanied by drenching night sweats and hot flashes?? Awesome, they are. Add to that the 100+ degree heat and our bedroom is above the garage, and gets full sun during the afternoon. To put it mildly, I've been kind of a cranky biotch. Who wants her life back.

So this biotch is taking her life back. One moment at a time.

We bought Hailey a car-which she can't drive without one of us for 2 more months, so I am enjoying tooling around in her cute little VW convertible, with the top down and so not having to worry about messing up my hair!! And I've even gotten brave enough to let her drive me on the highway!!
 

I had a date with Parker on his 13th birthday, and had a delicious lunch at Fuji-his choice!

Parker on his birth day!  7/2/1999

I got brave and sent food to school with Ethan so his amazing teacher Ms Kristi can work on "tastes" with him. And he LOVES the strawberry fruit strips, hits a switch to ask for MORE, and hasn't had an allergic reaction or aspiration pneumonia!

 

And Brian and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last week!

14 years ago.  love at first sight.

 

And those are the moments this biotch is not letting cancer take away from her!

In the meantime, I am going to be researching plastic surgeons for my reconstruction surgery, as I plan to start doing some consultations after the kids start school, and need recommendations-so send me the name of your favorite boob guy! Surgeon that is, not your husband! Board certified is a definite requirement!

Have a safe and Happy 4th of July tomorrow. Thank you to all of those who serve this wonderful country!

A Decade of Wedded Bliss! Ok- most days!

My and Brian's 10 year wedding anniversary is today, and I'm pretty sure it was this hot on June 29, 2002 as it is today!

Our vows were the traditional ones; I, (name), take you (name), to be my (wife/husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.

When I think about those vows, and the 10 years we've been married, they become so much more than just words we repeated in front of our family and friends.

To have and to hold from this day forward... Brian has held my hand and had my heart from before our wedding day til now.

For better or for worse.... We've had lots of better, and even with the worse-it was better with him.

For richer...not likely to be rich on our salaries, but we do fine.

For poorer....we just feel blessed to have the things we do, and always know there are some with far less.

In sickness and in health....do I even need to elaborate????

To love and to cherish.....yep, even when I want to strangle him, and he wants to suffocate me.

From this day forward until death do us part....we are in it for the long haul, from that day, from this day, and it will take death to separate us.

We may not have the kind of marriage Ward and June Cleaver did, more like the Bundy's. But it's ours, it's been wonderful, and I wouldn't trade the last ten years or the person I shared them with for anything.

I'm only hoping we have 10 more

ok maybe those ten could have a tad less drama

Happy *late* Father's Day!

To all the Fathers out there, I hope you had a very special day filled with BBQ, fishing lures, hideous ties and awesome homemade gifts from your spawn.  Brian was telling me the best Father's Day gifts he got was when the kids were much younger, and I took them to Target and let them pick out whatever they wanted for their Dad.  He ended up with a fish picture frame, some bandanas, packs of gum and writing pens.  That fish frame still sits on his dressser. 

I received chemo treatment #6 of 8 on Friday, which was #2 of 4 Taxol.  I felt terrible after #1 for almost two full weeks.  My white count was pretty low, so they figured that was the main culprit, but my lab work showed I have a huge Vitamin D deficiency, along with a low white count-still-after Neulasta, and my hemoglobin is way low.  My sunshine vitamin is so low they started me on 50,000 units a week-sounds huge huh?  It's actually just a little pill no bigger than a Tylenol-thank goodness!  Dr Sheehan said all of the jacked up lab work is the reason I had such a hard time recovering from my Taxol.  The bone pain, weakness, muscle pain-all related to low hgb(hemoglobin), and vit D.  She was hoping I would recover much faster this time, but alas, I have not!  I had to go get my white blood cell booster shot today-the Neulasta, and when Jennifer my NP saw me, she decided right away to lower my Taxol dose.  I am achy, uncomfortable, and have the same bone pain and weakness all over again.

There was some talk of stopping the Neulasta, and moving my Taxol to every two weeks instead of every other week, but with my wbc's so low even on the shot, they don't feel like they can stop the shot.  So the other option is to lower my dose of Taxol and stay on my original schedule, plus add some more steroids after treatment to see if it helps the pain. 

Now, I know your first thought is that if we lower the chemo dose, then I won't get the full effect, right?  Well, I asked the same question, and in reality, the amount of chemo recommeded by the folks with all the initials after their names who get the big bucks to figure all this out actually say lower doses of Taxol over shorter periods of time can be more beneficial than megadoses of it.  Since it lowers all the negative side effects doing it that way, it then also becomes beneficial in more ways than just cure too.  Basically saying-I won't feel like I've been run over by a train for days on end, and can actually function! 

Which is good, cause after last tx, and this one, and feeling like a zombie, I was ready to throw in the towel and call it good.  Done.  Finished.  Finito.  Over and Out.
anyway, you get it.  I just want my life back.  I hate feeling this way. 
I have to get my labs checked again on Friday, and if I am still feeling crappy, and my hgb is any lower, they will transfuse me.  Not keen on that.

 Maybe my husband will just bring me a styrofoam cup of O+ and I can suck on that this week.....

An amazing day!

The Guns N Hoses MC Ride was Saturday, and we couldn't have had a more beautiful day for it!  The picture above was the ride start point in Lenexa, KS and rode 60 miles to Worth Harley Davidson in KCMO.  I almost didn't make the ride, and actually barely made it to the finish, but wasn't going to miss it with all the generosity of friends and family and complete strangers who rode for us.
There were miles of motorcycles in the ride-made me tear up as we got on 435 N and all I could see for as far as I could see highway was the center lane full of bikes riding in twos-side by side.  Bike cops from all over-as far away as Topeka-rode ahead of the group and shut down the highway entrance ramps so the bikes were the only traffic on the highway.  It was a sight to see, and many of the folks in the cars waiting on us were out of their vehicles taking pics and videotaping it all.  I'm sure it pissed some people off that they had to wait for the 300+ bikes to roll by, and normally I would care-but if they would rather trade places with me than wait for that magnificent show of support and unity-feel free.  I'm guessing they wouldn't. 

There were bikes......

bikes.....this is Troy and Andrea on your right and Jason and Heather on the left.....

And more bikes......this is us on the right and Rick on the left....and many more bikes behind us......

The Pink Heals firetruck was present at the start and the finish.  The Captain of the Pink Firetruck is Scott Stubler, a guy I went to High School with that graduated with my older sister Kim.

When I say I was moved to tears, I'm not kidding.  People came up to me the entire day and hugged me and said they were riding because they had been following my blog and I was inspirational to them.  One gal had a gorgeous white and pink Harley and yelled "we will find a cure" and put a big thumbs up to me as I walked by.  To all of you who follow this blog and rode for us--we thank you so much.  For the friends and family who rode and who continue to support us- we thank you so much.  For the volunteers of Guns N Hoses, Diana Mendoza of the Lenexa PD, Lori Maher, all the staff at Worth Harley Davidson- we thank you so much for your kindness and generosity and for all the hard work we know it takes to pull off such a successful event!  We will forever forward be supporters of this ride and the families it helps!  This ride also benefit the Barenklau family, a volunteer firefighter battling colorectal cancer.  I'm sure they were as overwhelmed and thankful as we were by the outpouring of support.   

I almost didn't even make the ride that day, because when they told me I would feel like I had been run over by a truck on Day 3 & 4, they weren't joking.  My chemo was Tuesday, and by Thursday night I started feeling crummy.  Went to bed early and sleep was non-existent. I tossed and turned for hours, just couldn't get comfortable.  I woke up Friday and really couldn't get out of bed.  One of my besties, Tricia, called that morning to see how I was and I told her I was ok.  By noon, when Brian had to leave to go mow, leaving me with Ethan, I was no longer ok.  Brian called her back and she came right over.  She made me eat a sandwich and drink some water and take some meds and made me rest while she hung out with the bald kiddo.  I'm sure she rearranged some stuff in my kitchen and did the dishes and had she the time she would have cleaned the entire house cause that's just who she is and why I love her! 

I felt terrible all of Friday.  And when I say terrible, that is putting it mildly.  My legs burned and hurt and tingled.  My hips and lower back ached.  Every joint in my body ached down to my toes.  To get downstairs I sat on my butt and scooted.  And I was freezing with the chills.  Then I had a low grade fever that night.  I had a headache and a neck ache. 

 It even hurt just to touch my skin.  My darn skin hurt.  really.

 Just like they said-I felt like I had been run over by a truck.  then backed back over.  a few times.   But hey, no nausea!  Woopty doo.  I would rather have had the nausea and even welcomed spending the day puking than feeling the way I did Friday.  Andrea and Troy came by Friday night, and they were pretty sure I wasn't going to make it to the ride the next day. 

But I'm a little stubborn, and I did feel a little bit better.  And most of all, as with getting through most of this cancer crap, I just told myself to suck it up and get out of bed and go. I find alot of getting through this is simply mind over matter  and making myself do things.  If I let every little ache and pain keep me in bed, I would never have gotten out of bed after my mastectomy.  Oh, did I mention this pain and aching is worse than that?  But I have a reputation to uphold, so I slapped a smile on, took a muscle relaxer and tried not to limp around too much.  People noticed, and for once I finally gave in and went home to my bed, and other than dinner stayed there til Monday! 

My counts have been pretty low.  Low enough to warrant a second shot of Neulasta.  My insurance company ought to love me for that!  I have to get my labs checked again on Friday to make sure they are coming up, which I'm sure they are, because I feel tons better.  Still having a hard time sleeping because as soon as I get in bed my legs ache from my hips down to my knees and I toss and turn for hours before finally catching some zzzz's.  I can't even drink myself into a sleep because alcohol with this chemo is a no-no.  What a buzzkill. 

I'm sure I will feel awesome by next week.  Yep, right in time for another 7 hour dose of toxic juice.

Oh, but I did get some good news!!  As of right now, unless we find that there is a benefit we don't yet know about, I don't need radiation.  That is based on the current guidelines of having tumor size less than 1cm (mine was .9) and less than three positive lymph nodes (I had two).  So, I'm really right on the fence of needing adjuvant radiation, but Dr Sheehan is ok saying no at the moment.  I was warned this could change before I'm done with chemo, but for right now, Woo freakin hoo!   

Hailey is enjoying volleyball camp this week and summer league play, and really enjoying Parker being gone.  Parker is having the time of his life fishing in Canada with the Williams.  Brian really wishes he could have gone fishing-and be there when Parker caught his first walleye, but after he saw how crappy I was after chemo, he was glad he stayed. 

There's always next year.

Heck, I may even want to join them next year.

not.

Frustrated....

I'm sure you picked up on my previous post how frustrated I was last weekend with the crap on my face and the crazy arm pain.  And I hate feeling this way, and hate even more posting about it, cause I feel like a whiner when I do.  I'm tough, and I can do this, get through this, but doing it with a smile on my face is getting to be tougher than I really am. 

I started my new chemo drug, Taxol, on Tuesday, and will get it every other week with my last one being July 13th.  Woo-hoo, an end in sight!  So, as I am asking my fabulous NP, Jennifer, what comes after that?  Follow up when/how/bloodwork/scans/how often?  And she proceeds to say
"well, after your radiation treatments......"
Ummm, no.  I stop her.  I was told NO radiation.  By three docs-one surgeon and two oncologists. 
She was shocked, to say the least, that I was told I wasn't getting radiation.  She said they always to radiation on node positive patients.  Especially since my nodes were macrometastatic. 
Aha!  That's where that word 'macrometastatic' has come back to haunt me from my pathology report. 
When the surgeon and the first oncologist we met said I wouldn't need radiation we didn't have my path back yet.  BUT when Dr Sheehan talked to me about my treatment plan, she said I wouldn't need it either, and she had my path report in front of her!  Ugh!!  Double frustation!!

So Jennifer dug through my chart to see if she could find any notes about yes/no/maybe on rad therapy, but couldn't find anything.  She is going to chat with Dr Sheehan and find out for sure for me this week.  If I do have to do radiation treatments, it could add 6 more weeks onto my treatment plan, putting me into September before I'm done.  This is where I really feel like a whiny person, but somedays I don't think I can get through  the day, let alone think about adding 6 more weeks.  And I'm lucky-there are many, many people out there who wish and pray their cancer treatments were done and over in the (roughly) 7 months of treatment I will endure, and here I am complaining.   Complaining about the treatments that will help me actually put this in the past, and cure me! 

AND, it appears that the rashy ick on my face indeed was shingles, and the arm pain is directly related to the shingles irritating the nerves that run down my arm. 
Good news?  My face is darn near all cleared up.  
Bad news?  My arm still hurts like hell.
Badder news?  My arm pain will likely not get any better through the rest of my chemo treatment, because a common side effect of the Taxol is peripheral neuropathy and joint/muscle pain.   They gave me a script for some Neurontin to help with the nerve pain in the meantime. 

The biggest suck about this is how well I have been feeling lately.  Until the arm pain and the shingles, I had been feeling great.  Been taking evening walks with Hailey-about a mile and a half-not too much, but some good outdoor exercise.  Eating way better-even though I have no appetite for anything in particlar-been making chicken and salads for dinner, drinking more water, limiting my soda intake to 1 a day if any!  I even dropped 4 pounds!   Brian got all of us a family membership at a new gym opening up near us, and I was looking forward to starting up a regular exercise regimen. That way when my chemo is done, I could start up with some hard core training again, so I can get ready for my reconstruction surgery in the fall. 
I feel like I get a couple steps forward, but then something happens and I fall back five!  It's times like this where my good attitude is something I really have to work on.  Besides that, I know if I start crying about it, I won't stop.  Maybe not ever.  And I'm sure that's not good in helping clear up my stress induced shingles outbreak either!  So, if for no other reason than vanity, I will suck it up and trudge through.   I have so many positive things in my life, I'm going to make the most of those and stop worrying and fretting about when I'm done.  It is what it is, and when they tell me I'm done, I will be done.

So, back to my new chemo drug-Taxol.  I mentioned above that I will have peripheral neuropathy, which is numb, tingly, cold feeling in my hands/feet.
I should have less nausea, so much so that I am not even going to be taking the Emend this time around-they say I should be ok with the Zofran and Compazine.  The Taxol will affect my white blood cells, and they do expect those to drop, but I will also be getting the Neulasta shot to help counteract that.  This drug will affect my hemoglobin, so they will watch that closely and if it drops too much, they can fix it with a blood transfusion.  It seems the worst side effect is flu-like, achy pains all over my body which they say hit on days 3 or 4 after chemo.  Tomorrow will be day 3, so if I can't get out of bed tomorrow....
Another downfall is that it takes about 3 hours to infuse the Taxol, and that is after vitals. wait. port access. wait.  labs drawn.  wait.  meet with NP.  wait.  pre-meds.  wait.  Then finally the three hour infusion.  I spent 7 hours at the cancer center Tuesday, and that is darn near exhausting and draining in itself!  My wonderful Dad went with me this time, and he even got a little snooze in while I finished my Fifty Shades of Grey Series! 

Enough with me.  Brian has a follow up appointment with Dr Saterlee tomorrow which should be his last appointment with him if all goes well, and he's pleased with his progress.
Parker leaves for Canada tomorrow with the Williams for his fishing trip.
Hailey has a babysitting job tomorrow and Friday, then volleyball camp and conditioning next week.
Ethan had a follow up in Allergy/Immunology today-all is well with him, just has to get some lab work tomorrow to check his Igg, albumin, liver function tests and complete blood count.  Nothing out of the ordinary-just yearly labs because of the immunoglobulin he takes. 
Great news is that Friday we have a social worker visiting us to do an intake interview to see if he would be eligible for the Lopez Waiver.  If he does qualify, we go on a waiting list, but once his spot comes open, he receives benefits through this private waiver which would pay for his formula, diapers and the other out-of-pocket expenses we have for him-up to $20,000 per year!  Once accepted, it usually  takes 2-3 years on the waiting list.  But once he is on the waiver, he is on it until he is 18, or passes away if that were to happen before he turned 18.  That would be a huge relief for us, as right now we spend about $23,000 per year out of pocket for his needs!

Then Saturday is RIDE DAY!  Yeah, can't wait!  It looks like good weather for the day too!  We are so appreciative of everyone riding that day in support of us and the Fire family in need!  Another reason I hate to complain about any of what I'm going through, when people have been so kind and generous to us! 

And of course my awesome co-workers!  I stopped by the NKCH today to say goodbye to Mary Beth, one of the CT techs I work with who is retiring tomorrow-she will be greatly missed!   And my supervisor Cheryl who is going to be out most of the summer with a huge back surgery she is having tomorrow.  My love and best wishes to them both!  And I can't put in words how fortunate I am to have the job I have, especially after having to tell them I may need 6 more weeks of someone working my shift in case I do have Radiation, and them just waving their hands in the air and telling me not to worry about it-whatever I need to do!  A huge thanks to those who are volunteering to work my night shift all this time, and now even more!   And the cards and gift cards from everyone sure are helpful when my paycheck only has 8.25 hours on it!  I love you all! 

No more Debby Downer post-gonna shake this off and slap a smile on my face and get through this.  I said I was doing this one time only and everything it took to ensure my greatest chance at a cure, and I meant it.

So really, what other choice do I have???

:)

It's not a real GNO til somebody ends up in the ER...

Yep, and that someone was me.  of course.

Flashback to Thursday and the 'cellulitis' on my neck, which they are now thinking was is shingles.  A new area popped up on my cheek and my NP just wasn't sure so she gave me some cream to put on the new area that is typically used for shingles and lo and behold it actually started clearing it up right away. 

While I was there I told her about this nagging pain in left arm that has been there since last Saturday, thinking it may be associated with the shingles.  It is a pain like feeling in my left shoulder which goes all the way down my arm to my hand and makes my hand fall asleep and numb and tingly.  Since my left side is where my port-a-cath is, she was concerned I may have a clot in my port. 

BUT...let's wait til Tuesday the 29th when we need to access it for chemo that day and see if it doesn't work, and if it doesn't THEN we will check it out.
In the meantime go home, cause it's a three day holiday weekend and if it gets worse go the ER....oh, and start taking an 81mg aspirin.

So, pain and all, the girls and I head to dinner and then to hear the Cherry Bombs play.  All is going well, having a great time, getting hit on by a guy whose wife is pregnant, almost getting caught up in the middle of a bar brawl and ending up with blood on my shirt and my new scarf, almost starting one ourselves over the skinny, no teeth, tatted up crack ho who decides she's going to take over our table while we dance (think again sista, cancer or not, I can and will still kick your ass) having one of our group be hit on by a 78 year old man with a bachelor party group....you know, just your average GNO.  Well for us anyway. 

It really didn't start going downhill til the Waffle House.  Andrea, Tricia and I decided we needed to grab some breakfast before going home, what better 1am cuisine than Awful Waffle??  Right after we boxed up Tricia's waffle to go home for her girls breakfast, I started getting terrible pain and heaviness in my arm.  And my upper chest, and in my shoulder-front to back, and losing my grip, and wincing with the pain so much that it would kind of take my breath away. 

After much coaxing by Andi and Trish-off to the ER we go, only with me not driving now, probably not a good idea since just having my arm up on the steering wheel was killing me, not to mention the whole digit numbness thing. 

So, we got going with the work up;
CT Chest to rule out blood clot in my lungs.....normal
Ultrasound of my arm to rule out clot in any of my arm vessels......normal
lab work......normal
EKG......normal
Normally I would love normal results, but this time it sucked cause though I wasn't going to die from a blood clot or heart attack, we still didn't know what was wrong with me.  And my arm hurts.
Got some Dilaudid.  Got some more Dilaudid.  Got nauseated.  Got some Zofran.  Puked.  Got some Phenergan.  Got seriously loopy crazy.  Got to go home. 
My ER Doc called the on-call at the Cancer Center and he didn't have any other suggestions to try.  We had ruled out all the big bad ugly stuff-go home and come in Tuesday.

So, I pretty much slept all day today, and my hubby filled my pain med script and my muscle relaxer script, and neither really help, I just cannot get comfortable.  Guess I will wait til Tuesday and see what Dr Sheehan thinks.

I want to thank my entourage for escorting and staying with me at the ER-Andrea and Tricia, Aaron, and Andrea's hubby Troy.  I'm sure I was quite a sight with my bald head(took my scarf off when I got really hot and puky) and two policemen with me.  Brian was stuck at off-duty and couldn't join us, so my stand in hubbies were there for me!  Thanks guys!  And of course thanks to my fellow rads who scanned and sono'd me-Shannon, Kristi and Stacey!  And my ER doc-Dr Niedens-a fellow PD wife and awesome ER Doc.  I think Dr Niedens was as frustrated as I was not being able to figure out what was going on.  At least she was kind with the pain meds!  And should I need, she is in the ER for like the next bazillion night shifts, so I'm covered there!  And couldn't forget my RN-Jason who was great and quick with the puke bag!  Thanks so much for all your hard work, apparently it's just my bad luck curse.

Or somebody with that damn voodoo doll of me with a big pin stuck in my left arm.....

Seriously, enough already!

Yep, I've just about had it.  With this cancer thing, and all its lovely 'side effects'.  Now don't get me wrong, I know I'm going to sound like a whiny bitch here, but I'm gonna go ahead and wine whine.  I think I deserve it. 

Whining and the wine that is.

While in Florida, I did fabulous-got a brace for my gimpy knee, put on my biofreeze daily and took my Naproxen and I made it. 

I took my meds and ate small meals to avoid the nausea.

I wore a hat and big celebrity sunglasses and slathered myself with sunscreen 2-3 times daily since I know the chemo makes me more sun sensitive-more than I already am.

I guess the one damn thing I did not account for was the Florida bugs.  Apparently they have lots of little buggy bugs, and one bit me. 

 I remember when.  It was right after we got off the Popeye River Barge ride and we were all soaking wet.  I remember absentmindedly scratching at a spot on my neck and coming away with a little black bug.  Not surprising, I was wet and sticky and I'm sure smelled just bugginly delicious to him.  No big deal right?  Wrong.  By Monday last week I had a rash where that bug had bit me, and a bunch of red raised blister looking things.   

Ok, triple biotic cream, anti-itch cream, benadryl and I thought I was good to go because it *kinda* started to look better.  I have never had a bug bite do that to me, seriously?

Of course I wasn't good to go, who the schmuck was I kidding????

This Monday night I was reading and remember scratching my left cheek-clarification-face not butt.

Within 15 minutes Hailey looks at me with horror on her face as if I had just sprouted a second head. Upon looking in the mirror I see those same familiar blistery looking spots on my cheek where I had been scratching-and now it's a hot mess red color. 

LOVELY.

So I wash my face, apply a warm soak with epsom salt, then a cool pack, then top it off with some anti-itch cream. 

Woke up Tuesday morning and it actually looked better.  Well shucks-did something just really work in my favor?  HA HA HA said the Gods.

Wake up today and though it looks 'ok', as the day went on it turns into a red, raised, hot to the touch, oozing, size of a fifty cent piece mess.  Even more lovely. 

Call the cancer center and they damn near freak out.  Since my immune system is so jacked up right now, they are pretty sure my bug bite has turned into a cellulitis.  Off to the pharmacy for some steroids and antibiotic.  Though it does look and feel a little bit better tonight-after a cocktail of pink lemonade Crystal Light, 6 Methylprednisolone tablets and two Doxycylcine-I'm hoping to wake up and it be gone.  HA HA HA-in my dreams.  Because if it isn't better in the morning I get to go to the cancer center for them to see it, and possibly admit me for some stronger antibiotics-intravenously.  Just what my Thursday agenda called for. 

All my oozing, freak, horror show face issues aside.  I have to mention that the Rifle Raffle winner was pulled by me last Monday at the KCPD Care Team Golf Tournament, and the winner was .....

Chad Pickens.  Chad is a very nice guy, and after posing for a picture with me and his new gun, he handed it back to me and said he wanted it to be auctioned off for more money to help us out!  I hugged the poor guy and probably scared him with my death grip.  One of the nicest things anyone has done for us.  The silver lining of this cancer cloud that hangs over my head?  Ok, I should say the silver lining of the black cloud that seems to loom over the Rawley family-is the kindness and generosity of people.  We are blessed to have such amazing people in our lives, I can't say that enough.  And the biggest thanks ever to Troy Phillips for setting up the whole raffle, selling tix, recruiting people to help him-Onik, Garth, Hooley-I know I'm missing more people-but those three I know really stepped up to help-a huge thanks to them also.  And to SnapShot guns for doing the deal with Troy to get the gun in the first place.  Need a gun?  Check out Snap Shot in NKC!!!   Thank you Troy and Andrea-we love you guys lots!  The Raffle brought in over $8000 so far, and the auction will take place on Friday June 1st.  If you are interested in the auction please read below and email Troy:

Due to the great generosity of Chad Pickens, the winner of the “RIFLE RAFFLE 4 RAWLEY”, we will be offering the rifle up for auction. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Rawley family in addition to what was previously raised from the raffle. The auction will be held by email on Friday June 1, 2012. Bidding will begin at 0800 hrswith a starting bid of $350.00. Those that submit bids, a return email of the highest bid will be emailed back every 2 hours with the last update at 1900 hrs. Only those who have submitted bids will be sent an update. The highest bid at 2000 hrs will be the winner of the rifle! The rifle is a new Stag Arms AR 15, Model 2. It also includes the case and one 30 round magazine. Non department members are welcome to bid as well! Bids and or questions should be sent to:

FPhillips@KC.RR.COM

 

And don't forget the motorcyle ride is Saturday June 2nd.  There is still time to register at

www.kcgunsnhosesride.com

A bunch of us are meeting at First Watch in North Kansas City at 8am before the ride-everyone's welcome to join us! 

Summer is almost upon us-geesh where did the time go???  School is almost out for all three kids-Ethan's last day was Monday, and he has already let us know how boring we are at home.  He got to spend some time with Grandpa Tuesday, but I think he was just a crabass-hoping that changes pretty quick, cause summer school doesn't start until the 18th.  It will be a long three weeks for him if we have to lock his skinny butt in his room that whole time....Just kidding....mostly.

Hailey and Parker are done on Friday, then Parker leaves next week for his Canada fishing trip with the Williams.  Hailey will be working hard at volleyball camp, and practicing her mad driving skills

My chemo break is almost over, and the new stuff starts up next Tuesday. 

 Hoping this crap is off my face by then.....

yeah right.



Just a pic of my things....