Living life….

 It has been way tooooooo long since I updated the blog and you’d think being retired I’d have all the time in the world 🤣. 

I’ll do a quick catch up:

•shoulder issue: argh! (Insert lots of cuss words here) humeral head is dead. D E A D. Loss of blood flow, all the good stuff. First surgeon wouldn’t even consider doing a shoulder replacement because I’m ‘terminal’. I mean, aren’t we all??? Don’t we all die??? Ahem. Second surgeon says sure-let’s do it. But….I’m busy and fall is my busy sign making season and my sister is getting married, etc etc. so it’s being scheduled next week for January. Then I get to recover in the warmth of my home with no painting to do. 

•MY BABY SIS GOT HITCHED! Congrats to Katie and Aaron and my niece(s). I got two new ones! And a wonderful new family and group of friends came with them. It was an incredible weekend of love and laughs with lots of distant family and only a little drama (ha ha!)

Katie and Aaron Eckerberg

Family

My two oldest 

  Beautiful bride 

Katie and the bald kid 

My sisters 

•Mexico!! 🇲🇽 Katie and Aaron planned a “Framilymoon” to Puerto Vallarta in late October for some friends of Aaron’s who couldn’t make it to the wedding and some other family and friends and we were thrilled to join them. 

Our resort was lovely-the beach was great, food was awesome and cocktails flowed freely. (Literally)

We relaxed and I read a whole book on the beach! All by myself with almost no interruptions!  We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my niece Abi and her boyfriend Owen. Abi has grown into such an amazing young lady and we adore Owen.  I hit the spa for a much needed massage, Brian and the guys hit the ocean for a fishing trip, and then we went to swim with the dolphins and sea lions-which meant I checked something off my F*ck Cancer Bucket List ✅

The Eckerbergs 

Swimming with the dolphins 

In my muumuu headed to the beach 

My sis 

Colter and Stephanie and boys 

Dolphin swim 

Dinner at Blue Shrimp

On the beach 

Fishing in PV

 

Cassandra the Sea Lion

Angie and Gary

Goofballs 

Angie and Gary 

Me and the dolphin

My love 

•speaking of October….I made it through another one with Stage 4 Breast Cancer. If you followed my social media stories I shared my journey and lots of info on breast cancer and metastatic breast cancer. Other than that, I refuse to give it anymore of my time!  #nottodaycancer 

#FUcancer #dontignorestagefour 

•November: what can I say…. My husband got a phone call from a dear friend who had an awesome opportunity for us to check another bucket list item of mine off and asked us to go to Paris and Amsterdam with them!! After a frantic rush to ensure the bald kid was going to be taken care of and all that entails…..(you have NO idea unless you’re a part of this crazy ‘special’ club)  we said YES!  

And off we went. 

Paris: the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe (did you know there are stairs and a tunnel that takes you UNDER the insane traffic circle to get to the Arc? Yeah, us either 🤪) 

The Louvre, shopping, walking, dinner cruise, Jim Morrison’s grave, The Seine, lock bridge, Notre Dame, macaroons, crepes, and lots and lots of wine (and beer and mimosas…)

On our way 

Jim Morrison’s grave

Me and Mona 

Venus de Milo

Aperol spritz 

The Louvre 

Wine, of course 

The Eiffel Tower

Mimosas and crepes 

Lock bridge over the Seine

The Williams 

Notre Dame 

Me and Colette 

 Base of Eiffel Tower 

The Williams and Mona

Paris finest 

Arc de Triomphe

French macaroons

The Louvre

Arc de Triomphe 

The Eiffel Tower

Then we took a train ride to Amsterdam…we accidentally tried to go a day early and well….that ended in throwing our luggage off the train in a frantic hurry before we ended up getting kicked off in a random city(or country!)

But we made it to Amsterdam!  Ahhh, we LOVED Amsterdam! Walking the canals, canal boat tour, Anne Frank house, Heineken tour, The Red Light District, The Bulldog, lots of ‘coffee’ shops (they don’t sell coffee there FYI) beer, dinner with our Family from The Hague, more beer, bitterballen, making new friends from the UK and Italy,  clean trains and trams, and bikes, bikes and MORE bikes!

Beautiful church 

Cocktails on the train 

The canals

The gay bar we had a drink in

Yes, that’s MILES per hour 

Another drink 

Smokin in The Bulldog

The Bulldog 

Proost at Heineken

Ummm, Brian, need I say more? 

The secret annex the Frank family hid for two years 

Gorgeous canal 

Anne Frank house 

Train ride 

Williams on the canal 

Dinner with Olav and Marlene 

Beautiful 

The Anne Frank house-no photos allowed inside. A must see if you make it to Amsterdam. So hard to imagine and so tragic. We must NEVER let anything like this happen again. 

Red light district

Seven bridges canal 

Love the architecture along the canals

Heineken and bitterballen 

The canal 

Heineken Tour

Our friends from the UK on our boat canal tour 

Texels makes a great beer!

This was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for me, literally!  We had an absolutely fabulous time and I can’t thank Brian and Colette enough for thinking of us and asking us to go with them on this trip. And my husband for knowing what it would mean to me to go and making it happen. I 

won’t lie-it was hard for me to keep up some days. Damp, chilly weather, 16k step days, lots of stairs and bone mets don’t always mix well and there were a few moments my frustrations with this damn disease got the best of me. But if I was a burden to anyone, they never showed it and gave me all their grace. For that I am most appreciative and truly cherish the friendship we have with these guys. ❤️

December is almost upon us, and will be as busy as the last six months I’m sure. I can’t believe 2022 is almost over, and Christmas is almost here. I’m most looking forward to spending time with family over the holidays and hope you get to do the same. Sending all our love to you and yours!

And I PROMISE I will update this blog more….

Love and hugs, 

K 

When it rains…..it turns into a hurricane around here…..

 My last post was in February, and ironically it was about my MRI results of my brain, and this one is about the MRI results of my right shoulder.  

You’re probably wondering what’s going on with my right shoulder so I will condense as much as possible-just know the last 3.5 months have been a complete sh*t show in regard to my health.  Early March my right shoulder started bothering me-just a twinge of pain here and there-usually with a specific movement of that arm, definitely not all the time. I go to Colorado mid-March with my sister for our Cousin Trip and it really starts bothering me daily-feels heavy, lymphedema flares up, difficulty sleeping due to pain, living on Ibuprofen, Voltaren gel, and the occasional morphine to sleep. 

Cousins! Me, Anthony, Kim, Angie in Estes Park

           Going to the Safeway in our caftans

             Kim, Ang and me Estes Park 2022

                                My Liv 🥰

       Kim, Aunt LuAnn and me La Junta, CO 2022

                                Amelia and me 🥰

         Kim, Uncle Mike and me. La Junta, CO 2022

Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Don, Aunt LuAnn Baird, Aunt LuAnn Vandetti Trumble, Uncle Mike Baird, Kim and me La Junta, CO March 2022

Get back home to STL and get my Oncologist to order X-rays of shoulder and humerus (upper arm). Negative other than slight AC joint separation-the AC joint is where your collar bone meets your shoulder-but no big deal. Recommended to ice and rest. Within a week pain is worse-referred to Ortho doc. He says it’s frozen shoulder, let’s do a steroid injection. BUT FIRST let’s do some lab work to see what my inflammatory markers are. Guess what? They’re crazy high. Imagine that. So he has me see his NP who tells me we can’t do steroid injection now, let’s get a CT of your shoulder. THEN 3 days later I get a call that we aren’t doing the CT now, but a shoulder aspiration instead. (Take sample of fluid out of shoulder joint with a needle). I’m flabbergasted at this point because now it’s been 3 weeks since my X-rays, pain no better, losing range of motion, and nobody can tell me what the plan is regarding this aspiration-and the office nurse has called me by the wrong name 3x so I’m beginning to wonder if they even have the correct patient…..So I call one of my very fave Rads in KC. He gives me some great guidance and scenario plays out how he thought it would. Aspiration gets yucky yellow fluid, Ortho freaks out and decides I have a septic arthritic shoulder and need surgery ASAP. 

Surgery on 4/25 to clean out the ‘infection’ in my shoulder joint. Then refers me to Infectious Disease Dr who recommends 30 days of IV antibiotic to be administered by me at home through my port. Yay! Time to start the pro-biotic! 

                My 30 day home antibiotic set-up 

               Home post shoulder surgery 4/25/2022

At one week post surgery follow-up my stitches are removed and Ortho Dr discharges me from his care-ummm, doc, I have worse range of motion, and horrible pain still. Oh, and NP gave me no pain meds to take home so I’m assuming I shouldn’t be having pain. He reiterates I just had surgery, give it some time and bye-come back anytime if I need anything else. Oh, and my cultures didn’t ever grow back any type of infection or organism and it probably never was an infection-likely frozen shoulder.  Again, flabbergasted. 

Now I’m questioning the pain I’m having and if it’s really that bad. Start doing some therapy on my shoulder for what we are now thinking is frozen shoulder diagnosed by way of a completely unnecessary surgery and even more unnecessary antibiotic use. Pain gets worse. Range of motion worse. 

Go to PCP and he’s wondering where any imaging is that he’s sure my Ortho Dr did. Well, there isn’t any. Orders MRI of shoulder. But before that can be done I end up in the hospital with a horrible episode of Colitis (think 22 trips to the bathroom in about 12 hours)  GI Dr comes in and decides to do a simple blood test-iron. My iron is 16!  Low end of normal is 38, I have less than half that in my body. GI doc thinks my low iron, red blood cells and hemoglobin along with massive NSAID use and 30 days of antibiotic caused the colitis. More IV antibiotic, this time for a REAL reason and an iron infusion and home in 2 days. Continue 10 days of oral antibiotics at home. 

                   Iron infusion #1 in the hospital 

Home Sweet Home…..I’ve got no more abdomen pain, just some nausea.  Pro-biotic has helped with excessive diarrhea. Shoulder and upper arm are killing me. Range of motion so bad I can no longer even bring my right arm up to my forehead without pain-now everyone is thinking it’s a rotator cuff tear.  No more ibuprofen. Set up for 3 more iron infusions over next 3 weeks and then re-evaluate. 

Finally MRI of my shoulder was 6/22 and I got results on 6/27. 

Drum roll please……..

Worse than anyone expected. Or even could have imagined. 

Right humeral head shows large focal area of osteonecrosis with mild flattening and collapse of the humeral head. Associated adjacent bone marrow and soft tissue edema. Small glenohumeral joint effusion.

What does that mean in non-medical jargon? Basically the round part of my humerus that fits into the shoulder joint space is dead. Yep dead. D E A D. Osteonecrosis is also referred to as Avascular Necrosis meaning the blood supply to the bone has been shut off somehow. The other words mean swelling and fluid around that joint too. 

It gets better…..I also have moderate tear of one of the rotator cuff tendons along with fluid there too. Oh, and subdeltoid bursitis and biceps tendinopathy. And let’s not forget the joint effusion-otherwise known as a pocket of fluid in that area too. 

Whew. I think I covered it all. I mean, go big or go home right?  I went big this time. Big BIG. 

We’re still trying to figure out how this happened as shoulder osteonecrosis is not very common at all. Actually it’s considered rare. Again, leave it to me. 

Was referred to a new Shoulder Ortho doc by my PCP and that guy’s nurse called me back today and he won’t even see me because my issues are way out of his comfort zone-thanks for being honest. Oncologist gives me a name-call them today and it took 4 hours to decide if they would even see me since another Doc had already done surgery less than 90 days prior and if so, who in their group. Good news-I have an appointment with a new Ortho guy who specializes in shoulders on July 14th. Further out that I wanted, but ahem. I digress. 

What is the fix for this debacle you ask????

Shoulder joint replacement is the most likely answer. And probably going to happen pretty quickly after that appointment. Woo-hoo, I’m so excited to have this surgery  (Insert extreme sarcasm here) hey, maybe this arm will be bionic with my new shoulder!? 

Ahem. Again. 

In the meantime we are heading to KC this weekend to go to the Kenny Chesney concert we bought tickets for in 2019. Thanks Covid. But we are really looking forward to it because our cousins from NOLA are coming up to go with us along with my girl and Logan and my Sis and her man. And we’ve been waiting 3 years darnit!  Anybody else going?  We’ve got floor seats and I’m sure we’ll be doing some parking lot pre-gaming so hit me up for a pre-concert cocktail if you’re going. 

 We also plan to take the NOLA people to some gas station BBQ, and maybe the biggest and best chicken wings ever-it’s a KC thing iykyk! 

That’s all for now-promise I won’t wait 3.5 months before I update again. And it will all be good news. It HAS to be, cause I’m maxed out on crappy news. 

At least everyone else is well! 

Hope y’all are having a great summer so far and have a safe and happy 4th of July! 

-k

MRI results are in……..

 The news we’ve all been waiting for is finally in……

The cerebellum lesion seen on my CT is NOT CANCER!  

Woo-hoo!  The fact that it’s not a metastatic lesion is awesome. My MRI was read without any comment on the lesion we saw on CT, and that he was unable to ‘access’ my CT. But he did comment on a bone lesion in my skull. We have known that was there. It’s in the bone, has been there since my bone scan last March from KU, and is unchanged. He also mentioned that my brain appears to have small vessel disease-more on this in a minute, but this has never been mentioned on any of my previous imaging. And my Oncologist was not happy with the read and the fact that the Radiologist had access to my scans and for whatever reason just didn’t look for them. 

It was a blame game all week-Rad blamed tech and PACS system, radiology manager blamed Radiologist, and so on and so forth. We even started questioning if it was my actual images attached to my name and medical record number! (Yes, that happens) Listen-I worked in this business for 26 years, I can likely tell you exactly where the breakdown happened, but I’m just ready to move forward.

We just want answers. And answers that are made using ALL of the available imaging I have!  So my Onc called one of the Neuro Rads at Missouri Baptist-where I had my MRI, and he went over it with her AND compared it to my CT, Bone Scan and clouded imaging from KC.  

It appears that area in my left cerebellum is a subacute/chronic stroke.  Or in laymen’s terms an ‘old stroke’ meaning greater than 5 days old and more likely weeks old. But I’ve had no stroke-like symptoms (or so we thought)  This is where the diagnosis of cerebral small vessel disease comes into play-the tiny blood vessels in my brain appear to be blocked by tiny blood clots. This is common in an aging population and contributes to cognitive decline, early dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. 

BUT…..(always a but in my case). I don’t fall in the aging category, and they actually think I may have a hole in my heart sending these tiny blood clots to my brain. This is becoming more and more common, and actually just happened to my best friend a couple years ago and a friend of Hailey’s. The foramen ovale, is an opening between the right and left atria of the heart and closes on its own shortly after birth. A PFO is a patent foramen ovale, or one that didn’t close on its own, and is usually found when testing for other health issues. And there is school of thought that having a PFO can cause blood clots to travel to the brain and cause strokes. And even though it can result in a stroke, one may not have typical stroke-like symptoms. 

Treatment plan:

• I get to start taking a baby aspirin every day. 

•Echocardiogram with bubble study (inject a solution with bubbles that can be seen on ultrasound during echo to look for PFO) 

•Appointment with Neurologist 

•Repeat MRI in 6 weeks 

If the bubble study is negative we have to look at other causes for the small vessel disease and one is if I was having atrial fibrillation episodes-irregular heart rhythm-which I’m not, but I do experience other symptoms of afib so will look into that also. 

I have also been on estrogen suppressing medications for 10 years because of my cancer and birth control for years prior to that, which all carry the risk of stroke. 

And there are studies that show a Covid infection can cause these tiny blood clots to form and potentially cause a stroke. Awesome. 

Ahem. 

It’s a lot of medical mumbo-jumbo I know. But basically I don’t have any cancer in my brain (just on my skull bone) but I do have another medical issue we have to address quickly. Good news and not so good news. I won’t say bad news because it’s not really bad and having the MRI found something we didn’t know about that left untreated could have devastating results.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another. And before long I’m pretty sure my husband is going to smother me with a pillow! Just kidding-it won’t be that obvious. Lol 

In the meantime we are working on cleaning up our diet and exercise regimen because I finally have some energy back! My onc started me on a low dose of Ritalin because it has been shown to improve cancer treatment induced fatigue-and it has!  #betterlivingthroughpharma 

I feel like a normal human on most days thanks to the Ritalin. 

We are heading to Dallas this week for Hailey’s White Coat Ceremony and I’m excited because all 5 of us will be together along with my sis Kate and niece Abi. Hailey’s dad is going and her Texas family will all be there too. Will be nice to get away from these 20 degree days to some warmer weather-even if it is only 45 there it’s warmer than MO! Can’t wait to see Hailey in her white coat!

Then Hailey comes to STL for her first clinical site-we get her for a whole month! 

Just wanted to update everyone on the MRI results and that they are good (being that there’s no cancer) and how much I appreciate the prayers and good juju!

much love,

K

And the results are in…

 The holidays flew by and wish we could have spent more time with family, but we still had a great time. Lots of fun, food and laughter for sure. And several intense games of Left/Right/Center. None of which I won, btw. I’m pretty sure it was rigged. 

Parker with Grandpa Chuck and Teresa

Ethan with Emery, Emmett and the Grinch 

The Mills with The Grinch 

Hailey and Logan with Grandpa Chuck and Teresa 

All of us minus Kate and her family-damn Covid-with Grandma Sharon 

Us and The Grinch 

I completed my MRI guided Stereotactic Radiation to the lesion we found on my lumbar spine in early December. That was rough-but not as bad as I had anticipated. I had some nausea, and lots of fatigue the week of the radiation, but it was all gone a couple days after I was finished with treatment. The pain I was having at that spot has pretty much gone away-the wet and cold weather don’t help it, but it is bearable. 

I had a repeat CT of my chest/abdomen/pelvis and whole body bone scan done on January 12th and my Oncologist added on a head and cervical spine (neck) CT because I have been having headaches and neck pain. I got my results on Tuesday this week and with the good comes the bad. The L1 lesion we radiated in December has not grown, and shows signs of sclerosis, or healing. My cervical spine shows no signs of bone mets. The rest of my spine all the way down to my pelvis and hip mets look unchanged from previous scans. Except for a small, new spot on my left pelvis. I don’t have any pain there at all so we aren’t going to worry about one new bone lesion.  My lungs still look shitty-thanks Covid and prior radiation. But no lung mets, masses or nodules there. 

The bad news is there is an 8mm lesion that showed up in my brain. My left cerebellum to be exact. The previous reports I could find from KU and NKCH don’t mention it, which likely means it’s new and real. Other than the headaches I was having, I’m not having any other neurologic issues-which is good. The plan is for the Radiologists here to compare the CT to the CTs and MRIs  I had sent over from KC. If they decide the lesion is new (which I’m sure it is) I will have an MRI here and go from there. This likely means brain radiation is next. I will know more in the next couple of weeks and will keep everyone updated. It’s definitely not great news, but it’s not awful. My lungs and liver are still clear, and I’ll take one met in my brain over a dozen. So if you can throw some prayers and good juju up for the MRI to find nothing new in my brain-not that there’s much there anyway-and my husband says this just proves I’ve been crazy for a while…..anyway-good thoughts my way are appreciated. Now to keep myself distracted in the meantime…..

I was able to do just that by heading to KC to see the Wicked performance at the Music Hall with my dear friends. And we loved it!  Such a great story of friendship, and like the words of the song ‘For Good’ that Glinda and Elphaba sing;

I do believe I have been changed for the better
And because I knew you
I have been changed
For good.  

Wicked at the KC Music Hall 

Mandy, Me and Sandra at The Bristol with the gorgeous lights and Chiefs banner in the background 

Me and my baby sis Katie

Of course I cried in that scene.  In addition to the show we had dinner at The Bristol where my sister joined us and it was fabulous!  My trip to KC was non-stop, lunch with my awesome Dad at Corner Cafe, cleared out the safe deposit box at the credit union, stopped at NKCH to get imaging sent and get copies, and visit with some former co-workers-one a fave Radiologist of mine whose husband is a Pulmonologist and man-they are exhausted in healthcare folks.  Kudos to those who keep showing up in the face of all of this. Then I hit Kansas on the way out of town and visited my friend’s fabulous boutique-ShananiGanns- to drop off signs and jumped on I-70 to head East. Then I spent almost the whole car ride back to STL on the phone with another dear friend-sure makes the boring ride go by fast! After the news I got I needed this trip to make my face hurt from smiling and laughing so much with just a few of my favorite people to get me out of the bad news funk and ready for battle.

Again. 

But, it is what it is, and I’ll do what I have to in order to fight this crappy disease. Thanks for having my back! 

I will update when I know more, in the meantime I’m snuggled up by the fireplace getting ready to watch the new season of Ozark and my Chiefs beat the Bills this weekend because it’s too cold to do anything else! 

Xoxo

-K

Pink October

 October rolled around and once again I tried to share my story as awareness and education of my Breast Cancer journey.  If you followed along my FB updates, you got to read a Cliffs notes version of the last 9 years. 

Really condensed. 

And how ironic that in the month of awareness I find out I have progression of my metastatic lesions. Namely to my lumbar spine (L1 most markedly) ribs and right pelvis/femur area. 

My Oncologist recommended Radiation to the L1 lesion to zap it away hopefully and for pain control. So today I met with my new Radiation Oncologist. 

I knew the day would come that I would need an MRI on some body part because of this damn cancer. I just figured it would be my brain and not my lumbar spine. Ahem. 

I’ve had an MRI before; brain, knee and breast. And seriously did not enjoy any of them. But apparently I’m a glutton for punishment because I chose to do SMART treatments on my spine rather than conventional radiation therapy. 

SMART stands for 

Steriotactic

MRI guided

Adaptive 

RadioTherapy 

This means I will be doing targeted radiation to my spinal lesion under MRI guidance. And this is a clinical trial. The MRI guidance is to see if they can deliver targeted, precise doses to the tumor without hitting, or sparing, as much of my spinal cord as possible. Each session will last about an hour (yay!) and I will have 5 of these treatments. 

I really, really like my Radiation Oncologist Dr Badiyan.  I’m sure I made quite the impression when I told him I was claustrophobic and hated MRI but in the name of science and education and helping someone else down the line and preserving my spinal cord I would suck it up and choose the SMART Clinical Trial. I also told him my breast MRI required an Ativan and Moscow Mule to get through and he assured me they could hook me up with the Ativan, but I need my own bartender for the Mules. That was after he almost fell off his stool laughing. 

I have to get an MRI of my spine with contrast first and that is happening Sunday-yes, in 4 days!  So I’m meditating and preparing for that already. 

I’m not sure when the actual treatment will start, but I’m guessing next week sometime.  And we have to go down to the BIG Barnes Jewish Campus for that. 

That’s what we know so far.  

Send me your prayers for calm and patience and to get through all of these MRIs. Oh, and that we can find the good ginger beer we need for my Mules….

 

 

Summer Vacay, surgery, & back 2 school

 Who could have imagined a few years ago that we would be taking a summer vacation with Brian’s brother and his family!? Not us!  But here we are and it happened. 

All of us + Logan and the Mills headed to Florida and Universal Studios for a week. And it was awesome. We had an incredible AirBNB that slept the 10 of us comfortably and had our very own pool. And super reasonable cost. Happy to share with anyone interested. 

We rode lots of rides. And due to the fact that school was already back in session when we went-we never waited longer than 15 minutes for any ride. And the 15min wait was for the super popular Hagrid’s Motorbike Ride. Which this momma rode and though I almost had a heart attack at one point, I would def ride it again. The bald kid rode lots of rides and got to get up close and personal with his favorite character King Julien!  My heart soared when we rounded a corner and he heard the theme song. He was delighted and I’m pretty sure I cried happy tears. 

Hailey and Logan rode all the upside down, twisty-turny, backwards, fast AF rides and drank gallons of butter beer. Parker hung with me and the bald kid and partook in some of the less thrill inducing rides. All of the kids, and the Mills family, were so helpful with Ethan, I was more relaxed than I had been in a long time. 

The flights were good-other than SWA destroying Ethan’s wheelchair on the flight home. They actually handed us a couple of pieces off of it when we landed back in STL. Uh, oops?!  So now we are getting a brand new chair for him we expect to have end of November.  

We had such a perfect time just relaxing with the family and laughed about as hard and often as possible that we are already planning our next Family trip!  

September came and with that my surgery on my lymphedema arm.  I had a lymphovenous bypass and lymph node transfer at KU with Dr Butterworth.  It went well and so far showing some fabulous results!  

I’m not sure how it will fare long-term, but my surgeon and I both are pleased with where I am at now!  It can’t get any worse-so if this is status quo I’m good with that too!  

Back to school….

I don’t even know what to post here. All I will say is that we definitely miss Maple Valley. A lot. 

It’s just not the same and I’m trying, but it’s getting harder and harder.  I’m not even sure they are working with Ethan daily and I’ve become the squeaky wheel but I’m beginning to think they don’t even care to oil it. Guess I’ll just have to get louder. 

As far as new docs go-all of the ones we have gone to here-for me and the bald kid-are excellent!  I don’t think I could be more pleased!  And that’s saying a lot! 

Ethan is scheduled for his eye surgery to correct his strabismus (wandering eyes) first week of December. And during that surgery they will measure his eyes for a refractive surgery with implant at a later date to correct his near sightedness. He may not ever have to wear his glasses again after that surgery. 

And his new pediatrician is a dream!  She’s not Dr Russell, but she’s just as fabulous. 

And his Cardiologist?  Dr Kaine in disguise. 

Again-I cannot verbally express how thrilled we are with his care here. He’s in great hands. 

And my docs-just the same. Haven’t had one yet that I didn’t like or felt like I was wasting their time. Unlike how I was beginning to feel with my Oncologist in KC. 

It’s been a busy summer that ran right into fall before we knew it and I’m looking forward to spending the holidays here in STL. 

We miss our family and friends in KC, and for sure our Royals. 

But I’m so thankful for the memories we are making here!