Spoiled

What happens when your daddy has cancer and your mommy feels guilty that she has turned your life upside down and doesn't spend as much time with you? You are spoiled with gifts! Lucy has really adjusted well to all the changes in our lives this past month. She has been such a good girl. As a result I find that on the few outings we go on (especially during week one) I buy her things. I can't help it. Yesterday I raided the dollar aisle at Target because they had HSM things (Lucy is obsessed with High School Musical. She got such a positive reaction to singing one song from Aunt Becca and Katy that she has every song memorized now and carries the DVD around with her). She now has Troy pillowcases, bracelets, a notebook and a poster book. She carries them all in her purse with her.
Lucy also got her Halloween costume early and I'm letting her wear it. She loves her new Minnie dress-especially the brooch on the front.

Her favorite new toy is a Dora kitchen. A parent at mom's school donated it to the kindergarten but each teacher already has a little kitchen, so Mom mentioned that her little grandbaby's daddy has cancer and could she possibly take it home to buoy her spirits...? The kind mom had no problem and now Lucy is in heaven. She plays with as soon as she wakes up in the morning and reacts like she has never seen it before. I'm really proud of my girl and how she is dealing with everything. Thank heavens for the love of our family-she LOVES having her grandmas and grandpas around-and I do too.

Cycle 2 Day 1

Going Bald and End of Cycle 1

We are officially done with Cycle 1! Hooray! Earlier in the week Danny's hair really started falling out. After a couple days Danny got sick of having hair all over his pillowcase, hat, clothes and even falling into his food. We decided to just shave it all off and avoid the hassle of a slow fall-out. I think he looks very cute bald-and pretty tough too:) We took Lucy to barber shop and explained that Daddy was getting a hair cut. She got to watch them shave it off and she said that he looked like "Baba" (Grandpa). She is already used to the new look-while Danny still does double takes in the mirror.






I want to thank our good friend Jared who showed his love and support by shaving off his beautiful curly hair too! You look great!


On Friday we celebrated the end of Cycle 1 by going to the beach. Danny craves the ocean. He is pulled to it and has made me promise that we must always live within a few hours of the Pacific (or any other surfable ocean water). He still gets a bit too tired to surf at the moment, but just going to the beach got his ocean fill for the week. We drove to Saualito with Marilyn and Lindsay and had a fun lunch on the water and then drove out to Baker Beach in SF just north of the Golden Gate.
While there Danny and I sat on a towel on the beach to relax, well away from incoming tide. Danny laid down to close his eyes and I turned around to check on Lucy and Mom and all of a sudden we were covered in water! I sat there with water around my waist completely shocked that this crazy rogue wave had caught us all the way up the beach! I helped Danny up-he was soaked up to his armpits-and tried to rescue our stuff from drowning (Lucy was safe further up the beach with Grandma-we did check on her before saving our shoes:) Because we're overly protective of Danny's health we stripped him down right there so he wouldn't get a cold (we don't take our chances with old wives' tales) so he went home in our only dry towel (lucky Baker Beach is known to be a nudist beach, and we can report is still actively one...don't go too close to the bridge or else you'll be in for a surprise). We then came up with the joke that you "either come naked or Baker Beach will make you leave naked". We had a good time and it was good for Danny to feel the salt water on his skin again.

Relief Week

We have reached our first Relief Week! Danny has been feeling much better and really only needs to rest once during the day. He has been able to exercise and leave the house a lot more. On the first day he went to the park with us:


On Tuesday I celebrated my 26th birthday. Danny was pretty worn out but we got to go to a movie in the afternoon. It was so fun to get out just the two of us and do something fun. I had a wonderful birthday and was showered with love and gifts.

My new shoes from Danny

My big present: going to a So You Think You Can Dance concert!


Yesterday was Lindsay's album launch, which we have been looking forward to for ages-so it has been good to have something to prepare for. The concert was a huge success-Lindsay was amazing and we had a lot of fun sharing her music with our friends and family who could attend. Danny did a great job introducing her and then got to sit backstage to watch the performance. It was an incredible night and I'm so glad Danny was able to fully participate.

We got the CDs earlier in the week-it was an awesome moment. Lucy was feeding off the excitement and ran around with the album cover art the rest of the day. (check out Lindsay's website at lindsayaline.com)



Stay tuned for bald Danny pics...

Overview of the Week by Danny

What an interesting week. As most of you know, I have been taking
those White Blood Cell Booster Shots everyday for the last 5 days.
(Today was my last shot for cycle one!!! Yeah!) Each new thing
definitely brought with it its' own interesting side affects. In a
way each new side affect was kind of a relief compared to the one
before. It was almost refreshing to feel a different type of side
affect when it came on, just because it meant the other one was over.
That sounds kind of sick now that I say it, but it's the truth.

One night I felt like Wolverine except I'm a really disappointed that
I didn't at least get to have a metallic skeleton after the pain.
After that night of almost overdosing on Vicodin, we got a
prescription for a drug called oxycodon (or something like that),
which Luke informs me is related to heroin and as close as you can get
to an illegal narcotic. Pretty sweet huh! And yes, it is pretty sweet
feeling, especially after all that pain. It numbed my mind pretty
good though. That day all I seemed to want to do is watch tv, so I
watched 2 movies on tv, (Ray, and Training Day) and three 4th quarters
of preseason NFL (I'm definitely going to be a football junky during
this time). I took another oxy last night, but so far, I have been
able to have a pretty clear head and feel pretty good.

I also have a horrible soar throat, and the doctor informed me that I
have "thrush", (which to me sounds like they decided to put 'throat',
and 'rash', together for a clever word). So, we got a prescription
for a highly sophisticated potion called "Magic Mouthwash". It's a
pretty silly name for how hard it is to get and how long and
complicated it is for them to put together. It is some kind of
compound that they have to make and it took them all day yesterday.
You are supposed to swish and swallow. It basically numbs your mouth
so it is easier to eat with your mouth sores, etc. And I wish it would
numb my throat, but I guess it takes some time to get rid of the sore
throat. It hasn't held me back from eating too much it just hurts
like the dickens.

Something that has been fun to do is Christy has been reading to me
the, "Al Capone does my shirts", book out loud the last two nights.
It's a fun book and has been a fun thing to do together.

I downloaded the audio Book of Mormon the other day and it is a new
and enlightening experience to have it read to you. I was
particularly taken aback as I was listening to the Testimony of Joseph
Smith and what an absolutely remarkable story he has! The events of
the Restoration are absolutely amazing and incredible. I was so
amazed again at the fact that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ.
That he had those visits from Moroni, and all the other angels later
on. I was amazed and grateful at the restoration of the fullness of
the gospel through the Book of Mormon and other revelations, the
restoration of the priesthood and the true church of Christ. My life
has been so blessed by these things! What a remarkable and beautiful
thing it is!

I love you all. Hope you have a good Sunday.

Love. Danny.

Neopogen-take 2

Okay. So the shot is way worse then we previously expected. I try to keep this blog light-but for posterity's sake I have to document that "bone pain" can be freakishly painful. Danny was moaning in agony last night and I had to comment that now I know how he felt when I was in labor. It is hard to watch someone in pain. Thankfully he is taking some sweet drugs that are supposed to mostly take the pain away. Only one more shot this round...thank heavens.

Neupogen

This week has been great. We had our last chemo injection on Monday with minimal side effects. The rest of the week we get Neupogen shots-a shot in his arm that boosts his white blood cell count to keep him healthy. The cells are created in your bone marrow-which can prove painful when they're producing cells at such a quick rate. Your main bones-sternum, thigh bones, hips-get very achy. One woman described that she felt like she was a hundred years old because her bones hurt so badly. So far we have been lucky and he hasn't felt that bad-his chest hurts a bit. We are really looking forward to next week because it is relief week-his body will have a chance to bounce back. The nurse said that he'd feel perfectly normal by the last two days of relief week-before they started pounding him again:) Two days sounds good to me though! He is doing really well, the fatigue is probably the worst past of chemo so far. I wouldn't think that being tired could be so annoying-but he rests and sleeps and has no relief-he just feels tired consistently. Anyway, next week will be fun-we'll go out and celebrate. It is my birthday so I'll try and get him all to myself one day:) And because I have no pictures for this week-here is Lucy's first somersault: