2 Weeks of complete craziness... We've struggled and had lots of fun!

I haven't posted in over 2 weeks so you better sit tight for a lot of mumble jumble... I will go over the highlights of my 2 weeks at home and then at the end I will give you the Readers Digest version of the happenings of Todd.

The first week was A LOT of running around to get ready for Christmas... I am not really sure what I did though. As always Todd moves slow so sometimes he joined me for the car ride and sometimes he stayed at home.

We went to Todd's moms house for Christmas Eve.. Below are a few pictures of night. Notice, I didn't win the sweat pant battle. :) Sometimes you have to pick and choose your battles though.

Todd, Greg, Bonnie and Ted (Savannah the dog)

All of us... Lets see. Me, Todd and Tyler (11), Bonnie and Ted, Greg, Ashley (in the back) and Cameron (15) and Mason (8) in the front.

We had a nice night visiting and celebrating Christmas Eve with the Bloomfields. Bonnie (Todd's mom had a rough week leading up to Christmas-her counts were really low and after Christmas we learned she had Bronchitis. She probably over did it too much by having Christmas at her house however I know she enjoyed having everyone together.

We were suppose to go visit with my dad over the holidays however Todd definitely couldn't of made the trip. He gets car sick if we go over 30 minutes due to his vision. In addition, he's had horrible bouts of diarrhea (will talk more of Todd at the end.)

What we were doing on Christmas was all up in the air since I knew we couldn't push Todd too much. My mom had made a Christmas meal and we were either going to go to her house for a bit or I was going to meet her to swap out Christmas and food. Todd woke up Christmas morning and said his vision was a 'bit' better and he had a 'bit' more energy and he would like to try and go to my moms for Christmas day. We went and were there for no more than 2 hours but it was nice to visit, eat and of course... open presents. Below are some pics from the day.

My mom and Ty... I love this pic!

The 3 of us

Well, the Christmas weekend came to a SCREECHING halt as Monday hit and Todd woke up with pain so bad in his joints (knees) that he could barely walk. I called the On-call dr who advised me to give him ADVIL... I was like seriously, he can't walk and he's almost in tears! Advil it is... The pain came and went, mostly came and Todd spent most of the day on the couch. Tuesday... I was ready to conquer the world and get everything back in order from the holiday and preparing food for when I went back to work. By lunchtime on Tuesday, he still was in bad pain that I called Dr. Avery who advised us to come to the office ASAP. We spent the next 4 1/2 hours at the office. They poked and prodded him and were very puzzled as to why he was having this bad of pain. They gave him a bag of morphine and fluids and sent us home. Like clockwork, Tuesday evening was a delightful bout of massive diarrhea...MASSIVE and not for the faint of heart! Wednesday, bright and early he had a scan and he took the rest of the day in bed because he was so tired from being up all night with the above! Thursday, a regular visit with Dr. Avery to hear about the scan. We opted for the scan to be done a bit early so we could get it in before the end of the year. Typically they don't do them that soon but we were lucky. We only received the results from the Knox Dr's who don't go into full details however they told us that there is way less enhancing of the new tumors (which means there is not as much new, fast growing cells) and it appears the chemo is 'working'. They are going to continue on the same path and we will do another scan in 8 weeks. Good news and baby steps for sure... After the visit, I received a call that Todd's levels were 'off'... something that showed dehydration (gee, wonder why, he's had diarrhea for days) and blood sugar levels were SKY high and we need to do something about it... They asked Todd to go back in but we convinced them to hold out until the morning when he was scheduled for his infusions. Friday, Happy Birthday to Me and Todd was dropped off at the infusion center. They gave him a bag of insulin, extra saline (he said he felt like he was floating away) and then the CPT-11 and Avastin. Because of the bloating and diarrhea, they scaled back a bit on the CPT-11 in hopes it won't tear up his digestive track. Only time will tell, typically Tuesday is the magic day. We will see....

Ok so you see that this week we were either at the hospital or the dr's office every day but Monday. I spoke to the nurse on Friday afternoon and she said that if Todd's sugar levels were above 400 at any time during the weekend, we needed to go to the hospital. Normal person is about 100, for him they would like to see under 200 bc of steroids. Him and I have fought hard to maintain healthy levels all weekend so we wouldn't have to make another trip to hospital.. as we speak, they are anywhere from 250-325 so I will have to call tomorrow, Monday, to see what the next plan of action is.

Whew are you tired yet... Saturday was NYE and Ty had a basketball game. Todd said he felt well enough to go and he even requested to go to our favorite wing place which is definitely out of our way!!! In addition, the new tradition is to go to Amy's (long time friend) then go bowling... home before 10. Todd agreed to meet at the bowling alley but didn't feel like 'hanging' out at Amy's. I told him he didn't have to go but he wanted to... we were there for 2 hours and he was a sport watching us bowl and have a good time. Afterwards, we snuggled in bed to watch the ball drop.

Love this kid...

Holidays are the only time I can get a picture of the 3 of us... Todd says he looks like Buddha however Buddha or not, he's ours!

I call these 2 my Rocks or maybe I should say Bookends, lol... Amy and April. April is off the wall and busy like me (Sorry April) and Amy has been around for 20 years this summer. She is my rational, level headed advisor... LOL. Not sure everyone who knows that would say that about her, right??? Sandy???

For fun one day, I will have to post pics of all the people who we really rely on during our crazy times!

This year has been so hard to deal with... I've learned a lot about myself and others. Some people wrap their arms around illness and some have other ways to deal. I see myself in this as well... I am not a good 'dealer' with other peoples 'heavy' stuff but you can betcha that I am very aware of this and will work so much harder on being a better friend and family member to those 'struggling' with 'something.'

So with that said... Bring on 2012... Let's see what it has to offer the Bloomfield family. One thing is for sure, I will not lose the fight for my family and I will not let CANCER bring us down, I will appreciate those around me better AND I will not allow myself to become consumed with people who bring me down.

Continued prayers for MIL, Bonnie as she fights her cancer battle and my new friend Sheri as her and her family struggle with hubby's brain tumor.

Pray we don't spend another week visiting dr's this week and pray that he will do well all alone at home when I go back to work on Tuesday.

It you made it to the end... Thanks as always. I appreciate all the prayers and well wishes that have come through over the last few weeks. We've seen incredible generosity and we are humbled by it!

Thanks again.. Hugs...

The Clan