Happy Birthday Todd!

Today is Todd's birthday... We have a pretty low key day planned-Church, lunch, and him sitting on the couch to watch the Masters golf tournament. Ty and I will probably just piddle around. They say its going to be close to 90 today so I'm not sure I'm going to far today.

As far as Todd's treatments go... today will be day 5. He's much more tired than last time but he really has nothing to do so he can focus on resting. I do believe this will be a long.... 28 day cycle. The wonderful part about Temodar (if there is a wonderful part, lol) is there is very little nausea associated with this pill, he battled an upset stomach on Friday but thats it. The fatigue is the biggie. He went grocery shopping with me last week (not even on the pills) and he was beat when he got back home.

I wish I had more to post but we are really quiet. We had friends over last night for a cookout. We are reminded every day about the wonderful friends/neighbors we have!!!

Tuesday's phone call

Dr. Desjardins called today to say the reviewed the scan and ..... there is no chance it can be biopsied without paralysis. Although I knew this was the case, part of us was hoping for a small miracle.

Plan B... Todd will start chemo again tonight. It will still be Temodar however it will be a 28 day dose vs a 5 day dose. Dr. has advised that Todd will be weak and tired. Temodar is typically pretty good with nausea and hair loss but we were told to expect the worst. I have the arsenal of all sorts of nausea medicine so he should be good for this go around. Dr. said that his energy level would be the pits and not to expect much out of him once the chemo was fully in his system. I know that on Saturday when we went to Krogers, he was tired after that so no telling what the next few weeks will bring. Good news is... he has nothing to do but take care of himself over the next couple of weeks! He will do a baseline scan AGAIN on Thursday for the Duke crew and then another one during the first week of May. In May, she will decide based on the scan whether to stay on plan or bump it up with another chemo concoction.

Last thing... Todd called his Oncologist in Knoxville and he spoke to the nurse. She told us that Dr. Avery has been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma... sheesh... he just started chemo as well and is getting ready for a bone marrow transplant. She told us that he hopes to be back in a few weeks however I'm guessing we need to be on the lookout for a new Oncologist. Any suggestions??? For the next few weeks, we need the nurses for blood work so all should be good.

Our roller coaster continues... We are good and don't need anything. Just continued support and prayers. Not sure when I will update again... maybe over the weekend after a few days of chemo. Thanks everyone!!!

Done at Duke

We got to Duke at 930 and appt was at 1030... I was excited because maybe we would be in and out quickly but boy was I wrong....

We finally saw the dr at 1215. We saw Dr. Desjardins and I will honestly say that I was a bit nervous since she was a young woman BUT we absolutely loved her. She is the same type of physician as Dr. Moots @ Vandy. The difference between them was night and day. She was very warm and compassionate, not that he's not compassionate but... She explained to us that without a tissue sample, biopsy, no one would be able to do any clinical trials. Which made sense after talking... However since the tumor has grown, She was going to have Alan Friedman, neuro surgeon, look at the scan to see if there is any chance to biopsy. So... She said she would call us on Tuesday after their meeting. Not really sure what outcome I want because either way could be dangerous. Guess it's not in our hands!!!

The new plan: wait until Tuesday, if it can't be biopsied then Todd will go back on temodar but an everyday dose not a 5 days/month dose. Then from there they will watch him and if needed they can add another chemo to the mix.

So all and all not a bad day... Not a great day but we have another plan! Eventually one of our plans have to work, right???!?!

Thanks to everyone who called or texted the last 24 hours... And thanks for the prayers!

At Duke... Waiting...

We made it an hour early, got checked in, have been seen by the nurse and now we are WAITING. Really not a surprise but we had wishful thinking. This time here we are at the Robert Preston Tisch Brain Tumor Center. I asked what the difference was and she said where we went last time was he surgical side and this side is he medical side... Hum...not sure I really care which side just as long as they have some sort of solution.

Todd and I are both playing on our phones while waiting. Amazing how technology has changed. Last time we were here we had flip phones, lol!

Will update as soon as I can! If you read this within the next few minutes, a quick prayer would be helpful! Thanks!!!

On our way to Duke

So I decided to see if my phone had a blog app and it sure did... So now I'm trying how to blog from my phone. This could be a bit scary....

We are on our way to Duke for a 10:30 am appt. Neither one of us have high hopes because well... You know, been down this road before. Best case scenario is... Anything :).

I thought we were looking at a 4 hr drive only to learn it's about 5.5-6 hours. We've ran out of conversation and you know I can jabber jaw about anything.

So I've tried my hand at couponing and I had a pretty successful day. I will try and post a pic... Retail was $74 and my total was right at $5. Todd says we have enough toothpaste for a few years now-I think I picked up 8 tubes this week.

I will update as I know more... Say a few extra prayers for us tonight and in morning. Thanks for hanging tight during my first mobile blog. :)

No Cornell :(

So I ANXIOUSLY awaited the call from Cornell... We rushed around over the weekend to get the scans and the paperwork they needed only to get an email from them today that said "I am sorry to say that we do not have any clinical trials available for Todd. We wish you the best of luck" Bummer... that's all I can say. We do have an appointment at Duke on Friday so I guess I better have my ears cleaned out and be prepared to listen! Todd has officially started his short term disability. Not sure what this brings for the Bloomfield househould. It was nice to have dinner ready when I got home last night and it was nice for Todd to run the Tyler errands-scouts, school drive, track, etc. I plan on doing a full Tyler update this evening or tomorrow so I will be back later. Thanks again for everyone who has offered to help. When the time is right, I have my list of who will be called... Thanks everyone!

Back to posting again...

Hi all,

I see my last post was January 2009... We've had a good run however good runs don't last forever. I will do my best to give the 'readers digest' version of the past few months. As many of you know, I'm not the best at telling short stories. I am also going to update pictures for those of you who haven't seen us in a bit. (Bare with me, not sure I remember all the fancy website coding).

Rewind a few months.... In the fall of 2010, Todd started complaining of feeling 'woozy' again. I encouraged him to call for a scan. He fussed at me for a few weeks saying he didn't have time and blah blah blah... ya know, excuses excuses. Eventually he made it there. They called me to give me the results and my heart sunk. They told me the tumor had 'changed." What does that mean? What do we do? Who do we call?

I started calling all his old physicians and soon we realized we weren't in too good of a spot. No one really knew where to send us or who could help us so... back to the drawing board. We ended up at Vanderbilt seeing a Neuro-surgeon who was recommended by a friend. When we got there, we realized that he couldn't help Todd but he told us to get a 'Captain' of our ship and he recommended Paul Moots. We were lucky to leave with an appointment with Dr. Moots and from this day forward the CAPTAIN phrase has been used, in all aspects, LOL.

We met with Dr. Moots in November and he discussed the VERY limited options however there were a few options! The most encouraging option was to start with Temodar, a lower does chemo pill. The plan was to start the Temodar and stay on it for at least 12 months and monitor Todd every 3 months. GREAT we have a plan! We had to find on Oncologist here in town and we chose Dr. Bruce Avery... Not sure you will ever meet a man quite as unique as him, LOL. He is absolutely wonderful and absolutely quirky in his dress-plaids, stripes, solids and everything in between. Guess what? He wears them all together, LOL. Ok, back on track... Dr. Avery hooked Todd up with an arsenal of prescriptions. I spent the next day running around town getting our house CHEMO ready. We have more hand sanitizer, tissues and face masks then you can imagine! Todd started his first round of chemo on Christmas Eve and he did great! Almost seemed easy (easy for me to say.) The first round/week, every time he moved in bed I thought he was getting sick. He never once was sick...

Ok so I can now fast forward... We decided with all this hoopla going on that we were going to go on a cruise in January 2011 to 'get away.' Todd and I have NEVER been on a trip without Tyler and we thought this would be a great time to leave life behind and focus on the future. The cruise started out as the 2 of us, moved to 4 of us and when it was all over there were 6 of us... Greg (Todd's brother), Ashley (girlfriend) and Ken/Christy (across the street neighbors) joined us and boy oh boy, we had a blast! In the end, this trip was just what we needed. I knew deep down that this year of chemo would be a challenging year.

Me and Todd

Ken and Christy

The 4 of us playing bingo... we didn't win

The 'Girls'

Greg and Ashley

Back to life and reality, Todd started his chemo the next day back from the cruise. Still all is going well but we've been noticing some slight mobility issues. His leg seems to be getting weaker and his arm is starting to give him problems. Yikes, another issue! I made a few phone calls and soon Todd had a Physical Therapist (another member of our ship). PT seems to be going well and helping with the muscles. We also acquired a handicap pass which I won't admit out loud but it's kind of handy (NO, i don't use it to run errands.) I did have a small breakdown on my way to get it because it was a harsh reality of life.

Now to present month. Thank goodness, huh? Todd had a scan on March 14. They called us with the update the next day and again.. my heart sunk. The tumor has grown at least 1mm and they advised us to wait and see what Vandy says on the 21st. We knew something wasn't 'right' since we've seen a downward turn in the last month. This past Tuesday, March 21 was his Vandy visit. All 3 of us made the 3 hour trip to hear the results. Tyler has been a trooper through all of this and he knows whats going on so whatever we were told, we could tackle as a family! Dr. Moots confirmed that the tumor has grown and he said he felt that it MIGHT not be a slow growing tumor as suspected in the past. When he used the word AGGRESSIVE, I felt the tears whelping up... I think I stopped listening for a moment and then I realized it was time to figure out a plan.

A plan... Dr. Moots told us that options were limited and we needed to seek out some clinical trials but there was 2 more chemo options. I have been a clinical trial looking fool. I have called everyone and anyone who will talk to me. It's definitely a frustrating task (as most of the this medical stuff is). As of this moment, we have an appointment at Duke on Friday and I am waiting on an appointment at Cornell. Cornell has promising clinical trials so my fingers and toes are crossed. Duke was wishy washy but said we'd have to come talk to the Dr to 'discuss' options. Will keep you posted...

I'm asked daily how I can stay so focused and positive about this situation but... I HAVE NO CHOICE! I am the only person who can keep my family trucking along. If I roll over and die then so does my family. We are not doing this alone. I have some of the most amazing family, friends neighbors and coworkers. I also have a great distant 'cancer' friend who I met through this blog. I know at any given moment, I can rely on any of them at anytime!

Last note... I refer to our boat and here it is (sadly, I think I am missing someone):

Family-Brian Mosrie

Neurologist-Brian Wiseman

Radiation Oncologist-Robert Malyapa

NeuroSurgeon-Reid Thompson

NeuroOncologist-Paul Moots "The Captain"

Oncologist-Bruce Avery

Whew, are you tired of reading. Now that I am back in action, I will post every few days. Keep up in your thoughts and prayers!

We made it here!

We are in Jacksonville....YEAH. I say that because we were getting ready to board the plane, we saw the CRASH in NY. I can say that I was a little anxious about to fly. Tyler and I went over the crash water landing safety guide-so we were ready! I said a good long prayer as we took off as well. Anyways, we are here. Tomorrow is our appointment so I will update when I know something. Say an extra special prayer for us before 11 AM

Off to Florida...

We are off to Florida in a bit to hopefully close this llllooonnnngggg chapter in our lives. We leave out of Chattanooga at 4:35 and we are flying into Orlando. We are going up to Jacksonville tonight and his appointment is at 11:00 tomorrow morning. Say a prayer for safe travels and a good appointment. I will update everyone after the appointment-probably on Facebook but will get to the blog by the evening. Thanks to everyone for the support!

End of Year Update

Hi all!!! Happy New Year and I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I am so excited to tell you that life is very different than the first post I did last year at about this time! I will do a general update on all of us like I did in the last post.

Todd-He *seems* to be doing just fine. Life is like it was pre-tumor time. The only difference is he still has some facial weakness-he says he can tell by looking in the mirror but the average person would not be able to tell. I have prayed and prayed for this day to say he is doing better and I can honestly say he is doing GREAT! We go back to the Florida Proton Center for his FINAL scan/check-up on Jan 16th. I will update on those results when we know them. I am a little scared to hear the results just because I do not want to hear that the tumor has not shrunk but on the optimist side I would love to hear the words "NO TUMOR FOUND". LOL.

Kim-I have just had 2 weeks off work-paid-for the holidays. I can honestly say that I love this job. I am doing Enrollment at Tusculum College. I love the women that I work with! I find my self getting a little ADD on somedays but the girls tell me to calm down. I just want to make sure that I do it right and get it all done. Other than my self induced stress, this job is great! Who knew working M-F could be so wonderful. Tyler told me that he loves being home on the weekends and not being shuffled from one house to another. Also, I really enjoyed this holiday season! There was no stress of the mall or the long working hours. I made sure I was extra nice to the retail workers because I was once in their shoes.

My goals for the New Year are working on organization, the entire family eating healthy, finding a church that we can go to as a family and help others the best I can. I say helping others because we as a whole are all about ME ME and ME.

Tyler-Nothing has changed with Tyler except losing a few teeth. I *think* he has grown a few more inches. On my last post, he was hoping to get to 48". Well....he DID!!! Yeah, he is the only 8.5 yr old that is the size of a 6 yr old....but I will keep my baby as little for as long as I can. He has turned in to a little boy over night, he is now a full blown KID. He can move around the computer better than me! He listens to music like Bon Jovi-Living on a Prayer and Guns N Roses-Sweet Child o Mine. I think to myself "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" He is a GREAT kid and I was very fortunate to have him this year. I think he grew up a lot as he had to hear and talk about brain tumors, radiation and how/why people get sick. This kid knows more about Cancer than the average adult.

Enough Enough Enough about us. I was very fortunate to make new friends this year. My friend Christa Masters-hubby had treatment at Proton Center as well-and I chat frequently. We keep up on Facebook. One day we will meet each other face to face. In addition to new friends, I have found old old friends thru Facebook. What a great way to find people. I just love talking to friends from middle to high school. Lastly, I have learned to cherish the friendships that I developed over this year. I have a HANDFUL of people that I can rely on thru thick and thin-I learned who my "true" friends were this year!!!

I am going to try and post some pics of the family for those of you who do not get to see us very often. I am a little rusty on posting pics so please hang tight with me.

Tyler's first day of 3rd Grade

Us at the a Tennessee football game. Even though they had a very bad season, we still enjoy going to the games.

The Pumpkin Patch with our friends, Nathan and Lauren. This family has been very helpful over the year! Notice SHORTS the last week of OCTOBER

Fall pictures, I had to bribe Tyler to cooperate.

Another family that has been so helpful to us this year-Steve, Christy and Heather. They are our "Florida" buddies. Christy and I took the kids to Sea World.

Saw my Cousin Dianne for the first time in 20 years or so. We met in Epcot for a few hours. It was GREAT seeing her, hope it is not another 20 years-Yikes, I would be 55!!!

Not So Scary Halloween at Magic Kingdom. The kids were sooo cute

OK Yes, he does look like the grim reaper. I did not realize that when we bought it. I got him to wear a disney, kidsy costume for Disney World and he got to choose a big kid costume. YIKES now that I look back...LOL

Thanksgiving Day

At my dads, did not realize he would let him use a axe...NICE, all was well and there were lots of cute pictures.

My new work buddies-Two of the ladies were graduating and we went to the ceremony

Told you that the kid lost a lot of teeth in the past 6 months. Another one this week.

Happy New Year

I hope I did not bore anyone, I just wanted the extended family to see the last few months. Take care EVERYONE and thanks for the LOVE and SUPPORT.