update on my mom

I posted this over on facebook, but I know there are probably a few people out there who read this, but not facebook, so I’m copying it over to here as well.

okay, several people have asked what is going on with my mom. so here's the basic scoop. my mom as about 13 carcinoids on her liver (essentially, liver cancer). she has knows this for about 2 years. the course of action thus far, has been just to monitor them, as they are very slow growing, and treatment options are limited. lately, she has become very uncomfortable, and a ct scan revealed that her liver was very enlarged, and therefore pressing on her other organs. they determined that the best course of action would be to do a liver embolization, in which they basically cut off the blood supply to half of the liver at a time, in order to shrink the carcinoids. the did the first proceedure on wednesday, the 17th. (the second is roughly planned for a month later, depending on her recovery from this one.) the first couple of days were rough, as general pain, as well as severe nausea are the expected results. after that, she was told to expect more flu-like symptoms, high fever, chills, etc. apparently, messing with the liver is not something the body likes. when my dad and i went to visit her on saturday, we found her very aggitated, confused, and not at all herself. the nurses said she'd been like that when her medication wears off since the previous night. it was very disheartening and we were concerned, as we were not expecting it. my dad spoke with the doctor yesterday morning and he assured him that this was a normal reaction to the elevated liver enzymes (a result of the procedure), and that, according to her labs from the morning, they were starting to come down slightly, so we could expect gradual improvement. that was encouraging. yesterday, she was still aggitated, and they are mostly keeping her medicated (and therefore asleep) to help her rest and heal. my dad was planning to go back this morning, and i imagine i'll go in at some point today. her regular doctor was scheduled to be in this morning, and so my dad was hoping to be there at the same time as him, so he could talk to him. labs were going to be done again today, so hopefully there is more improvement with the numbers on the liver enzymes. but they had expected her to remain in the hospital at least though wednesday.

i'm so thankful to everyone for their prayers, kind words, and support for me and my family right now. it's a tough time for us, but we're hopeful that once she pulls through this part of it, she'll be okay and on the road to recovery, and hopefully be able to head home soon. please continue to pray for her. i will update soon on her status.

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first day of school

so, we started school today. this is a big deal because it is OUR first day of official homeschooling. you know, here. at home. most everyone reading this is already aware of the fact that shane has been homeschooled since first grade, but that he has spent the majority of that ‘school’ time, with my mother as his ‘teacher’. this was a fine arrangement, she was willing and more than qualified, and he was learning. but for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being my mother’s current cancer issues, it had become clear that it was time for me to take over. AND,with layla being 4 now, i really wanted to do a little bit more preschool stuff with her. being a little bit of a chicken flake, i (with much urging from my loving husband) decided the best route to go would be with a packaged curriculum. i figured it would be the most time-effective way to cover what we needed to cover, and be somewhat dummy-proof, but at the same time, having the option to supplement with as much

i have "done something"

about shane's room. if you notice over there on my BIG FAT TO DO LIST, for ages now, i've had "do something about shane's room" on the list. and it has sat there on the list, doing nothing. well yesterday, we "did something". i couldn't put "clean shane's room". that wouldn't really cover it. i wasn't sure exactly how to phrase what is was that needed to be done in there, mainly because i don't really know the proper grammatical term for "set off 4 sticks of dynamite followed by much jackhammering and industrial vacuuming". needless to say, it was a pit! every saturday, one of his chores is to clean his room. but at this point, that was just putting clothes in the basket, books on the shelf, toys in bins, etc. anything else was WAY too big of an undertaking for a 9 year old boy on his way out the door. sadly, i didn't think to take a 'before' picture, so i didn't bother with an '

for my not-so-american friends

i didn't have an actual roll w/ the green plaid on it, but i found a refill and an empty roll in my junk drawer (yeah, i know, that should tell me something). but even the empty one says 'scotch' on it. there you go! SCOTCH TAPE!

project life 2014 week 3

monday: every time I get out of the shower, this cat is waiting for me, so he can get in and lick up the water off the floor of the shower. it’s his favorite way to get a drink. cats are weird. tuesday: this cracked me up. had micah at the grocery store with me and he spots the produce scale. so of course, he wanted to weigh something. he went for his little donkey kong lego toy that he had with him. tuesday: this is my parents’ cat, beatrice. she is small and feisty, and has the prettiest eyes ever. she’s not so fond of it when I come over to make up beds, and usually finds herself made into one because she refuses to move. wednesday: layla has been very interested in all things domestic lately, and really wants to learn how to cook. so I told her she could start helping me make dinner. this night, it was homemade, cheesy mac & cheese with ham and peas & carrots. she did almost all of it herself. from boiling the noodles, to cutting the cheese (yes, I did just say that), mi

Micah’s Birthday

This kid had the audacity to turn 13 yesterday… As was expected, I was a bit of a hot mess about the whole affair. Here’s his “last day to be 12” photo. He ran out of fingers a couple years ago, so taking a page out of Shane’s book, he borrowed a couple of feet from the cat to make 12. But, not too old to choose Lucky Charms for his birthday breakfast. He got his happy birthday facetime call first thing and got to open his gift from Gramma and Skip while they watched… He’s had a boom box on his list this year. You might remember that 2 years ago, it was a Walkman. The obsession with 80s audio continues. Gramma found this one and it seems to fit the bill. Looks totally retro, plays and records tapes but also has radio AND a USB port so he could use some modern tech with it, as well. So, he spent the morning taking advantage of the birthday allowances of not having to do his weekend chores and lifted time limits on video games… all while listening to the radio or one

rachel's continued ramblings

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