Hello!
I know... It's been too long since my last update. I kept waiting for winter to come so I could hibernate- and now it seems to be here, several months late! So here I am, a little snow on the ground and it's time to catch up with you all! I actually don't have any incredible stories and I haven't really been doing a whole lot. I guess you could call it "resting" but it's been a lot of trips to Rochester, Dr. appointments, pokes, MRIs, meds, game shows and enjoying time with family.
Chemo isn't as bad as I thought it would be but its not my favorite (nausea & fatigue). Its just a roller coaster and don't know what each day will bring. The winter went by really fast when I look back now, but there were also a lot of really low lows that I need to acknowledge- I hit a wall of depression that was really unexpected and kind of out of nowhere. The doctors suspect that it was partly my seizure med (which has a reputation for doing that) and so they switched around some meds, and introduced me to palliative care. I cannot speak highly enough of Mayo Palliative care- we’ve been doing EMDR Therapy, Aricular & Reiki, I have really felt a lot of relief from these practices and am thankful for their thoughtful care.
I will start round 3 of 6 next week. Its taking me a little longer to rebound after the meds, getting my platelets and white blood cell count back up with each round, which isn’t uncommon. This round they will lower my dose which is also normal. The great news is my MRI after round 2 last month was "stable" which means they don't see any growth (which is the best you can hope for)! So we can celebrate that! It’s looking like it could take through the end of the year to finish chemo as it’s going so slowly. My oncologist reiterated that while my tumor isn’t “curable”, they believe they can keep it stable for a long long time- maybe forever?! Positive thoughts!
It’s been truly a gift to have my mom come stay with us for a good part of the winter. She’s helped with just about everything, but mostly kept me moving during the hardest times. And thank you to my Dad who comes and hangs out and plays games with the kids and doesn’t mind too much that my mom is over here all the time 😂
Taylor and the kids continue to be amazing and resilient. We are processing what our summer will look like- it’s usually one of our busiest times of year, but we are reassessing our current priorities and deciding how we can simplify life a bit. Things may look different for a while and we are starting to accept that. It’s hard to give up things we’ve worked really hard for though- usually we plant 350 tomato plants, this year Taylor said “let’s just plant a few for us” and I said “ok l, let’s just plant 70 then” 😂. So we are still working out the details! 🍅
Thank you all so much for continuing to check in from time to time, for prayers and well wishes- we can’t wait to crawl out of our bear den and see you soon!
Hoping for lots of hugs and catching up with you this summer ☀️
❤️, Stacy, Taylor & The Kids
