Disneyland

Last Monday we had the chance to go to Disneyland with our good friends who were visiting from Arkansas, Richard and Keely and their daughter Kaelynn. We had the best time. It was so nice to visit with our friends who we hadnt seen in a long time. They're a lot of fun :)

Us with Kaelynn

Nathan & his Best Friend Richard

Haunted Mansion

 Small World

*** All photos courtesy of Keely :) I took my camera but left the battery in the charger at home :( ***

4th Surgery in 4 Months....

I had my 4th surgery in the last four months yesterday and that was to have my medi-port taken out. The surgery was done by a cardiothoracic surgeon at St Jude. The surgery went fine and I wasnt even nauseous waking up from anesthesia....PRAISE THE LORD!!!! Im in some pain today but other then that I'm good! Im really praying this will be my last one for a long while :)

Here I am Pre-Surgery!

At radiation today I had my boost done which  means they took film to start to shorten my target area for radiation which makes me very happy because my palm is getting pretty red.  I have 3 more treatments that are the large area then they will just target my scar from where the tumor was removed.  I will do 12 more treatments like that which will make it a total of 37 treatments.  

Thank you for the continued prayers...Im feeling them :)

Weekend at My Aunts

Last week we spent the weekend at my Aunt Jory's house. She is a breast cancer survivor so its always so uplifting and inspirational to spend time around her. Her house is so fun and she always makes us feel so welcome. My parents went up with us too. We had a nice relaxing weekend and even celebrated my birthday again with smores :) Too much fun!!!!

I didnt take any pictures with my camera...only my blackberry...so here they are....

Her Dog, Buster & I

Dad, Jory & CJ

 Beautiful fire...so soothing & relaxing!!!!

 Sunday afternoon watching the Cowboys WIN!!!!!  :)

Been Super Busy!

Im still here...still doing good...radiation is good...we've just been super busy. I have a lot to share not really on the cancer side of things but other fun stuff we've being doing. Visit to my aunts for the weekend. Disneyland. Getting things ready for Nathan's mom visit. Womens night at church. Spending time with friends who are visiting from Arkansas.We've just been going non-stop. I'll be back and post soon with pictures and an update! I didn't forget about my blog :)  Hope all is well with ya'll!

Prayer Quilt

The day I was diagnosed with cancer my mom wrote a prayer request in to our church.  Those first few days are still a blur to me but I remember our Pastor coming over to my parents and praying for us, praying for healing, peace and comfort.  Shortly after a small group from our church that makes prayer quilts contacted my mom and asked if they could make one for me. What a blessing.  They asked my favorite color and of course she said pink :) About a week or so later the quilt was out at church for people to pray for me over and tie a knot. I remember seeing it at church for the first time and balling my eyes out. It was hard to see a quilt for me but I was also so moved by the amount of people that would be praying for me. I received the quilt just a couple weeks later and it is now downstairs where I see it everyday and feel so blessed for every knot that was tied and for every prayer thats behind that knot.  

Each knot represents a prayer that was said for me :)

My Birthday Weekend :)

I had an amazing birthday weekend thanks to my wonderful hubby & family! In the weeks leading up to my birthday, I was so uncertain as what I wanted to do.  I knew we were going to the Alan Jackson concert but I wasn't too sure what else to do since that wasn't specifically for my birthday. So we just ended up going to dinner with my family and ate yummy cupcakes. Perfect. Simple. Amazing.

My hubby & family had also been asking me for weeks what I wanted for my birthday and I came up with nothing.  After going through all I've gone through in the past 3 months, material possessions mean absolutely nothing to me. I'll be honest and admit that I use to love nice "things". My closet is filled with name brand purses and designer jeans, thats just who I was. My hubby spoiled me like crazy and I liked it. But, a few days after I was diagnosed I sat in our closet (my favorite praying spot) and just cried and cried and cried. Here I was surrounded with everything I could ever want but I have cancer and all these "things" mean absolutely nothing. Don't get me wrong these "things" didn't consume me...I've always been a huge family person and always about making memories but I think this cancer has put my life into perspective.  Im so very thankful for that.  The littlest things mean the most to me know...and Ive learned quickly thats the way life should be...it should have always been that way and I feel lucky Im given this opportunity to realize that.

Anyway here are some pictures of my fun birthday weekend.

Friday after radiation we headed down to LA Live to hang out & eat before the concert.

Having drinks at the Yard House.

Alan Jackson

Loving the concert

Sunday was the day we went out to dinner. We took a few pictures at my parents before we left.

at Joe's Crab Shack.

I was one happy camper :)

My actual birthday, Monday with my Momma & Aunt Susan

All About My Radiation Treatments....

*** Thank you so much for the birthday emails, texts, phone calls and facebook comments! I felt so much love yesterday and I thank you , thank you , thank you for that. I had a great day! I'll post more about my birthday weekend later on this week :) ***

On Monday I completed my 16th of 38 radiation treatments. It is still going really well. Todays radiation was cancelled because the machine went down. It was ok with me because my arm is starting to turn a little pink so it was a nice break. Here is the the difference between my two arms...its kind of hard to tell where it is starting to turn pink in this picture but here it is:

Last Friday, Nathan and my Mom & Dad went with me to radiation.  The staff is so nice there and let them all come back as they were setting me up so they all can see what I do five days a week :) They even let my mom take pictures so we can show ya'll what it looks like...

First they check my marks and make sure none of the tapes need to be replaced..then they start to line my tattooed dots up. These molds are the ones that were made for me when I first started the set-up process.  

Replacing tape....

 

 Getting ready to do more placement..they are so precise!

This is how I lay during treatment. They are adjusting my hand/wrist/forearm. 

They tape my arm down to the table in 3 spots, raise me up and I get treatment from the bottom as well as from above...then Im done until the next day :)

 I do x-ray film on Monday and Thursdays so on those days they do everything the same they just take an x-ray before they give me treatment and have the dr check the film to make sure everything is lined up correctly then they give treatment.

I am thankful the whole process isn't too bad and pretty tolerable :)