You've come a long way, baby

From 1 to 62 - Happy Birthday Mom! She started with 1 curl and now she has many.

11-12-49. Do you know how many times mom has said that date in the last 8 months? For every blood test, chemo treatment, dose of medicine, glass of water, blood transfusion, bone marrow, and routine nurse check they asked "What's your birthday?" before they administered it. 

That was to verify she didn't get anything she shouldn't. I don't think she could have gotten anything worse than what she was scheduled to get!

Friday we got the results of the bone marrow and FISH test. It's all clear. Everything is looking good. No cancer cells in the bone marrow and no cancer cells floating around in the circulated blood. 

Mom will start the chemo pills again Nov. 15 and take 4 in the morning and 4 in the evening for 15 days. This is mainly just a little insurance to make super-duper sure the liquid chemo killed all the cancer. As an employee of State Farm, a little insurance isn't a bad thing, right?!  

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I am thankful this blog has helped keep friends and family connected with mom through this journey. I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.

Another pain in the butt!

Monday was another routine bone marrow test.

It went very smooth. Once we were done with that, they wanted a sonogram done on on her leg to check on the blood clot.

No peeking while she puts on the stylish, air conditioned hospital gown!

Now, dim the lights and let's get this party started.

As the nurse moved the wand across mom's leg, you could see veins open and collapse. If they collapsed, that was good - that meant there was blood flow and the clot was gone.

Then she hit a button and you could see the blood flow with blue and red shading. It looked more like we were watching the Weather Channel and a storm was heading our way. Which reminded mom, the day she went to the hospital, March 11, was the day the tsunami hit Japan. 

No matter if it's a natural disaster or chemo, both take a long time to heal. 

Trick-or-treat, smell my feet....

Happy halloween!

Haden was Luke Skywalker from Empire Strikes Back - in the X-wing flight suit - when he was on Hoth. That's the reason for the coat over the flight suit. Too much detail? Probably so.

Hadley was Betsy Ross, sewing America's 1st flag. Do you have any idea how many adults don't know who Betsy Ross is?! I guess she, too, is from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.