thank you! to whoever you may be.. :)

we received a gift in the mail the other day {not sure when it came we dont check our mail too often!} it was a gift card to pier 49 pizza! and was sent with no letter, or return address so we could stalk whoever sent it to us ;) but wanted to be sure to thank whoever you may be! so i hope you read this and know that we are very thankful for your generosity! :)

thanksgiving to now :)

we celebrated thanksgiving with my family this year, in Idaho where it was FREEZING!!! ugh! we drove out there Tuesday the 23, the day of our awful "blizzard" {the blizzard wasnt as bad as they said it was going to be} but the roads SUCKED!! it took close to 2 hours n it usually only takes an hour. when we finally made it to my parents house we started watching the news come to find out the road was closed..n had been for a while...oops! they really need to get better at posting it being closed! :) but either way we made it safe n sound..n slowly! We celebrate thanksgiving a day early with my family, it makes it easier for all of us to be there {theres 6 kids, 4 are married...plus a few close friends! so we have a houseful!} we had such a good time! {we always do...never a dull moment when were with my family, we are all very loud! n hold nothing back, makes for some good laughs!} After gaining about 50 pounds we played a few games then watched zombieland {if you havent seen it, you HAVE to watch it, hilarious!!}

We came home Thursday, we wanted to leave early...ya right! everyone knows were ALWAYS late!! lol so we headed out around 5...we were really worried the roads were going to SUCK since it had been so cold, but they actually were really good!

Friday we went shopping! {of course cant miss black friday!} We werent really looking for anything, just going for the fun of it...but we ended up with a christmas tree{we broke down n bought a fake one :s}, digital camera, and Jareth n Wesleys x-mas gift :) We got our tree put up friday, all decorated n looking good! {i LOVE it!}

Sunday, it stormed...all day! {im so sick of the snow, i hate being cold} so after work i started shoveling the driveway {jason told me if i did it, it would count as my work out for the day lol} well it sucked! i am almost to the point of paying someone to do it! ;)but our wonderful neighbor walked out while we were shoveling the sidewalk and told us not to worry, he would get it with his snowblower once it stopped snowing...so we were done! ;) yay for great neighbors! Later in the day, Jason received a blessing, from his Uncles, Lance n Miles, along with his dad {john} we had such a good visit with everyone who came {miles n jo, lance n kay, John n zach}

the surgery is getting so close! i cant believe its already time! but were still really excited and feeling good about it.

it was -13 at my moms, and by the time we made it to my sisters where we were staying it was -16 :(

Our Christmas tree! :)

ok, so i know i said i shoveled it, but a girl can only do so much ;)

being thankful...

so ive seen a lot of people writing posts about what they are thankful for and decided i would join them! :)

i am so very thankful for

-Jason, my wonderful hubby even tho he makes my life hell some days, i am MADLY in LOVE with him!

-Frankie...he will always be my baby :)

-the fact that "real love stories never have endings"

-My wonderful crazy, LOUD family, and how close we have all become as we get older, i know i can always count on them for anything!

-Jareth n Wesley, how innocent and full of life they are, i LOVE them much n much! ;)

-all of my AMAZING friends!

-pictures, to catch all of the precious moments in our lives

-work, for both jason and myself, and the fact that they work with our hectic schedules!

-coming from a small community, its like having a HUGE family, that i can count on...

-drs, hospitals, modern medicine, you all know the hell we have been thru the past year, and im positive it would be so much worse without the amazing drs we have had

-the ability to make my own choices. whether its what dr to go to, what procedure to have done or even just what to eat for dinner, i am glad i have the right to choices, and a wonderful husband who backs up the choices i make {the important ones}

-the ability to stand up for myself, this is newly acquired! and i LOVE it!!

-all of the amazing people who are in the military, i have an extremely close friend in Afghanistan right now, and am so thankful for her n all the sacrifices she has made to fight for out country, love you Brit!

-the people who stalk this lovely work of art! {blog}

-for people who have nothing but positive thoughts towards us

-for having the ability to "block" the ones that are just plain rude.

-texting, since theres always those awful times that its just too hard to talk..

-to have a roof over our heads.

-all of the time that Jason and I get to spend together, we have become so much closer over the past 11 months...

-depressive days, i know WTF?! but really i can't be shooting sunshine out my ass ALL the time, and with my life...HELL no! ;)

-i am EXTREMELY thankful for all of the people who have helped us, and are helping us.... we appreciate you all so much! more than words can ever explain!

Now, i am certain i could go on and on, and i will probably add a little to this post every now n again, but for now i am done, {im crying...time to stop} i am so thankful for my life, altho there are many days i hate it and wonder why i have to be the one that deals with the crappiness of a cancerous hubby, and all else that has happened lately...but i LOVE the people in my life, and know that it will all be worth the fight {hopefully soon!} i hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving! we did!!

brain surgery....

the surgery has been scheduled! well the pre op has anyways!! we have to be in SLC at the U of U hospital December 1st for blood work, and later that evening for an MRI to map out where the tumors are in jasons brain. After the blood work results have come back and as long as they are all good and within normal ranges we will be told a time for surgery for the 2nd, the surgery will also be done at the U of U hospital, which is right below the huntsman}. Jason will be staying in the ICU the night of the 2nd {as long as all the blood work comes back good n the surgery is done} then hopefully He will only have to stay in a regular hospital room 3 nights at the most, before getting to come home :)

we have been asked by quite a few people lately what they can do to help...well the only things we can really thing of are food, and financials...n you all know we hate to ask..but we know we need help... as you all know jason hasnt been to work in months, and i work as much as i can...but with the brain surgery were unsure with how jason will react with everything, so were unsure when i will be going back to work{the account at America First Credit Union is still open, Jason Schenk Charitable Account}... and well honestly...were always up for free food :))

Huntsman November 16, 2010

well we had our appointment with Huntsman today, and figured we would be hearing our options on radiation...but we were wrong! after a LONG 50 minute wait we finally saw the dr...

we were informed that according to the MRI that was sent down from ST. Lukes in Twin, Jasons Neurosurgeons {jensen and Shrieve} would say that everything is stable! there is some more swelling, around other tumors, but over all they all look very stable. Also most if not all of the tumors have bled, which means they are DEAD! or at least dying! yay! so the treatment plan we heard today, which is completely Jasons choice to go thru or not... is brain surgery... kinda a big deal! lol but dr jensen wants to go in a remove the first tumor {the one who started all this cancer crap!} all the blood around it and hopefully a tumor next to it!

the dr says worst case scenario, jason will be set back about a month with speech and possibly ROM in his arm...but that is WORST case scenario, and theres only about a 30% chance of it happening {if he had to give it a number}

so Jason has chosen to go with the surgery, and hopefully it will be done the first week of December, we were given the option to have it done before thanksgiving but dont want jason to be feeling crappy for the holiday, plus black friday! ;)

Also by doing brain surgery, it will show if the tumors are truly dead, and give the drs an idea of how well the treatment has worked. along with ending jasons blood brain barrier, which means the trial chemo will now go into his brain!

if you have any questions feel free to ask!

as of late...

well we have a lot going on the past week or so...that has well been rough...so we havent been up for talking to anyone too much lately but are slowly getting back to normal {well as normal as our lives get} so i just wanted to do a quick update and let everyone know we heard back from the huntsman last week, Jasons Neurosurgeons {yes he has 2!} met and presented his case with the tumor board, and apparently it didnt go too bad cause we are to be down there today at 4 to find out what the treatment plan is.. {i had jason call to make sure there was going to be a treatment plan, cause thats a long drive and a waste of money if they are just going to tell us they are doing nothing...}

And i finished my book, it was good! definitely a tear jerker!! so if anyone has any recommendations i would be more than glad to hear them! we dont have TV so reading helps pass the time...and is just overall so much better than gettin fat in front of the TV! {even tho we are AMAZING at that!}

books!

so we just finished reading a book called Stronghold by Joe Fornear. It is about a man who is diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, and lives {but it never was in his brain, and thats where all our problems come from..} It was very interesting to read all of the things that he tried, most of which jason has done all of them...a long with the pain meds. it got a little too religious in parts but overall was a very good read and i would recommend it to everyone! especially to our families...i think it was very informative about cancer, the treatment, and drugs....

I also just finished a Grief Observed by C.S Lewis, and i really liked it. His books get a little confusing, but this was just some of his thoughts after his wife had died from cancer{ it doesnt say what kind she died from} He explains his understanding of grief and how he feels towards his wife dying, the world, along with god...

and im uber excited to start my new book today, The Last Lecture, that is written by a professor who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. ive read good things about it..so im pretty excited to start it! n ill let you know how it is once i finish!

Twin Falls November 4-5

so the last couple of weeks with pneumonia and headaches have pretty much been hell, and just kept getting worse as it got closer to the dr appointments so the drive {3 hours} sucked more so than usual!

Thursday November 5-

we had our appointment with the drs at 1 along with blood work... and jasons head was killing him! he gave it a 9 on the scale of 1-10 {which is amazing he gave it a number since he NEVER has before, at any hospital} so the PA ordered a brain MRI to be done but of course the radiation department was BOOKED! along with all the other places in twin {booked until tuesday} they even ordered it STAT but oh well...we had to wait. After jason had his blood drawn we went to talk with the PA who did a nero exam, and like a half a physical, then checked his vitals, he did orthostatic vital signs to check jasons hydration level, and he was dehydrated. which doesnt surprise me since the past almost 2 weeks he has done nothing but sleep and puke. so after meeting with the dr and trying to figure out a time to do an MRI jason was shot up with some saline to hydrate him back up, along with anti nausea medicine and dexamethazone {steroid, to help with his head ache} while we were waiting for him to finish the fluids, steve {nurse} came in to tell us the soonest they could do the MRI would be friday morning at 6 AM!!! {and of course we had to be at the hospital at 5:45} thank goodness where we were staying was right across the street from the hospital. {so we made it on time!}

once jason was done with the fluids we were done for the day so we went over to our extremely ghetto apartment, then got some dinner and called it a night {extremely early!}

Friday November 5

well our day began far too early! we had to be at the hospital to check in at 545 for jasons mri, which felt like it had taken a lifetime! and after the mri we had to search the hospital to find someone to flush his port with heparin. after being sent to the cancer center and noone was there for another hour we went to the ER, and thankfully didnt have to wait very long!

our next appointment wasnt until 1, so we had some time to lounge around {nap}

As soon as we walked in the building steve took us back to a room, so of course we knew there was bad news {story of our lives} steve informed us that the mri didnt come back good...there are new tumors, most of the tumors have grown and they all have more swelling... after steve told us all that was going on the PA came in and told us the same thing...they wanted to up Jasons steroid to 12 mg a day {he started at 2, but we were told that it isnt uncommon to see people with brain lesions to be on 16-18, surprise to us!} so after deciding on 12 mg we went over to get shot up with chemo. during th e3 hours of chemo, steve came over to talk to us, the change the steroid dose over and over again! we settled on 8 mg. it was hard to make a decision based on the fact the the trial chemo ups T cells where the steroids suppresses T cells, so have a steroid dose too high it counteracts the chemo, which there for make it useless. we think Steve was kind of in shock that we had taken the news so well, he kept asking us if we had any questions, or if he had explained it that well. I informed him it was like the 3rd time we had received this news, so we pretty much understood what was going on.

now decision for the brain tumors, we are trying to see if jason can have any more radiation to his brain {full brain or stereotactic radio surgery {which was done to the first tumor in january}} we were given the option to go to logan, arizona, or back to the huntsman. Then the option was taken away from us, since all of the drs, and trial people think that since the radiation was already done at the Huntsman {SLC} it would be best to go there. so now its a waiting game, to hear back from the Huntsman to see if they will agree to more radiation or leave us be... they called monday to tell us they were waiting for the MRI from Twin, then Jasons Neurosurgeons would be meeting wednesday morning to decide what to do, and we will be called once they have made their decision...

Also! we found out that the trial jason is in, in Twin just opened in SLC, so we may be transferring to go there so we dont have to drive as far {and i dont have to take as much time off of work, surprisingly bills dont stop coming when the money does!!} it is a 3 hour drive to twin {one way} and we have to go at least one day before he is to be injected with chemo for blood work, since the chemo comes from boise so it needs time to get to twin, where as in SLC the huntsman will have the chemo and it takes about 15 minutes to get results from blood work, and its only an 1.5 drive!

honestly were not getting our hopes up on more radiation, the Huntsman has already told us once they couldnt do anymore...so it will be a major shocker if they decide to do more radiation... were not exactly excited to be possibly going back to the Huntsman, but were up for anything...good news has eventually got to come our way....were too young to get nothing but bad news...