The Best Gift

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day filled with family and friends and we hope the "Big Guy" made it to your house too!

Dad has a Tat

That's right kids...after all he has said Dad went and got a tattoo!  Well, okay maybe it's not quite as stylin' as this tattoo (look familiar anyone?) but a real tat for sure.

The Battle Plan

Sorry for the long blog break...Jay has been feeling pretty good the past couple of weeks and we took advantage of the time to do a few normal things (more on that later).  But it's back to the battleground this week and we are in a full-on attack.

Seriously Sunday

I'm not much for words, unless I'm being a smart aleck, but I just want to extend my appreciation to all of my family, extended family and friends for sacrificing your time to fast for me.  Even though we are early in this process, we are already feeling the effects of your love and prayers on our behalf.
We should know more this week about the treatment plan and what to expect for the future.  Thank you again from the bottom of my heart.  Each and every one of you are very important to me.

Jay

Checking Out of Hotel Huntsman

It was sure good to see Jay out of a hospital gown and back in his favorite hoodie as he waited in the lobby to go home.  He looked a little like a guy that had gotten a cancer diagnosis and had his gall bladder removed, all within 24 hours.  A bit down and hurting but not out.

On the Road Again

I sure got a lot of frantic calls this morning.  The word is out around the neighborhood.

"Oh my gosh!  I heard Jay was rushed to the Huntsman Cancer Hospital for emergency surgery!"

     "You heard what?"

"Yes, what on earth is going on?"

     "He's having his gall bladder taken out this afternoon"

"Oh, that's it?"

When it Rains

This has been one of those days I can't believe really happened.  As you may know, we had a meeting with Jay's doctor at the Huntsman hospital to go over his test results at noon. But to give you the full story we need to back up a few hours to last night about 10:00 pm.  Jay finished up an MRI of his spine and we were on our way home when he started getting abdominal cramps.   We wondered if he had maybe had a reaction to the tracer injected for the MRI.  He was able to sleep a little bit last night but by the time we got to his doctor appointment he was in a lot of pain.

M&M's and MM

It's a little annoying how something you have never heard of can invade your space and demand attention.  That's how we felt when we heard the term Multiple Myeloma (or MM as it is affectionately know).  You are so lucky we spared you from the wild roller coaster ride we were on the first few weeks.  At the beginning anything was possible, from a benign growth to a Stage IV metastatic tumor.  We have eliminated the extremes and narrowed the field to some type of MM. But we will still be on the kiddie coaster for the next few weeks while the Drs. determine the stage and exact type of MM we are dealing with.

The Golden Ticket

There are very few things that will get me out of bed at 5:00 am.  A chance to kick cancer where it counts is one of them.

Will the Real Diagnosis Please Stand Up?

The call came early the next morning.  Lab reports indicated that the tumor was a Plasmacytoma, an early indication of none other than Multiple Myeloma.

WebMD is Dangerous

Information is a good thing.

Too much information can make you crazy!

Into the Woods

On an ordinary Tuesday, our path through life hit a sharp left curve with this text from Jay...

"We need to talk about my MRI results I'm pretty scared"