The Diagnosis

We had to wait over a week for the final diagnosis.  Our surgeon, Dr. Nader Sanai is the head of the tumor board and Director of  the Barrow Brain Tumor and research center.  We new it was a level two (which is good) and we knew it was a slow growing tumor (which is also good) but we didn't know if it was cancer or not.  We met with the Neuro Oncologist and finally got the information to proceed with treatment:

The tumor was a low grade level 2.
It is a Glioma called Astrocytoma.
It can be and is a form of cancer.
It comes from the brain and a gene mutation.  It is not hereditary, it didn't come from something he ate, drank (diet soda) or was exposed to, and it isn't from his cell phone.
It was a slow growing tumor.

They will be doing genetic profiling on Tom and the tumor for the future in case anything else comes up they will already have a full genetic profile ready to go. 

The first treatment - Surgery - Removed 95% of the tumor.
The second treatment - radiation - 5 days a week for 6 weeks
The third treatment - Chemo - a pill taken at home 7 days a week for 6 weeks.
(Both these will be done at the same time)

The doctors are very hopeful these treatments will get rid of the tumor permanently.  They said this is the best type of tumor to get if you were to get a brain tumor.  Tom is healthy, doesn't drink, smoke or even drink caffeine.  He has no other health issues and his brain is very smart from all that schooling so it will be easy to retrain the brain to his normal old self.  Tom is excited because he says he will be even smarter than before since that softball in his noggin isn't slowing him down. 

Tom will be very busy over the next 6 weeks with speech therapy, neuro rehab, radiation and chemo.  I'm telling him it's like a mini makeover on his brain.  Six weeks of hard stuff then a lifetime of greatness!

His scar is amazing and healing up so fast! 

They only shaved his head where they cut! 

All The Love

We have been blessed with so many people visiting, calling, helping our family and Tom.  My heart is full with the amount of love showered onto our family.  It amazes me how people in the midst of their busy lives take the time to come see us, send us words of encouragement through texts or a phone call here or there.  Thank you thank you! Our hearts are very full!

#1 Dallin and Tom in matching outfits (unplanned).

#2 Tom & David B. He came to make sure everything Tom was doing was "normal" after some brain trauma.  He made me feel so much better!

#3 Mike and Tom filling out paperwork at a doctor appointment.  I was silently laughing while they painstakingly analyzed every survey question.  It was obvious they have never sat and filled out endless paperwork at the doctor fro sick kids etc.  Seriously it was so funny! (wives - you get this right?)

#4 Tom and his Mama.  Sweetness.

#1 Tom getting wheeled into surgery.

#2  Tom's cool scar!

#3  The pain scale

#4  Our super cute/fun nurse Janice in the O.R.  She was the one that would go into all the O.R. rooms and find out what the updates were.  She was amazing!  We were instant BFF's!  Mainly because we had to be there twice.

#1  Tom had a room full of pretty ladies one day.  His room was always full of visitors!

#2  Tom, his mom and his brother Keiske

#3  The whiteboard the girls wrote love notes on. (and a curse word)

#4  Partners in crime.  Right before surgery. 

#1  Tom holding baby Lindi.

#2  Tom and Ralph Willit after surgery

#3 Tom's "life coach" is what we call Deland. 

#4  Tom and his sister Elena taking a selfie.

We are so blessed to have such great friends!  I wish I had taken more pictures of all of us in the waiting room of the O.R. for two days.  We filled that up with friends, family, laughter, games, coloring, bitmoji making, food and treats.  I think those have been my most favorite days even though they were the hardest.

Tom's Tumor Part 2

After our initial visit to the hospital and multiple tests they decided on surgery in a week.  What a blessing it was to be able to come home for a week!  Tom was able to call his clients and tie up loose ends at work.  He also got all his church responsibilities taken care of and farmed out to other people. 

Wednesday morning the 17th we head to the hospital bright an early.  We met the whole Neuro Team.  They Go Big over at Barrows!  Everyone was very efficient but friendly and calming.  While we were waiting in our little pre-op room my brother Matt showed up.   He made things less stressful and fun.  Pretty soon it was time and Tom was wheeled away. 

We went to the O.R. waiting room where they gave us a pager to keep us informed every hour along with an amazing nurse named Janice.  Her job was to go in and out of all the O.R.'s and get info for the family.  She sure made our life fun in the waiting room.  She was a ray of sunshine in that dreary room.

We had a whole corner of comfy chairs that were filled with friends and family while we waited for Tom.  **I will NEVER again send Tom alone to the hospital while I have surgery like I have in the past.  I feel so bad that I didn't think to have someone with him.**  I could NOT have made it through the day without all the distractions I had going on.  We played games, made everyone a bitmoji, told stories, read magazines, ate and ate and ate (stress eating of course), colored in those new cool coloring books, looked at Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, who knows what we did but we had fun doing it!

About two hours after they started surgery the nurse came in and said the surgeon wanted to meat with us.  What?  This was supposed to be a 4-6 hour surgery or more!  We went into a room and waited.  The surgeon came in and said that they tried to bring Tom out of the anesthesia so they could do the functional part of the surgery and they couldn't control him so they had to put him back under and try again tomorrow.  They had cut his scalp and cut his scull but hadn't touched his brain so it would be safe to try it again.  Tom had woken up and not know where he was and tried to get up and ripped the Wilson halo out of his head.  When they doctor told us both girls and I said, "ahhhhhhhh" because you DO NOT WAKE TOM UP FROM A DEAD SLEEP!  He will fight you, HaHa.  Although in this case it wasn't very Haha!

We waited to go see him in recovery and boy was he funny!  Good thing he was so funny since we had to do it all over again the next day.   Made it easier not to be mad at him (wink)

Fast forward to the next day.  His surgery was scheduled for around four but they got him in early and was wheeled out about 1pm.  The party continued in the O.R. waiting room with Janice, all our friends and family and our comfy corner.  This time we didn't get to see him until 10pm.  Now that is a long day!  Round two was a success.  They tried to wake him but he had another reaction so they put him back under and finished the surgery.  Our doctor and his team were amazing.  They explained everything so we could understand, they were nice and kind and patient with all of our questions and the best part was they performed a successful surgery and removed the tumor from Tom's brain! 

We initially thought the tumor was the size of a ping pong ball.  But after they got in there they found that what we were seeing was the nucleus of the tumor and it ended up being the size of a softball if not a grapefruit! (Dr. Sanai's words)  We just can't believe Tom didn't have any other symptoms than that one seizure!  They said the tumor was slow growing and had probably been growing for....years! 

Now looking back there were a few small signs but we just thought it was because of getting older.  Tom had been having a hard time hearing in a large group or with noise in the room , his eyesight was getting blurry, and he was having some memory issues -things like names, dates, times and small things.  I thought he just wasn't listening to me when I told him things.  In fact, four months prior I had him stop drinking his favorite diet coke because I read that it caused memory loss!  Nope, it was the tumor!  The doctor said that this tumor was caused by a gene mutation and was NOT hereditary, something Tom ate or was exposed to or anything he did.  His brain just decided to grow this tumor.  I joke that Tom is so smart his brain had to grow a new storage facility to house all the information he keeps putting in there.  This is a joke.  Tom didn't understand the joke.  I guess you can't joke with people who just had brain surgery.  They take everything very literal.  Oooopps! Wife fail.

I am so very thankful for an amazing support group that has literally carried our little family through this shocking and scary ordeal.  I could not have done it without our family and friends and church family near and far.  We have received calls, texts, emails, notes, cards, food, treats, our house and animals have been taken care of, all of our needs have been met.  Toilet paper, shampoo, random things we needed just showed up!  I know this a little thing but those darn bitmoji's saved my sanity this week.  I kid you not.  When I would get one of those in a text it made everything better.  I think humor is great medicine in stressful situations.  And bitmoji's are very humorous! 

 

My House Obsession History

Did you know I am house obsessed?
I have been for as long as I can remember.
My Mom had this friend - Jenny Doan (who is now pretty famous I might add)
who had this house....sigh.
This house was amazing.  Like dream-a-little-dream amazing.
It wasn't in the perfect shape, it was out all by it's self on a lonely old highway, and it had a leaky upstairs claw foot bathtub that made water marks on the kitchen ceiling down below it.
But.....
I fell in love with that house.
I can still recall every nook and cranny.  Every secret little room hidden inside every closet.
I remember the built in white cabinets that held the china and was also a look through to the dining room.
My favorite was the servants ramp that went up from the kitchen to the second floor.  It was a ramp, like add a flattened cardboard box and you can slide down it kinda ramp.  Uh, yeah, we did that....a lot.
It had a very large grand mahogany staircase too.  But that wasn't near as fun.
I think it had seven bedrooms and only one bathroom on the second floor.  That's how they did it back then.
This dreamy house also had a very large laundry shoot that maybe, possibly, some children slid down instead of laundry.  Not me of course!  I would never do that.  (my three brothers may have though)

I would babysit kids while my Mom and Jenny went and played.  I think I had just as much fun playing as the Mom's did.  Talk about the best hide-and-go-seek house ever!
I remember it had huge eucalyptus trees that surrounded the property.  Every time I smell eucalyptus it brings me back to that house.  

Jenny's house was a cross between these two houses below.  

Dreamy huh?

I think the obsession was fueled by where I grew up.  

I mean I did have this house two blocks from my house, 

walking by it everyday on my way to school:

 John Steinbeck House

And the house in a town filled with houses just like it was not far away:

The Seven Gables Inn

Oh and my favorite place...ever:

 Carmel-By-The-Sea Ca

It seems I was destined to be a house lover. My Mom was and I have taught my girls to be. We love to drive around different neighborhoods to look at the houses and pretty landscaping.  It's a little harder here in Arizona.  We live in the land of cookie cutter homes and desert plants galore but sometimes, I find a gem here and there.  It makes my day!

Here are a few sites I like to look at when I need a little house obsession fix.
Enjoy!

Dwelling Gawker
Hooked on Houses
My new favorite - Tales from Carmel - up close and personal tours of houses in Carmel Ca.
My favorite little neighborhood that I can't get enough of - Agritopia
I even like this little blog - Tiny House Blog - because you never know when you may need to build a tiny house somewhere.  And man!  Can they fit a lot into a teeny tiny space.
The Lettered Cottage - has great ideas on adding charm to your house.

TBT - Planting a Memory Tree

A few years ago my Uncle wanted to plant a new orange tree in his yard.  

He thought it would be fun for the grand-kids/grand-nieces &grand-nephews 

to plant it in honor of my Grandma and my Mother.  

Plus, any excuse to get together is a good one.

So we all met at his house, my cousins and brothers, my Aunt and Uncle and all our kids.  

Aren't they a good looking bunch?  The girls outnumber the boys in this group.

Sara Jane

 Garrett and Abby - two peas in a pod

 Uncle Pete dug a hole then we shared memories of Grandma Betty and Aunt Barbara (my Mom)

Everyone brough something to put in the hole.

Little notes, rose petals from a special rose bush, little girl trinkets and i guess a sugar cookie went in there!  (I don't remember that.) Good thing we have pictures to spark a memory.

The tree being planted.  All the kids got to help.  

This is a fun idea to do every time you plant a tree.

It makes that tree have memories from the very start of it's life.

Every time we go to my Aunt & Uncles house we smile and know that tree is filled with love and sugar. (literally)

 

I brought a Dr. Pepper because we all know that was my mom's favorite. 

 We all toasted and drank Dr. Pepper at her funeral.

It was only fitting to add a bottle to the tree.

Plus, plants like caffeine and high fructose corn syrup....don't they?

Thank You Uncle Pete for thinking of this fun memory making activity.

And good luck little tree!  

We love you already.

TBT = Throw Back Thursday 

Pictures and Memories from Feb. 2010

Jump

Happy July!
What we like to do around here to stay cool when it hits 122 degrees.

InstaFriday

Since I haven't blogged in a long while I thought I'd play catch up to what we have been up to with InstaFriday.  Jeannett over at Life Rearranged does a weekly re-cap of her week through Instagram and encourages others to follow.  It's a fun way to post your weekly favorite InstaPhotos and see what others are up to and quite possibly make some new InstaFriends.

The weather has warmed up and night swimming has become a must.  

91 degrees @ 8:15pm
It's the only way to cool off after a hot summer day. 

This Abby girl of mine is always got something in the works.  

She's a busy bee with a full social calendar.

1) London & Abby as unicorns

2) Brittley and Abby in summer colors

3) Miss Amberly as a Southern Belle

4) Going to school

A little recap on what I've been doing:
1) Ragnar - funnest thing ever!
2) My sweetie and I
3) Before and after my hair appointment
4) A baby picture of me to prove to my brother that his little guy has my hair curl. (truth)

My #1 Miss Cassidy who will NEVER let me take her pictures was nice to me and even smiled.
Eating at Rubio's our family's favorite. (minus Abby who hates Mexican food - GASP!)

So head on over to  Life Rearranged to read and post your own InstaPics.

Senior Pictures for Sariah

I dabble in photography.  I say dabble because it's a hobby of mine not a profession. I have taken a few classes over the years for the sole purpose of taking decent pictures of my kids and record our daily lives here on the blog.  I love taking individual shots of people.  I love, love, love having that blurred background, making the person POP right out of the shot.  It's my favorite.

I felt honored when my niece Sariah asked me to take her senior pictures.  It took us months and months to get our schedules to line up (she's quite the popular/busy girl!) but we had so much fun getting these great shots!  She's beautiful inside and out, sweet, kind hearted, very, very smart, giving of her time and talents and most of all the BEST big sister to her six younger brothers and an amazing example to all those around her.
 Love you Sariah ♥

Message me and I'll let you in on her darling dress.  

She lucked out finding it and it was perfect for her pictures.

That smile! It's so contagious!

This girl is an amazing volleyball player.  Like seriously.....she's GOOD!

Because of her my girls are following in her footsteps and loving playing volleyball. 

She's off to collage and I am so excited for her and to see where life takes her on her new adventure.

Bali Birthday's for the Girls

My girls are 5 years and 5 days apart.  Both born in December. (me too) So every other year I do an easy breezy swimming party at Grandma's clubhouse in her community to save my sanity.  It's breathtaking over there and I try to take full advantage any chance I can get. Plus it's December in AZ and who doesn't like to swim in December when it's still in the 80's?

I love One Charming Party for her amazing birthday party ideas and free printables.  I took full advantage of the Bali Party and put my own spin on it along with her cute ideas.

 Amberly with a sarong I made out of t-shirt material.

We did the girls parties on the same day but at different times.  One time set up and a little refreshing in between and one clean up.  Both girls felt like they had their own party and I felt like I got the best deal by getting them over with in a few short hours. 

Swimming is lovely in the heated pool.  The hot tub is nice too.  

We had fruit, popcorn and pizza.  

Cassidy doesn't like cake so she chose a cheesecake.  

Some of the younger girls got creative with their fruit and made faces.

Amberly wanted a BIG cake so I caved and bought one.  

Gasp!  

I normally make my own but....I was going for easy-breezy so don't judge me. 

The girls played volleyball while waiting for everyone to show up.

My sweet girl turning 14!

We even dressed up for the party. 

My baby turning 9!

 

The favorite thing  at the party for both ages was being able to make their own Bali Sandals.  I bought some inexpensive t-shirt material and cut them into strips.  Then you just twist around the toe and lace up the leg.

The Bali sandals were a BIG hit!

Here's to another set of birthday parties over and done and two happy girls♥!