A Very Ewing Thanksgiving

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving -- it was pure magic from beginning to end :) Not only was it a great turn out (47 people in total!!!), but the food was incredible (thanks to the FABULOUS cooks), Danny and Nicole's house looked absolutely beautiful and the entertainment was first class. The kids entertained us all with a talent show -- just like the good ol' days at Grammy and Papa's. We also carried on with our new tradition of "Thankful Leaves" ~ everyone took some time to write down what they were thankful for this year and we all took turns reading them aloud through out the night. So grateful for our family and our time together... so grateful for the opportunity to create wonderful new memories with our ever growing family. We are truly blessed. I can't imagine a more perfect time to reflect on our blessings and give thanks.

Thank you all for your love and support -- special thanks to our family for giving us all exactly what we needed at exactly the right time.

~kyle, whitney & taylor

"Gratitude is the memory of the heart." ~Jean Baptiste Massieu

good news :)

Dad was supposed to go in for chemo today which would have actually sucked because he'd start feeling pretty bad around Friday and through our long Thanksgiving weekend. They called him today and said he should enjoy the weekend and go in for the poison on Monday - woohoo :)

We've got quite the agenda for the weekend so this is truly great news! Everyone is doing their own thing Thursday and we are all meeting up on Friday in Paso Robles for Thanksgiving part deux. We are looking to have a serious turnout for this Ewing family get together. Last count was 48 and growing - and when I say growing, I mean it quite literally. By the time Friday comes, 8 more of my cousins will probably be pregnant - hard to believe there are so many grand babies now... i kinda love it :) I am so looking forward to being surrounded by my entire family - will be missing Mike and Ash, Scott, Kelly and Collin and Matty Boy, but the rest of the crew should be there.

It will be perfect - dad can get a little soul food this weekend - lots of love and laughter, then go in and beat the hell out of the tumor on Monday!



And - as promised... here are the place cards that we worked on last weekend - cutest ever, huh?

Happy Thanksgiving to all... I know I've got a lot to be thankful for - the love and support of friends and family for one.

I'm going to spend some time tomorrow being thankful I'm at the spa instead of work, that the weather is gorgeous when it could easily be raining, that I get to see my family Friday when I never expected everyone to come and especially that I landed where I did - in life, with this crew... when I could have easily been born to anyone else :) lucky me!

~kyle

Accessorizing...

Dad's feeling good. I saw him today at Whit's and he looks pretty good too! It has become clear quite quickly that the chemo has not gotten the best of Tom Ewing :)

We (the girls) were getting crafty and working on the place cards for Thanksgiving, thinking out loud about ways to get a hold of some twigs (should we just buy cinnamon sticks, can Taylor scrounge some up in her hood?). Next thing you know, there goes my dad. Out the door and up a tree. Whitney's birch tree out front. He pruned the heck out of it then proceeded to cut us 40 perfect bundles for our random crafty idea.

We took it inside and worked out a nice assembly line. Whitney stamping, dad embossing, me on handwriting, Taylor and Renee tying the twine. We will be sure to post pics of the gorgeous, eco-friendly, sustainable place cards once they are complete - they were definitely a labor of love!

Also - Whitney gave us these gorgeous necklaces today with St. Joseph (the patron Saint of fathers), an angel wing and a locket. She gave dad a bracelet with some other saint that is the patron saint of cancer patients (or maybe it's just cancer?). He wasn't totally pumped on wearing a bracelet and said he'd keep it in his wallet (this was so not OK with Whitney). Whitney argued that this was a very manly bracelet - I considered this a bit of an oxymoron (Ryan agreed this was 100% an oxymoron - potentially even more so than "jumbo shrimp"). When he came by this afternoon, Whitney asked if he was wearing it and he was. Up above his watch with the charm tucked in between the velcro of his watch band so it didn't dangle. Hilarious.

It was so nice to be together. We had a really good today :)

~kyle

Keep that mojo acomin!

I've been talking to Dad the last few days and he says he's been feelin kinda crappy.

This is the scarey part for me - I feel like a kid again when he went through this twenty years ago.... completely helpless. I've heard of parents wanting to make their kids better when their sick and this is exactly how I feel right now. Everyone knows that our dad is everything to us. Everything. A best friend, coach, river guide, mechanic, carpenter, hair stylist, seamtress, peanut butter and jelly maker. You name it- Dad is the first person we think of who can do it, and do it right - the first time.

He is still kicking cancer's ass, but it looks like may need Dad some chearleaders (don't tell him I said anything) yelling "Defense! Defense!"and"Be Aggressive! Be Be Aggressive!"

The not so blogger,
Taylor

Update from Chemo Round 2

I just got a call from my dad as he was leaving chemo.

Dad: Hi honey, just wanted to call you and let you know that I'm leaving chemo and I feel so good I'm going to go get Panda

(note to reader: i'm pretty sure that panda express would be my father's final meal if he were getting the chair tomorrow which is hilarious, but sweet and simple and i kinda love it. we knew things were bad when even Panda wasn't working for him a few weeks ago).

Me: That's awesome - so you don't feel terrible or you actually feel good?

Dad: I feel good.

Me: So, like you are the rare person who randomly loves chemo and feels like a million bucks after?

Dad: I don't know if I'd quite say that...

But, he is feeling good and is clearly in good spirits. The nurse said that he shouldn't expect to feel any worse than he did the first time around as far as nausea goes, but that he might experience more fatigue than in the past.

So far, so good :)

~Kyle
(not quite the bloggin fool whitney is, but give me some time...)

A Little Something Pollyanna Taught Me...

**Note to Reader: This is very "bloggish" and this is Whitney... so of course this is going to be long winded. There are no real updates on my dad in this post other than that he's feeling better than he expected after the first round of chemo (although the nurses say the third day after is usually when you really start feeling crappy... so we'll see how he is tomorrow) and will have his next infusion on Thursday. Ready for the fluffy stuff? Here it is:

Everyone has seen Pollyanna... right? OMG- I LOVED this movie when I was little (and all of the Disney Classics in this same Haley Mills genre... do you even know how many times I have seen The Parent Trap?) and part of it has really always stuck with me. In the movie she is orphaned and sent to live with her mean, rich aunt... and is always playing "The Glad Game" -- where she looks for something to be glad about in every situation (no matter how crappy it is). Here is a little synopsis I copy and pasted about it from Wikipedia:
"Pollyanna's philosophy of life centers on what she calls "The Glad Game", an optimistic attitude she learned from her father. The game consists of finding something to be glad about in every situation. It originated in an incident one Christmas when Pollyanna, who was hoping for a doll in the missionary barrel, found only a pair of crutches inside. Making the game up on the spot, Pollyanna's father taught her to look at the good side of things—in this case, to be glad about the crutches because "we don't need 'em!". "

Soooo anyways... Like I said- this has always stuck with me and I have found myself always playing this game in my head when something crappy happens. I mean if Pollyanna can become paralyzed and be "glad" that at least she had legs... then I can usually find something pretty easily when the going gets tough. Since all of this Cancer stuff has been going on I have been trying my darnedest to stay positive, and look for the bright side because if my dad can do it and he's the one who actually has the cancer, then I should definitely buck up and not be some kind of Negative Nancy about all of this. BUT with all of the set backs there have been, and new random cancers that pop up, it has been a bit more difficult to not just be pissed off at the world and like scream at someone who says their dog is dying to GET OVER IT!! YOU CAN BUY A NEW ONE! Soooooo I have been very actively playing The Glad Game like it is my job so I don't have a million enemies... and here are somethings that have kept me focused with a smile on my face:

I am Glad That...
- I have a dad that I am so obsessed with... some people have dead beat dads or dads that beat the crap out of them when they were younger. I am glad I am my dad's daughter...
- my Dad comes from an amazing family that has helped raise us and been with us every step of the way on this journey and will always be there.
- I have my sisters... I can only imagine how hard this would be if I were an only child.
- my grandparents an my dad taught me the power of being surrounded by your family... since all of this started happening I feel my body sometimes aching for my sisters, my cousins, my aunts, and my uncles... I am so grateful for them.
- my Dad has the BEST attitude ever through out all of this... I cannot imagine going through this if he was down in the dumps, or not ready to fight the good fight. I don't think my dad has spent one second feeling sorry for himself... I think he is more worried about the 3 of us girls than he is about anything else.
- we all can have a sense of humor about this... my dad is definitely dealing with a lot of this with jokes. The other night me, Kyle, Ryan and my dad were playing Scattegories and my dad was putting some bogus answers we were disputing... and his response would be, "but I have Cancer..." and he officially gets to keep the point. :)
- we have an amazing team of doctors on our side who already love my dad.
- my dad has Renee in his life... despite him calling her his "current squeeze" as if there is another chick waiting in the wings, she puts up with him and is really really good for him.
- Ryan and I bought our new house and we are not only super close to all of my dad's doctors, but that we have room to have him and my sisters, aunts, uncles, whoever, stay over when they are in town and we can all be cozy.
- this whole process has really made me realize I can't take any of the time we have hear on earth for granted. I want to soak in every minute and live life as fully as I can.
- (this is totally morbid... BUT) my dad has a great prognosis... I can't imagine not having a dad. I can't imagine how people function that don't get to say good bye... if there was a car accident or something. I am glad that we now know how precious every minute is with my dad and have the opportunity to say things we may not have said if we thought he was going to be here forever... (totally morbid, I know... but hopefully it makes sense.)
- I believe in the power of prayer and that I know lots of people are sending lots of prayers up for us... I think this whole thing would be a lot harder to deal with I didn't believe in a higher power.
- my grandparents and Joey are up in heaven telling The Big Man that Tom's Girls need him to be here for many, many, many, more years... and I know he's listening.
- all of us are surrounded by tons of friends and family that love us and are rooting for us every step of the way.

And more selfishly... I am glad that:
- all of this cancer stuff started after my dad practically remodeled our new house (the 3 of us girls are beyond spoiled when it comes to our dad fixing/making/helping with any and everything... and he pretty much made our new house a home by putting in amazing laminate flooring, scraping our popcorn ceiling and re-texturizing them... and they are vaulted! They look amazing! Oh... and he helped with the move, painting, decorating, pretty much everything from start to finish... I told you, I'm spoiled!)
- my dad is letting me be a complete control freak about appointments, prescriptions, going to appointments, etc... its the only way I feel like I am doing *something* that can help get him better.
- if this was going to happen... that it happened when it did. Had it been going on a few months or even weeks earlier, I would have probably had a mental breakdown dealing with the summer craziness at work and somehow trying to get to all of these doctors appointments and make all of these phones calls. Which brings me to the next thing I am glad for...
- I work where I do. They have been so amazing during all of this... they don't bat an eye when I need to come in late or leave early or take a sick day. Speaking of sick days...
- I had almost 300 hours of sick time on the books... so I don't have to be the least bit stressed when I do have to take time off.
- I have an amazing husband who has been incredible through all of this... he knows when I need to cry, need someone to listen, need to be left alone, or when I just need a hug. I am glad that he loves my dad.
- "The Glad Game" really works for me... and always has. ;)


And there ya have it folks... a little something I learned from Pollyanna. Even when it seems like the whole world is crapping on you, you can always be glad that at least it isn't diarrhea. (ewww... not really sure why I am ending it that way-- but it kind of cracked me up in a gross way!) :) haha

Oh... and one last quote from the book Pollyanna that her dad told her to remember:
"When you look for the bad expecting it, you will find it."


~Whitney... serious blogger

Text from Chemo... Day 1

"Got the corner seat. Going good."

So glad to hear it! So glad the ball is rolling!

Score!

After 6 unsucessful phone calls in trying to find a flu shot for the pops... we found a hook up! My friend Becca's mom is the Head ER Nurse at a local hospital and Becca offered to call her mom to see if she could track one down for my dad. And as luck would have it, her mom agreed to slip him one on the DL... GENIUS! Its so awesome having all of these little connections everywhere! Thanks Becca and thanks to your mom!

~Whitney the Blogging Fool

Tommy Boy Needs a Manicure!

We met with Mindy, the chemo nurse today to go over what the infusions will be like and what side effect he can expect. Both Mindy and Dr. Javeed stressed the importance of using some type of Nail Strengthener on his nails (the mentioned that Sally Hanson one, Tough as Nails...) and my dad got big laughs by asking why he couldnt use a colored nail polish. (For those of you that have ever seen my dad's hands, you are probably cracking up just envisioning my dad's hands with nail polish on them.) Anyways... it was a good appointment, I think my dad knows what to expect and he was glad to hear the the chemo drugs he received 20 years ago (MOP) was probably a lot harder on him than this will be. The "chemo lounge," as I've dubbed it, was PACKED today! Not an empty seat in the house... but I was glad to see some more lively folks in the lazy boys today. Every other time I have walked passed it, it has always made me super super depressed because everyone looks to be about 98 years old, and literally look like they are on thier death beds (it doesn't bother my dad... just me. He thinks he will find a buddy to play cribbage with.) But today there was lots of people chatting, lots of younger, healthier looking peeps, and more smiles in general, which made me feel way better.

He goes in tomorrow at 9:45a for his first round... and fingers crossed there will be another lively bunch like today- and who knows, maybe he'll even get the chair he wants? And then there is another appointment tomorrow afternoon with Dr. O'Malley, the surgeon who did the Port Placement to make sure all is well with the healing of the incision site and just the port in general (aka my dad's 3rd nipple as he likes to call it.) So it'll be a busy productive day. I think all of us, my dad included, are just really excited to get this whole thing started. It seems like September 15th was a lifetime ago already!

Thanks again for all of the support... we love you all!

~Whitney the Blogger :)

Chemo Starts this week!

Hi... its Whitney and I am now officially a blogger! :)

The appointment tonight went well... we got a little ancy waiting around (Dr. Javeed was almost an hour late), but we got the answers we were looking for. The doc said he has been busy on the phone and has had 2 of the 4 other docs weigh in, and these 3 (including Javeed) have decided that a different chemo cocktail than what they typicaly use would be best based on the genetic testing showing resistance to the typical EOX cocktail. We are going with Taxotere (sp?) and CPT11 for 2 cycles, doing another PET scan seeing how the tumor is responding to this mix, and then decide from there if we continue with this new cocktail or switch to EOX. The good thing about this new cocktail is that it doesn't have some of the really crappy side effects that EOX had that my dad was really not looking forward to (like not being able to drink, eat, or touch anything colder than room temperature for 5 days after the infusion.) All of the side effects with this Taxotere and CPT11 are less crappy, but typical of most chemo drugs(read: pretty awful, but no temperature issues.)

We will meet with Mindy the chemo nurse tomorrow morning (we are going to do our best to make sure Tommy Boy is all of the nurses favorite (which of course he will be!) so he gets the Lazy Boy Recliner he wants in the corner... comedy!) to get steroids he will need to take prior to starting chemo on Thursday. (Fingers crossed there will be no "roid-rage" assciated with these steroids-- haha) So yay... chemo on Thursday! My dad is stoked to get the ball, that has been in a holding pattern, ROLLING!

So here is what the next few months look like:
Thursday, Nov 5th = Week 1, Day 1... 2 hour infusion (also better than the 6-8 hours for the EOX mix)
11/12 = Week 2, Day 8... 2 hour infusion
11/19 = Week 3, OFF (this completes cycle 1)
Repeat above starting 11/25 for Cycle 2 and then have a PET scan done after Week 5 to see how the tumor is responding. Then one more cycle... then wait 4 weeks for T-Bird to regain his strength for surgery, and then we are looking at surgery in late January, early February.

That's the latest... and for those of you that have never met me, or have never received and email from me-- you'll have to get used to the fact that I am just really not any good at being concise. Sorry for this lengthiness!

And thanks to everyone for all of the positive mojo and prayers... we cannot tell you how much it means to us and how much it helps knowing we have you on our side!

Hoping for some answers today

It's Kyle again...

Whitney and dad are supposed to go to Dr. Javeed today at 2pm. As of yesterday he was still either communicating with or trying to communicate with the Tom Ewing Trifecta Think Tank folks around the country. He said he'll call at noon if he doesn't have the info he needs to push the appointment out.

It's fair to say that this case has them all stumped. It might actually be a good thing though because now we know they are all paying attention. These are brilliant minds. There is a lot of ego. I think they take it personally - this challenge. So, in a weird way... I think the complexity of the case might work in our favor (in terms of focus and attention anyway :)

Fingers crossed we move closer to treatment so we can start attacking the bastard tumor.