Shout outs

Shout out
noun \ˈshau̇t\ \ˈau̇t\

1) To acknowledge someone. To make ones presence known. I gave my girls a shout out at the party
2) A message to friends, family, etc. lodged on a radio station, web site, or other popular medium. I'd like to give a shout out to all of you reading this. You're seriously the best!


Wow I am totally overwhelmed right now. Maybe I should know better but I am blown away by the support. I feel like this time around I am able to be "in the moment" a little bit more because chemotherapy is so familiar. This is helpful because I now see the masses of people rallying around us. I would have never guessed that everyone around us would react this way again! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Our favorite part of the day is looking at the blogs and seeing who has left us little notes of encouragement. We don't take these lightly. Dan and I love to read them and love how connected we feel... even to people we haven't talked to in years! Our teachers, coaches, friends, moms of friends, co-workers, and the list goes on. Prayers are the most important and powerful support we recieve. We can feel the power of each one. Thank you, thank you.

I especially want to thank our wonderful family. My mom and dad have especially gone above and beyond. Meals, games, and constant visits. Thanks especially for the food! It is a welcome break from the food here that we are a little sick of. Thank you so much. Way to go Dallin on your Eagle!!! We're proud of you!

I had a very touching phone call today with my mother-in-law. She called this morning with a worried voice that only a mother has. She wanted to know every detail of everything going on. I am so lucky to get to witness the intense love from mother to son. But she did not call just to find out about Dan, the concern and worry was also for me. What an angel. Thanks for all you do. You're 1,000 miles away but it feels like you're right here with us experiencing everything we feel. We love you.

Thank you to all of our sisters. Our phones pretty much ring off the hook. We can guarantee that it will be either Sarah, Mallory, Emily, Liz of Maegan. Thank you!! My sister, Emily, has a baby that is very sick with RSV. He's on constant oxygen and has to be monitored very closely (they would have put him in the hospital, but instead they gave Emily all the equipment to use at home because she is THAT awesome). In spite of all this, her husband Robert has been over to visit us a couple times, and Emily has made dinner for us to eat tonight. Isn't she awesome?!

Friends have been so generous. Nancy and John, Joy and Drew, Schukman, and many others have gove out of their way to send Dan and I on fun dates, come over when we needed them the most, and just pour out love.

And last, but not least, Dan deserves a shout out
He's such a stud to do what he's doing with a smile on his face. Yo te amo.

So many shout outs so little time. Many many more deserve special shout outs. But please just know you're loved.

Deja Vu

Well, I'm sure most of you have already heard that Daniel's cancer has returned. Actually I hesitate to say "returned". Last March, when they told Dan that he was in remission, there were tiny little spots on his lungs. The doctors said that these could be lots of different things, including scar tissue left over from his previous lung surgeries. As long as they didn't grow, there was no reason to worry. That has been the case for the last four scans. However, last Monday we went in for our routine scans that we do every three months and it showed three spots have grown. Two nodules on his right lung and one on his left. So it is not new cancer, but it is cancer and so it is titled a "reoccurance".

It was almost like finding out that he has cancer all over again. Since that moment it has been a weird series of deja vu. Many thoughts have run through my mind. Some are similar thoughts, but already it's so different. Dan and I went home and immediately my reaction was "What lesson did I miss, or what did I fail to do last time that I need to do this time?" I thought there was something that was missing or that I did wrong and Heavenly Father needed to test us further. Then, my wise husband reminded me that sometimes tests are not about passing or failing. Heavenly Father is not sitting up there with a checklist and pen while we are enduring a trial. Sometimes it's just about proving our love to God. Dan reminded me that Job was a prophet, he probably didn't have a ton of learning to do, but he did have to prove his love to God. I'm not at all comparing us to Job, (our life is wonderful) but I did appreciate that lesson Dan taught me because it takes a lot of pressure away knowing that I didn't necessarily "fail" last time.

So now, here we are back at the Huntsman, on the 4th floor, watching the Olympics and watching the chemotherapy slowly drip into Dan. With every drop, I pray that it's the one that will kill the last live cancer cell in Dan's body. Talk about deja vu.

We're so grateful for the love we've felt. It is so wonderfully surprising that so many people aren't tired of praying for us yet! Thank you for not forgetting, because we feel the strength coming from your prayers.

Dan will now do 4 cycles of a couple drugs that his body hasn't seen yet (good news!). Methotrexate, etopaside and ifosfomide are all used with pediatric osteosarcoma and Dan is still young enough for it to work. After that, a scan to see if the nodules have gotten smaller. If they have then he is a good responder to the chemo and there will be four more cycles and then two more lung surgeries to remove the remaining nodules. Then another leg surgery to repair Dan's leg that still isn't healing. So, we've got a road in front of us. But one day at a time. You can do anything one day at a time.

Dan's going to beat this. Don't worry.

Last weekend we went to California. I pretty much love the place. Especially because it means we get to see Mark, Maegan, Ethan, Abby, Whitney, Grandma and Grandpa. We had so much fun visiting them. This picture sums up how precious those kids are...
I love it!! Dan did comment that it made walking a little bit difficult but I thought it was so cute!
The first day we were there we went to Sea World. Every time we go to California we try to do one big thing because Dan hasn't done most of those things. Sea World was awesome! Shamu was definitely a favorite. We unfortunately don't have any pictures because we sat in the "splash zone" for every show. Did you know there are rides there? I had no clue, maybe because it's been so long since I've been there. Our favorite was the rapids ride. We liked it except for the fact that people along the route can put in a quarter and shoot the riders with a giant squirt gun. Really, who pays to shoot complete strangers in the face with a ton of gross chlorinated water?! When we got off I felt like i had just taken a shower with my clothes on. Good thing it was like 75 degrees outside!!

Then we went to Seaport Village which is a really cute little place with restaurants and fun shops. We found a hat shop with the craziest hats. Dan was in Heaven. We decided one day to open a store like this. It was way too much fun to walk through.


and this one is my favorite...


Growing up we didn't really spend a lot of time at San Diego beaches, we went to more Northern beaches so it was fun to go to Oceanside. Maegan and Mark are super close. Lucky ducks.
Then to top it off we drove up PCH from Oceanside to Long Beach. I love that drive. Why would anyone live anywhere else... haha.

THANK YOU CHRISTMAS LOVERS!

Yay! We won! We sure showed all of those Scrouges didn't we!! I am so excited to decorate for Christmas I can barely contain myself. Thanks so much for your votes :)

As most of you have heard Dan's scans were all clear last Monday. Three more months of remission... and I have a feeling there will be many more months to come as well. Thanks so much for your prayers, as always.

Although I did enjoy winning the vote, I knew that this would only be a victory for this year. So Dan and I decided to strike a deal. Dan hates dressing up for Halloween and I am always begging him to do some cute couples costume. So... we decided that if I promise never to ask him to dress up for Halloween, then he will let me decorate for Christmas WHENEVER I want!! It souded fair to me, so I agreed. I have a feeling this might be the best thing we've ever done for our marriage.

My First Blog

Hello everyone. Daniel here.

I thought I'd post a blog for the first time ever. I don't know how to do this, but as far as I can tell, I just write random things about my life and hope that you all find it interesting enough to write a comment on my blog that says something like, "OMG! So funny! Call me sometime! We need to get together and play!" So it is with those high hopes that I write this blog. Only don't say "play" cause that's just weird.

I remember getting off my mission and hearing everyone talk about blogs. Since I'd just spent the last two years in Peru, I had no clue what it was. I thought it was some pandemic that had broken out while I was in Peru and everyone had it. When I heard someone say, "Did you hear that Jason got a blog?" I remember thinking, "Poor Jason. I really hope he's alright."

When I was a kid, I went to a grade called T-1. It stands for transition-1st grade. It was a grade in between Kindergarten and 1st grade. There were only nine kids in my class. I swear I was a smart kid, so I have no clue how I ended up there. Maybe I was too smart for my own good. I'm sure that's it. I remember there was a little blue swimming pool filled with rice that we used to get to play in. It was called the ricebox. Kind of weird now that I think about it, but it sounded fun at the time. Maybe that's why I was in T-1.

I would really like to go to Japan someday. If you gave me the choice between Japan and China, I would definitely pick Japan. But then again...I did go to T-1.

So the other day at work (I work at the Missionary Training Center), I was standing there helping a missionary when I heard someone come up behind me and say, "How's the leg?" (Because I'm on crutches) So I say the same thing I say to everyone: "It's there." Right after I say that I turn around and I notice that the person who asked me was sitting in a wheelchair without a leg. (Insert foot in mouth here). Of all the things I could have said, I said, "It's there." I mean...I could have said, "Good" "Fantastic" "Excellent", but no....I said, "It's there." Simply amazing. It would seem that I didn't learn anything in T-1 (except for how to build rice castles).

Now, I'm going to post some pictures (because I think that's what you do on a blog). At the end of the pictures, please note the dramatic captions filled with way too many exclamation points.

Me when I was a kid! SOOOOOO CUTE!!!!

The CA-UTE little puppy dogs in Peru!!!!!!!!!

CUTE RED CUPS!!!!!!!!!

I hope you're all liking this blog posting so far. I'm having quite an enjoyable time writing it. I'm actually surprised that you've made it this far. Congratulations.

That reminds me of that scene in Elf when Buddy is walking along the streets of New York and sees a sign that says, "World's Best Cup of Coffee" and he runs in the store and yells, "Congratulations, everybody! You did it! World's Best Cup of Coffee!" That's a great movie.

Speaking of Christmas, my wife is so excited for the Christmas season. Almost too excited for her own good. I think she would already have the house decorated if I let her. She wants to decorate after Halloween, but I say that she has to want till after Thanksgiving. So we're at a stand still. So this is what I'm going to do...I'm going to add a poll to my blog and we're going to let you all decide. I strongly urge you all to vote for after Thanksgiving. SEE POLL AT RIGHT.

OK...well, I'm done. I've run out of things to type, and my wife just walked in the door. So before she has a chance to read this and censor what I've written, I'm going to post this.

Bye.

Remembering to breathe

BEWARE!!! This posting contains a picture of Dan's surgery incision that's not for those with weak stomachs!!!


In case you haven't heard, Dan's surgery went well! They replaced the broken screws and made sure that the plate was in good shape. The doctors also wanted to make sure that Dan's leg is as strong as possible so they put another smaller plate on the front of his femur where it is having trouble incorporating. This is also where they put some of Dan's hip bone hoping that it will trick Dan's femur into thinking that the donor bone is part of his own body. It's really incredible. So my husband is now completely bionic.

The surgery went great and these next few months will be very important in determining if it was a success.... I'm sure it will be.

Besides some pesky fevers the recovery also went well. Dan had to go home on oxygen because every time he starts to go to sleep his oxygen saturation would drop drastically. Most people hang out around 95%, but anything above 90% is okay. When Dan starts to fall asleep it drops below 70% so we have our old friend the oxygen tank to help. I have now themed this whole week our official "remember to breathe" week. I was constantly reminding Dan to breathe with big deep breaths. And at the same time he was reminding me to breathe as I am a constant worrier (thank you, mother).

I think there is a lot of wisdom in that phrase. It would be good for all of us to step back and just breathe once in a while. Sometimes life feels like it's just happening all around me and I'm not really taking part. So I am going to remember to breathe and feel truly present.

Anyway, that was a weird tangent. At the end of the day Dan is in remission with one more surgery under his belt. We are so incredibly blessed. Sometimes I think that one of these days we are going to just max out on blessings. We are constantly asking for more and more miracles and they keep coming our way. I'm so glad that Heavenly Father doesn't require us to earn our blessings. All He asks is that we try our best, but our best efforts don't have to equal the amount of blessings. That's just amazing to me. We are so loved.

Well, I thought I would post some pictures for your viewing enjoyment... or at least my posting enjoyment :)

Paul and Dan

This is what Dan's hip looks like... ouch!

The zoo was a blast. We did this a couple weeks ago. Dan has been promising me forever to go the zoo and we finally went!

I thought this was a cute picture of Dan surrounded by Lauren and nieces and nephews getting a look at his iPod touch... Dan loves audiences

Smiles

A day full of these....




With just a little of this ...

Well, Daniel's scans came back all clear yesterday! That means he has officially been in remission for four months! We have all witnessed a miracle. We continue to be so blessed.
The spots in his lungs that they saw three months ago have actually shrunk!! This means that they probably weren't even cancer, just scar tissue that was left over from the surgery that took out all the cancer. Wonderful wonderful wonderful!!! We are so extremely happy.

Some small bad news came. Some of the hardware in Dan's leg has broke. Two screws have broken and our Dr wants to operate. When he said that, I was thinking we would plan the surgery for sometime next month... but the doctor wants to do it next week!! The news hit us like a truck. Normally you can prepare for a major surgery like this, but we literally have no time to prepare. I guess it's good though: a week of worrying instead of months. So August 5th is the big day. He will have a surgery to repair the hardware in his leg. Dr Randall will also take a piece of his hip bone and fuse it to the donor bone in hopes that Dan's femur will better incorporate the donor bone and strengthen his leg. The doctor says this surgery has about a 60% success rate. We're crossing our fingers that this is the final piece in the puzzle and Dan can fully recover.

So all in all, it was great news. Dan's cancer free... all the rest is just maintenance. I know that there is someone looking out for us. Our path is being guided by a loving Heavenly Father. Thanks for your prayers. I KNOW that the pleadings on our behalf are a big reason why Dan is in remission. Now we are praying for a safe and successul surgery next week.

Lots of smiles... LOTS of them.